KATHMANDU, JULY 10
Keeping up with annual trend of ramping up its spending towards the end of every fiscal year, the government has set a record in treasury expenditure this time around as well.
As of Saturday, the government has spent Rs 1.238 trillion out of the allocated budget of Rs 1.633 trillion, according to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO). On Saturday alone, Rs 25.56 billion of the allotted funds were used from government's treasury.
Except for urgent situations, the government is unable to spend from the allocated budget starting today. As per Financial Procedure and Financial Accountability Liability Rules 2020, the capital budget is frozen a week before the end of the fiscal year.
Despite the surge in spending, the government has yet again failed to meet its development expenditure target in the current fiscal year. As of yesterday, the government spent only Rs 189.48 billion or 50.11 per cent out of the allocated budget of Rs 378.10 billion under capital budget for the current fiscal. On Saturday only, the government spent Rs 14.73 billion in development works.
According to Keshav Acharya, an economist, failure to spend the development budget is a problem that recurs every fiscal year. "The problem is, politics always takes precedence and country's development is pushed to the back burner," he said, adding unless a proper mechanism is put in place for monitoring of development projects, the situation will persist in the coming days as well.
Experts have long flagged the tendency of the government to ramp up the capital expenditure towards the end of the fiscal also because it can result in substandard work by the contractors.
Meanwhile, the government has spent Rs 948.61 billion or 89.05 per cent of the allocated Rs 1.06 trillion in recurrent budget and Rs 99.61 billion or 52.58 per cent of Rs 189.44 billion, which was allocated for financing.
Similarly, the government has collected Rs 1.002 trillion or 84.92 per cent of the targeted revenue of Rs 1.18 trillion so far.
Of the total revenue, Rs 927.85 billion was collected in taxes, Rs 74.70 billion in non-taxes.
Likewise, Rs 13.88 billion has been collected from grants while Rs 43.99 billion from other receipts.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 11, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
