The budget ceiling for the next financial year 2082/83 has been fixed at around 19 trillion rupees. The budget ceiling has been set by the National Resource Estimation Committee headed by the Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission.

The ceiling has been specified in the 'Report on National Resource Estimates and Expenditure Limits 2081' submitted by the Commission to the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday. The ceiling of the budget guided by the

committee is about 40.5 billion or 12 percent more than the current financial year. The target is to increase the revenue by about 10 percent to raise resources in the mentioned ceiling budget. According to this, the target of revenue collection will be around 12.5 billion for the coming year. Similarly, the commission has suggested to increase the foreign aid by 28 percent to 3.5 trillion. For the upcoming budget, the committee has asked to increase foreign grants by 22 percent, foreign loans by 30 percent and internal loans by 8 percent.

About 39 percent of the total allocated budget this year has been allocated for current expenditure. However, the committee has asked to reduce the share of current expenditure in the total budget for the coming year to about 38 percent. For the coming year, 20 percent of the total budget has been directed to be allocated for capital expenditure, 19 percent for financial arrangement and 22 percent for financial transfer, sources said.

This year, the government initially announced a budget of 18 trillion 60 billion 40 million rupees, but through the half-yearly review, 16 trillion 92 billion 73 million rupees has been fixed. In the beginning, the distortion of bringing a large budget by including arbitrary plans and making heavy cuts through half-yearly reviews has been increasing in recent years. According to which, in the last financial year, the then Finance Minister Prakasharan Mahat reduced the budget by 2 trillion 21 billion rupees through a review. Similarly, in the financial year 079/80, the then finance minister Bishnu Paudel also reduced the initially allocated budget by 14 percent (2 trillion 44 billion) through a review.

Although the next year's budget will be realistic, resource assured and result-oriented, said Shivraj Adhikari, vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission. He claims that among the various ways to raise resources, proper allocation and prioritization are emphasized. In the past, the budget was dispersed in all projects. Now, we have worked to save resources through project prioritization and increase the budget ceiling in the project with that resource,'' he said. Although the government has set a target of 6 percent economic growth this year, it is unlikely to be achieved. However, the Commission has said that by giving priority to old projects in the upcoming budget, on one hand the projects will be completed and on the other hand there will be no crowding of projects with insufficient resources.

The Commission has suggested to strictly implement the policy of not including projects costing less than 30 million in the next financial year's budget. "The system of not including projects costing less than 30 million in the project bank in the Union budget will be fully implemented this year," the source said, "only projects that have had environmental impact assessment and detailed project report prepared and are in the process of starting work have been kept in the bank." It is a type of econometric method that connects the aggregate economy and the financial economy. The Planning Commission has also submitted guidance to the Ministry of Finance regarding the proposal of projects and programs for the financial year 2082/83.

Similarly, the government has reduced the budget of the current fiscal year by 1 trillion 67 billion after it was determined that the income and expenditure targets would not be met. 16 trillion 92 billion has been maintained after the half-yearly review of the allocated budget of 18 trillion 60 billion. Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has revised the budget by showing reasons such as the budget presented by the then Finance Minister Varshman Pune, many programs were included for which resources were not guaranteed, projects were selected across Hachuwa, thousands of projects were also kept at the center. The current budget is only 90.99 percent of the total amount allocated at the beginning.