The last time the Ministry of Finance sent a budget to the commission with an additional amount of Rs 1.77 billion.
The Ministry of Finance has revised and increased the budget previously approved for the House of Representatives elections. The Commission had written to the government for a review after a large cut was made in the estimated budget requested for the election.
The Commission had requested a budget of Rs 7.81 billion for the election. The Commission had expressed dissatisfaction after the Finance Ministry cut the requested budget by almost 40 percent. The Finance Ministry had approved only Rs 4.96 billion.
The Commission had written to the government to amend it, saying that the budget was not enough to run election programs. The Finance Ministry has recently sent the budget to the Commission with an additional Rs 1.77 billion.
The Commission has received a budget of Rs 6.73 billion for election purposes. Commission spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai said that the budget has been revised. He said that the Commission has adopted a strategy to spend the election in a frugal manner.
He mentioned that if the budget is not enough, additional budget will be requested and if there is excess, it will be returned to the government as in the past. The Commission has estimated that the budget will be spent under 49 different headings. The Commission is sending the allocated budget to 77 district election offices.
The Commission has entrusted the District Election Offices with the responsibility of purchasing 37 materials required for election purposes. The management of 14 types of materials is being handled by the Commission.
