The government has downsized the budget for the fiscal year 2079/80.
Presenting the mid-term review report in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Sunday, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has said that the size of the budget has been slashed.
The then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had brought a budget of Rs 1.793 trillion for the fiscal year 2079/80 on May 29, 2022. The new government has downsized it by Rs 244 billion (14 percent) to Rs 1.549 trillion.
Sharma had allocated Rs 1.183 trillion for recurrent expenditure. The government now expects recurrent expenditure to be Rs 1.021 trillion. Sharma had similarly allocated Rs 380.38 billion for capital expenditure, and Rs 230.22 billion for debt financing. The government now expects that to be Rs 313.50 billion and Rs 214.21 billion respectively.
Finance Minister Paudel has also told the House that the country will not be able to achieve the targeted economic growth rate of eight percent as appropriate decision for relief could not be taken in time during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He has revealed that the government has also failed to collect the targeted revenues of Rs 651 billion in six months. “Revenue collection in six months has been 24.8 percent lower than the target.”
