Over five billion unspent budget returned to state treasury

KATHMANDU: Over five billion rupees in unspent budget from various government bodies have been returned to the state treasury.

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

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

The refunded capital expenditure includes amounts from 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).

The largest refunds came from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, which returned Rs 2.35 billion, and MCA-Nepal, which refunded around Rs 2 billion.

Other bodies contributing to the refund include 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).

Under the Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility Act and Regulations, any budget allocated for a plan or program that remains unspent by mid-March must be returned to the Ministry of Finance by the third week of April.

MCA-Nepal, which returned about 58 percent of its budget this year, had returned 70 percent last year.

The future of U.S. assistance for this project, funded by the U.S. government, remains uncertain, especially since a large portion of the budget allocated for this project has not been utilized.

For the current fiscal year, MCA-Nepal received a budget of Rs 13.36 billion, with Rs 9.9 billion expected from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Rs 3.45 billion from internal sources.

Despite these provisions, MCA-Nepal has returned approximately 58 percent of its budget to the Ministry of Finance.

The agency’s expenditure has been low, with only 30 percent of its allocated budget spent last fiscal year, and the remaining 70 percent refunded. In the previous fiscal year, the government allocated Rs 10.84 billion for MCA-Nepal’s projects, but Rs 7.60 billion was returned due to delays in compensation distribution and land acquisition for power transmission line construction.