Govt trims down budget by over 12 perent

KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 13: The government has reduced the size of the budget for this fiscal year by 12.62 per cent to Rs 1.530 trillion. While carrying out the mid-term review of the budget yesterday, Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat trimmed down the allocated expenditure by Rs 221.05 billion for the fiscal year 2023/24. The revised estimate is 87.38 per cent of the budget announced earlier on May 29 2023.

With the downturn revision in the budget size, the government has projected to spend 88.84 percent of Rs 1.141 trillion under the current expenditure, 84.13 percent of Rs 302.07 billion under capital expenditure and 87.39 percent of Rs 307.45 billion under financial management.

The government has also revised the revenue collection target to Rs 1.309 trillion from Rs 1.422 trillion. Similarly, the projected amount in foreign grants is reduced to Rs 40.12 billion from Rs 49.94 billion. Likewise, the expected foreign loans are downsized from Rs 212.75 billion to Rs 180.83 billion.

According to the minister,  even though the economy is gradually returning to normalcy, low revenue collection and weak budget expenditure continue to act as major economic challenges.