38 percent budget expenditure in 8 months, the situation of capital expenditure is more critical

KATHMANDU: The trend of not spending the budget has continued this year as well. At the end of the first eight months of the current fiscal year (July-February), only 38 percent of the budget has been spent.

According to the unrevised expenditure-income statement of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the budget expenditure is Rs. 5 trillion 71 billion. The then Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada had allocated Rs. 14 trillion 74 billion 640 million through the budget statement.

According to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, 48.03 percent of the current expenditure allocation, 22.58 percent of the capital expenditure and 20.55 percent of the financial management expenditure has been spent during this period.

The government has raised only 56 percent of the target during this period. The government had set a target of raising Rs. 1 trillion 11 billion a year. Out of the collected revenue, 57.8 percent of the target was for tax and 44.06 percent for non-tax.

Khatiwada’s budget estimate revised by Poudel, only 91.19 percent will be spent

Earlier, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel had revised the expenditure estimates through the mid-year review of the budget. According to him, only 91.19 percent of the current fiscal year allocation will be spent.