Finance Minister Surendra Pandey informed that guidelines for providing incentives to farmers for the production of organic fertilizers have already been readied. Talking to mediapersons, Pandey expressed hope that about five such factories would be established by the end of this fiscal year.
The government has allocated Rs 150 million as subsidy to farmers for producing organic fertilizers. Earlier, the government decided to provide subsidy to farmers to purchase chemical fertilizers, reviving the policy of providing subsidy after a gap of nearly a decade.
The government had stopped providing subsidy on chemical fertilizers, due to pressure from donor agencies over the misuse of subsidized fertilizers. It has assigned the responsibility of procuring and distributing subsidized chemical fertilizers to Agriculture Inputs Company.
“The AIC has been permitted to distribute only subsidized fertilizers,” Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal said.
The government has allocated Rs 1.5 billion to provide subsidy on chemical fertilizers.
On the occasion, Khanal also informed that Rs 4.35 billion of the development budget of Rs 7.12 million has already been spent till the last week of November.
Minister Pandey told mediapersons that total government expenditure has reached Rs 45.84 billion. Likewise, growth of recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure stood at 36.7 percent and 42.7 percent respectively.
During the first four months of the current fiscal year, the government sign foreign assistance agreements worth Rs 63.99 billion -- Rs 50.32 billion as grant and Rs 13.67 billion as loan.
Minister Pandey also informed that the district headquarters of Solukhumbu, Manang, Mugu and Bajura will be linked with road network within this fiscal year.
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