KATHMANDU: Bagmati Province has recorded a disappointing budget expenditure, managing to spend only 25.62% of its total budget in the current fiscal year 2024/25.
According to Indaraj Sanyal, Information Officer at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, the provincial government allocated a budget of Rs 64.54 billion, but only Rs 10.50 billion has been spent in the past eight months.
The expenditure breakdown reveals that 35.22% of the budget has been spent on current expenses, while 19.94% has gone to capital expenditures, highlighting a significant gap between the two.
Among government bodies, the Office of the Provincial Chief Attorney recorded the highest spending at 47.69%, followed by the Provincial Assembly Secretariat at 38.22%.
In contrast, the Ministry of Tourism, Industry, and Cooperatives spent the least, at just 9.79%.
Bagmati Province’s revenue collection has also been declining year after year. In the first eight months of the fiscal year, the government managed to collect only 38.13% of its targeted revenue.
Out of the estimated Rs 64.54 billion, only Rs 24.6 billion has been collected from revenue sharing, internal sources, and federal government grants.
Revenue sharing accounted for Rs 13.90 billion, 52.58% of the target was achieved from federal government grants (Rs 8.18 billion), and internal revenue collection stood at Rs 2.37 billion.
In the previous fiscal year 2023/24, the revenue collection target was Rs 48.25 billion, but the province managed to collect just Rs 39.22 billion, falling short by 17%.
The gap between target and actual revenue is attributed to reduced collections from value-added tax, income tax, natural resource extraction fees, and land revenue, as well as the federal government cutting programs due to the ongoing economic recession.
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