Kathmandu, May 28 : The arrears continue to rise as various ministries and government agencies fail to clear their arrears on time. Arrears amount worth Rs. 377.48 billion is yet to be cleared from the previous fiscal year, according to the Economic Survey, 2018/19.
The economic survey was tabled before the House of Representatives on Monday (May 27). The dues remains standing in the federal government offices, provincial offices, local level government and district coordination committees. Likewise, of the 37 public corporations run by the government 26 are making profit. In the previous fiscal year, dividend worth Rs. 9.89 billion was received while the revenue collection was Rs. 94 billion.
The consumer inflation stands at 4.2 per cent as of mid-March this fiscal. The country’s financial structure is expanding, with a notable growth in financial access and transaction. There are 28 commercial banks, 32 development banks, 24 financial companies and 81 micro-credit institution operating in the country as of mid-April this year. An infrastructure development bank is currently in operation, while 40 insurance companies (19 life insurance, 20 non-life insurance and one reinsurance) and 13,917 saving and credit cooperatives.
The gross financial resource and utility of the insurance companies has reached Rs 389 billion. The government aims to increase insurance’s access to 20 percent of the population across the country by the end of the current fiscal year of 2018/19 as compared to 18 percent in the previous FY. The government’s policies to encourage increment in the export of goods and products and decrease their import have failed to yield desired results due to various reasons.
Foreign trade has increased by 23.2 percent to reach Rs 1010.3 billion in the eight months of the current FY. Likewise, import of goods increased 23.8 percent to Rs 949.1 billion, and trade-deficit swelled by 24.5 percent to stand at Rs 887.8 billion. Only Rs 61.6 billion worth of goods was exported. Balance of payment has suffered Rs 58.9 billion loss. RSS
