KATHMANDU, AUG 27 -

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has lifted a ban it imposed on paying compensation to acquired plots of land and importing vehicles for development projects. It had imposed the ban while authorising ministries and projects under them to spend the budget a month ago.

Given the absence of a full budget, the MoF had blocked the purchase of land and vehicles in various ministries to manage the limited budget as well as to control unnecessary expenses.

Bodh Raj Niraula, joint secretary of the MoF, said the ban on compensating for acquired land and vehicle imports were lifted after development-related ministries complained about possible impact on the development activities.

“We took the decision to ensure that small things do not affect the implementation of development projects,” he said.  He added that the MoF allowed ministries to pay such compensations if the allocated one-third budget of last year’ total expenditure could meet the expenditure this year.

The government agencies cannot spend more than one-third of the budget of last year’s total expenditure in a particular heading as per the advance budget announced in the absence of the full budget.

Niraula said the vehicles could be imported in case there was an agreement with the donors on the issue.

Development-related ministries including the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW), had raised this issue in a meeting with Finance Minister Surendra Pandey last week. 

The MoPPW secretary, Purna Kadariya, said the ban was lifted after his ministry complained on the issue.

“No development projects can be initiated with the ban because plots of land must be acquired for construction of bridges and roads,” he said.

He insisted that new vehicles are also required for new projects. “Otherwise, work in the development projects cannot gather speed with rented vehicles.”

There has been a massive misuse of project vehicles with politicians riding them.

The MoF has, however, kept the ban on releasing budget for foreign visits intact. Government officials spent Rs 39.4 million in foreign trips last year although the government had allocated just Rs 15 million for the purpose. The additional budget was provided under miscellaneous headings. “The expenses would have peaked further if we had not prevented further expenses,” said Niraula.

He, however, maintained that the budget could be released on a case-to-case basis for visits for capacity building if approval is sought from the MoF.

The MoF had written to donors two months ago asking them not to facilitate visits of government officials abroad.

Posted on: 2010-08-27 09:29

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