Kathmandu, Jun 13
Local governments are struggling to conceptualise,
discuss and develop their annual budget for the coming fiscal year 2020/21
amidst the COVID-10 crisis.
The budget is created with a series of
discussions with the community groups, women and other sectoral groups
including the opposition parties, experts and elected leaders and its exercise
begins months before the announcement of the estimates of income and
expenditures for the next fiscal.
However, the lockdown and strict social
distancing requirement have posed challenges to the local bodies to hold the
discussions and solicit the ideas and programmes.
It has been even more difficult in the
local units with poor internet connection and digital literacy among the
elected representatives which bars them from holding the digital meetings or
asking to submit the ideas via email or social networking sites.
But the coronavirus pandemic has not
deterred the local governments from exercising the budget preparations
including holding meetings and developing programmes.
Nagarjun Municipality of Kathmandu district
has almost completed the pre-budget discussions even amidst the growing global
health crisis and lockdown.
"We have organised all-party meeting,
and discussions with the lawmakers from the federal and state parliaments and
opposition party leaders, women and children groups while maintaining social
distancing and safety measures," said Mohan Bahadur Basnet, Mayor of the
municipality.
Gandaki Gaunpalika in Gorkha district has
also held the stakeholders’ meeting including community discussions for the
pre-budget discussions. It has called the Budget Task Force meeting on Monday
to discuss the budget procedures.
"COVID-19 has created problems as its patients
were identified here. But the Gaunpalika is applying every possible alternative
to hold the discussions and design programmes for the next year," said Ram
Prasad Regmi, Chair of ward no. 8 of Gandaki.
Local units in most of the mid-hill
districts are in comparatively easy situation as the infection is spread a
little as compared to the districts in Terai.
"Discussions are being held smoothly
among the local people and stakeholders," said Kabiraj Dhakal, Chair of ward
no. 6 of Kaligandaki Gaunpalika in Gulmi district. Poor reach of and access to
internet and telecommunication in some places has hindered the digital
interactions there, however.
But the situation in Terai is more
challenging due to rapid spread of the coronavirus. For example Pokhariya
Municipality of Parsa district is facing problems in organising meeting for
budget formulation.
"The pandemic has affected the entire
budgeting process. No meetings could be held so far. Many local bodies like
ours do not have the administrative staff at this crucial time," said
Salma Khatun, Deputy Mayor of Pokhariya.
However, she said that the municipality was
preparing the policy and programmes for the next fiscal year and waiting for
the state-level budget to make the exact estimates of income.
Budget
on 24 June
Despite multiple challenges, the local
bodies, while talking to The Rising Nepal daily, said that they would announce
the budget on 24 June, the deadline set by the law. Some of them and many
others are planning to announce the policy and programmes and budget at the
same date.
Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangement Act,
2017, has a provision that the local bodies must announce the budget for the
upcoming fiscal year by 24 June – about 10 days later than the states' budget
and 25 days following the federal budget.
Priority
to health and employment
The local bodies are focusing on the
programmes on health and employment, especially on agriculture and cottage
enterprises as mentioned in the guidelines prepared by the federal government
for the local bodies.
The guidelines suggested the local
governments to focus on the operation and management of quarantine centres,
distribution of relief, health awareness campaign, and projects that create
employments like the small infrastructure projects, commercialisation of
agriculture and cottage and small industries.
"Our priority is agriculture, health
and employment including the Youth Self-employment Programme and Prime Minister
Employment Programme," said Regmi.
Chandragiri Municipality has accorded
priority to agriculture, health, education and employment. Mayor Basnet said
that the state and federal governments must increase budget for the employment
and health sector since the municipality was already short of resources as it
lost about Rs 250 million in the last 3 months of lockdown.
Gandaki, Kaligandaki and Pokhariya also
echoed the same opinion and are looking up to the state and federal governments
for additional support to manage the required funds.
Dhakal said that the Gaunpalika government
was planning for 'one household, one product' and creating connectivity between
the producers and market centres.
Likewise, Khatun said that although the
PMEP was relevant for short-term employment generation, people need programmes
that can raise the living standards of people in the run.
The local bodies are also facing tough time
to arrange chemical fertilisers and agricultural inputs
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 14 June 2020.
