Kathmandu, Nov. 3
Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada has said that the classification of the government expenditure budget is not scientific as it did not show the actual capital expenditure.
"The capital budget that makes only about one-third of the total expenditure is not the only development budget," he said while speaking at the weekly Gorkhapatra Sambad on Sunday.
He said that a confusion was created as the grant mobilised to infrastructure projects like Melamchi Water Supply Project, Pushpa Lal Highway, and grant sent to the sub-national governments was also the capital budget.
Money allocated to such projects comes under the recurrent budget while money mobilised to the foreign assistance project like the Gautam Buddha International Airport comes under the financing, said Dr. Khatiwada.
According to him, the budget and expenditure reporting in the media was also misleading sometimes as they are only concentrated to only the outer face of it. "I urge journalists to look at the capital spending from this new dimension," he said.
He was critical of the slow decision process of the government which most often resulted in sluggish progress in development projects.
Dr. Khatiwada said that the government was trying to practice the budget surrender by mid-April at the latest so that the surrendered budget can be properly utilised in key projects.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 4 November 2019.
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