Capex at below 5pc in first three months of FY
Published: 12:39 pm Oct 13, 2022
KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 12
The government's capital expenditure continued to be sluggish in the first three months of the current fiscal at 4.91 per cent or Rs 18 billion of the total annual allocation of Rs 380.38 billion under the capital budget heading.
Although the capital expenditure during the first three months of the current fiscal year has increased compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, spending of less than five per cent of the capital budget in over three months cannot be deemed satisfactory.
The government had spent Rs 14.8 billion or 3.94 per cent of the targeted Rs 378 billion budget allocated for capital expenditure during the first three months of the previous fiscal year, as per the statistics of Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO).
Meanwhile, in the first third months of this fiscal, 14.21 per cent of the budget has been spent from the government's treasury. According to FCGO, Rs 254 billion out of the total Rs 1.7 trillion budget allocated for the current fiscal year has been spent in the review period.
Similarly, 17.15 per cent of the recurrent expenditure and 14.5 per cent of the financing budget have been spent in the review period. Out of the Rs 1.1 trillion allocated for recurrent expenditure, Rs 202 billion has been spent in this period, while Rs 33 billion of the Rs 230 billion allotted for financing purposes has been spent during the review period.
On the other hand, out of the targeted Rs 1.4 trillion, the total receipts of the government have reached 14.45 per cent or Rs 223 billion.
The total receipts include Rs 187 billion in revenue, Rs 700 million in grants and Rs 22 billion in other receipts.
Meanwhile, the government collected 13.37 per cent of the total targeted revenue in the review period. The government had set a total revenue target of Rs 1.4 trillion and as of October 11, Rs 187 billion has been collected. The revenue includes Rs 172 billion in tax revenue and Rs 15 billion in nontax revenue.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 13, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.