Surkhet, November 11

The government of Karnali Province has spent barely one per cent of its budget three months into the current fiscal.

Of the budget of Rs 34.3534 billion, around 366.2 million rupees was spent by mid-October, which makes 1.09 per cent of the total budget.

According to Province Treasury Comptroller Office Information Officer Yamuna Shrestha, of the 13.596 billion rupees under the heading of current expenses, just around 365.8 million rupees, which is just 2.8 per cent, was spent by mid-October.“Similarly, the province had 21.2937 billion rupees as development budget, out of which just 10.3 million was spent by mid-October, which is a measly 0.04 per cent,” she said.

Opposition leader Jeevan Bahadur Shahi of Nepali Congress said he was not surprised, and asked, “How can a government that delayed formulating the budget by three months, implement the budget on time?”

Meanwhile, Karnali Province government, on its part, cited lack of employees for the poor expenditure scenario. “The less expenditure of budget in this first quarter was because of various technical factors. We’re confident that there won’t be such scenario in budget spending in the remaining quarters,” said government Spokesperson and Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Bimala KC.

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