June 16: All seven provincial governments unveiled their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) on Wednesday. The budgets made public by the provinces have prioritized agriculture, infrastructure development, health, education employment and tourism.

The budgets were presented to the respective provincial assemblies by the provincial governments in accordance with the constitutional provision of announcing budgets of the provinces within the first day of the third month of the year as per the Nepali calendar.

Province 1
Province 1 government has announced a budget of Rs 39.73 billion for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23). Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning of Province 1, Indra Bahadur Angbo, presented the budget in the Provincial Assembly meeting on Wednesday (June 15).   

According to the budget, the Province 1 government plans to achieve economic growth of 5.41 percent during the next fiscal year.
In the budget, Rs 3.15 billion has been allocated for fiscal transfer at local levels. Of the allocated expenditure, Province 1 government has targeted to finance Rs 4.98 billion through internal revenue, Rs 11.88 billion from revenue sharing, Rs 8.69 billion from conditional grants, Rs 920 billion from matching grants and Rs 256 billion from foreign grants.   

Province 1 has given top priority to agriculture, irrigation, energy, communication, transport, health and tourism sectors.
The budget has given priority to expand tax limit by preserving the tax basis while determining the revenue policy and limits of tax for coming fiscal year, increasing tax participation, capacity building of human resources assigned in revenue administration and adopting revenue mobilization policy to control revenue leakage.    
Madhesh Province

The provincial government of Madhes Province has made public a budget of Rs 46.88 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.    
Finance Minister Shailendra Prasad Sah tabled the government's estimated income and expenditure details in Wednesday’s meeting of the Provincial Assembly. Accordingly 21.76 billion (46.44 percent) has been allocated for current expenditure, Rs. 25.82 billion (53.21 percent) for capital expenditure and Rs 162.44 million (0.35 percent) for conditional grant.

The Madhes Province has given continuity to the ‘Educate Daughter Campaign’ and has decided to distribute a computer and a laptop to girl students undergoing course in grade 12.    
Likewise, Rs 150 million has been allocated for the Chief Minister's Farmers Upliftment Program in Madhes.    
The Madhes government has allocated Rs 5 million for preparation of provincial agriculture master plan and Rs 178.2 million for commercialization and mechanization of this sector with the objective of developing the agriculture sector.

A budget of Rs. 282 million has been allocated for livestock insurance and construction of agricultural roads. Likewise, a budget of Rs 72.8 million has been allocated for the Agriculture Knowledge Center.    
Similarly, Rs. 3.87 billion has been allocated for conditional and matching grants. This grant will be provided to the local level. The grant given to the local level in the current fiscal year will be given according to the progress, said Finance Minister Sah.      

Bagmati Province
Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Shalikram Jammakattel presented a budget of Rs 70.93 billion for the fiscal year 2022/23 at the meeting of the Bagmati Provincial Assembly on Wednesday.    
In the budget, Rs 19.24 billion has been allocated for current expenditure and Rs 41.56 billion for capital expenditure. Likewise, Rs 8.35 billion has been allocated for fiscal transfer and Rs 2 billion for financial management.    
The government has given priority to agriculture, education and health sectors. The budget includes a plan to set up a chemical fertilizer plant, hospital standardization, a kidney transplant service at Hetauda Hospital, and a science and technology university.    
The budget includes issues such as job creation, development plans for marginalized communities, and declaring the residents of Chepang as a protected area.    

Gandaki Province     
Finance Minister of Gandaki Province Ramjee Prasad Baral unveiled a budget of Rs 35.91 billion for the upcoming fiscal during the Province Assembly meeting on Wednesday.    
The annual budget has laid emphasis on health, agriculture and tourism, Minister Baral shared. He further said that the constitutionally-guaranteed fundamental rights, state directive principles, five-year periodic national plan, goals and objectives of first five-year plan of Gandaki Province, Sustainable Development Goals, medium-term expenditure framework of Gandaki Province, provincial government policy and programme and political commitments were taken into consideration while formulating the budget.    
Out of the budget appropriated for the upcoming fiscal year, Rs 13.268 billion (36.95 percent) has been allocated for current expenditure, Rs 22.14 billion (61.66 percent) for capital expenditure and Rs 500 million (1.39 percent) for fiscal management. He informed that over Rs 2.11 billion (5.88 percent) has been earmarked for fiscal transfer at local level in the province.    
Lumbini Province   
The Lumbini provincial government has presented a budget of 42.63 billion for fiscal year 2022/23.    
Minister for Economic Affairs and Cooperatives of Lumbini Province, Krishna Dhoj Khadka, presented the budget at a meeting of Lumbini Provincial Assembly on Wednesday.    
In the budget, Rs 13.32 billion has been allocated for current expenditure and Rs 24.47 billion for capital expenditure.    
Minister Khadka said that the budget was prepared keeping agriculture, health, education and physical infrastructure in priority to fulfill the dream of making Lumbini a self-dependent province. A total of Rs 4.83 billion has been allocated for fiscal equalization grant, matching grant, conditional grant and fiscal transfer at local-level through special grant.    
The province government is estimated to receive Rs 7.927 billion from fiscal equalization grant of Nepal Government, Rs 9.234 billion from revenue collection, Rs 6.918 billion from conditional grant, Rs 837 million from matching grant, Rs 860 million from special grant, said the finance minister. The province has estimated to generate Rs 5.09 billion from inland revenue and Rs 325 million from royalty. He further informed that the province government would raise insufficient resources worth to Rs 2.71 billion through domestic borrowing and loan from the central government.    

Karnali Province
Government of Karnali Province has presented a budget of Rs 32.61 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. Province Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Binda Man Bista presented the annual budget with estimated income and expenditure for upcoming fiscal year in the third meeting of the 10th session of the Provincial Assembly.    
Minister Bista said the province government has appropriated around Rs 9.17 billion (28.11 percent) for current expenditure and Rs 19.43 billion (59.58 percent) for capital expenditure in the budget.    
The estimated revenue for the upcoming fiscal years include Rs 712.9 million from inland revenue, over Rs 4.55 billion as estimated surplus amount carried over from current fiscal year, Rs 9.02 billion to be received as revenue from the federal government, Rs 10.72 billion to be received as fiscal equalization grant and Rs 5.69 billion to be received as conditional grant. The province government will mobilize matching grant of over Rs 1.21 billion and special grant of Rs 668 million to be received from the federal government for the fiscal year.    

Sudurpaschim Province
The Sudurpaschim province government on Wednesday unveiled an estimated budget of Rs 36.746 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.    
Presenting the annual budget at Wednesday’s meeting of the Province Assembly, Provincial Minister for Economic Affairs Prakash Rawal said the budget includes Rs 12.295 under recurrent expenditure and Rs 24.147 billion under capital expenditure.    
The province government has allocated Rs 1.364 billion for inter-governmental fiscal transfer and Rs 300 million for financial management. The province government plans to collect Rs 2 billion from Inland Revenue, approximately Rs 9.605 billion from revenue sharing, Rs 49.3 million from royalty, Rs 9 billion from fiscal equalization grant and Rs 7.533 billion surplus to be carried over from the current fiscal year.    
Minister Rawal said other estimated resources include Rs 6.988 billion to be received from conditional grant, Rs 765 million to be received from federal matching grant and Rs 797.8 million to be received as special grant. (With inputs from RSS)