The estimate of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2082/083 has been submitted to the joint meeting of the Federal Parliament on May 15th, the day fixed by the constitution. This time, a different view than other years, the economic survey was also submitted on the same day.

This time too, since the agenda for submitting the economic survey was announced two days in advance, it was not possible to submit the economic survey after the 'visit visa scandal' disrupted the proceedings of the Parliament. 

There was a public expectation that the budget would come in a different way than following the regular tradition from the past. But even this budget could not show much difference from the formality of the past. All budget speeches and plans of the government are good. But only if its implementation aspect is good, the goals and objectives pursued by the budget will be fulfilled. The main thing is the implementation side. 

When talking about the size of the next year's budget, many people call the budget of 19 trillion 64 billion a very ambitious figure. Based on the needs of the country, this number is not big. But it is ambitious when it comes to government spending power.

The current year's budget of 18 trillion 60 billion has been spent till June 16, 12 trillion 29 billion ie 66 percent. On the capital side, only 37 percent of the 1 trillion 30 billion budget has been spent out of 3 trillion 52 billion. 4 trillion 7 billion has been allocated for capital for the coming year. This is a very low score based on the state requirement. But it seems to be shrinking due to lack of resources on one hand and ability to spend on the other. 

The size of Nepal's economy is underestimated by about 40 percent. If the informal sector can be included in the formal sector, revenue can be increased and capital expenditure can be at least doubled. Government capacity is extremely low. It should be improved. 

The estimate of next year's revenue is 13 trillion 15 billion for the federal government out of 14 trillion 80 billion. It seems that 11 trillion 28 billion of the revised revenue target of 12 trillion 67 billion for the current year will be collected in the federal reserve fund. At present, till 16th of May, the revenue collection is 9 trillion 70 billion. This is only 68 percent of the initial target. Compared to the initial total revenue target of 14 trillion 19 billion, the next year's revenue target is estimated to increase by 15 percent.

If most of the informal economy can be formalized as mentioned above, the revenue can increase further. According to which, if there is a commitment in revenue collection, it can be at least around 16 billion annually. Revenue growth is the basis for increasing capital expenditure. A solid plan for informal sector management was not seen in this budget. 

In the budget, a deficit of 5 trillion 95 billion has been seen from revenue and subsidy sources. There is a plan to raise 2 trillion 33 billion foreign debt and 3 trillion 62 billion domestic debt to cover the deficit. Foreign loans are obtained based on the ability to spend and the progress of projects. The burden of internal debt is increasing. Public debt appears to be 44 percent of GDP. It is not a matter of much concern that the debt has increased. But one should be concerned about its utilization.

If the loan amount is spent on production growth, productivity growth, employment and income generation, it should be considered as an achievement. But on the other hand, if it is spent on government office decoration, fuel expenses, purchase of vehicles, maintenance, construction and maintenance of government buildings, one should worry. Other countries also have high public debt compared to GDP. Like 119 percent in America, 310 in China, 216 in Japan, 100 in India, 109 percent in Bhutan. Public debt should be spent on development and increasing income and employment. 

In relation to revenue and expenditure, there is a tendency for revenue not to be recovered as per the target in recent years and especially for capital expenditure to be reduced. Many theoretical reasons and problems can be shown behind this. But practically, our revenue administration and development administration are weak, so the work is not being done according to the target. Based on his experience as the head of the government revenue departments, the revenue growth rate in 2065/066 was up to 36/37 percent.

If we analyze the revenue from the year 2002/2003, there was no negative growth in any other year except for about 5 percent of the revenue when the economy was relaxed due to the covid-19. In the last financial year, the revenue growth has been negative and has not been recovered as per the target. The main reason for the decline in revenue growth is due to lack of political leadership and professional capacity of revenue administration rather than revenue policies and systems. Attention should be drawn to this and improvements should be made. 

Every year there is a discussion about the lack of capital expenditure among the government expenditure. Whether or not there will be capital expenditure is known through the project selection and budgeting process. There may be reasons for keeping programs and budgets without prior preparation of development projects, lack of resources for multi-year projects, non-receipt of foreign loan assistance, not signing contracts on time, conflicts with beneficiaries, etc.

The main reason is lack of regular monitoring, inspection and facilitation after awarding the contract. This budget has given special importance to public expenditure and project management, reducing the number to 4,654 and introducing a policy of not keeping projects worth less than 30 million in the federal government's budget. With this, it seems that the problem of duplication, fragmentation and division of government expenditure at the union, state and local levels can be ended to some extent. Despite this, it can be more effective if an intensive monitoring mechanism of development projects is built. There are two examples of this. 

One, when this row was the secretary of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Office, the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal announced the on-site monitoring and inspection of national pride and other major development projects. The Prime Minister's team carried out on-site monitoring of dozens of projects including Melamchi Water Supply, Chamelia Hydropower, Sikta and Ranijmara Irrigation Projects, Upper Tamakoshi, Madhyapahari Lokmarg Eastern Section, Sunkoshi-Marin Project, Sirsia Bridge in Dang, Motorable Bridge in Simkot Hilsa, Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project Kailali and Jhapa, Kulekhani Hydropower Project.

If the Prime Minister comes for inspection, it will work even if he walks on the road. While the team with the Prime Minister was traveling by land from Kathmandu to Melamchi, it was found that the road cleaning, maintenance and pothole repair work was completed in one day. Project staff, builders were present at the project site.

For its continuation, the Nepal government formed a development project inspection and monitoring central team under my coordination. The team visited the districts and conducted interviews, discussions and inspections. Work was done to clear the obstacles in the operation of the project.

Looking at the financial year 2073/074 to 2075/076, the capital expenditure is the highest 80 to 85 percent. The revenue has been recovered 100 percent. This experience shows that a permanent mechanism for the inspection and monitoring of development projects is necessary. Such a mechanism could be 'High Commissioner for Development Project Inspection and Monitoring'. Attention should be paid to this. 

Second, the construction of the Auditor General's office building was contracted for a long period of time and the work did not start. After this lineman was appointed Auditor General in 2074, the construction of the building was completed within four years even during the time of Covid. When it was proposed to lay the foundation stone of that building by the President, it was initially not accepted by the officials of the President's Office.

Their complaint was that 'whoever comes with a foundation proposal but the construction is not completed'. After ensuring the completion of the construction, the foundation stone was laid by the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari and the inauguration of the building was also completed by her. Every time he visited the President's office, a photo of the building under construction with the progress of the building was shown to the President. This is another example that development projects are completed on time only if the higher government officials are interested.  Talking about the theoretical political part of the

budget, it is mentioned that this budget initially aimed to fulfill the national aspiration of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali', since the political situation has unexpectedly become unstable in recent years, it has been mentioned that service delivery, good governance and development have been adversely affected.

Similarly, it is mentioned that prosperity can be achieved if we can move forward with appropriate policies and political stability and that the government of two big parties has been formed in the alternative of arithmetic available in the parliament and there is no other suitable alternative. Although the budget reviewed the past political situation and its impact, the current political instability has not been able to determine the appropriate strategy after assessing the future results and its impact. 

We are aware of the current political landscape and how it has evolved. This period is becoming sensitive like the year 2046 and 062/063. Corruption and poor governance have fueled frequent protests in the country. The current political situation is not of a nature to ignore. The movement of recent days has been expressed in the form of anger and displeasure towards the governance style of the ruling parties.

It is a situation where people have taken a political form due to problems such as meter interest, microfinance, co-operative victims, corruption scandals and economic-political crimes, middleman tendencies and unbalanced distribution of state resources. The budget is not only an economic and financial instrument, it also has political objectives. Such problems should be solved through budget policies and programs. 

Budget is not just a game of balance of data and addition-subtraction of numbers. It is also a document with the commitment of the government to instill enthusiasm and hope in the common people. It will help industrialists, traders, farmers, 

Students, employees, professionals, including the entire political, economic and social sector  A

is attention-grabbing. The budget should convince the common people. Since the past, the budget has not paid enough attention to the people's problems and the available resources have not been fairly distributed, which has led to dissatisfaction among the people. Interest in the budget among the general public has decreased. People should be able to instill confidence in the budget. The budget has changed the age of receiving social security allowance from 68 to 70 and increased the dearness allowance of employees by 3,000. Both senior citizens and employees will not be happy about this.