Koshi Province Government Has Billions in Savings Due to Unspent Budget

Biratnagar. The Koshi Province Government's treasury appears to have a substantial budget but is unable to spend it. According to Damodar Khatri, Province Treasury Comptroller of the Koshi Province Treasury Comptroller Office, approximately 8 billion rupees were saved in the province's consolidated fund in the last fiscal year 2082/83. "We are still in the process of collecting details. The accounts for Panchthar are yet to be reconciled. The details will be complete in a few days," said Treasury Comptroller Khatri. "I haven't been able to enter the details returned from the local level. It is estimated that between 7 to 8 billion may have been consolidated." While presenting the budget speech for the current fiscal year on Asar 1, the government's Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning, Bidur Kumar Lingthep, had estimated a savings of 5 billion rupees in the consolidated fund. When presenting a budget of 40 billion 44 million 98 thousand rupees for the current fiscal year, Minister Lingthep had mentioned cash reserves of 5 billion among the sources to cover the amount. However, it appears that the reserves will be more than what the minister mentioned, nearly 8 billion rupees. In the last fiscal year, the provincial government had estimated an income of 29 billion 32 crore 64 lakh rupees and an expenditure of 24 billion 32 crore 64 lakh rupees. However, the total expenditure was 25 billion 86 crore 18 lakh rupees. Although the estimated expenditure increased, the income situation improved slightly, reaching 30 billion 38 crore 47 lakh rupees. Similarly, the savings increased because the funds transferred to local levels were not spent. The province government's consolidated fund has never been in deficit in the 8 fiscal years since its establishment. Instead, billions of rupees have been accumulating in the treasury as savings every year. According to statistics, the consolidated fund has not been negative in any year from fiscal year 2075/76 to 2082/83. The consolidated fund, which had savings of 7 billion 3 crore rupees in fiscal year 2075/76, has remained positive in the subsequent years. In fiscal year 2076/77, there were savings of 1 billion 28 crore, in 2077/78, 4 billion 8 crore, in 2078/79, 7 billion 16 crore, in 2079/80, 5 billion 19 crore, in 2080/81, 4 billion 23 crore, and in 2081/82, 5 billion 48 crore rupees were saved in the consolidated fund. The province government had allocated a budget of 42 billion 20 crore rupees in fiscal year 2076/77, but the total expenditure was limited to 29 billion 84 crore rupees. When a budget of 39 billion 74 crore was presented in 2079/80, only 30 billion 76 crore was spent, and in the fiscal year 2080/81, out of a budget of 36 billion 74 crore, only 28 billion 3 crore rupees could be spent. Even in fiscal year 2081/82, only 28 billion 18 crore rupees were spent out of the allocated 35 billion 28 crore rupees. Capital expenditure, which is directly linked to the province's physical infrastructure development and job creation, reached 18 billion 11 crore rupees in 2079/80, but has been declining since then. In 2080/81, capital expenditure decreased to 16 billion 35 crore rupees, and in fiscal year 2081/82, it further contracted to 13 billion 82 crore rupees. Similarly, in fiscal year 2082/83, it was limited to 12 billion 38 crore 18 lakh rupees. Frequent changes in government and political instability, restructuring of ministries, weak preparation of projects, inability to manage contracts in a timely manner, and delays by the employee mechanism have always affected budget implementation. This time too, with the presentation of the budget and the formation of another coalition, discussions about reviewing the budget are ongoing, causing delays in budget implementation. To address the bottlenecks in budget implementation, Economic Affairs and Planning Minister Bidur Kumar Lingthep had called a meeting with all ministers at their respective ministries on Thursday. However, he stated that there has been no satisfactory progress. "We are being told to implement the budget quickly. Meetings were held with the ministers, and the Ministry of Finance has urged for quick budget implementation. However, work is not progressing accordingly," said Lingthep. "In the past, budget implementation was slow, resulting in weak progress. We are working to ensure this does not happen this time."