Kathmandu, Apr. 14
The country has failed to come out of the
chronic disease of poor capital expenditure even during the brief period of
hopes for political stability, and following the implementation of federalism,
which was touted as the remedy for all development maladies from the centre to
the local units.
This is what the recent statistics of the
Financial Comptroller General's Office on government spending, especially the
mobilisation of development budget, has revealed.
Status of capital expenditure by the end of
the third quarter in the three consecutive fiscal years is poor with it
remaining below the one-third of the total allocated amount in the current and
last year.
Capital spending in the current fiscal year
2020/21 is just 29.22 per cent and it was 25.88 per cent in FY 2019/20. The
country had announced lockdown to check the spread of coronavirus on March 24
last year, just before 20 days of the end of the third quarter. However, the
mobilisation of development budget was a bit better in the corresponding period with 34.96 per cent in FY 2018/19.
Until Tuesday, April 13, development
spending is Rs. 103.1 billion against the annual target of Rs. 352.9 billion.
The amount was only Rs. 105.3 billion last year.
Former Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj
Khatiwada had revised the annual target of development spending while incumbent
Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel followed the same suite and brought down
the annual expenditure targets to 94.5 per cent of the actual allocation in the
mid-term review of the budget of the FY 2020/21.
According to him, as the COVID-19 pandemic
significantly affected the development work in the first four months of the current
fiscal year, there was a revision in the annual expenditure. Industry operation
and development works were performing poorly till the end of the festival
season in October 2020.
However, the revenue collection is almost
up to the mark with 68.04 per cent total government receipts by April 13. The
government has collected Rs. 729.5 billion revenue till Tuesday. Tax revenue
collection is 69.74 per cent of the annual target. The size of the budget for
the current fiscal is Rs. 1,474.6 billion and the target of revenue is Rs.
1,011.7 billion.
Last year's revenue collection till the end
of the third quarter was 55.14 per cent.
By the end of the third quarter, revenue
collection has surpassed the total government expenditure which is Rs. 686.6
billion. In the corresponding period last FY, revenue collection was Rs. 645.1
billion and expenditure Rs. 675.8 billion.
Finance Ministry said that since the revenue
collection was executed by the agencies under the ministry, it could guide,
direct or implement reforms to achieve the targets while development budget is
mobilised by various agencies under the development ministries.
The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and
Transport, Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Ministry of
Urban Development, Ministry of Health and Population, and Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology are among the ministries that mobilise large
chunk of the development budget.
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