Now Nepalis can fund, on their own, a number of development projects each requiring many billions of rupees of investment For years, government has been unable to spend all outlays of the national budget, particularly of the nature of capital expenditure. For months most of the budget remains unused, and towards the end of the fiscal year, the government agencies and offices make haste to spend as much budget as possible, involving waste, inefficiency and corruption. Even then a large chunk of the budget remains unspent. When companies invite public subscription of their shares, in many cases, particularly in ventures or undertakings which promise a good return, the floated capital is often oversubscribed many times over, running to many billions of rupees. All this suggests that it is less of the problem of the availability of money than the capacity to absorb the money in productive sectors. This state of affairs has been re-confirmed by the figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) which put Nepal’s gross national savings at 42.95 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), one of the highest rates in the world. At present the country possesses a whopping Rs. 965.81 billion at its disposal, considering its GDP of Rs. 2, 248.69 billion for the current fiscal year. Now Nepalis can fund, on their own, a number of development projects each requiring many billions of rupees of investment. It is estimated that with this amount, hydroelectric projects of around 5,681 megawatts could be financed, each megawatt costing Rs. 170 million. Or the money would be enough to construct 38, 632 km of two-lane roads in the Tarai. Or this money could be used to develop other development infrastructure in the country. Or, what would be the most sensible thing to do is to choose a good combination of development projects representing all important sectors, and starting and completing those projects. What is more important is to have a firm determination and vision on the part of the government, political parties, bureaucracy and business to come out with realistic plans and projects necessary for the country and put the ideas into execution. But this is what is sorely lacking in the country. However, most of the national savings are contributed by the remittances from Nepalis working abroad and the contribution of the savings made within the country is not very high. Nepali migrant workers have sent in Rs. 427.37 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, representing over 15 per cent rise over the remittances of the corresponding period the year before. Remittances have basically kept the Nepali economy afloat, paying for its large imports, which exceed its exports many times over. Most of the consumption of Nepalis consists of imports, which means the money flows out of the country and does not in any way strengthen the productive sector within the country. In the current fiscal year, the Nepali economy, hit hard by the earthquakes of the last year and the crippling trade blockade imposed for months on the country, is projected to grow at less than one percent, with a sharp fall in the rate of domestic savings too. Capital formation in the country should therefore be encouraged, while at the same time promoting productive ways of using the financial resources available in the country. Public toilets The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is in bad need of more public toilets. The conditions of the few such toilets lack hygiene as a result of which most of the public refrain from using them. They for the most part lack water and the odious stench emitted by them is difficult to tolerate. As this plight of the capital valley’s denizens continues unabated it is high time more public toilets were built. We boast of having met the Millennium Development Goals 2015. However, we have yet to see if we can meet the national goals by 2017. It is astonishing that no proper study of the state of the public toilets has been carried out after 2012. According to the records, around 1000 people use each of these toilets on a daily basis. When the study was made it was found that there were merely 68 public toilets in the capital. The KMC has built 10 more such toilets after that but these fall short of requirements. Furthermore, most people tend to avoid to use them because they are dirty. The KMC is to set a high sanitation standard for them and see to it that they are maintained which would be commendable.