Supplementary budget on agenda to adjust non budgetary expenditure

The government is likely to bring out a supplementary budget as it spent a huge chunk of amount for unplanned purpose. Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat said the government would have no option other than to bring a supplementary budget in the last quarter if the government would fail to mobilize additional foreign assistance needed for the ongoing peace process.

The mid-term evaluation of budget for the current fiscal year released on Thursday also lowered the projected economic growth rate for the running fiscal year to 3.8 percent from the annual target of 5 percent.

Minister Mahat said the demand of non-budgetary expenditures has scaled up to a record Rs. 15.65 billion and most of them are essential for the ongoing peace process stating that if government could not mobilize huge foreign assistance through the newly formed 'Peace Fund', it would have no option other than to adjust expenditures through a supplementary budget.

Dr. Mahat also blamed continuing messy industrial environment and poor performance of agriculture sector for the less-than-targeted economic growth.

According to the mid-term evaluation report, the Ministry of Home alone has demanded almost Rs. 10 billion worth of non-budgetary expenditure followed by Rs. 1.53 billion by Election Commission and Rs. 1.58 billion by Ministry of Water Resources.

According to preliminary estimates, the total recurrent expenditure is expected to increase by 5 percent while the total capital expenditure is expected to remain at just 85 percent of the total earmark. The total expenditure is expected to remain about 97 percent of the earmarked Rs. 143.91 billion. The government for the current fiscal year has earmarked Rs. 83.77 billion for recurrent and Rs. 44.96 billion for capital expenditure.

The foreign assistance mobilization is expected to be less by Rs. 6.50 billion during the current fiscal year, according to the report.

The government has also lowered the planned mobilization of foreign grants and loans to Rs. 19.19 billion and Rs. 14.95 billion from its annual estimate of Rs. 23.73 billion and Rs. 16.91 billion respectively.

It also slightly upscaled the target of revenue mobilization to Rs. 85.90 billion from previous budgetary target of Rs. 85.37 billion.