The government allocated budget for the current fiscal year issuing the Ordinance on Authority to Spend Money from the Consolidated Accounts that allows the ministries to spend the budget not exceeding the budget of the previous year on lump sum basis.[break]
“Though eight months of the current fiscal year has already passed, we don´t have information about exact head-wise spending of the lump sum allocated to the ministries,” Nirmal Hari Adhikari, under secretary at the Budget Division of MoF, told Republica. “We only have information about their total expenditure.”
Adhikari also said MoF has issued a circular to other ministries seeking details of head-wise expenditure in the current fiscal year.
In the previous years, MoF used to allocate budget to the ministries specifying different expenditure heads. This year ministries are allocating the budget creating budget heads on their own. They have not even provided information about the amount allocated on different expenditure heading to the MoF.
As per the ordinance, ministries have to spend the budget within the cap of total Rs 351 billion in line with total allocation last year. However, MoF has allocated 12 to 28 percent less budget compared to last year´s actual allocation.
In the absence of detailed programs to be prepared by MoF, most of the ministries were confused in the beginning of the fiscal year regarding the preparation of budgetary programs leading to the delay in implementation of development programs.
Capital expenditure over the first seven months of 2012/13 couldn´t exceed Rs 11 billion. Low capital spending had prompted donor communities and other stakeholders to raise question over the government´s spending capacity.
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