Dhangadi, April 21

Although less than three months remain for ongoing fiscal year to expire, just a little more than one third of the development budget of the local bodies has been spent in Kailali.

As per the sources with the district treasury comptroller office, only 37.82 per cent of the development budget has been spent by mid-April this fiscal. Of the total Rs 8.029 billion under the development category, only Rs 3.037 billion has been spent so far.

The scenario regarding the current expenses, however, is different.

Of the total 11.4318 billion rupees allocated under the heading of current expenditure, over Rs 9 billion has been spent by mid-April.

“The use of the budget received under the heading of current expenditure is somewhere at 78 per cent, which is more than double the development budget expenditure,” said DTCO Kailali Treasury Controller and Information Officer Madanraj Pandeya.

Chief district treasury controller Laxmiraj Joshi attributed a number of factors including incomplete purchase process, delay in tender process, negligence on the part of the contractor , among others, for the dismal expenditure scene.

“We can’t be satisfied with this pace of expenditure of development budget, but again we can’t call it totally bad,” Joshi said.