MONEY»
Govt yet to reimburse Rs 33.11b from donors
KATHMANDU, AUG 31 -
The government is yet to get a reimbursement worth Rs 33.11 billion that the government had funded from its resources from donors who had pledged some grant assistance.
The government treasury would have been positive had it managed to get the reimbursement from the donors. The government’s treasury is negative by Rs 9 billion combing the last two successive years as of mid-August.
There is a trend of spending money from the state treasury and then seeking reimbursement from donors for projects that they have pledged support to. As per the Financial Procedure Regulation, the project should seek the reimbursements within 45 days of the expenditure.
“However, delay in getting the reimbursement has mounted pressure on the government’s revenue,” said Narayan Niraula, the deputy financial comptroller general. The Ministry of Education (MoE) has the highest amount of Rs 14.78 billion to be reimbursed followed by the Ministry of Health and Population with Rs 4.28 billion, according to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO). “The donors’ component in our ministry’s budget is larger compared to other ministries that leads us to have more budgets to be reimbursed,” said Janardan Nepal, the joint-secretary at the MoE.
The Ministry of Local Development has Rs. 4.18 billion, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works has Rs. 3.69 billion, Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction has Rs 1.81 billion and the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has Rs. 1.69 billon to be reimbursed for their funding in projects. The rest of the ministries have reimbursement claims ranging from Rs 968 million to Rs 3.9 million.
In its initial report, the Public Expenditure Review Commission 2010 headed by constituent assembly member Naryan Dahal had recently suggested that the ministries have not been able to spend budget from foreign sources and seek reimbursement quickly. “It has mounted pressure on the budget allocated from the country’s revenue sources on one hand while foreign aid is not being spent well on the other.”
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey has also been complaining about low expenditure from the heading of foreign sources. Officials at the Finance Ministry said the reimbursement amount remained higher due more to internal reasons than the donors because project officials don’t bother to demand reimbursements after easily getting resources from the government. Donors say they usually disburse the amount within 15 days after receiving such demands.
One measure to reduce the huge amount to be reimbursed could be using pre-funding of donors. Multilateral donors give around 10 percent of the total aid or the amount adequate for six months of works in the project in advance. “The use of pre-funded amount directly in a project instead of spending domestic resources could reduce this problem,” said Niraula. “However, we need to study first if the existing delay in reimbursement is affecting the treasury by matching the outstanding amount to be reimbursed and pre-funded budget.”
Amount to be reimbursed
Ministries/offices Amount (Rs)
Prime Minister’s Office 1.69 b
Energy 81.67m
Agriculture & Cooperatives 678.44 m
Physical Planning & Works 3.69b
Tourism & Civil Aviation 42.62m
Women, Children & Social welfare 86.94m
Forest & Soil Conservation 66.61m
Commerce & Supplies 65.13m
Science, Technology & Environment 17.52
Peace & Reconstruction 1.81b
Education 14.78b
Information & Communication 3.96m
Irrigation 968.85
Local Development 4.18b
Health & Population 4.28b
Labour & Transport Mgmt 4.97m
National Planning Commission 17.05m
Finance 613.05m
Posted on: 2010-09-01 08:26
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