Govt reduces annual expenditure target by Rs 86.55 billion

Kathmandu / Feb 10: The government has reduced the budget of the current fiscal year to Rs 1.546 trillion from Rs 1.632 trillion, admitting the slow pace of progress achieved against the expected target during mid-July and mid-January.

Announcing a mid-term review of the annual budget on Thursday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma revised the annual expenditure target for 2021/22 by Rs 86.55 billion. The expenditure size has now reduced to 94.69 percent of the earmarked amount.

Last year too, the government through the mid-term review reduced the budget size to 91.19 percent of the earmarked amount of Rs 1.47 trillion citing the spread of COVID-19 that resulted in slow expenditure and revenue mobilization during the first half of the fiscal year.

This year, the government is now blaming the late announcement of the substitution budget, in particular, to save face. “Targeted objectives cannot be achieved in the first six months due to slow expenses on development works, mainly due to late implementation of the budget,” reads the revised budget document.

It was on September 10 that the government introduced the substitution budget, almost two months after the commencement of the current fiscal year that started from mid-July. Expressing its commitment to maintain an unbiased move against the populist ordinance-based budget presented by the erstwhile KP Oli-led government, the present government announced the new budget in which the earmarked expenditure was reduced to Rs 1.632 trillion from Rs 1.647 trillion.