Govt made massive budget transfers in the last month of current FY, breaching basic norm of financial discipline

Published On: July 8, 2023 08:26 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

Govt spent Rs 125.07 billion in the past three weeks alone, while it had struggled to spend Rs 153.08 billion in 11 months

KATHMANDU, July 8: The government that spent a development budget of hardly Rs 153.08 billion in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year exhausted Rs 125.07 billion just in the past three weeks.

According to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government spent Rs 1.176 trillion as of mid-June in the current fiscal year. As of Friday, the expense figure crossed Rs 1.316 trillion.

The FCGO has barred all three tier governments from making unnecessary expenses for the last one week of this fiscal year, starting from Sunday night. Citing the context, the Ministry of Finance released a hefty amount of money to the government agencies, just before the FCGO prescribed deadline.

Of the amount spent, the government released an additional Rs 31.4 billion in the three weeks’ period. It clearly shows that the government tends to rampantly spend the funds meant for development projects.

The government has allocated a budget of Rs 1.793 trillion for the current fiscal year. Out of the amount, only 73.41 percent has been spent.

The FCGO annual report almost every year highlights the government breaching the financial discipline mainly due to the last-hour spending, just to avoid freezing of the allocated budget. However, the government, no matter which political party leads, repeats the same action every year.

In the last fiscal year, the government spent around 21 percent of the total budget in just one month during mid-June and mid-July. Of the allocated amount of Rs 1.647 trillion, Rs 209.75 billion was spent just in the final month of the fiscal year 2021/22.

In many cases, the government is found spending money through a budget transfer mechanism at the eleventh hour of the fiscal year. Last year, the government carried out budget transfers of Rs 196.41 billion, around 12 percent of the allocated budget. A total of Rs 82.80 billion was transferred in the last one month, while Rs 27 billion was transferred in the last one week of FY 2021/22.