May 5: The government has again kept its trend of not spending a large part of the capital budget this time as well. With only two months left for the current fiscal year to end, the government has not been able to spend almost half of the budget allocated for this FY.

Despite an increase in current expenditure, the government has not been able to spend the capital budget. According to the Financial General Comptrollers’ Office, which keeps track of government expenditure and revenue, the government had passed  a budget of Rs 1.632 trillion for the current fiscal year while it has so far spent only Rs 878 billion.

With two months left in the current fiscal year, the government is yet to spend Rs 754 billion.

The government, which initially announced a budget of Rs 16.32 trillion, had downsized the budget during the mid-term review after it became clear that the government would not be able to achieve its target.

The government has spent only half of the budget allocated in the first ten months of the current fiscal year and its seems implausible to spend the remaining amount in the next two months. The current expenditure is likely to increase further. As the country is engaged in elections, the current expenditure is expected to increase this year.

The government has already spent Rs 693 billion out of the total current expenditure of Rs 1065 billion for this year. The government will have to spend more than Rs 372 billion in the next two months under this heading.

Development spending weak

The last four months of a fiscal year (mid-April to mid-July) are the season for spending capital (development) budget in Nepal. However, there has not been any encouraging expenditure this time around. According to the FCGO, more than Rs 378 billion has been allocated for capital expenditure in the current fiscal year’s budget, but only Rs 111 billion has been spent so far.