FinMin asks ministries to rush their programme list

KATHMANDU, APR 05 -

The Finance Ministry has asked all the ministries to send a list of their programmes and projects along with quarterly expenditure plans for approval by the National Planning Commission ( NPC ) before the budget is presented.

The government has been hurrying the ministries up as it plans to issue the budget one month prior to the start of the fiscal year, and wants the programmes and projects okayed well in advance so that they can be implemented right after Parliament gives the go-ahead. The budget is slated to be presented by mid-June, and Parliament is expected to endorse it by mid-July.

“As the NPC takes several months to approve the programmes and projects, we have asked the ministries to submit them before the budget presentation,” said Ram Sharan Pudashaini, spokesperson of the Finance Ministry. “This will allow us to implement the projects at the earliest possible.”

It took more than three months to get all the programmes and projects for this fiscal year approved by the NPC . The speed of capital expenditure has been disappointing this year despite a timely budget presentation. Finance Ministry officials blamed the lengthy approval process.

In previous years, the budget has consistently been presented late or Parliament has taken its time okaying it which resulted in low capital expenditure.

As of March 28 this year, capital expenditure was recorded at 27.57 percent of the allocated budget. Development expenditure has been recorded at around 80 percent over the last six years, and it is expected to remain at that level this year too, according to the Mid-Term Review of the budget.

Around 80 percent of the budget money is spent in the second half of the fiscal year under the current budgetary system, and almost 40-50 percent of the budget is spent in the final month.

NPC Joint Secretary Pushpa Lal Shakya said that efforts were being made to okay the programmes before the budget presentation, but expressed doubt that the ministries would submit their proposals in a format that could be approved speedily.

“We are at least ready to approve the programmes before mid-July after the budget is presented by mid-June,” he added.

The NPC expects to start discussions on the new budget on Sunday. “The discussions will focus on the various programmes and projects proposed by the different ministries,” said Shakya.

Meanwhile, ministry-wise discussions for the budget is scheduled to start at the Finance Ministry in mid-April.

The Finance Ministry said that it had started receiving budget proposals from different ministries. The NPC has fixed the ceiling for the next budget at Rs 596 billion.

Source: The Kathmandu Post