December 19: The spending system of the government can be summed up as problematic. The government announced large budget to please the people. But the implementation of the budget has been poor. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has still not shown his interest in implementing the budget, despite the budget not being spent as per the provisions authorized by him.

Finance Minister Sharma shows his pretentious nature, giving strict instructions during budget review. But, he indulges himself into empty talks in programs organized by the party instead of taking care of problems in the spending system.

After the formation of the government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Finance Minister Sharma came to take charge of the Ministry of Finance. He presented the replacement bill on budget and announced a plan to spend 10 percent of the capital budget every month. As per the announcement, the Ministry of Finance issued the 'Criteria for Making Public Expenditure Economical and Effective 2078' and set a target of achieving 100 percent result by mid-June at a minimum rate of 10 percent within the first quarter and then at least 10 percent each month.

On the contrary, the government’s expenditure has not been able to exceed even 2 percent. Based on the target, the government was supposed to spend 30 percent of the total budget by mid-December. Meanwhile, only 6.46 percent or Rs 28.40 billion has been spent so far.  This expenditure ratio is the lowest in 3 years and even weaker than during the Covid-19 pandemic period. A total of 10.18 percent of capital expenditure was incurred in the first five months of the fiscal year 2077/78. During the review period of the current fiscal year, capital expenditure has been much weaker than in the previous years. This indicates the failure of Minister Sharma to implement the budget.

Finance Minister surrounded by activists

The budget implementation has become weak due to the ignorance in taking care of problems within the spending system. According to the sources at the Ministry of Finance, Minister Sharma is absent from the ministry most of the time. And even if he comes to the office, the party activists surround him. The room of minister Sharma is crowded all the time. Despite the administrators saying that the authority of Singha Durbar has reached to the villages, the office of finance minister is filled with huge crowds to solve minor issues all the time.

“He (the finance minister) often has party special programs to attend. When he comes to the ministry, he is surrounded by the activists and well-wishers. The finance minister is more inclined to listen to the problems of the party workers than to address the problems of the economy,” said one of the senior officials of finance ministry.

He doesn’t stop Instructing

Minister Sharma, who is usually out attending party programmes, does not stop reviewing the budget and giving instructions to the officials. He called the secretaries and ministers of the concerned ministries to the finance ministry on Friday to review the budget after the budget implementation was proven to be weak. The meeting was attended by Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal, Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Renu Kumari Yadav, Minister for Health Birodh Khatiwada and Minister for Drinking Water Umakanta Chaudhary.

In the meeting, Finance Minister Sharma asked the secretaries / ministries to implement the budget on time. The minister directed to spend 30 percent of the budget of each ministry by mid-January. Stating that the failure to make timely capital expenditure has also affected liquidity, he urged the ministries to spend on development as soon as possible.

Minister Sharma warned that if the budget expenditure is not seen, the allocated amount will be transferred under other headings during the upcoming review of the budget expenditure.

Minister Sharma said that the budget would be transferred to the places where the expenditure would be incurred at the state and local level if the situation was not resolved on time.

“If you don't spend, you can't hold on to that budget,” said the minister.  Despite the strict instructions, there are no signs of compliance with spending the budget.

While the budget implementation is weak, the government has not paid much attention to identification of the problem as well.

Economist Bishwambhar Pyakurel said that the report prepared by  the Public  Expenditure Review Commission formed by the government three years ago is still kept secret , while pointing out the problems in the expenditure system. This makes it clear that the government itself does not want to spend the money. According to him, the government must show seriousness in resolving the problems prevalent in the expenditure system.

Ministers-secretaries are the obstacles in budget implementation

Ministers and secretaries are seen as obstacles in the implementation of the current budget. In particular, Urban Development Minister Ram Kumari Jhankri was firm in reversing the provisions in the budget. Later the decision of the minister was reversed through a secretary level deision.

A few months ago, Urban Development Minister Jhankri decided to block the agreement reached through the Consumer Committee. Because of which, the activities to be carried out through the consumer committee as per the budget had been stopped.

 Recently, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration made a secretary-level decision and revoked the decision of Minister Jhankri in order to continue the work to be done through the Consumer Committee. Minister Jhankri had decided to stop the purchase agreement saying that the work of the consumer committee was not of quality, full of corruption and that they showed slowness with work. Accordingly, all kinds of public purchases through the Consumers Committee were stopped from October 31. Flipping that decision, the Ministry of General Administration wrote to all the local levels to keep the work going.

Meanwhile, the Urban Development Minister is angry over the decision of the Ministry of General Administration and Minister Jhankri has said that she will not abide by the decision and has instructed the officials not to do the work under the ministry from the Consumer Committee until further notice, as per a source close to her.