Poor capital expenditure Minister Pun warns of budget transfer

KATHMANDU, APR 12 -

Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun on Wednesday warned that the government will transfer the capital budget of the poorly performing ministries to those making a good use of the funds made available to them.

As of March end, the capital expenditure stood at 22.7 percent of the total allocated capital budget amoungting to just Rs 15.93 billion, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The government has allocated Rs 72.21 billion under the heading this fiscal year.

Expressing his concern over dismal capital expenditure over the first two trimesters at a review meeting on capital expenditure at the MoF, Pun said that the budget would be transferred to better spending ministries by holding discussion at the cabinet.

“Budget of the non-performing ministries will be transferred to those putting it to good use, within a few days,” he said at the meeting of the secretaries representing various ministries. “It is in our national interest to transfer such unutilised budget to places where the works are undergoing better.”

According to an MoF press release, the finance minister was concerned with dismal performance of capital expenditure despite the timely presentation of budget this year. “It is necessary to review what led to dismal capital expenditure,” he said.

Instructing the secretaries to increase the capital expenditure in the remaining three months, Pun asked them not to wait for direction from the political level to spend the capital budget. The secretaries, however, said that the capital expenditure in March and April has intensified and the expenditure would move up in April and May.

During the interaction, Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota said that despite dismal capital expenditure, most of the projects were awarded under multi-year contracts. He was also of the view that the delay at the ministries to get their programmes approved also resulted in low capital expenditure.

Among the government offices, Ministry of Commerce and Supply, Prime Minister and Council Minister’s Offices and Ministry of Energy were among the poor performers in capital expenditure.

Source: Kantipur