Money & Finance

Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel is set to announce changes to the budget for the current financial year 2022/23, at 5pm on Sunday.

FM Paudel has made major revisions to the current mammoth budget presented by his predecessor Janardan Sharma, according to Finance Ministry sources. 

While Sharma proposed a budget of Rs1.793 trillion, spending thus far has been unsatisfactory a month into the third quarter of this fiscal. 

Most notably, the dismal execution of capital expenditures has persisted into this year.

According to the sources, the reductions are the result of poor tax collection and insufficient use of the allocated funds. But they declined to give the exact figures. The government has spent an estimated Rs6.633 billion, or 37 per cent of the overall budget so far.

Experts have questioned the government's effectiveness as its spending hovers around just 37 per cent of the budget in the seven-month period. During this time, only about 17 per cent of the capital expenditure has been incurred. The government has allocated a capital budget of more than Rs300 billion under different headings.

Similarly, the government has collected only 36.49 percent of its revenue target, or Rs512 billion, as of February 11. The budget has set a revenue collection goal of more than Rs1.43 trillion.