CAAN Fails to Pass its Budget 

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CAAN Fails to Pass its Budget 

November 18: Even though the first quarter of the current fiscal year has already completed, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has failed to pass its budget for the current fiscal year.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale, who is also the chariman of CAAN, and other board members haven't shown interest in this issue. CAAN has proposed a budget of 41 billion for the current fiscal year to cover expenses of various projects including national pride projects.

A high-ranking official of CAAN said that the newly-appointed minister hasn't focused on the CAAN budget because of his busy schedule. "The minister has been very busy and has not been able to focus on the budget of CAAN, although we are hopeful that the current year's budget will be passed soon," said the source requesting anonymity.

Even though the budget has not been passed, CAAN has been releasing money by mobilizing a portion of the budget of last fiscal year. 

"Even now there is a delay in passing the budget, it will have a big impact on the current expenditure of CAAN and the projects it has been overseeing. However, the budget has not been passed even after getting the departmental minister," the officer said.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's government had appointed Ale as the Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation on September 8. However, CAAN's budget has not been approved even after a month of his appointment. CAAN's budget is not a priority for ministers and board members. The tourism minister is the chairman of the board of CAAN. Likewise, the undersecretary of the ministry is also a board member, while the Director-General of CAAN is the member secretary of the board.

Rajkumar Kshetry is currently the Director-General of CAAN, and also be the member secretary of the board. CAAN's budget and agenda should be presented in the board meeting by the Member Secretary. However, no board meeting has been held in the last one month. Sources claim that the board meeting could not be held due to the busy schedule of the minister and board members.

Similarly, the total budget of CAAN in the last fiscal year was Rs. 41.11 billion. Of that, the capital expenditure alone was Rs 30.64 billion out of which only Rs 16.82 billion could be spent, the annual progress report of CAAN states. The revenue of CAAN, which is dependent on revenue from air services, had also declined in the last fiscal year.

The officials of the authority said that there was no problem as the airport infrastructure projects were going on multi-year contracts. However, CAAN can face issues soon as there is no immediate release of the budget. The authority manages the infrastructure projects of 54 airports including, Gautam Buddha International Airport and Pokhara Regional International Airport.

















 

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