KATHMANDU, JULY 29

Though the federal government had directed all the local level governments to present their budget on time, altogether 193 local bodies are yet to present their budget for the ongoing fiscal year 2020-21.

The federal government had given the local bodies a deadline of June 24 to present their budget but only 560 local bodies have complied so far.

According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFA- GA), as of Tuesday, 193 local governments had still been unable to present their fiscal budget. Local levels must present their budget with all the details related to their expenditure and revenue generation for the fiscal year.

Basanta Adhikari, joint secretary at MoFAGA, informed that the ministry had forwarded a circular to all the local bodies to present their budget by Asadh 10 (June 24), however 193 local bodies had failed to do so.

According to Adhikari, Province 2 has the maximum number of local bodies that have been unable to present their budget for the current fiscal year till date and Province 5 has the lowest number of local bodies which have been unable to present their budget for the ongoing fiscal year.

Comparative figures

Presented

Remaining

Total local levels

Province 1

109

28

137

Province 2

60

76

136

Bagmati

95

24

119

Gandaki

67

18

85

Province 5

100

9

109

Karnali

67

12

79

Sudurpaschim

62

26

88

Total

560

193

753

As per the Intergovernmental Fiscal Management Act, local bodies had to present their budget latest by Asadh 25 (July 9). “There is a provision that if local bodies fail to present the budget by July 9, they will not be able to utilise the budget allocated to them, except for extraordinary or emergency cases,” he said.

As per Adhikari, the local bodies may not be equipped enough to present their budget, which could be causing the delay. “Considering the constraints they may be facing, we are now encouraging them rather than putting pressure on them to present the budget quickly.”

According to MoFAGA, the said local bodies had been unable to present their budget on time due to various reasons. “In most of the local bodies there is internal conflict when it comes to allocation of the budget which could also have caused the delay,” Adhikari added.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 30, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.