Kathmandu, April 11

Expert on federalism Khim Lal Devkota has suggested to the government that it should present an annual budget of around Rs 1.6 trillion, and allocate 42 per cent of it to the local bodies, 37 per cent to provinces and 21 per cent to the federal level.

“Local government should receive grant without any pre-condition. If a local body fails to spend the allocated budget, it has to be transferred to other local bodies, but it should not freeze,” Devkota said at an interaction organised by the Forum of Development Journalists Nepal in Kathmandu today.

He said that the budget should be allocated on the basis of needs, population and area and should be weighed under the development index.

Budget grant allocation should be on the basis of objectives, budget adequacy, national priorities, equity and fairness, inclusion, predictability, stability and institutional responsibility for design and monitoring.

According to him, 96.41 per cent of the total revenue should be collected from 15 districts — Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Parsa, Rupandehi, Morang, Chitwan, Jhapa, Banke, Kaski, Bara, Kailali, Sunsari, Kapilvastu, Bhaktapur, and Makwanpur.

“Provinces 2, 6 and 7 should get additional budget giving them special status as these provinces do not generate much revenue,” he said.