The federal government has earned revenue of Rs 269 billion in the last three months. The three-month period of the current fiscal year has ended on Sunday. To date, the government’s revenue has been 22 percent of the target.
According to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the government has so far collected Rs 269.32 billion against the target of Rs 1.214 billion.
Of this income, Rs 222 billion has been collected through tax revenue. Similarly, Rs. 24.42 billion is being collected through non-tax revenue. Other income is Rs. 22.70 billion.
Although the government’s revenue target is more than 7 percent per month, the federal government has not been able to spend the budget. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has set a target of spending Rs 1.632 trillion in the current fiscal year.
According to the data provided by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, only Rs 226 billion has been spent till a decade ago. Even in that, capital or development expenditure is disappointing.
The government has said that it will spend Rs 378 billion on development in the current fiscal year but has so far spent only Rs 11 billion. Which is about 2 percent of the total expenditure.
Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has put forward a plan to spend development at the rate of 10 percent per month every month this year. At the end of the three-month period, 2 percent of the expenditure has been seen as a challenge to his plan.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Sharma had accused the previous government of failing to meet the target budget by including programs that did not ensure resources.
Only 1,400 road projects were cut through the replacement bill. But he himself seems unable to accelerate budget spending. Economist Keshav Acharya says that Nepal’s expenditure system and arrangements are linked to the lack of budget expenditure.
He says, “It is difficult to work according to the plan brought by Finance Minister Sharma. Even though it is said that 10 percent development will be spent every month, if the action plan is prepared and the contracting time is added, it is seen that the expenditure will be spent after December like the previous government.”
Similarly, according to the Auditor General, the government has incurred regular expenditure of Rs. 182 billion in the last three months.
