The outstanding public debt of the government has reached 24 trillion 34 crore rupees by the end of last May. Compared to the end of last June, this is more than 1 trillion 99 crore rupees. At the end of June 2008, the outstanding public debt was 22 trillion 99 billion 35 million rupees.

As in the previous months, the outstanding public debt increased slightly in May as well, according to the data of the Public Debt Management Office. As of last May, outstanding public debt is 42.24 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Looking at the public debt owed by the government, it is equal to about 82 thousand rupees for every Nepali. 

According to the National Census 2078 published by the National Statistics Office, the total population of Nepal is 29.1 million 64 thousand 578. This figure is calculated by dividing the outstanding public debt by this population as of last May. The National Statistics Office has predicted that GDP will reach 57 trillion 5 billion rupees in the last financial year.

Economist Dilliraj Khanal said that there are signs that the ever-increasing public debt is causing risk. In this financial year, the allocation under the heading of financial management has exceeded the size of capital expenditure. He says that this is a product of continuous increase in internal and external debt. "The level of capital expenditure has decreased,  

The budget allocation for the financial system has increased, at this time there is a threat of financial imbalance due to increasing debt obligations. As a result, there is a risk of shrinking the government's financial space in the future,' he said The private sector has not shown enthusiasm to invest more. According to economist Khanal, this indicates the possibility of a serious budget crisis in the coming years.

Public debt currently outstanding is 11 trillion 92 billion 48 million rupees and external 12 trillion 7 billion 86 million rupees. Looking at the data up to last May, the outstanding public debt is more external than internal. In the previous month, the internal debt was more than the external debt. But since last January, the external debt has been more than the internal debt. According to the Public Debt Management Office, external debt has increased during this period and the government has paid more internal debt compared to external debt.

Out of the total outstanding public debt as of last May, external accounts for 50.32 percent and internal accounts for 49.68 percent. Of the total external debt, 44.62 percent is multilateral and 5.70 percent is bilateral debt. Similarly, out of outstanding public debt, treasury bills are 17.19 percent, development bonds are 31.87 percent, citizen savings bonds are 0.45 percent, foreign employment savings bonds are 0.01 percent, and IMF bonds are 0.16 percent. 

In the last few years, the interest payment obligation of the public debt has been continuously increasing and from this year, more budget has to be allocated for finance management than capital expenditure. They say that especially after the earthquake of 2072, Nepal took a huge loan and some of the public loans were used in unproductive areas. Experts argue that the size of the capital expenditure is decreasing with the union as the government has to allocate the budget to the local level and the state along with the obligation of salary and allowances.

Public Debt Management Office Head Galgraj Mainali said that there is no risk as the outstanding government debt is neither more nor less medium level. External debt has increased especially during earthquake and covid. However, he admitted that there has been pressure on internal debt in recent years when external debt cannot be collected as expected. 

"When the overall good governance is weak, there are definitely shortcomings in the use of public loans," he said, "How effective is the project management, how transparent is the contract system?" There are many questions. Our ability to use investment has not been seen. Good work has also been done in many fields including hydropower, education, health. But he says that it was not as much as it should have been.

Similarly, in the 11 months of the current financial year, public debt has collected 3 trillion 7 billion 67 crore rupees. This is the data from last July to May. Out of which, 2 trillion 25 billion domestic and 82 billion 67 billion rupees of external loans have been received. In the current fiscal year, the government had set a target of mobilizing public debt of 4 trillion 52 billion rupees. According to this, 67.96 percent of the annual target has been achieved by May, according to the Public Debt Management Office. In the same period, the domestic debt is 93.75 percent of the target and the external debt is 38.86 percent. During this period, although the government collected a lot of internal debt, it is confirmed that the external debt collection is much less than the target. 

In the last 11 months, the government has paid a total of 2 trillion 71 billion 19 billion rupees. Out of this, the principal is Rs 1 trillion 97 billion 32 crore and the interest is Rs 73 billion 86 crore. Out of the total debt payment, the office has the data of 2 trillion 27 billion 20 crore internal and 43 billion 99 billion rupees external debt. During this period, the government has collected 1 trillion 91 billion rupees in internal debt and received 73.63 billion rupees in external debt. Public debt has increased at a high rate in recent years. At the same time, the government report shows that public debt has increased by 13 trillion 7 billion rupees in the last five years alone. This shows that the public debt increased by more than 2.5 trillion on average every year during that period. Economists say that the burden of public debt is increasing day by day because the government is unable to pay attention to its proper utilization even though it is increasing at a high rate every year.

In fiscal year 073/74, Nepal's public debt was equal to 6 trillion 97 billion 68 billion. In 074/75, such debt reached 9 trillion 17 billion. Public debt reached 10 trillion 48 billion in 075/76, 14 trillion 33 billion in 076/77, 17 trillion 37 billion in 077/78, 20 trillion 13 billion in 078/79 and 22 trillion 95 billion in 079/80. . According to government data, the principal and interest to be paid is also increasing every year as the loan increases.

As the size of the budget is increasing every year, the size of the public debt is also increasing. Due to this, the annual growth rate of public debt repayment is increasing. According to the Public Debt Management Office, debt sustainability is affected due to small GDP, low share of GDP, import-based revenue structure and low revenue collection, weak processing capacity of foreign aid and low return on capital expenditure.