Kathmandu, June 15 :

During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, total government expenditure has increased by 13.3 per cent as per Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).

While informing about the country’s economic outlook today, governor of NRB, Bijay Nath Bhattarai informed that the government’s cash-based expenditure during the nine months period increased by 13.3 per cent compared to an increase of 8.9 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year. He attributed the rise in expenditure to the uneasy situation in the country that has resulted in an increase in recurrent expenditure.

Bhattarai said that total government non-debt resources increased by 11.2 per cent compared to an increase of 13.6 per cent last year. The rise in foreign cash grants and classification of local authority deposits as resources contributed to a rise in non-debt resources, he said. However, he said that low growth rate of non-debt resou-rces was attributed to low grow-th in revenue mobilisation.

During the nine months of the current fiscal year, government’s revenue witnessed a marginal growth of 0.1 per cent compared to a normal increase of 11.7 per cent in the same period last year thanks to a decline in customs duties, corporate income taxes, decline in some other non-tax revenues including dividends, principal repayment as well as receipts of Indian excise refund, said Bhattarai.

Currently, the government’s budgetary situation is in deficit of Rs 6 billion excluding local authorities deposits with banks, said Bhattarai. The overall government budgetary situation remained at a deficit of Rs 2.6 billion in the review period.

Keshav Acharya, chief of Research Department at NRB, said that exports to India rose by 16.2 per cent in 2005-06 compared to a growth of 20 per cent in the same period last year. Exports to other countries declined by 0.3 per cent in the review period compared to a decline of 14.1 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year, says Acharya. Total imports increased by 22.2 per cent in the first nine months of the 2005-06 compared to an increase of 6.4 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Total trade deficit has registered a growth by 30.2 per cent in the first nine months of 2005-06 compared to an increase of 7.1 per cent in the last year during the same period, informed Acharya. For the first time, NRB has introduced new instrument named Gross National Disposable Income (GNDI) to show income derived from domestic production. GDNI measures the total income available to total residents for either final consumption or saving, says Acharya.

According to him, gross foreign exchange reserves rose by 16.2 per cent to Rs 150.9 billion in mid-April 2006 compared to mid-July 2005.