KATHMANDU, May 29: In the period up to the end of February of the current Fiscal Year, about 95 percent of the population has access to electricity.

KATHMANDU, May 26: The draft of the Federal Civil Service Act, which was prepared and sent for approval by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) to the Ministry of Finance about two months ago is gathering dust at the ministry.

As the preparation for the federal budget for the next fiscal year is under full swing, the Ministry of Finance has concluded deliberations with the line ministries, business and industrial organizations, corporate houses and other concerned stakeholders to include appropriate suggestions to give final shape to the budget. The pre- budget discussion is underway in the parliament and thereafter the budget will be presented in the parliament on 29th May 2023 as per the constitutional provision.

KATHMANDU, April 28: Due to increasing pressure on government finances, the government has cut 50 percent of the third installment of the financial equalization grants to be provided to the provincial and local governments.

KATHMANDU, April 28: The government carried out significant budget transfers in the past one month, primarily to finance its internal debt.

KATHMANDU, April 19: Civil servants have protested against the Civil Service Bill.

KATHMANDU, April 9: The government is currently preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2080/81. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance has asked for open suggestions on matters related to the budget.

KATHMANDU, April 3: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has cut down the amount of conditional grants that were being given to the provincial and local governments at a time when the federal government itself is struggling to manage its expenses amid the low revenue collection.

KATHMANDU, April 1: The Ministry of Finance has prepared a schedule for formulating the policy and programme and budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2023/24).

KATHMANDU, March 17: The Ministry of Finance and the British Embassy, Kathmandu, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for UK-Nepal collaboration through the Local Infrastructure Support Programme (LISP) on Thursday.

The decision by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to discontinue financial subsidies to Nepali farmers is a catastrophic mistake that will undoubtedly further cripple the country's agricultural production. Despite the government's allocation of Rs 8.5 billion for agricultural self-sufficiency programs, the MoF has withheld Rs 8.457 billion of this amount, leaving Nepali farmers to bear the brunt of its imprudence.

KATHMANDU, Feb 21: The government allocated Rs 8.5 billion to be spent through the provincial and local levels for agricultural self-sufficiency programs to increase production. However, the Ministry of Finance has withheld Rs 8.457 billion of this subsidy amount meant for Nepali farmers while the agricultural products worth millions of rupees are being imported from abroad instead of promoting home-grown products.

KATHMANDU, Feb 7: The Ministry of Finance has requested for details of grants spent by all local levels.

KATHMANDU, Feb 1: It has been decided that the bill to amend some laws related to money laundering will be moved forward on a fast track basis.

KATHMANDU, Jan 20: The government has put forward various schemes to reduce recurrent expenditure in the current financial year. The Ministry of Finance has made some points public by issuing the 'Recurrent Expenditure Reduction Standards, 2079'.

KATHMANDU, Dec 25: The Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Jeevan Ram Shrestha has sent a proposal to the Ministry of Finance to provide 300 million rupees as subsidy to various organizations close to him. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has been giving grants to organizations working in social, religious and cultural fields. However, grants given in this way are not regular.

KATHMANDU, Sept 23: The Election Commission (EC) has asked the Ministry of Finance to furnish the details of the transfer of funds outside the approved annual budget for the current fiscal year following the declaration of the date for election.

KATHMANDU, August 25: Niranjan Kumar Jha, the general manager of Nepal Railway Company, has complained that the Ministry of Finance has not cooperated in operating the train.

KATHMANDU, August 17: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) finally walked the talk when it comes to substituting the use of LPG with electric stove (popularly known as induction stove).

KATHMANDU, July 17: It has been a year since the problem began to appear in the country’s external sector. The problems seen since mid-July 2021, the first month of the last financial year, have not been resolved until the beginning of July this year. The problems in some areas are going deeper.

KATHMANDU, July 16: The Supreme Court (SC) has denied issuing an interim order saying that it cannot be even speculated that the CCTV footage of the Ministry of Finance was deleted.

KATHMANDU, June 26: The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs have suggested that the Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project can be constructed by making it a public company.

KATHMANDU, June 1: On May 29, the government introduced a budget of Rs 1.793 trillion for the fiscal year 2022/23, an increase of around Rs 146 billion from that allocated for the current fiscal year (2021/22).

KATHMANDU, May 2: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that the conflict between the Ministry of Finance and the private sector over tax collection should end.

KATHMANDU, April 12: Country's economy that was marred by global COVID-19 pandemic for over two years is returning to normalcy, according to the government.

KATHMANDU, April 12: Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma clarified that the national economy has not faced any crisis.

KATHMANDU, April 11: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said Nepal’s economy is not in peril. Talking to media persons at a meeting held on Monday at the Ministry of Finance, Minister Sharma said that the economy is not in a major crisis but they should still remain cautious.

KATHMANDU, Feb 11: The projects declared as national pride could not spend their budgets effectively, to say the least, according to the half-yearly evaluation and review report of the budget for the current fiscal year 2021\/2022 released by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday.

KATHMANDU, Nov 5: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said the ‘stone quarry business’ taking place along the Chandragiri-Chitlang section of Ganeshman Singh Highway would be stopped immediately.

KATHMANDU, Oct 10: In the course of discussing the implementation of the budget with various agencies, the Ministry of Finance held discussions with the National Planning Commission on Sunday.  At the meeting, emphasis was laid on increasing the capital expenditure and moving ahead with the programs announced in the budget immediately in order to achieve the target of 7 percent economic growth projected by the replacement budget.

KATHMANDU, September 20: The government on Monday passed the revised budget from the House of Representatives (HoR) amid the lawmakers chanting slogans to disrupt the regular meeting of parliament.

KATHMANDU, Sept 3: The Ministry of Finance has suggested that it would be appropriate to form a high-level committee to study the future course of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and the ongoing employees’ protests and submit suggestions to the government.

KATHMANDU, July 14: Newly-appointed Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government will revise the budget introduced by the previous government through an ordinance as per the road map of the new government.

KATHMANDU, July 3: The Ministry of Finance has agreed to allocate Rs 7.72 billion for the election of the members of the House of Representatives (HoR).

The Ministry of Finance seeks suggestions from former finance secretaries to focus on post-COVID-19 economic recovery

KATHMANDU, Feb 15: The national pride projects that the government has given high priority to have spent less than 10 percent of the total allocated budget in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

KATHMANDU, Dec 3: The government has introduced the innovative start-up capital credit flow procedure, 2077 BS to extend start-up capital for innovative enterprises and business operations. Enterprises having latest knowledge, skills and abilities to operate their ventures can get upto Rs 5 million loans for 2 percent interest rate.

KATHMANDU, July 20: The Ministry of Finance (MoF), in a move to implement the budget, has directed the government offices to prepare their action plans by July end.

KATHMANDU, June 5: Although the government almost every year revises the customs duty and excise duty on alcohol to collect more revenue, the budget for 2020/21 has surprisingly kept the tax rates on the conspicuous goods unchanged despite the government falling in pressure to manage the financial resources to manage the expenditures.

KATHMANDU, May 23: Despite pressure on finances, the government is preparing a bigger budget for the next fiscal year 2020/21 compared to that of the last year.

KATHMANDU, April 8: The World Bank has approved a fast-track US$ 29 million COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project to help Nepal prevent, detect, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen its public health preparedness. According to World Bank officials, the agreement was signed today by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank.

KATHMANDU, March 30: The government's aim to switch to domestic sources from taxes on imported goods for major tax revenue collection seems to have yielded success to some extent with the significant rise in value-added tax (VAT) from internal economic activities.

KATHMANDU, Feb 22: The government has announced that it would provide a seed capital for innovative businesses, start up or entrepreneurs up to a limit of 50% of their project cost.

KATHMANDU, Jan 26: The government has stepped up to form a revenue board that is envisioned to help solve various issues related to the country's existing tax system.

KATHMANDU, Dec 12: Nepal received foreign loans worth Rs 24.95 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, more than double the amount that the country took from foreign donors during the same period last year.

KATHMANDU, Nov 27The World Bank (WB) is to provide an assistance of Rs 16 billion 371 million and 300 thousand to Nepal for promotion of youth employment and school sector development.

KATHMANDU, Nov 23: The government has begun the process of selecting the new executive chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon).

KATHMANDU, Nov 15: The government has revised economic growth rate for the current fiscal year to 7.01%, down by 1.49% percentage points from its ambitious target of 8.5%.

KATHMANDU, Nov 2: A delegation of nine executive directors out of a total of 25 along with two alternative executive directors of the World Bank Group Executive Directors (EDs) visited Nepal from October 29 to November 1.

KATHMANDU, Oct 20: The government has been able to achieve only 4.41% of capital expenditure progress in the first quarter of the current fiscal year – FY2019/20.