MoF reviews situation of first quadrimester
KATHMANDU:
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has sought short-term and mid-term policies to boost exports till the country, in the long term, starts exporting energy to maintain its trade balance and said it is mulling over to support such export oriented efforts.
During the review of the first quadrimester’s economic situation of the current fiscal 2014-15 and announcement of setting up of a grievances hearing cell in the ministry, Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said that the alarming trade deficit is dragging behind the country’s economy.
“The recent investment commitment by foreign investors in energy and tourism and hospitality sectors reveals that our investment climate is improving,” said Mahat, adding, “We’re maintaining very good macroeconomic condition except for the huge trade imbalance and there is no alternative other than to boost exports by focusing on short-term, medium-term and long-term export potentials.”
The country, in this fiscal year, has received investment commitment of Rs 300 billion in energy, and more than Rs 25 billion in tourism and hospitality sectors, according to the finance minister.
He also anticipated that foreign investment would increase as the country introduces all the legislations that were announced through the fiscal policy and expressed commitment to submit the related Bills with the Finance Ministry at the earliest to the parliament.
During the quadrimester of the current fiscal, revenue collection stood at Rs 114.88 billion while the target was set at Rs 106.62 billion. “We’ve crossed our revenue collection target for the quadrimester and can easily achieve the target of Rs 422.90 billion set for this fiscal,” said Mahat.
He also spoke of the foreign aid commitment that has increased substantively in comparison to the corresponding period of last fiscal 2013-14. The country has received foreign aid commitment of Rs 90.19 billion excluding the line of credit (LoC) facility of $1 billion extended by India. Foreign aid commitment during the first quadrimester of the previous fiscal stood at Rs 21.45 billion.
The finance minister said that development expenditure, however is still slow. “The figure of capital expenditure is not encouraging. We’ve just spent Rs 6.59 billion of the total budget of Rs 117 billion earmarked for development projects,” Mahat stated, adding, “We’ll first consult with concerned ministries and realign the budget of projects that are moving ahead very slowly to other projects that lack financing.”
FinMin establishes grievances hearing cell
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) today announced that it has established a grievances hearing cell called ‘Bigool’ under the convenership of the joint secretary of the Monitoring and Evaluation Division of the ministry to listen to grievances related with MoF and its line agencies.
“The cell is an initiative to improve the services being provided by the MoF and its line agencies. People can register their complaints on issues like development work, revenue leakages, and irregularities of tax officers at the cell,” said Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, adding, “And the ministry will take prompt action.”
MoF has set a toll free number ‘1118’ to listen to grievances from across the country, and internet users can directly send a message through the finance ministry’s website as well. Joint Secretary of the ministry Krishna Prasad Devkota will lead the cell.
“The cell will forward the grievances related to development work to the concerned ministries as well as the respective department and division heads and urge them to solve the problems at the earliest,” said Devkota. He also informed the finance minister will look into grievances that need to be solved by the minister himself.
Source: THT
