Partial budget leaves development works in a fix
KATHMANDU, OCT 18 -
The lack of full budget has started to make its ill effects with ministries struggling to expedite development works and pay contractors. Government officials said that the situation had started to hit major development projects.
The Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) has sought a permission from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to transfer budget for the road expansion plan in Kathmandu Valley from other headings. The MoPPWTM does not have adequate funds for the plan as the ministry is left with only one-third budget of last fiscal year’s expenditure in the project.
Under the Article 96 of the interim consititution, the government is allowed to present a partial budget but it should exceed one-third of the previous year’s expenditure in the particular heading.
The ministry has sought the MoF’s approval to transfer Rs 680 million from the budget allocated for projects such as tourism roads, regional roads and bridge construction along with postal roads. The budget allocated for those projects have remained unspent.
The ministry had spent budget worth Rs 600 million in the road expansion works in Kathmandu Valley in the last fiscal year. “As per the constitutional provision, only Rs 200 million can be allocated for the expansion works which will be inadequate to complete the project,” said Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the MoPPWTM. “That’s why we sought an approval from the Ministry of Finance to transfer budget for the remaining task on road expansion.”
But he said that works had been corried on the project at the moment despite shortage of budget . “We hope the Ministry of Finance will give a nod to the proposal,” said Sitaula, adding that the MoF had advised the MoPPWTM to arrange additional budget for certain projects from similar other under performing projects. Minister for Physical Planning Hridayas Tripathi had also expressed concerned over the development works being affected in the absence of full budget .
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) is facing a similar problem as it is struggling to pay the contractors that constructed its new building in Singha Durbar, where the ministry has since been relocated.
The Singha Durbar Reconstruction Project, which constructed the new MoFALD building, has demanded the ministry to pay Rs 30 million to the contractor. But the ministry is not in a positon to pay more than Rs 10 million—the one-third of Rs 30 million that it spent last year. “We’ve asked the project for some time to arrange the funds,” said Dinesh Thapaliya, spokesperson of the MoFALD.
The same ministry has been delaying payment to another contractor involved in rural road expansion under its Decentralized Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Programme (DRILP) for works carried out last year. The project, which started late last year, had spent just around Rs 320 million. That means, it can spend around Rs 110 million this year.
“The amount is inadequate to pay to the contractor on last year’s expenditure let alone footing the expenses for this year,” said Thapaliya. “We have been asking the contractor to wait until second trimester for payment, while urging it to continue works.”
According to him, despite being in a position to spend Rs 1 billion this year the project cannot do so at the moment due to the provision related to partial budget . The project aims to extend roads in 18 districts of the country.
Likewise, another project under MoFALD, District Road Support Programme (DRSP) that aims to expand rural roads in Ramechhap, Khotang, Sindhuli and Okhaldhunga districts, is also facing a funding crisis in the absence of full budget . As a result, the government has been using the donor fund as it lacked counterpart fund. The government, supposed to allocate Rs 150 million in counterpart fund last year for the project, was forced to use up funds from the donor’s quota after it failed to arrange the amount. It means the government can now spend only Rs 50 million as per the constitutional provision. “We have asked the donor to continue funding under the government’s quota too for the time being,” said Thapaliya, lamenting that development works have been affected as there was confusion over the funding for any projects that were initiated last year.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
