Finance minister justifies budget allocation for CA elections

KATHMANDU, APR 11 -

Finance Minister Shankar Prasad Koirala has defended allocation of funds in the full budget for elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA) by saying that it was based on the assumption that they would be held within this fiscal year.

The government’s annual financial plan made public on Tuesday has earmarked Rs 14 billion for the planned polls amid doubts that they will be held on schedule. Out of the sum set aside in the “full adjusted budget”, Rs 6 billion is meant for election related activities and Rs 8 billion for security.

The budget allocation has raised concerns over possible misuse of the money if the polls are not held this year. Former finance minister Barsha Man Pun is among the doubters.

However, speaking at a post-budget press meet on Wednesday, Finance Minister Koirala said that the government was pledged to ensuring proper utilisation of the funds. “Even if the elections are not held within this fiscal, the allocated money will be used to make preparations for the polls in the next fiscal year,” he added.

Koirala admitted that the budget had been prepared without consulting former finance ministers despite tradition. “We had arranged a programme to hold discussions with them, but they didn’t have time,” said Koirala. He added that he had informed the top political leadership about the preparations for the budget before presenting it.

Refuting charges by officials of the National Planning Commission (NPC) that the Finance Ministry had not consulted them adequately, Koirala said that there had been enough consultations. “The Cabinet passed the budget only after a full board meeting of the NPC had endorsed it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the budget has allocated Rs 66.13 billion under the capital budget heading, Rs 15 billion more than before. The budget increase has come at a time when capital expenditure has been below target in the current fiscal year, reaching Rs 13.42 billion as of the first eight months.

However, Koirala said that the budget would be spent eventually as it has been a tradition to spend most of the money in the last trimester. “In the last fiscal year too, 59 percent of the capital budget was spent in the last trimester,” Koirala added.

Finance secretary Shanta Raj Subedi supported the minister saying that the entire capital budget would be spent based on spending trends of major projects including the Kathmandu road expansion project, Shikta Irrigation Project, Ranijamara Irrigation Project and the Postal Road Project, among others.

The finance minister said that the government had not brought any new project but parts of the existing programmes had been changed. “Due to time constraints, new programmes have not been introduced although the government has the right to introduce new programmes,” he added. Meanwhile, the government has asked its ministries to get first priority projects endorsed by the NPC within 10 days and the others by the ministries concerned.

“As projects under the previous budget have been endorsed, new foreign-aided programmes and projects need to be endorsed,” said Subedi. According to him, out of the additional budget of Rs 54 billion in the latest budget, Rs 27 billion has been set aside for foreign-aided projects. “They are first priority projects, and need to be approved by the NPC. Moreover, the implementing agencies have to award the contracts and spend the budget within this fiscal year,” he added.

Source: The Kathmandu Post