Outstanding public debt is 26 trillion 67 billion 26 billion, internal 13 trillion 1 billion 94 billion and external 13 trillion 65 billion 32 billion
Up to 9 months (July-April) of the current financial year, the government has collected a total of 3 trillion 66 billion 9 billion rupees in public debt. Of this, 2 trillion 91 billion 140 million (79.53 percent) are internal and 74 billion 95 million (20.47 percent) external debt, according to the Public Debt Management Committee office.
The report of the Public Debt Management Office last March showed that although the receipt of internal debt is high, the external debt is very low.
In the 9 months of the current financial year, the government has paid 2 trillion 3 billion 2 crore rupees for the principal-interest payment of the loan. Out of this, 1 trillion 70 billion 90 million (83.78 percent) were spent for principal and interest of internal debt and 32 billion 93 billion (16.22 percent) were spent for principal and interest of external debt.
With this, the outstanding public debt of the government till last March has remained at 26 trillion 67 billion 26 billion rupees. Out of which, 13 trillion 1 billion 94 million rupees are internal and 13 trillion 65 billion 32 million rupees are external, according to the data of the office. 2 trillion 33 billion 17 crores of public debt has been added in 9 months of the current financial year. As of March, outstanding public debt is 46.75 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Out of outstanding public debt, domestic GDP is 22.82 percent and external debt is 23.93 percent.
According to the office, the public debt liability has increased by 70 billion 90 million due to the change in the exchange rate until the end of March of this financial year. During that period, the increase in the exchange rate of other countries' currencies (SDR) along with the US dollar has had an additional impact on foreign debt obligations. Thus, after subtracting 2 trillion 3 billion 20 million paid from the debt collected by the government in 9 months, it appears that 1 trillion 63 billion 6 million net debt has been added. Adding 70 billion 90 million, which was increased by the change in the exchange rate, 2 trillion 33 billion 17 billion debt was added in 9 months.
Gopikrishna Koirala, Head of Public Debt Management Office, said that external loans could not be received as per the target due to the failure of the project/institute to work within the stipulated time. "If we work according to the agreement, we will get more external loans, if not, we will not get more loans," he said. This year, the government has set a target of raising public debt of 5 trillion 47 billion rupees. According to this, till March 3 trillion 66 billion 09 crores of debt has been raised. This is 67.93 percent of the annual target, of which the realization of internal debt is 88.22 percent and external debt is 34.54 percent.
Based on this, in the remaining 3 months of this financial year, the government has yet to collect 1 trillion 80 billion 90 million rupees of public debt, of which 38 billion 85 billion 94 million rupees are yet to be collected internally and 1 trillion 42 billion 42 million rupees of external debt. In the current financial year, the government has allocated 4 trillion 2 billion 85 crore rupees for debt servicing expenses. Out of that, 2 trillion 52 billion 48 crore rupees have been paid till March. This is 62.67 percent of the total allocation. Debt service expenditure as a ratio of GDP till March is 4.43 percent.
Looking at the public debt owed by the government till last March, now every Nepali has about 90 thousand rupees. Such loan last June was about 83,000. According to the National Census 078 of the National Statistics Office, the total population of Nepal is 29.1 million 64 thousand 578. This figure was calculated by dividing the outstanding public debt by this population until last March. The National Statistics Office has predicted that GDP will reach 57 trillion 5 billion rupees in the last financial year.
Economists say that ever-increasing public debt poses risks. Since the financial year 2080/81, allocations under the heading of financial management have exceeded the size of capital expenditure. They say that this is a product of continuous increase in internal and external debt. As the gap between the level of capital expenditure and the budget allocated for the financial system widens with increasing debt repayment obligations, there is a risk of shrinking the government's ability to invest in the future. Economists say that there is also a risk of financial imbalance as a result.
If the loan is used in the productive sector, there is no need to fear that the public debt will increase. But where the government spends is important. We only do debt collection, so we don't have all the data spent by the government," said Koirala, head of the Public Debt Management Office. But there is no internal debt.'
Although there is a theoretical concept that internal debt should also be spent in the capital sector, he said that the government sometimes uses it for current expenditure as per the need. Compared to the end of June 2081, the Nepalese rupee has depreciated by 4.22 percent against the US dollar at the end of February. During the same period last year, the Nepalese Rupee depreciated by 0.73 percent. At the end of February 2081, the purchase exchange rate of one US dollar reached 139.24. At the end of June 2081, the exchange rate was 133.36.
Due to exchange rate changes, 4 out of the last 7 financial years have had losses and the remaining years have been profitable. In the financial year 2079/80, there was a loss of 59 billion 15 million rupees. But in the financial year 2080/81, there is a profit of 4 billion 23 billion exchange rate.
