Six Months Data Show Government has Failed to Cut Expenditure

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Six Months Data Show Government has Failed to Cut Expenditure

The government had announced massive spending cuts but has failed to take measures to do so. 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 last year, 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.

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. 

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