March 13: As government’s income has declined and resource management has become very challenging, the government has started to use inactive government funds. The Ministry of Finance has started searching for the details of various funds in the name of the Government of Nepal and has been transfering the unutilized funds to the Federal Reserve Fund.

Finance ministry officials estimate there are currently such inactive funds worth Rs 5 to 6 billion under 200 different headings. According to the Finance Ministry, the Finance Comptroller General's Office has been instructed to collect the details of such funds. The Finance Comptroller General's Office, with the help of the Ministry of Federal Affairs, issued a circular to the government agencies to give details of the inactive funds and the amount in those fund.

The money in the fund will be drawn to the federal reserve. 

"In particular, the funds established and operated under the Development Committee Act 2013, funds established according to the decision of the Government of Nepal, funds established by special laws and other similar funds are to be mobilized in times of crisis," a senior official of the Ministry of Finance's Budget and Program Division informed New Business Age. 

FCGO’s official Shyamraj Joshi said that the ministries have been told to provide the name of the fund, the purpose of establishing the fund, the name of the body operating the fund, the name of the bank with the account and the amount remaining in the fund till the end of Ashar 2079 to the Ministry of Finance.

Accordingly, departments under the ministry, programs, projects, institutions and the district coordination committee should also give such details to the Finance Ministry.

In 2077, the government did the same and mobilized such funds. Back then, Finance Ministry raised about Rs 2 billion from such funds.

At that time, the FCGO found more than 150 inactive funds. It was estimated that there were Rs 4 billion in those funds. Officials of the FCGO are expecting that the fund and amount will likely increase this year.