However, in the same breath, minister Pandey has informed the secretaries that the Ministry of Finance would not entertain demand for any additional expenditure. "As the treasury is already under pressure due to the government´s decision to raise perks and perquisites of government employees, the government is not in the position to incur any non-budgetary expenditure under the recurrent head.” The decision to raise the benefits to government staffs has cost the state coffer eight billion rupees.
Addressing an interaction program between the Ministry of Finance and government secretaries, Finance Minister Pandey said, “It is a disturbing fact that ministries seek additional resources even when they are not able to use available resources.” He also informed that the government would soon adopt a number of strategies to reward the officials who prudently use government funds. The Public Account Committee of parliament will be activated to monitor such projects.
Speaking at the same function, vice chairman of National Planning Commission Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada assured sectaries that the commission was ready to cooperate in resolving problems that crop up while implementing the projects.
Dr Khatiwada also expressed dissatisfaction over the increasing ´mechanization´ of development works and said that the ministries should focus on labor intensive development activities even if they turn out to be marginally expensive. "One of the key purposes of development expenditure is to generate massive employment at the local level," he said.
Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal also urged secretaries to pay extra attention to implementation of development projects.
Nepse dips by 7.56 points
KATHMANDU, July 29: After gaining more than 22 points in a single day, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) suffered loss on two consecutive days. The benchmark Nepse shed 1.04 percent or 7.56 points to close at 721.49 points on Wednesday, a day after the loss of 1.59 points.
Analysts say the loss in Nepse is normal after the significant gain -- a common phenomenon being seen in stock markets.
The Nepse recorded decline with all sectoral sub-indices declining during the trading session. Banking, the key trading sector in country´s secondary share market, saw its sub-index´s drop by 10.75 points to end 759.46 points.
Banking sector suffered loss with share values of Narayani Audyogik Bikash Bank Ltd, Nepal Development and Employment Promotion Bank and Lumbini Bank going down during the trading. Similarly, trading and development bank groups dipped by 10.8 points and 2.02 points to finish at 279.55 points and 755.64 points respectively.
Hydropower and finance groups also saw their sub-indices plummet by 2.09 points and 1.35 points to end 979.33 points and 691.79 points respectively. Similarly, others group also shed 5.87 points to finish at 675.56 points.
The Sensitive Index, that calculates the performance of Category ´A´ company, also lost 2.68 points to 192. 49 points at the end of the trading. Float index, which represent the prices of ordinary shares in the market, dropped by nominal 0.7 points to 69.59 points. Total turnover reached to 104.32 million with 152,799 units of shares traded through 1,271 transactions.
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