Finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal disclosed that the budget for the current fiscal year had earmarked Rs 850 million to purchase medicines for free distribution at government hospitals and health posts under recurrent expenditure head. [break]
Since the Health Ministry failed to award contracts for the supply, the money had remained unspent. The money was transferred and was used to fill the resource gap needed for financing perks and benefits of government employees.
Finance Ministry officials had been stressing on the need to bring a supplement budget to manage bloated recurrent expenditure after the government was compelled to raise salary of government employees after the announcement of budget, adding financial liabilities worth at least Rs 6 billion to the government.
BFIs get one more year to streamline loans
KATHMANDU, July 13: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has pledged additional one year period to the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to streamline the loans they pledged against fixed collateral located beyond their geographical area of operations.
Now BFIs can streamline such lending by mid-July 2011, the central bank said, issuing a new circular on Tuesday.
When the NRB restricted them from issuing lending against collateral of fixed assets lying beyond their operation area, it had asked the BFIs that had already issued such loans to comply with the provision by mid-July 2009. Last year, it had extended the deadline to mid-July 2010.
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