April 3: The government is struggling to arrange budgetary resources as the principal and interest liability on public debt for the upcoming fiscal year is expected to reach around Rs 550 billion.

According to the National Planning Commission, the country’s debt liability is estimated to increase by Rs 106 billion in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal year.

The data of the Public Debt Management Office shows that Nepal’s public debt stands at Rs 2388 billion as of mid-March of the current fiscal year. Of the amount, the government's internal debt liability is Rs 1185 billion while its external debt liability stands at Rs 1202 billion.

The National Resource Estimation Committee headed by the National Planning Commission Vice-Chair has already set the ceiling of the next fiscal year's budget. The committee recommended bringing the national budget within the limit of Rs 1800 billion for the next fiscal year. Accordingly, the budget for the next fiscal year will have to be within the limit which includes Rs 1,139.77 billion for recurrent expenses, Rs 305 billion for capital and Rs 537.23 billion for financial management.

The budget under the heading of financial management is mainly spent on the repayment of public debt and liabilities.

Speaking at a meeting of the Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance Committee under the National Assembly on Tuesday, NPC Vice-Chair Dr Min Bahadur Shrestha said there was a problem due to lack of adequate resource assurance with low revenue collection and increase in the liability for the payment of principal and interest of public loans.

"Some ministries have received less budget ceiling than the current fiscal year's budget. Although the size of the overall budget seems to be higher, the debt liability is more in the coming year. About Rs 106 billion has been added under this heading for next year compared to the current fiscal year," the state-owned RSS quoted Shrestha as saying.