June 20: The current fiscal year ends in less than 26 days.  This year, the government had set a target of spending capital expenditure of Rs 378.90 billion.  Looking at the details so far, it seems that only Rs 140.16 billion of the capital budget has been spent.  This is 37.07 percent of the total capital budget allocated for the current fiscal year.

Although the government tried to increase the capital expenditure by using all its means for expediting development works, it has not been able to achieve its target.  Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had announced to spend 10 percent of the capital budget every month but to no avail.

The inability of the concerned officials to spend the capital budget is the reason why the capital budget could not be spent.  This is not a new problem.  This has been going on for years.  Authorities who spend capital budget tend to blame others for their shortcomings.  In the past, they blamed political instability, strikes, and delays in spending budgets, but now their rhetoric has changed.  In the previous fiscal year, the coronavirus pandemic became a perfect excuse.  This time, the third wave of coronavirus and local elections will be seen as the major excuses.

According to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office, which keeps track of the government's expenditure, the government has not been able to spend as much on development works as expected.  As of June 19, the government's budget expenditure stood at 64.55 percent.  Most of it includes current expenditure. The budget spent so far mostly accounts for the salary, allowance and daily expenses of the government employees.

The government’s current expenditure has reached 77.2 percent.  That is equal to 822.45 billion. The government had set a target of spending Rs 1,065.29 billion in current expenditure for the current fiscal year.

Similarly, Rs 91.37 billion has been spent on fiscal management so far.  In the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 189.43 billion for fiscal management.  This includes the principal and interest of the loan to be paid to the donor agencies.  Loans taken by the government from various donor agencies are repaid at different times.  Liability should be paid on the same basis.  The government has spent 48.24 percent of the target in this section.

The government has so far collected Rs 948.20 billion revenue against the target of Rs 1180.60 billion in the current fiscal year. This is 80.23 percent of the target.  Of that, tax revenue is 878.33 billion. The government aims to collect Rs 1,067.96 billion in tax revenue in the current fiscal year.  Revenue collection has reached 82.24 percent of the target.

Similarly, out of the target of Rs 112.63 billion for non-tax, Rs. 69.87 billion has been collected so far.  This is 62.04 percent of the target.  Similarly, out of the target of Rs. 59.92 billion for foreign grants, Rs 13.88 billion has been achieved.

During a recent session of parliament, Finance Minister Sharma had presented a revised estimate of the government’s total expenditure to reach Rs 1447 billion in the current fiscal year.  He presented a revised estimate of Rs 971.86 billion for current expenditure, Rs 390 million for capital expenditure and Rs 175.56 billion for fiscal management.

As of mid-April of the current Fiscal Year, 135 billion internal debt has been raised.