Budget deficit crosses over Rs 1.56 trillion in eight months

Kathmandu, March 15: The government of Nepal’s budget deficit as of eight months of the current fiscal year 2022/23 has surpassed Rs 156 billion 440 million, according to the details unveiled by the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO). The government has spent Rs 779 billion 230 million of its budget as of mid-March this year while revenue collection has remained at Rs 622 billion 781 million 400 thousand.

According to the revenue collection and budget expenditure details, expenditure appears to be more than the income of the government, thereby resulting in deficit. The statistics show that the government has been able to achieve only 42.7 per cent of its annual revenue collection target while only 43.44 percent of budget expenditure target has been met so far. The government had introduced Rs 1793 billion of annual budget for the fiscal year 2022/23.

Due to falling dismally short of the annual target, the government considered reducing the size of the budget by 14 percent and maintained at Rs 1.549 trillion through half-yearly review. The current expenditure of the government in this period is 51.46 per cent, capital expenditure is 22.15 per cent and the expenditure towards fiscal management is 37.41 per cent. The expenditure under the current expenditure heading so far is equivalent to Rs 608 billion 844 million 500 thousand out of the annual allocation of Rs 1183 billion 235 million 100 thousand under this heading. Likewise, 22.15 per cent of the total annual allocation has been spent under the capital expenditure heading.

The total annual allocation for this heading is Rs 380 billion 384 million 500 thousand and the expenditure so far is Rs 84 billion 256 million. Annual budget of Rs 230 billion 217 million 700 thousand has been allocated towards the financial management heading and the expenditure until March 14 is Rs 86 billion 129 million 600 thousand. According to the data provided by the Comptroller General Office, the expenditure towards financial management is more than that of the capital expenditure during the eight months period.

The government revenue collection until March 14 is only equivalent to 42.7 per cent of the annual revenue collection target. The government has set the target of raising Rs 1458 billion 605 million 300 thousand in the current fiscal year. So far, only Rs 622 billion 781 million 400 thousand revenue has been collected. Of this, internal revenue collection is 41.53 per cent or Rs 582 billion 770 million 15 thousand. The government has the target of accepting foreign assistance of Rs 55 billion 458 million 300 thousand this year and it has so far received 8.66 per cent of this amount or Rs 4 billion 802 million.