Karnali expenses 25 percent in 9 months

Regardless of who is the leader of the government, the development expenditure in Karnali has always been slow. Even though the leaders of all the governments have been complaining that the budget given by the federal government is less, they have never been able to spend the development budget.

Even in the current financial year, the pace of implementation of the provincial government's budget is slow. With only 3 months left for the end of the financial year, the implementation of the overall budget of the state government is only 25 percent. According to the data of the State Controller of Accounts Office, the state government has spent only 25.66 percent i.e. 8 billion 57 crore 51 lakh 2 thousand 694 rupees 83 paise till the end of March.

Out of this, 34.58 percent, i.e. 4 billion 83 crore 19 lakh 85 thousand 473 rupees 19 paisa, and 19.08 percent i.e. 3 billion 73 crore 51 lakh 17 thousand 220 rupees 84 paisa have been spent on capital. The state government had brought a budget of 33 billion 37 million 97 lakh 7 thousand for the current financial year. In Karnali, which has 8 ministries including the office of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers, the development budget of all the ministries is disappointing.

The Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers has implemented only 4.69% of the capital budget and 20.93% of the current budget till the end of March. The Ministry of Finance has spent 36.43 percent on capital and 46.38 percent on operational. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law has implemented 18.82 percent of the capital budget and 32.81 percent of the current budget, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forestry and Environment has implemented 14.29 percent of the capital budget and 41.88 percent of the current budget.

Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development 19.97 percent in capital and 44.99 percent in current, Ministry of Social Development 30.56 in capital and 47.61 percent in current, Ministry of Land, Management, Agriculture and Cooperative Development in this period 37.27 in capital and 28 in current .49 percent of the budget has been implemented.

Karnali government's budget implementation is weak in the past year as well. The annual budget expenditure in the last 7 years was the highest at 67.56 percent in the last financial year. Similarly, in the last month of the financial year, the tendency of budget expenditure to increase rapidly has been seen in Karnali.

Last year, 40 percent of the budget was spent by the end of May, but only 27 percent of the budget was spent in June. The provincial government has been retreating due to lack of staff due to non-expenditure of the budget. But other stakeholders have said that the provincial government has failed to implement the budget due to errors in the planning process. Pitambar Dhakal, the former dean of Midwest University, says that due to the lack of manpower, the provincial government chooses piecemeal plans and without study, the budget could not be implemented when the plans were chosen based on access.

The budget of the last financial year was brought by the then Chief Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi's government, and after half of it was implemented, the responsibility for the rest of the budget fell on the shoulders of Rajkumar Sharma. The budget for the current financial year was brought by the government led by former Chief Minister Sharma.

The government led by Sharma has also changed and now Yamlal Kandel is the Chief Minister. Analysts say that the budget could not be implemented due to political instability. Puroddin Dhakal says that when the government changes quickly, the working staff and agencies are confused and the budget expenditure is weak.