Dharan Sub-metropolis announces budget of Rs 2.20 billion for   current fiscal year

Dharan (Sunsari), Sept 20: The Dharan Sub-metropolis in Sunsari has unveiled its budget and policies and programmes for the current fiscal year 2082-83 BS (2025-26).

Deputy Mayor Aindra Bikram Begha presented the budget of Rs 2,207,459,000 for the current fiscal year 2082-83 BS (2025-26) amidst the 17th Municipal Assembly here today.

An estimated Rs 805.37 million will be generated through internal revenue, while Rs 892.9 million is expected as grants from the federal government. Additionally, Rs 77.34 million will come from province government grants, Rs 341.85 million from revenue sharing, Rs 20 million from the Road Board, and Rs 70 million from last year’s surplus.

In terms of allocation, Rs 669.4 million has been set aside for urban planning and physical infrastructure development. Likewise, Rs 468.5 million has been allocated for education, youth, and sports; Rs 69.99 million for health; and Rs 48.64 million for social development.

Further allocations include Rs 12.9 million for economic development, Rs 27.45 million for forestry, environment, energy, and disaster management, Rs 2 million for legal and judicial affairs, Rs 1.5 million for the protection of public land, Rs 4.3 million for revenue mobilization, and Rs 50.5 million for the Municipal Vision Program. For the current fiscal year, Rs 210 million has also been allocated across the 20 wards of Dharan.

Under the municipal executive, Rs 1.31 billion has been allocated as unconditional grants, Rs 605.67 million from conditional grants, Rs 18.2 million from supplementary budgets, and Rs 54.3 million as special grants.

According to Deputy Mayor Begha, the budget accords priority to areas such as education, health, infrastructure, agriculture, social development, and disaster management.

It may be noted that the metropolis failed to introduce its budget in the regular timeline, following differences between the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. As per the Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangement Act-2017, the local level, the lower tier of the government in the country, are supposed to table their budget for the new fiscal year by Asar 10 in the Lunar Calendar.