Govt meets 50% of Revenue target, expenditure remains at only 34%

Ajay Chhetri / Kathmandu, Jan 31: The federal government received more than 50 per cent of its targeted receipts as of January 2022 while it has spent just over 34 per cent of the annual target.

The upsurge in the aggregate receipt is immensely pushed up by a significant rise in tax revenue and non-tax revenue. Nonetheless, the government has also received a good amount of grants in recent months. Contribution of tax revenue can be observed from the fact that the government has received 48.32 per cent of tax revenue out of the annual target that accounted for Rs. 516.09 billion followed by the non-tax revenue, 43.84 per cent of the annual target that accounted for Rs. 49.3 billion.

Likewise, the government has received 23.17 per cent grants out of its annual target. The inflow of grant amounted to Rs. 13.8 billion in the first half of the current FY.

Meanwhile, government spending has lagged far behind compared to encouraging receipts. While the government achieved 50 per cent of the receipts it has projected in the budget, it has succeeded in spending only 34 per cent of the annual target.

Of the total expenditure, recurrent expenditure has been spent 40.99 per cent of the annual target amounts to Rs. 436.7 billion whereas financial expenditure is mobilised 27.61 per cent of its annual target that accounts for Rs. 52.3 billion.

However, the performance of the capital expenditure still remains quite slow. As the fiscal year crossed its mid-term duration, the government spent just over 14.68 per cent out of its annual target. The government has the target to mobilise an amount of Rs. 378.09 billion as a capital expenditure while it has spent only Rs. 55.5 billion by the end of January 2022.

Information Officer of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), Raju Prasad Pyakurel, said that current FY revenue surpassed that previous FY amount. He said, however, that the current FY target is yet to be met. He said that income tax is the main contributor of taxable revenue followed by value-added tax (VAT) and excise duty.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Ritesh Kumar Shakya said that the rise in the payment to the Department of Water Resources and Irrigation, Nepal Electricity Authority and Civil Aviation Authority has amplified the financial expenditure.