KATHMANDU, June 25 : All local levels of Nuwakot district have completed their respective municipal assembly. As informed, all 12 local levels presented their annual policy and programmes along with budget at the local assemblies held on Wednesday. The local levels of the district unveiled the budget proposal amounting altogether Rs 6 billion and 79 million.

Bidur municipality topped the list of local levels in the size of budget with Rs 1.08 billion followed by Belkotgadhi municipality Rs 999.3 million.

Among the local municipalities, Shivapuri presented the budget of Rs 492.5 million, Kakani Rs 430 million, Dupcheswor Rs 410 million, Panchakanya Rs 409.3 million, Kispang Rs 400.2 million, Tarakeswor Rs 396.8 million, Suryagadhi Rs 381.2 million, Likhu Rs 377.8 million and Tadi Rs 361.9 million. Myagang rural municipality presented the least sum of budget amounting Rs 340 million in the district.

Some local levels have endorsed the policy and programme along with budget while remaining local levels would pass it after completing deliberations, it is informed.

All the local levels have laid emphasis on preventing and control measures against coronavirus pandemic in their policy, programs and budgets.RSS

KATHMANDU, May 28: Minister for Finance Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada presented the budget estimates for the fiscal year 2020/21 at the federal parliament on Thursday.

The government has presented an annual budget of Rs 1.47 trillion for the fiscal year 2020/21. Last year, the government had presented a budget of Rs 1.53 trillion.

Unveiling the federal budget, Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada said the government has allocated Rs 352.91 billion for capital expenditure, Rs 948.94 billion for recurrent expenditure, and Rs 172.79 billion for financing.

Rs 889.62 billion will be financed from revenue, Rs 60.52 billion from foreign grants, Rs 299.5 billion from foreign loans, and Rs 225 billion from internal loans.

By Ramesh Lamsal

The government is preparing to bring the budget for the upcoming fiscal year focusing on the measures to mitigate coronavirus impact on the economy.

According to Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the government is engaged in the budget preparation by mobilizing international assistance when a significant fall has been predicted in the revenue collection and remittances in the wake of the global pandemic of COVID-19.

The Finance Committee under the Federal Parliament today discussed the upcoming budget issues. Finance Minister Dr. Khatiwada briefed the meeting about the country’s overall economic state.

Stating that the government had lately focused on the mobilization of international aid, he said commitments from donors for the same were encouraging.

According to him, an agreement for international assistance equivalent to Rs 150 billion has been disbursed to work in the areas of health, infrastructure development, and relief distribution efforts. ”Some new agreements are in the pipeline.”

”Mobilization of foreign aid is in the priority to cope with a fall in internal revenue collection”, he added.

The Government Spokesperson furthered that the decision to suspend international flights and close border points turned out to be a timely step as it helped to mitigate the risk of COVID-19.

EMPHASIS ON THE PROCUREMENT OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

The Minister said the government accorded top priority to the purchase of medical items essential to fight against the coronavirus. Besides, special attention had been given to the effective and efficient mobilization of the health workforce during the coronavirus crisis. As he said, the Health Ministry does not need to face a budget issue. Rs 1.8 million have been already allocated to the Home Ministry and Rs 2.2 billion through the Ministry of Defense to purchase medical equipment to fight against the crisis.

So far Rs 2.2 billion has been deposited to the fund set up by the government to prevent, control and treat the coronavirus. The government has contributed Rs 500 million to the fund.  The funds are being spent in the rescue works and procurement of medical assistance materials as well as given to the local levels to combat the virus.

The government has set a provision preventing the establishment of funds rampantly for the distribution of rescue and relief distribution.

Amounts collected to distribute reliefs to virus victims by any sector should be deposited to a fund set up by the government within seven days, according to the provision.

REVENUE COLLECTION AFFECTED

Revenue collection has been affected due to international borders with Nepal and trade being shut down over COVID-19 pandemic, said Minister Dr. Khatiwada. Import displacement, a halt in the import of luxurious products and slight changes in custom rates have created pressure on revenue collection, he said. Eighty percent revenue of the collection target has been collected until April 12, he said. “Not only customs. Value-added tax and taxes under different subjects have been affected.” Until April 12 in the current fiscal year, 2076/77, Rs 488 billion has been spent, which is 51 percent of the annual target. Likewise, under capital expenditure, Rs 105 billion has been spent, which is 26 percent of the annual target. Likewise, under financial management, Rs 84 billion has been spent, which is 50 percent of the target.

SIZE OF RENEWED LOAN INCREASES

The government has increased the size of renewed loan to Rs 1 trillion from earlier Rs 60 million. It is believed that this could provide a huge relief to the stakeholders concerned.

Minister Khatiwada shared that the government has introduced some relief packages related to tax and revenue collection sector. The deadline for tax payment has been extended to May 7 from earlier April 7.  Likewise, the timeline for other taxes payment has been extended to June 7. The new fiscal year budget to be introduced on May 28 is likely to bring up slew of relief packages and measures to reinvigorate the economy hit hard by COVID-19 and lockdown.

The new measures include tax exemption in the medicines and other medical goods, exemption of tax in the registration of the company and operational charge and consideration for the delay in tax payment.

Also, the time for paying premium for insurance has been extended. Similarly, the companies listed in the Securities Board of Nepal which ought to submit their details could do the needful by mid-July.

KATHMANDU, May 3: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has called the budget session of the federal parliament from Friday.

According to a press release issued by the President’s Office, the president called the budget sessions of both the National Assembly and the House of Representatives from May 8 in line with Article 93 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal.

The session, which will hold extensive deliberations on the federal budget and the government’s policies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year.  will begin at the federal parliament building at 4 pm.

Earlier, the government had recommended the President to start to the budget session from Friday.

KATHMANDU, May 3: A meeting of the Council of Ministers has recommended President Bidya Devi Bhandari to call the budget session of the federal parliament from May 8, said Minister for Education Giriraj Mani Pokharel.

The federal parliament will hold extensive deliberations on the federal budget and the government’s policies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year.

Kathmandu, Sept 23: The price of onion has reached Nrs 130 per kilogram. The price had significantly increased in the market since last Saturday.

The government who is trying to keep a check on inflation has not been able to manage the rise of onions. Prior to this Onion was 35 per kg to 40 per kg.

The consumers who rely on this important piece of vegetable for all their meals are in a big fix trying to sort their monthly budget. The Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable market development board have released a notice regarding the recent overhaul at the price of onion.

The recent rise in price is due to low production in Nepal and the government’s stringent measure of importing from neighboring countries. The businessmen involved in importing Onions state that they have to deposit a huge amount of money totaling anywhere from 5 to 10 million Nepalese rupees, this is one of the reasons of the substantial increase in prices.

KATHMANDU, May 13: The government has been advised to bring budget for the upcoming fiscal by addressing people’s aspirations for development and economic prosperity.

In a meeting of the House of Representatives on Sunday, most of lawmakers taking part in the deliberations on the principles and priorities of the appropriation bill (except tax proposal) for the fiscal year 2075-76 BS, stressed on the need of presenting a practical action plan for achieving economic prosperity, ensuring the effective enforcement of the budget by making authorities concerned responsible.

Reality-based budget was the need of the hour, they asserted, seeking special investment in the areas of tourism, agriculture, energy, and forest on the backdrop of the concept of ‘prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali’ introduced by the government.

Lawmakers from the ruling parties supported the principles and priorities of the appropriation bill presented by Finance Minister Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada while the voices of oppositions were that the document was aimless and failed to present something new to the people.

CPN (Maoist Center)’s Janardan Sharma stressed on the need of prompt and full enforcement of budget, urging the government to give a special focus on big programs in the budget speech.

Kamala Roka from the same party voiced that new budget should come in favor of women who make up above 50 percent of the total population.

Former Finance Minister and lawmaker from the major ruling party CPN-UML, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, stressed that the budget should be capable of boosting the confidence of people and creating a foundation for economic progress and prosperity. The budget capable of addressing the practical implementation of the slogan for economic prosperity was the need of the hour, he added. He went on to say that the principles and priorities of the bill were effective and they had incorporated practical issues.

CPN-UML’s Bhanubhakta Dhakal was for the budget able to create a base for socialist economic system.

Nepali Congress lawmaker and former Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki accused the government of planning to bring the new budget without preparations. Dilendra Prasad from the same party drew the attention of the government towards appropriating 30 percent of the total budget to the education sector while suggestion of Pradip Giri was that employment and social security should be given priority in the budget. The lower house shall meet again at 11:00 am Monday. RSS

KHANDBARI, Sept 20: The first town assembly of Khandbari Municipality has approved the municipality’s budget, and policies and programs for the fiscal year 2017/18.

Mayor Murari Prasad Khatiwada made public the budget, and policies and programs passed by the town assembly on Monday.

The total outlay of the budget is Rs 433 million 132 thousand 889.50. This includes Rs 7 million 427 thousand 589 that has been transferred from the last fiscal year’s budget, the Rs 12.61 million from internal income and Rs 413.091 million from external loans.

Khatiwada said the budget has been passed by the town assembly so as to pursue infrastructure development projects in all the 11 wards of the municipality on a priority basis. He added that Rs 5.2 million has been allocated to every ward and of this amount 65 per cent would be spent on physical infrastructure development projects.

Of the municipality’s total budget, 10.59 per cent would be spent on administrative expenses, 14.93 per cent on social and promotional development programs, and 74.48 per cent on physical infrastructure development projects.

Formulation of an extensive urban development master plan; construction of roads in each ward of the municipality; the development of education, health, tourism, water supply and sport; and programs promoting women and children welfare, gender equality, good governance, and religion and culture have been prioritized in the municipality’s policies and programs document. RSS

KATHMANDU, July 16: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) approved a budget of Rs 10.78 billion for the fiscal year 2017/18 on Saturday.

KMC stated that this budget has been approved from the Finance Bill unanimously by the KMC town assembly held today.

The KMC has estimated income of Rs 4.36 billion under internal income tax, Rs 2.12 billion under the non-tax income and Rs 3.16 billion under the internal income grants.

The bill also states that the collection of vehicles tax will be made more effective in coordination with the Office of Transport Management.

Likewise, entertainment tax has been placed in the new area of tax. RSS

DHULIKHEL, July 5: The 76th senate meeting of the Kathmandu University chaired by Prime Minister and its Chancellor Sher Bahadur Deuba today endorsed the audit report for fiscal year 2016/17 as well as passed the programs and the budget for the next fiscal year 2017/18.

The senate meeting passed a total budget of three billion 913 million 342 thousand, including two billion 641 million 342 thousand rupees towards the health sciences programme and one billion 272 million rupees in other program.

It nominated Dr. Chanda Karki from among the professors, Rajendra Khetan and Sanjeev Rajbhandari from among the donors, Rameshwar Khanal, Dr Balgopal Baidya, Dr Swornim Wagle, Dr Tirtha Bahadur Shrestha and Bidyadhar Mallik from among the renowned scholars, Gyanendralal Pradhan from among the industrialists and Dr Dhiraj Giri as teachers’ representative to the vacant seats of member on the Senate.

Likewise, the meeting nominated Prof Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma and Prof Dr Arpana Neupane to the Academic Council, and Mallik, Dr Giri and Mahadev Prasad Yadav to the appellate committee.

The senate meeting decided to appoint MB Shrestha and Company as the auditors for the next fiscal year. It also passed rules related to medals and decorations, and scholarships.

Addressing the meeting, PM Deuba urged the university to be accessible to the meritorious students from the underprivileged sections of society.

“The university should be made purely an academic institution and it should not be dragged into unnecessary controversies,” he said, adding that the university should be fully freed of political interferences.

Prime Minister and Chancellor directed the university to reform its structure in tune with the time and expand programs as per the need of time and society.

Education Minister and University Pro-Chancellor Gopalman Shrestha suggested the University to emphasize on research that would help utilise natural resources available in the country for the welfare of the people. Minister Shreshtha, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said University academicians, its activities and research works be targeted towards finding solutions to problems facing the country.

Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Ramkantha Makaju Shrestha , presenting the works execution report of the current fiscal before the senate, said University educational and academic activities were also focused on making community productive and creative. It was working in cooperation with various domestic and foreign organisations to meet its goals and had started offering the opportunity for ‘staff mobility’ at all levels as it sought to enhance the capacity of its staff along with their personality development. He added that knowledge and skills provided by the University were being used for the welfare of the people of remote areas as well.

According to information shared by him on the occasion, the University has, in commemoration of its silver jubilee, established the ‘Vice Chancellor Silver Jubilee Scholarship Fund’ targeting genius students from poor community. RSS