“We are hopeful that we will be able to implement development programs in time as more than 80 percent of the programs have already been approved by the National Planning Commission (NPC),” Ram Saran Pudasaini, joint secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), told Republica.
Pudasaini said remaining 20 percent of the programs have not been approved because of the delay in preparation of Red Book Part 2, which incorporates the budget details of the district wise programs.
In the past, the process of getting approval for development programs used to continue until the end of May - the last month of the fiscal year. Similarly, the process of implementing development programs used to start only from March.
In the absence of timely announcement of budget and subsequent bleak performance in capital expenditure, the government had to revise down economic growth estimation in the previous fiscal year.
The government reported economic growth of 3.6 percent against the originally set target of 5.5 percent during fiscal year 2012/13.
“But we are hopeful that economic activities will get momentum this year and that we will be able to achieve the economic growth targeted for this fiscal year,” said Pudasaini.
The government has estimated 5.5 percent economic growth for the current fiscal year.
“Timely approval of programs means implementation process will also begin in time. This will discourage non-budgetary expenditures,” said Pudasaini.
The government has made it mandatory for all ministries to get development programs approved by mid-August and sign performance contracts with project chiefs of all national pride projects. In a bid to ensure better results in project implementation, the government has also made it mandatory for chiefs of projects costing more than Rs 150 million to report regularly to the finance minister.
Baikuntha Aryal, joint secretary at the MoF, also said the MoF has granted authorization for expenditures for all development projects to the ministries to expedite the implementation process.
In yet another effort to speed up the implementation process, the MoF is introducing soon the online monitoring of implementation of programs announced in the budget. “We will establish online access network among MoF, other ministries and NPC to monitor the implementation progress of the budgetary programs frequently. We are at the final stage for installing the related software in this regard,” said Aryal.
Similarly, process is afoot to separately monitor the implementation of national pride projects and other major projects worth over Rs 150 million in the budget.
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