Nepal

Budget has allocated enough for local levels to operate

Budget has allocated enough for local levels to operate

By Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 29 The government today stated in the budget that the local levels would have enough budget to do their jobs. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Krishna Bahadur Mahara said the government decided to provide grants to the local levels keeping in mind their population, state of development and equalisation of grant. He said the government decided to provide grants to the local levels on the basis of equalisation grant as Natural Resources and Financial Commission had not been formed yet. He said rural municipalities would get minimum grant of  Rs 100 million and maximum Rs 390 million. Similarly the municipalities would get minimum Rs 150 million and maximum Rs 430 million. Sub-metropolitan cities would get minimum Rs 400 million and maximum Rs 630 million and metropolitan cities would get minimum Rs 560 million and maximum Rs 1.24 billion. The budget also allocated Rs 76.41 billion as conditional grant. Mahara also announced that some programmes being run by sectoral ministries but under the jurisdiction of the local levels would be handed over to the concerned local levels. The budget also allocated money for the structures of provincial governments. Mahara also said programmes being run under the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Programme would be handed over to the local levels. He stated that  various other projects — poultry cooperative programmes, fisheries development programmes, programmes aimed at increasing income of farmers, animal service expansion programme, Karnali Zonal Animal Development programme, Herbal Medicine Development Programme and others would be  handed over to the local levels. READ ALSO: Rs 36 billion for social security