E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, JUL 03 - The government has completed all preparations for presenting the advance budget after the three major political parties — UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML) reached an agreement.

Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal said the ministry completed all preparations on Friday to present the advance budget under which the government can spend a third of the budget for the current fiscal year according to the interim constitution.

It means the government will be able to spend Rs.95.31 billion after the advance budget is endorsed by the parliament as the total budget of the current fiscal year stands at Rs. 285.93 billion.

Article 96 a (2) of the interim constitution says the finance minister can introduce a Bill on the authority to spend in the next fiscal year an amount not exceeding one-third of the total expenditure of the current fiscal year.

Khanal said the Finance Minister would write to the Speaker on July 5 on the government’s preparation to present the advance budget.

 “Then, the parliament will fix the date for the advance budget presentation.”

Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry Keshav Acharya said the government plans to present the advance budget on July 9. After the parties reached an agreement on the matter, Finance Minister Surendra Pandey talked to Speaker Subhas Chandra Nembang about the advance budget.

In 2008, the then Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat had presented an advance budget of Rs. 73.54 billion as the country faced a political deadlock over new government formation

after CA elections. Last year, the main opposition Maoists did not allow endorsement of the budget for four months.

The obstruction to the budgetary process is a big blow to the development efforts of the country. Finance Ministry records also show that the government has failed to spend the budget for capital expenditure over the last two years compared to previous years. The government hopes to spend around Rs 87 billion of the development budget against Rs. 106 billion allocated for the current fiscal year. It could spend only Rs. 76 billion the last fiscal year against a target of Rs. 96 billion. In the past, the gap was not so wide. In the fiscal year 2007-08, the government spent Rs. 53 billion against a target of Rs. 55 billion. It spent Rs. 39 billion against a target of Rs. 45 billion in 2006-07.

Under the advance budget, the government cannot spend on new projects except for ongoing development projects until the regular budget is passed by the parliament. This will delay implementation of new projects. 

Former Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari said the country’s transitional phase invited such a situation and that its impact

on development would immense.

Posted on: 2010-07-03 08:41

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.
* Full Name
* Address
* Email Address
* Comment
* Captcha	Get another CAPTCHA code
Note:	Comments containing abusive words or slander shall not be published.