Nepal sees only 25 percent capital expenditure in nine months of current FY

Kathmandu / April 7: With three months left until the end of the current fiscal year, the government has barely spent a quarter of its capital expenditure. With one week left until the end of nine months of the current fiscal year, the capital expenditure has hardly been 25 percent.

According to the daily budgetary comparative analysis data of the Financial Comptroller General Office, only 25.88 percent of the capital expenditure has been spent in the period up to April 6 of the current fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs 380 billion capital expenditure in the current fiscal year’s budget.

As the ninth month is about to end, the situation of the country’s infrastructure-targeted development expenditure looks very pathetic. The government has spent only Rs 98.45 billion under the heading of capital expenditure so far.

The government has allocated a total budget of Rs 1.793 trillion for the current year. So far, the government has spent Rs 859 billion rupees under the headings of current expenditure, capital expenditure and financial management. The government has spent Rs 671 billion under the heading of regular (current expenditure) expenditure up to this period. Similarly, Rs 89.2 billion has been spent on financial management.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that due to lack of timely capital expenditure, not only the construction work will be delayed, but the country’s economy will be affected in many ways.

Addressing the 50th meeting of the National Development Problem Solution Committee held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Thursday, PM Dahal has given instructions to work efficiently to address the economic challenges in the country and to increase capital expenditure.

“If the capital expenditure is not spent on time, it will not only delay the work of development, but it will have a multifaceted effect on the economy,” said PM Dahal, “Federal, provincial and local governments at all three levels need to put special emphasis on speeding up capital expenditure and maintaining the quality of work.”

Regarding the implementation of the budget, the Ministry of Finance will discuss with the ministries and the provincial government to ensure that there is no shortage of resources for the development projects that are progressing well, said PM Dahal, adding, “I also instruct the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission to create an action plan to solve the structural problems of the economy.”

Prime Minister Dahal said that the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies will take the initiative to prepare and implement a strategy to promote exports and manage imports to balance the external sector. Prime Minister Dahal said that during the six months of the current fiscal year, the annual budget of the project and the expected goal in the implementation of the projects could not be achieved.

“It has been shown that the expected target was not achieved in the first six months of this fiscal year, this is a very sensitive issue,” PM Dahal said, “Budgets, plans and programs have not been implemented properly for which specific problem identification and effective implementation of solutions should be done right now.”

Prime Minister Dahal has instructed the ministers to take special initiatives and take concrete action on the issue of why there is no budget expenditure.

“It is necessary to control the trend of not spending the budget and the tendency to demand more budget than necessary,” he said, “To complete the tasks that could not be completed, an alternative action plan will be made immediately.”

Prime Minister Dahal said that it is necessary to remove the hurdles in the development work.