Mahat defends funds transfer

KATHMANDU, June 1: Minister for Finance Dr Ram Sharan Mahat on Sunday clarified that he had no vested interest in transfer of funds from one heading to another.

Speaking at the meeting of the Finance Committee of the legislature-parliament, Mahat said he had just transferred budget from the low spending projects to high performing projects so that they could be completed in time. “I haven´t fulfilled the demand of party cadres. I have always stuck to the principles of economic discipline,” he told the meeting.

Mahat said the finance ministry had re-allocated budget for a few projects to ensure their timely completion.

According to sources, finance ministry has transferred Rs 750 million allocated to Bheri-Babai Multipurpose Project to Ranijamara Irrigation Project which is scheduled to complete by the end of 2014.

“If people get benefit because of our small efforts, we have to take such decisions,” Mahat said, adding that the government transferred the fund as per the provisions prescribed in existing laws.

As per the existing laws, line ministries cannot spend more than 40 percent of the budget in the last quarter of the fiscal year and 20 percent in the closing month.

To end the ongoing tendency of low capital spending, Mahat told the committee that the government will introduce bankable and ready-to-implement projects from this fiscal year. He also expressed commitment to allocate budget for building access road in all election constituencies.

Speaking at the meeting, parliamentarians said national budget should deal with big and national projects only. They asked the government to handover the responsibility of allocating budget for small projects to local bodies. Rewati Raman Bhandari of CPN-UML said projects worth less than Rs 1 million should be handed over to district development committees of the concerned districts. “National Planning Commission (NPC) should only look after national projects,” he suggested.

Similarly, Uday Shumsher Rana of Nepali Congress was for making amendment to certain provisions in Public Procurement Act for the delivery of quality development results in time. Another Nepali Congress parliamentarian Kamala Pant stressed the need to establish a strong monitoring agency for effective implementation of development projects.

Meanwhile, the Finance Committee has directed the government to incorporate suggestions of the parliamentarian in the upcoming fiscal budget.

Source: Republica