KATHMANDU: The finance ministry exceeded its taget of Rs Rs 28.61 billion and collected Rs 34.32 billion revenue by the third month (September 15-October 15) of the current fiscal year.

“The collection is also 53 per cent higher than the collection in the same month last year,” said revenue secretary Krishna Hari Baskota. During the same month last fiscal year, the the collection was Rs 22.3 billion.

Finance Minister Surendra Pandey in his budget — for the fiscal year 2009-10 — presented on July 13 has set a revenue target of Rs 176.5 billion — over Rs 33 billion than his predesessor former finance minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who has set revenue target for the fiscal year 2008-09 at Rs 141.72 billion.

However, the ministry has

exceeded the revenue collection as it had collected Rs 143.5 billion by the end of the fiscal year. “In the recent years, revenue collection has been increasing,” he said adding that the appointment of a separate secretary to look after revenue has made a sense.

Though the contribution of Value Added Tax (VAT) in the total revenue is highest, this month also observed a fair growth of excise and customs. “But the VAT is still the highest among the tax heads,” revenue secreatry added.

By the end of second month of the fiscal year, the government had collected Rs 22.55 billion revenue — 54.5 per cent higher than the collection in the same period of last fiscal year that was Rs 14.58 billion.

For the first month of this fiscal year, the collection was Rs 11.74 billion against the target of Rs 9.78 billion.

In an average the ministry has set target of Rs 9 billion for each of first, second and third months but it collected Rs 11 billion in an average. The encouraging collection is contributed to leakage control, higher valuation in customs and tax complaince.

The finance minister has set revenue target of Rs 176.50 billion — Rs 150.24 billion from tax revenue and Rs 26.25 billion from non-tax revenue — for this fiscal year, when he had announced his accommodative budget of Rs 285.93 billion.

However, the encouraging collection of revenue has

made little sense as Madhav

Kumar Nepal-led government has not been able to spend on development activities.

Budget blues

KATHMANDU: The government will run out of expenses in less than a month if it

cannot pass the budget due

to opposition United Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) protests in parliament. “But it will not affect revenue collection,” Baskota said adding that the ministry can, however, collect the revenue till the six month that is till January 15. “We can collect revenue till the six months even if the budget doesnot pass,” he informed. The parliament must approve this fiscal year’s budget by the middle of November or face a likely shutdown of the administration, with the government unable to pay employees. Due to delay in passing the budget, government has been facing problems in development expenditure and the trend has encouraged spending of development budget at the end of fiscal year on the party cadres. — HNS