Surrender unspent budget: Government
KATHMANDU:
The government has urged all the ministries and government offices to surrender the unspent budget so that the money can be utilised for relief and reconstruction, as the country needs to urgently ramp up spending for these purposes following the devastating earthquake of April 25. In the wake of the disaster, the government has abruptly called on all government offices to surrender the budget that is unlikely to be spent in the
current fiscal year.
Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, today, said that they have been receiving funds that were voluntarily surrendered by some government offices and ministries.
“We’ve also asked them to slash their recurrent expenditure considering the crisis facing the country,” Mahat told The Himalayan Times, adding, “Constitutional bodies and parliamentarians can also send the money (budget earmarked for spending on electoral constituencies) back during this turbulent time.”
The fiscal budget of 2014-15 has earmarked fund of Rs 10 million for the lawmakers to spend in their respective electoral constituencies. Such funds, which had been allocated for development of the constituencies of the respective lawmakers, can be rechannelled to build temporary shelters for settlement of earthquake victims.
Even as the National Planning Commission has approved programmes in this regard, the government cannot retract the resources without parliamentary consent.
“If the parliamentarians are willing to surrender the budget, the government — with the consent of the parliament — can reallocate the funds to address the current crisis,”
Mahat asserted, adding, “For this, we need to amend the Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme Bylaws.”
An analysis of the current trend of capital expenditure in the country shows that the government can generate more funds from the government offices by introducing austerity measures. Since last few years, the government has been reallocating the budget in third quarter to expedite capital spending. As per Ministry of Finance (MoF), by reviewing their programmes, ministries should surrender the funds that is unlikely to be spent despite of reallocation.
MoF has recently reallocated the fund of the ministries concerned with development works in a bid to expedite the development expenditure.
In addition, MoF is eyeing to withdraw the budget titled under miscellaneous, undistributed, allocated for recruitment, vehicle purchase and recurrent expenditure, among others, if the concerned bodies appear reluctant to surrender such budgets.
Some government bodies have already started to send back the budget that is unlikely to be spent in this fiscal. The Ministry of General Administration has voluntarily surrendered Rs 32.5 million that was allocated for vehicle purchase, trainings and recruitments,
according to Lal Babu Pandit, minister for General Administration. He further informed that the government may introduce austerity measures very soon to control unnecessary spending.
Source: THT
