Ministries record low capital spending

KATHMANDU, JAN 04 -

The absence of a full-fledged budget has hit the country’s capital expenditure hard, with the ministries related to local development recording low spending.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), the focal point for channelizing funds for local development, has spent just 14.28 percent (Rs 500 million) of its capital budget in first four months of current fiscal year.

Due to the absence of a full budget , the ministry is yet to make payments of an additional Rs 500 million for completed work.

MoFALD Secretary Santa Bahadur Shrestha admitted that the spending figure ‘is not so good’. “However, compared to other ministries getting a huge budget allocation, our ministry’s expenditure figure is good,” said Shrestha, adding capital expenditure of a majority of big ministries stands at around 10 percent.

Shrestha, however, said the ministry would expedite development spending. “With funds for the whole year in hand, we will soon pay the outstanding dues to contractors. This will push the expenditure figure up to 30 percent,” he said.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Thursday held discussions on the progress made by the Local Development Ministry in capital expenditure and the progress made in the first, second and third priority projects.

During the interaction, Finance Minister Barsa Man Pun directed MoFALD officials to spend capital budget timely, assuring that development projects would not face resource crunch. Pun also said the tradition of demanding huge budget and spending late should be discontinued.

During the interaction, secretary Shrestha vowed to increase capital expenditure substantially within a month and attain cent percent spending at the end of the fiscal year.

Shrestha said the pace of expenditure would accelerate after the National Planning Commission (NPC) completes approving the ministry’s programmes and projects. “NPC has already approved most of the projects,” said Shrestha.

Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi said although the capital spending figure has not been good so far, ministries’ commitment to attain cent percent expenditure of capital budget ‘should be taken positively’.

Source: The Kathmandu Post