June 7: The government is planning to seek external assistance of more than Rs 372 billion in foreign aid for the implementation of the budget for the Fiscal Year 2021/22 brought through an ordinance. It plans to receive a huge amount of support from foreign donors to take forward plans of Prime Minister Employment Fund, MCC and economic recovery programs.

According to the foreign ministry, the government is receiving Rs 390 billion in foreign aid and Rs 63.37 billion grants. It is receiving aid of Rs 254 billion from multilateral agencies of which Rs 16.49 billion will be grant and Rs 238 billion will be loan.

Donor agencies are providing foreign assistance of Rs 97.42 billion through bilateral partnership. Of it, Rs 36.29 billion is grant and Rs 61.12 billion is expected to be loan. The government is arranging financial assistance of Rs 20.59 billion through joint fund, of which Rs 59.12 million consists of grant and Rs 19 billion is loan.

In the Fiscal Year 2021/22, the government is receiving foreign aid of Rs 117 billion from Asian Development Bank to implement the budget programmes. Donor agencies like the World Bank and IMF are extending support of huge amount to the government.

The Indian government has pledged to provide support of Rs 28.80 billion while the Japanese and Chinese governments have made financial commitments of Rs 20.27 billion and 17.75 billion respectively.

The government has set a target of achieving 6.5 % economic growth, but faces challenge of spending the budget. Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel has been claiming that budget for the fiscal year is not prepared just to achieve popularity but to address the needs of the country.

However experts say that such commitment is nothing new as the government always fails to execution part.

Dr Jagadish Pokhrel, former vice chair of the National Planning Commission, said the budget is not likely to be implemented as expected because the government is occupied with political standoff.