Eight months sees only 25 per cent expenditure in Bagmati

March 22, Kathmandu: The spending capacity of Bagmati Province has been dismal this fiscal year. The provincial government has been able to spend only about 25.62 per cent of the total budget from Shrawan to Falgun (mid-July to mid-March) of the current fiscal year 2081/82.

The provincial government had introduced a budget of Rs 64.05 billion of which only Rs 10.05 billion have been spent in the last eight months, according to Indaraj Sanyal, Information Officer at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning. The expenses include 35.22 per cent of current expenditure and 19.94 of capital expenditure.

Of the allocated budget, the Office of the Provincial Chief Attorney has spent the most, at 47.69 per cent followed by the Provincial Assembly Secretariat at 38.22 per cent, while the lowest expenditure has been by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Cooperatives at only 9.79 per cent. Furthermore, the revenue collection of Bagmati Province has been on the decline every year. In the eight months of the current fiscal year, the Bagmati government has been able to collect only 38.13 per cent of the targeted revenue generation.

The provincial government had set a target of collecting Rs 29.55 billion from revenue sharing in the current fiscal year but only 47.03 per cent of the target, or Rs 13.90 billion was collected during that period. Similarly, while it was estimated that Rs 15.57 billion would be received as a grant from the federal government, 52.58 per cent of the target, or Rs 8.18 billion 9.964 million was received in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

The provincial government had a target of collecting Rs 4.53 billion from internal sources but only 52.41 per cent of the target or Rs 2.37 billion was collected during the corresponding period, said Information Officer Sanyal.

Earlier, in the previous fiscal year, Bagmati Province’s revenue collection was less by Rs 9.31 billion. Against the target of collecting Rs 48.25 billion in revenue in the fiscal year 2080/81, it was able to collect only Rs 39.22 billion from all the revenue headings. In the fiscal year 2079/80, the Bagmati provincial government had collected 17 per cent less revenue than it had estimated.

Hari Prasad Upadhyay, Chief of the Bagmati Provincial Treasury and Controller of Accounts Office, Hetauda, said that the revenue has decreased due to the decrease in revenue collection including value-added tax, income tax, natural resource extraction fees, land revenue, etc. distributed from the federal and local levels, and the federal government withdrawing some projects due to the economic recession.