While only two months are left for the current fiscal year 2020/21 to end, the capital development expenditure of the government has remained very low.
The capital expenditure stands only at 35.64 per cent of the total allocation by May 15, according to the daily report of the Financial Comptroller General Office under the Ministry of Finance.
Of the Rs. 352.91 billion allocated as capital expenditure, only Rs. 125.77 billion has been spent by mid-May, 2021. Likewise, the recurrent expenditure of the government reached 66.41 per cent of Rs. 630.21 billion during the review period.
The government has allocated Rs. 948.94 billion under the heading of recurrent expenditure for the fiscal year. The government had reduced the budget expenditure estimate from Rs. 1,474 billion to Rs. 1,348 billion through the mid-term review of the current fiscal year.
Likewise, the government has spent Rs. 68.72 billion under the heading of financing in the first ten months of the current fiscal year. That amounts to 39.77 per cent of the total allocation of Rs. 172.78 billion.
During the review period, the government has spent Rs. 824.53 billion. This expenditure is equal to 55.93 per cent of the annual allocated budget and 61.13 per cent of the revised budget target.
The revenue collection of the government stands at Rs. 761 billion which is 75.22 per cent of the target (Rs. 1,011.75 billion) during the review period. Out of this, tax revenue has increased to Rs. 709.61 billion or 77.73 per cent of the target and non-tax revenue has increased to Rs. 51.31 billion or 52 per cent of the annual target.
During the review period, the grant amount has amounted to only 16.65 per cent of the annual target. The government expected to receive grants of Rs. 60.52 billion for the current fiscal year, but only Rs. 10.075 billion has been received during the review period.
Krishna Pudasaini, information officer at the Financial Comptroller General Office, said that the performance of the capital expenditure has been low during the review period.
Stating there was no improvement in the expenditure of capital budget for the last couple of years, he said that the impact of COVID-19 had become the additional reason behind low budget expenditure, especially capital budget.
He, however, said that capital budget expenditure would increase as the work of development projects was going on even during the prohibitory order.
Economist Dr. Chandra Mani Adhikari said that the rate of capital expenditure near the end of the fiscal year was very poor. He, however, said that it was not something new, as the government has never thought of identifying the weaknesses, hindering the capital expenditure capacity.
The rate of capital expenditure is low even though ten months of the current fiscal year have passed which indicates that the government failed to expedite the development works rapidly even if the budget was introduced in time, he said.
“Low rate of capital expenditure is a challenge for the country and the government too. This is because the government and the concerned authorities failed to carry out works making a calendar,” he said. He said that the government should make concerned bodies responsible for accelerating the pace of capital expenditure.
Source : THE RISING NEPAL,
