By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Oct. 9: Minster for Economic Affairs and Planning of Bagmati Province Rachana Khadka has admitted that not only the federal government but also the provincial governments have been unable to spend the capital budget as expected.
She made this remark at a training and orientation programme on public finance management for economic journalists of Bagmati Province organised by the Society of Economic Journalists Nepal in collaboration with Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Secretariat on Friday.
Minister Khadka urged the stakeholders to pay attention to the failure in spending the capital budget because of lack of staffers, incompetency of the politicians and lack of policy.
She said that the role of all levels of government would be important to make fiscal federalism a success.
At present, more than 35 per cent of the budget is spent on physical infrastructure such as roads and drinking water, she said, adding that it was necessary to work to increase capital expenditure and maintain financial discipline from now.
Speaking on the occasion, Dhaniram Sharma, Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, Bagmati Province, said that it was necessary to look at the revenue of the state along with the budget expenditure.
He informed that the expenditure would be made according to the income of the province.
He said that there was no communication of real information in this regard and there was confusion at times when the information that needed to reach citizens is wrong.
“It is important to look at whether the appropriated budget, prescribed tax and assessment, are raised and whether the expenditure has been as per the requirements and the rules,” Sharma said.He said that it was also necessary to pay attention whether the revenue was collected as expected.
He said that it was necessary to pay attention to the issue of transparency in the coming days.
Mayor of Hetauda Sub Metropolitan City Hari Bahadur Mahat urged everyone to expose the financial irregularities.