Kathmandu, May 27

The government has developed the Directive on Formulation of Annual Plan and Budget of Local Levels to implement and bring about uniformity in the programmes envisioned by the constitution and the Local Government Operation Act for the overall development of the local levels.

As per the directive, it requires the local level to prepare and implement annual plan and budget on the basis of the constitutions, other existing laws, mid-term expenditure framework of the concerned local level, resources, financial policies of the federal and provincial government, and the commitment made by the Government of Nepal in the international community.

“In the annual planning and budgeting, the local levels shall attach priority to such programmes which contribute to financial growth and poverty reduction, increase employment opportunities, improve the living standards of people, utilise local resources and skills, enhance gender equality and social inclusion, help protect environment and strengthen social harmony,” the directive reads.

The details, including the statistics of the projection of income and expenditure of each fiscal shall be submitted to the Federal Ministry of Finance within mid-December by getting them approved from the concerned executive. The thematic areas of development activities to be conducted by the local levels have been classified into five parts — financial; social; infrastructure; forest, environment and disaster management; and good governance and institutional development.

“The part of financial development shall include the areas of agriculture, tourism, industry, commerce and cooperative while social development shall highlight education, health, sanitation, and gender equality and social inclusion.

Similarly, infrastructure development involves road and bridges (including suspension bridge), irrigation, building and urban development, energy, micro and small hydroelectricity, and communication,” it says.   Under the category of forest, environment and disaster management, the local levels should include activities like forest and soil conservation, watershed, climate change, waste management, control of water-induced disaster, disaster management, and operation of fire brigades.

Likewise, the area of good governance and institutional development shall comprise human resource development, institutional capacity development, revenue mobilisation, fiscal management, financial risk reduction, public hearing, social audit, internal and final audit, settlement of arrears, determination of standards for service delivery, use of information technology in service delivery, citizen satisfaction survey and inter-agency coordination.