Govt allocates Rs. 91 billion for reconstruction

Kathmandu, July 14, 2015:

Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat has allocated Rs. 91 billion, less money than the previous estimates, for the post-quake reconstruction.

Presenting the estimates of income and expenditure for the Fiscal Year 2015/016 before the Legislature-Parliament, Dr. Mahat informed that Rs. 74 billion will be spent through the National Reconstruction Fund and Rs. 17 billion will be channelize through the respective ministries and government agencies.

The amount is 11.11 per cent of the total budget.

"In order to expedite the reconstruction works, I have allocated Rs. 74 billion for the National Reconstruction Fund for the coming fiscal. Rs. 50 billion of that money will be used to build the houses and Rs. 3 billion for public buildings," he said.

Likewise, Rs. 2 billion is set for archaeological structure, Rs. 7 billion for other physical infrastructure and Rs. 6 billion for productive sector while Rs. 6 billion will be spent on the social sectors.

The reconstruction and rehabilitation of physical infrastructure, individual house, public buildings, schools, health facilities and cultural heritages will be carried out by the respective ministries and other government agencies until the Reconstruction Authority begin its work. Additional amount of Rs. 17 billion has been allocated for the same.

Finance Minister Mahat commenced and concluded his budget speech with special address to the quake.

"The budget is aimed at bringing back the country to the path of development and economic progress amidst the loss of life and property caused by the devastating April 25 earthquake," Dr. Mahat said.

The budget reiterated an assistance of Rs. 200,000 to those families who lost their residence in the tremors and want to build their home themselves.

A concessional loan of Rs. 2,500,000 each will be provided for the families in the Kathmandu Valley who lost their home in the quake and Rs. 1,500,000 for other districts.

The Budget has promised to establish an Economic Recovery Fund under the Nepal Rastra Bank which will be used to provide refinancing and concession on the interest to the quake affected houses, agriculture, business and tourism sectors.

Reconstruction and rehabilitation of water supply projects have been given high priority in the budget.

"Required budget has been allocated to reinstate the quake-affected projects of drinking water," said Mahat.

With the aim of creating manpower for the post quake reconstruction works, 50,000 youth will be trained on carpentry, masonry and plumbing.

The budget aims to rehabilitate and resettle the people who have been displaced from their localities due to the earthquake, immediately.

Likewise, modern technology will be applied while reconstructing the historical heritages, temples, stupas, mosques.

"The historical and religious heritages will be reconstructed applying the modern technology without distorting their original and cultural shape," said Mahat. "Use of local objects and labour will be promoted in such construction so far they are available."

He also informed that a Heritage Fund will be set up under the National Reconstruction Fund where Nepalis in and out of country could contribute money.

The government plans to allow any Nepalese or foreign company to reconstruct the cultural heritages if they comply with the government-approved style and quality.

Reconstruction main objective

Finance Minister Mahat stated that the major objective of the budget was disaster preparedness and reconstruction.

"One of the objectives of the budget is to enhance capacity to cope with the natural disaster and boost people's confidence  in the state by mobilizing resources with special focus on reconstruction and rehabilitation," he said.

The budget expresses commitments to increasing investment in reconstruction in the aftermath of the quake and achieving sustained and high economic growth with employment generation, entrepreneurship development and better income.

"Priority will be given to preparedness to lessen the disaster caused losses," read the budget document.

It has promised to allocate sufficient budget for the quake-affected areas while continuing the national priority projects.

Building code will be implemented will all necessary force and vulnerable settlements will be relocated to the planned and managed settlements while use of local resources, labour and technology will be promoted.