Over five billion unspent budget goes back to state treasury

KATHMANDU: Over five billion budget from various bodies has been returned to the state treasury citing the funds remained unspent.

The majority of the refunded budget falls under capital expenditures. Among the agencies returning the highest amounts are the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, and the Millennium Challenge Account Nepal Development Committee (MCA-Nepal).

According to Ambika Prasad Khanal, the Ministry’s Information Officer, Rs 53.4 million was refunded under general expenditures, while a significant Rs 5.03 billion was returned under capital expenditures.

Towards the capital expenditures, those bodies refunding the budget are the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Rs 9.5 million), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (Rs 3.9 million), the

Election Commission (Rs 24.02 million) and the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (Rs 15.8 million).

Towards the capital expenditures, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation refunded Rs 2.35 billion while the MCA Nepal refunded the budget around Rs two billion.

Other bodies sending the capital expenditures budget back are the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (Rs 367.08 million), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Rs 300 million) and the Office of the Auditor General (Rs 16.01 million).

According to the provisions of the Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility Act and Regulations, if the budget allocated for any plan or programme is not spent by mid-March and if it is not able to spend it even during the remaining period of the fiscal year, then it should be returned to the Ministry of Finance by third week of April.

The MCA-Nepal has returned about 58 per cent of the budget this year as it had returned 70 per cent of the budget last year.

There is uncertainty over whether US assistance will continue in this project funded by the US government, while the budget allocated by the government for this project will not be spent. For the current fiscal year, MCA-Nepal had received a budget of Rs 13.36 billion. Of this amount, Rs 9.9 billion would be funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the remaining Rs 3.45 billion would be borne from internal sources.

However, after MCA-Nepal did not spend the budget, about 58 per cent of the budget has been returned to the Ministry of Finance. Not only in the current fiscal year but also in the last fiscal year, MCA-Nepal’s expenditure was very weak. MCA-Nepal had spent only about 30 per cent of the total budget for the last fiscal year and returned the remaining 70 percent of the budget.

The government had allocated Rs 10.84 billion for the last fiscal year to spend on projects under MCA Nepal, out of which Rs 7.60 billion was returned. The budget could not be spent as per the target as the compensation distribution and acquisition of land required for the construction of the power transmission line has slowed down.