Improvement in revenue, collection of 1 trillion 66 billion in two months

According to Finance Secretary Ram Prasad Ghimire, although it is not possible to analyze the overall situation of revenue collection by looking at the data of the first two months, there are signs of improvement. It seems that there has been some improvement in the excise duty during this period, compared to the previous two financial years, the payment from the government has also increased during the same period of this year. This has increased capital expenditure,” he says.

Although the revenue collection increased during the same period of this year compared to the two months of the last fiscal year, the revenue collection in August is 21.5 billion less than the monthly target set by the Ministry of Finance. The government had set a target of collecting 92.84 billion 2.7 million revenue in August alone. However, according to the data of the Comptroller General's Office, only 71 billion 64 million 76 million have been collected.

The government has set a target of increasing revenue collection by 31 percent in the current financial year. Finance Ministry spokesperson Mahesh Bhattarai admitted that the target itself is complicated in the current state of the economy. Revenue has increased by about 18 percent till August. Looking at the projection of 6 percent economic growth and 5 and a half percent inflation, revenue growth up to 11 and a half percent is natural,' he says, 'If revenue can be increased by more than 11 and a half percent, that is the ability to improve all aspects of the economy.' Bhattarai also said that there is a possibility of meeting the target of 31 percent by the end of the financial year.

According to him, the improvement in revenue collection has been seen due to four reasons. First, since the economic activities are starting to improve gradually, the morale of the private sector will increase and the industrialists will have a sense of responsibility that they have to pay taxes. Secondly, political stability will lead to gradual improvement in economic activity and investment environment,' says spokesperson Bhattarai.

'Thirdly, there has been an improvement in the sense of responsibility to work among employees. Even the employees were not able to work effectively when the politics was unstable. Now that situation has also improved," he said.

The fourth and most important aspect is Bhattarai's claim that the Ministry of Finance has made a lot of efforts to control leakages to improve revenue. A meeting of the Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee was held only a few weeks ago. If we need all the necessary facilities for leakage control, we have said that regulation and monitoring should be effective and the results should be visible," he added, "a monitoring team has been formed centrally under the leadership of joint secretaries. This will also give positive results in revenue collection.'

Up to the second month of the current financial year, 14 billion 894 million capital expenditure has been incurred. This is 4.23 percent of the annual target. This is more than the same period of last financial year. As of August 2008, the government had spent 8.16 billion 39 million, i.e. 2.7 percent of the annual target. As of last August, 7.28 percent of the annual target or 82.98 billion 65 million has been spent. This is lower than the current expenditure for the same period last year. Current expenditure till 080 August was 87 billion 66 crore 35 lakh or 7.68 percent of the target.

In the last two months, the government has paid 39.67 billion 22 lakhs (10.8 percent of the annual target) only in the principal payment of the government debt. The government had spent 35 billion 31 crore 39 lakhs or 11.49 percent of the target on this topic till August 080. As in the last financial year, the government has not been able to receive foreign grants until July and August this year.

Similarly, looking at the state of income and expenditure, government finances are in surplus by about 32 billion as of last August. During the same period, the government has spent 1 trillion 37 billion 5527 million while earning 1 trillion 69 billion 5179 million. Till August of the last financial year, government finances were in surplus of 23.9 billion. During that period, the government spent 1 trillion 31 billion 143 million while earning 1 trillion 54 billion 23 million 59 million.

The government has allocated a budget of 18 trillion 60 billion 30 million for the current financial year. 11 trillion 40 billion 66 million i.e. 61.31 percent for current, 3 trillion 52 billion 35 million i.e. 18.94 percent for capital and 3 trillion 67 billion 28 million i.e. 19.74 percent for financial system have been allocated. This year's expenditure estimate is 6.2 percent higher than the budget at the beginning of last financial year and 21.56 percent higher than the revised estimate.

In the current financial year, the government has set a target of raising 12 trillion 60 billion 30 million from revenue and 52 billion 33 million from foreign grants. The government plans to raise 5 trillion 47 billion 67 crore through loans, which are insufficient resources. According to this, the government's goal is to raise 2 trillion 17 billion 67 billion from foreign loans and 3 trillion 30 billion from domestic loans.

In the action plan prepared by the Ministry of Finance for the next 100 days, 30 programs have been launched, including the formation of a high-level economic reform recommendation commission to improve the overall economy, the preparation of the second financial sector development strategy, the formation and deployment of a central rapid patrol team to control revenue leakage. There are others who do. The main problem in Nepal is that rather than not having a policy, even the existing policies are not being implemented. Experts say that the finance minister should fully implement the policies he has made on the specified date and show the results.