KATHMANDU: All the seven provinces are presenting a budget for the fiscal year 2021/22 today.  There has been a provision that the provincial governments have to bring the budget by mid-June.

Earlier, all the provinces had introduced policies and programs. In the policies and programs, all the provinces had fouced on the control of COVID-19,  treatment of COVID-19 infected patients and infrastructure development.

They have also pledged to announce business relief programmes like refinance, management of medicines and vaccines for coronavirus treatment and hospital for tropical diseases.

Gandaki Province has announced to unveil programmes for the tourism infrastructure development, connectivity infrastructure and herbs and herbal sector promotion.

Province 2 would create model hospital in Janakpurdham of Dhanusha district and a trauma centre in Rupadi of Saptari.

Likewise, Lumbini has prioritised agriculture, industry and tourism sector development while cable car, tunnel and expansion of financial services are in the priority list of Karnali Province.

Sudurpaschim Province said that the budget of the upcoming year will try to address the problem of widespread unemployment created by the pandemic and create a fund to promote self-employment.

The provinces do not have reliable source of revenue and income. Their budget is built on the grants allocated by the federal government and share of revenue collected by the local governments.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, in his budget for the next FY 2021/22, has allocated Rs. 57.9 billion to the provinces.

This year, the total size of budget of all provinces is Rs. 264.20 billion.