January 8: The government had announced massive spending cuts but has failed to take such measures.

It is almost six months since the implementation of budget started in the current fiscal year but the government has not been able to effectively implement the expenditure reduction measures announced in the budget.

While announcing the budget, Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat had said that 20 government institutions will be scrapped and similar institutions will be merged with each other in a bid to cut expenses. Those bodies are still running in the same structure as before. Their employees are getting their salaries and allowances as usual.

Until now, the government has been releasing budget for the current expenses to the agencies that were said to be scrapped. It seems that the announcement regarding the reduction of expenditure made in the budget will not be implemented effectively, just like the announcement of scrapping government boards and establishments in the previous budget which has not been implemented yet.

While announcing the budget on May 29, Finance Minister Mahat had said that all types of incentives, allowances, and over-time allowances will be cancelled.

At that time, experts had pointed out the risk of non-cooperation from the bureaucracy in the implementation of the budget announced by the government due to lack of incentives.

Although the prime minister and ministers have repeatedly issued directives to the government employees, there has not been satisfactory improvement in the spending of capital budget. As of Saturday, only Rs 43.35 billion have been spent under the heading of capital expenditure. The government has allocated Rs 302 billion for this year's capital expenditure.

It is also mentioned in the budget statement that the old and unused vehicles and goods in the government agencies will be auctioned within six months. Even though the six-month period is about to end, such vehicles and goods have not been auctioned. This shows that most of the big programs brought by the government to cut expenditure have not been implemented.

High-ranking officials of the Ministry of Finance say that the government has not been able to implement the announcements made in the budget because of the lobbying from the government employees who fear that the facilities that they are enjoying will be curtailed.

"There is lobbying from the high-level political leadership not to take away the facilities that the government officials have been enjoying so far, that's why the expenditure reduction plans announced in the budget could not be implemented effectively," said the official.

Due to the fact that the government has not effectively cut down the expenditure, it has already spent Rs 403.4 billion have been spent so far under current headings. This amount is spent in administrative expenses including salaries and allowances of employees.

The government has recently scrapped 68 posts in the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers just to show that it has cut expenses, but that decision has not yet been implemented.

There are more than 300 employees in the Prime Minister's Office alone, including the chief secretary.

Even though the current government's decision to reduce the posts is positive, experts believe that it is necessary to abolish other unnecessary posts.

Communications and Information Technology Minister and Government Spokesperson Rekha Sharma said that homework is being done to transfer officials in the 68 canceled posts to other ministries.

Similarly, last week, the Council of Ministers also decided to cut lunch expenses during cabinet meetings. It seems that the prime minister's attention is focused on small publicity work rather than implementing the announcement of major spending cuts.