February 12: The government has downsized the budget for the current fiscal year after a mid-review of the budget.

Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat on Monday announced that the government has revised the budget estimates to Rs 1530.26 billion from the initially allocated budget of Rs 1751 billion. The revised estimate is 87.38 percent of the initially allocated budget.

Finance Minister Mahat said that the budget estimates have been revised so that 88.84 percent budget will be spent under current expenditure, 84.13 percent under the capital and 87.39 percent on the financial management compared to the initial allocation.    

The government has also revised the revenue collection target to Rs 1309 billion from Rs 1422 billion. The government has also lowered the expected amount in foreign grants to Rs 40.12 billion from Rs 49.94 billion. The government has also reduced the projected foreign loans from Rs 212.75 billion to Rs 180.83 billion.

Although the steps taken by the government to improve the economy are gradually showing results, Finance Minister Dr Mahat clarified that the state of low revenue collection and weak budget expenditure is still prevalent. Though the revenue collection has increased compared to last year it is a little less than the initial target, he stated. – (With inputs from RSS)