Federalism Weakening Due to Centralization of Resources, Says Expert

Kathmandu. Federalism and planning expert Khimlal Devkota has said that federalism is weakening due to the tendency of the federal government to hoard resources and authority. Speaking at a meeting of the Federalism Strengthening and National Concerns Committee held in Singha Durbar, Devkota clarified that only a small portion of the country's total budget goes to provinces and local levels as grants. He stated that while some comment that the provincial structure is expensive, statistics do not support this. He argued that it is not factually sound to call the provinces an expensive structure, noting that the budget of a single federal ministry is larger than the total budget of all seven provinces. He informed that the financial capacity of provinces in Nepal is very weak compared to other federal countries, and the total expenditure of employees and officials at all three levels accounts for less than five percent of the provinces' share. Speaking at the meeting, Devkota said, 'Out of the current budget of 2,124 billion, only 20 percent goes to provinces and local levels as grants. Unconditional grants for both provinces and local levels are only 7.14 percent. A large amount remains at the center and is decreasing year by year.' Discussing the budget size, he said, 'The budget of the provinces over eight years is almost equal to the budget of the Nepal government for one year.' Mentioning that the budget of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure is larger than that of all seven provinces, he said, 'No one pays attention to this, only that the provinces are expensive. So far, the total expenditure of the seven provinces has not even reached two hundred billion.' He stated that there is no alternative to giving more authority and adequate resources to provinces and local levels in both revenue and expenditure sectors for the effective implementation of federalism. Furthermore, he emphasized the need to study and enact necessary laws as a model, addressing the complaint that there are more federal offices in the districts than provincial ones.