Outstanding reimbursements brought down to Rs 9.5 billion
Outstanding reimbursements from donors have been brought down to Rs 9.5 billion as of mid-March. Total unsettled refunds for the last fiscal year amounted to Rs 32.21 billion.
According to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO), repayments worth Rs 22 billion have been received from Nepal’s development partners and the government has adjusted an amount worth Rs 657 million.
With the country still witnessing a balance of payments deficit for the last one and half years, the budget for the current fiscal year has given high priority to obtaining reimbursements from donors for the funds spent on projects. As of mid-February this year, the BoP deficit stands at Rs 12 billion.
“As reimbursements worth substantial amounts for foreign-aided projects have remained unclaimed, it will be made mandatory from the current fiscal year to submit expenditure details and audit reports to the donors to get the budget released,” sates the budget for the current fiscal year. “The budget will be withheld for projects failing to claim reimbursements on time.”
This budgetary provision has put pressure on projects to claim reimbursements early to reduce the amount of unsettled refunds.
“Our checklist of the procedures for getting the budget sanctioned has resulted in projects rushing to seek reimbursements and helped to reduce the amount to be claimed from donors,” said Narayan Niraula, deputy financial comptroller general at the FCGO.
According to the FCGO’s checklist, projects are required to obtain the entire outstanding reimbursement as of the first four months of the current fiscal year to get the budget released for the last four months of this year.
Finance Ministry officials said that failure by projects to claim reimbursement on time had resulted in a huge amount remaining unclaimed from donors. With several projects already closed, the country is set to lose the unclaimed amounts for those projects. The Ministry of Education has the largest outstanding reimbursement worth Rs 7.34 billion as of mid-March
followed by the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction with Rs 1.17 billion.
“The country may lose refunds worth as much as Rs 4.92 billion related to the Education for All Programme because it has already been completed,” said Niraula.
Posted on: 2011-04-12 09:00
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