Budget ceiling for districts up Rs 17 billion

KATHMANDU, JAN 05 -

"National Planning Com-mission ( NPC ) has increased the budget ceiling by Rs 17 billion for program-mes and projects to be implemented at district level for next fiscal year.

NPC has fixed the ceiling at Rs 98.72 billion, against the allocation of Rs 81.49 billion for this year. In the previous fiscal, the allocation was at Rs 87.33 billion.

District-level projects are determined by the District Development Co-uncil. They include infrastructure development such as construction of local roads, bridges, and drinking water.

NPC usually fixes and forwards the ceiling for district-level programm-es to the government before setting the ceiling for the entire budget. Based on that ceiling, the government prepares programmes for districts.

NPC Joint Secretary Puspa Lal Shakya said the ceiling for the next fiscal year grew as energy component was also added. “Moreover, we have increased the size of the budget for district-level projects by 8-10 percent,” he said.

According to the proposed district-wise allocation, Morang will get the highest (Rs 2.54 billion), followed by Kathm-andu (2.36 billion) and Jhapa (2.16 billion). Other districts on the top 10 list in terms of allocation are Kavrepalanc-hwok, Rupandehi, Suns-ari, Kailali, Nawalparasi, Syangja and Baglung.

Compared to this year’s allocation for Kat-hmandu, the ceiling is lower for the next year. The government has allocated Rs 3.98 billion for Kathmandu this year. Despite widespread pove-rty and deprivation, remote Karnali districts have been continuously getting lower budget.

As per the ceiling fixed by the NPC , the government has been asked to allocate Rs 813.04 million for Dolpa, Rs 859.81 million for Humla, Rs 1.05 billion for Jumla, Rs 1.09 billion for Kalikot and Rs 810.73 million for Mugu.

Shakya said the ceiling is determined based on the budget allocation trend, development needs and population size. “Kathmandu and a few districts are getting more budget as the districts have big population size. Donor-funded projects in a particular district also make difference in the budget size.”

Education has received the highest Rs 54.07 billion, followed by local development (Rs 27.61 billion) and health and population sector (Rs 8.88 billion). Sectors like water, agriculture and cooperative, ene-rgy, forest and soil conservation are other areas that get budget under this system.

 

Top 10 districts

 
District Ceiling

Morang Rs 2.54b

Kathmandu Rs 2.36b

Jhapa Rs 2.16b

Kavrepalanchwok Rs 1.89b

Rupandehi Rs 1.82b

Sunsari Rs 1.80b

Kailali Rs 1.78b

Nawalparasi Rs 1.67b

Syangja Rs 1.67b

Baglung Rs 1.64b

Source: The Kathmandu Post