KATHMANDU, June 10: Different ministries and government offices have made made budget demands worth Rs 750 billion, almost Rs 250 billion higher than the ceiling set by the government for the fiscal year 2013/14.
National Planning Commission (NPC), the apex policy making body of the government, has put a budget ceiling of Rs 506 billion for the next fiscal year. [break]
“The demand for budget has already crossed the ceiling of Rs 506 billion fixed for the coming fiscal year. Some of the programs proposed by the ministries and different government offices have been designed without studying their viability,” Shanta Raj Subedi, secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), said.
Speaking at a meeting with secretaries and regional administrators at the MoF, Subedi said most of the proposed programs, that cross the budget ceiling, are related to current expenditures such as purchase of ration, fuel for vehicles, office uniforms, among others.
In the meeting, Finance Minister Shankar Koirala urged the secretaries and regional administrators to suggest programs that could spur economic activities, reduce poverty, establish good governance and help the government achieve six percent economic growth rate in the coming fiscal year.
Koirala categorically stated energy, physical infrastructure, agriculture, and tourism and export promotion as the top five priority areas identified by the government for the coming budget.
Speaking in the meeting, Tulasi Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, suggested that the government allocate sufficient budget for proposed programs targeted at linking district headquarters of Humla and Dolpa to the national rod network, ongoing construction of 400 bridges, North-South Highway, Tarai postal roads, Mid-Hill Highway and East-West Highway, among other high priority projects.
The government has set a target of connect district headquarters of Humla with national road network within the next fiscal year. It has set plans to link district headquarters of Dolpa to the national road network in the next couple of years.
“It is meaningless to allocate budget for regional roads as budget per such road has been decreased to around Rs 3.8 million from Rs 20 million few years back,” Sitaula said, adding, “We are for discontinuing such road project if we can´t allocated sufficient budget for timely completion.”
Budget for such regional roads are allocated due to political pressure rather than assessing the demand from the local people.
He also suggested stopping construction of 100 tourism roads saying that they are not as per the local people´s need.
Jit Bahadur Thapa, joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry, said his ministry has proposed to the government to establish company registrar offices in all five development regions to reduce the pressure of service seekers at the capital-based company registrar office.
Similarly, Toya Narayan Gyawali, joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, told the meeting that negotiation with the World Bank to establish a dry port in Kathmandu to facilitate country´s foreign trade was in progress.
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