Bagmati Province releases grants for local levels

By Rammani Dahal,Hetauda, Sept. 28: Bagmati Province government has issued grants to be provided to local levels within the province for the current financial year 2024/25.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Planning of the province has released the first instalment of financial equalisation grants, special grants, supplementary grants and conditional grants to the local levels in the province.

A total of Rs. 2,075,478,000 has been distributed to the 119 local levels of this province.

The first instalment should be deposited into the local level’s accumulated fund by the Provincial Accounting Unit Office by the 15th of Bhadra each fiscal year, according to the Nepali calendar, but it has been decided to delay the disbursement of the grant.

Among the disbursed grants, the supplementary grant and the first instalment of the special grant have not been distributed to all the municipalities of the province.

Suraj Paudel, Information Officer of the Ministry, stated that the grant was not released because some local bodies have not met the criteria set out in the procedure for the distribution of supplementary and special grants. Similarly, some have not requested the grant, others have not held meetings of the municipal executive and some others have not made decisions with the municipal executive.

According to him, even though there were requests for subsidies, the subsidies could not be released as some of the municipalities did not provide the necessary documents.

Rs. 1,662,541,000 have been disbursed for the first instalment of the financial equalisation subsidy to 119 local levels, which is 25 per cent of the total amount.

Out of 119 local levels, 106 have received the first instalment of special grants for the implementation of approved plans. 

A total of Rs.180,450,000 has been released to 106 municipalities as subsidies, which is 25 per cent of the Rs. 721,800,000 provided by the provincial government.

The local levels that have not received special grants include Jiri Municipality, Kalinchowk Rural Municipality, Bigu Rural Municipality, Namobuddha Municipality, Mandandeupur Municipality, Roshi Rural Municipality, Panchpokhari Thangpal Rural Municipality, Sunkoshi Rural Municipality, Kalika Rural Municipality, Aamachhodingmo Rural Municipality, Rapti Municipality, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Lalitpur Metropolitan City. 

Similarly, Rs. 620,212,500 in supplementary grants has been released as the first instalment to 113 municipalities for their approved plans, out of the total budget of Rs. 480,850,000 to be provided by the provincial government.

Information Officer Paudel stated that the supplementary grant could not be provided to all municipalities because some have not met the criteria outlined in the Supplementary Grant Distribution Procedure, while others have not submitted the required documents.

The municipalities that did not receive the supplementary grant are Kalinchowk Rural Municipality, Likhu Tamakosi Rural Municipality, Barhabise Municipality, Tripurasundari Rural Municipality, Rapti Municipality and Kathmandu Metropolitan City. 

Furthermore, for the current fiscal year, a conditional grant of Rs. 859,179,000, which is 25 per cent of the total Rs. 3,436,758,000 borne by the provincial government, has been disbursed to 119 local levels as the first instalment.

The Ministry has instructed local bodies to deposit any unspent amounts from the conditional, supplementary, and special grants released in the last fiscal year into the provincial reserve fund. If they fail to do so, the remaining amount will be deducted from the equalisation subsidy of the current fiscal year.