By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 25: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that a new system should be adopted if the capital expenditure is not significant in the existing system.
He made this remark at a meeting of the first progress review of the current fiscal year 2021/22 and ministerial-level development problem solving committee held at the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the low increase in capital expenditure, Minister Sharma said that new alternatives should be adopted in the existing system if the expenditure does not increase even for another month.
“We have to spend from the new system if we do not increase capital expenditure significantly in another one month. Expenses have to be made done anyway,” he said.
He said that the new system should be adopted after informing all the ministries.

Minister Sharma also expressed dissatisfaction over high imports even though there were grounds for reducing imports.
Stating that the balance of trade and foreign exchange reserves have come under pressure due to non-reduction of imports, he said that there may be a situation to reduce forcefully if imports do not decline even now.
Finance Minister Sharma said that the interest rate of microfinance should be reduced to a single digit and loans should be made available to small farmers and investors, the name of Agriculture Development Bank should be changed and digital business should be expanded.

During the meeting, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that gold imports should be monitored to reduce the liquidity pressure.
He said that foreign currency would be retained when money is sent to Nepal through Hundi and that gold was being traded with that money.
Marasini said that it has also had a negative impact on remittances.

He urged the concerned ministries to be aware of the misinformation being spread in the market about the budget and the economy and to focus on increasing the capital expenditure.
During the meeting, the representatives from the Department Customs under the Ministry of Finance, Inland Revenue Department and Financial Comptroller General Office presented work progress and quarterly review.