Pokhara Metropolitan City's treasury is starting to empty in the current fiscal year 082/083. Payments for contracted projects have been stopped due to internal revenue not being raised as expected, ward offices have submitted bills but there is no money to pay in the treasury.

According to the Finance Management Division, out of the total budget of this fiscal year of 8.35 billion 12 million, only 2.99 billion 5.34 billion 123 thousand rupees have been spent in the 10 months from Shrawan to Baisakh, which is 35.86 percent of the total budget.

Out of the 3.50 billion 943 thousand 97 rupees allocated for current expenditure, 2.3 billion 1.51 billion 12 thousand 480 rupees have been spent in the 10 months, which is 58.03 percent of the allocation. But capital expenditure has been very weak. Out of the allocation of Rs 4.85 billion 2.56 billion 903, only Rs 963.832 billion (19.87 percent) has been spent.

Out of the total estimated income of Rs 8.35 billion 1.25 billion, only Rs 4.70 billion 3.32 billion, or 56.32 percent, has been collected in 10 months. Looking at the income source-wise details, out of the proposed grant of Rs 3.64 billion 5.65 billion from the Union Government, Rs 2.68 billion 6.15 billion 180 billion (73.53 percent) has been received.

Out of the proposed grant of Rs 9.15 billion 46 billion from the Gandaki Province Government, Rs 6.11 billion 59 thousand 500 billion (66.81 percent) and out of the estimated Rs 1.37 billion 6.833 billion 145 billion from revenue sharing, Rs 985.656 billion 420 billion (71.58 percent) has been received.

The most worrying situation is with internal sources. It was estimated that there would be an income of Rs 3.23 billion 7.22 billion 20 thousand 855 from internal sources, but only Rs 975.6 million 686 have been collected in 10 months, which is only 30.14 percent of the estimate. Among them, the situation of map clearance fees and building registration is even more pathetic. Out of the estimated income of Rs 2.5 billion 5.25 billion 56 thousand 423 from this heading, only Rs 204.9 million 46 thousand 754 have been collected in 10 months, which is only 9.97 percent of the estimate.

The total budget of the last fiscal year 081/082 was Rs 7.25 billion 3.28 billion 83 thousand, of which Rs 3.35 billion 9 thousand 779 (46.18 percent) were spent in the 10 months from Shrawan to Baisakh. Out of the 3 billion 185,718,282 rupees allocated for current expenditure, 62.81 percent or 2 billion 833,977 rupees were spent, while out of the 4 billion 675,64,972 rupees allocated for capital expenditure, 33.17 percent or 1 billion 349,175,811 rupees were spent. In the income side, 3 billion 747,556,788 rupees or 51.66 percent was collected in the 10 months of the last year.

Looking at it this way, the budget expenditure for the current fiscal year (35.86 percent) is about 10 percent less than the expenditure for the same period of the last year (46.18 percent). There is a lack of expenditure due to the lack of income as per the target in the current fiscal year. There are projects that have been contracted, there are bills, but the metropolis does not have the money to pay.

According to Jayaram Poudel, the head of the Finance Management Division of Pokhara Metropolitan City, there is no possibility of the internal revenue exceeding 40 percent of the estimate in the remaining months of Jestha and Ashar. ‘The ward offices have already made their agreements, the Infrastructure Division and the Urban Development Division have also put some projects in tender,’ he said, ‘Now we do not have the money to pay as expected as there is no income.’

He informed that 35 percent of the amount earned by Baisakh has been disbursed to the relevant expenditure centers and ward offices. Since the income earned in Jestha and Ashar will be disbursed only in proportion to the income, he estimates that only 40 percent of the completed projects will be paid.

The biggest impact of this will be in the coming year. According to him, funds should be allocated before other plans in the budget of the coming fiscal year for projects that cannot be paid this year. New plans will be formed only by setting aside the amount to pay for old plans. The metropolis has already given guidelines to send the budget ceiling to the wards in the same way.

He said that since there is no income, there is no money to spend, which delays the procurement process and delays the work, and therefore the rate of capital expenditure has fallen. ‘Liabilities have been created, but due to the lack of funds to pay, the budget expenditure has been seen to be low,’ he said, ‘The bills have been submitted after completing the work of the schemes through the ward office, but since there is no money in our treasury, the bills have not been settled.’

The main reason for the increase in the budget income estimate for this year was the house map registration campaign. The executive had estimated that if all the unregistered houses in the metropolis could be brought under the ambit, 2 billion rupees would be raised, and the internal income estimate was increased on that basis.

In fact, the executive had made the budget by adding an additional 2 billion rupees to the amount estimated by the Revenue Advisory Committee. Poudel said, ‘In reality, the revenue from the registration has not even reached 10 percent of the estimate.’

It was estimated that Rs 320 million would be collected from the registration in the last fiscal year, but only Rs 28.359 million was collected in 10 months. After the Gen-G movement, a proposal to review the budget was also made in the executive meeting. But the executive decided not to reduce the budget with the estimate that income could be generated.