- Allocation for big projects, elections
- Internal debt can be raised
KATHMANDU, April 9: The government is rounding out the full budget for the current fiscal year with the announcement of a final tranche of around Rs 55 billion, on Tuesday. This is the third time within the year that the government is announcing budgetary allocations through ordinance as the political parties have failed to forge consensus on an annual budget.
However, a source at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said the budget will not announce new programs besides provisioning additional resources for elections, urgent current expenditure and financial management. “Though the budget will allow the government to raise internal debt, no change will be made in revenue policies,” the source said.[break]
In the course of final preparations to announce the budget, Finance Minister Shankar Koirala and Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi briefed President Ram Baran Yadav on Monday.
The cabinet meeting to be held Tuesday will endorse the budget ordinance and it will then be forwarded to the president for final approval.
Amid a resources crunch for meeting recurrent expenses, continued implementation of major projects and allocation of funds for financial management, the government is coming up with a budget with additional provisions.
The ordinance currently in force for this fiscal year´s budget has capped spending at Rs 351.93 billion in line with last fiscal year´s actual expenditure.
In the mid-term review of the partial budget, MoF had revised the estimate at Rs 370.37 billion.
MoF officials said different ministries and constitutional bodies have already demanded over Rs 60 billion additional resources for different projects and recurrent expenses.
In the previous budget ordinance, MoF had allocated resources to the ministries to the tune of 12-17 percent less than the actual expenditure of the previous year. Additional financial burdens for the government for the proposed general election, grade increments for civil servants and increased financial liability towards international organizations of which Nepal is a member have worsened the resource crunch.
Recently, the resource committee headed by Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC), had put the budget ceiling at Rs 405 billion for the current fiscal year. NPC, the apex policy making body of the government, has already informed the government to limit next fiscal year´s budget to Rs 506 billion.
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