Wagle, who had previously opposed the government's large budget, continued the old tradition as Finance Minister.
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Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has announced the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, increasing its size by 25 percent compared to the revised budget for the current fiscal year. He, who had been opposing large-sized budgets while outside the government, has continued the old tradition by presenting his first budget as Finance Minister.
Finance Minister Wagle has announced a budget of Rs 212.24 billion 340 million for the fiscal year 2083/84. The budget, which has an ambitious goal of massively increasing revenue collection and foreign grants, is Rs 436 billion more than the revised estimate of the current fiscal year's budget.
After the estimate of insufficient revenue collection and lower expenditure, the budget for the current fiscal year has been revised to Rs 1688 billion through the mid-term review. Keeping this in mind, the Resources Committee led by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission had suggested bringing a budget of Rs 1964 billion. Finance Minister Wagle has presented the budget by increasing it by Rs 160 billion.
‘The Finance Minister also knows that a budget of Rs 1.5 trillion more than the ceiling set by the Planning Commission is unnatural,’ said former Finance Minister Barshaman Pun, ‘In the past, there has been a trend of bringing a budget of Rs 18/19 trillion and later reducing it to Rs 16/17 trillion during the mid-term review. Therefore, the Finance Minister also knows that a budget of Rs 21.5 trillion is not realistic.’
Of the total allocation for the coming fiscal year, Rs 1270 billion 580 million is for current expenditure, or 59.8 percent of the total allocation, Rs 431 billion 100 million is for capital expenditure, or 20.3 percent, and Rs 422 billion 640 million is for financial management, or 19.9 percent. This expenditure estimate is 25.2 percent higher than the revised estimate for the current year. The government has increased the budget for the coming year under the heading of current expenditure and financial management compared to the current year. Capital expenditure has been increased by only about Rs 25 billion. This government, too, is under the pressure of mandatory obligations and does not seem to have been able to allocate more budget for development than last year.
The government has planned to bear Rs 1405.31 billion from revenue and Rs 61.74 billion from foreign grants as the sources of the mentioned expenses. Apart from the amount collected from revenue and grants, Rs 657.29 billion seems to be insufficient. ‘To make up for that shortfall, we will mobilize Rs 247.28 billion from foreign loans and Rs 410 billion from internal loans,’ said Finance Minister Wagle. ‘Since the principal of Rs 245.89 billion internal loans will be repaid in the coming fiscal year, only Rs 164.11 billion will be mobilized from internal loans.’
The government had set a target of collecting Rs 1480 billion in the current fiscal year, but only Rs 1026 billion has been collected till 12 Jestha. This is about 70 percent of the annual target. This year, the government has allocated Rs. 1.18 trillion for current expenditure and Rs. 3.75 billion for financial arrangements.
