National Pride Project: Failure to make spending

The budget spending in the national pride projects which are considered as transformative projects with strategic significance is found to be negligible.

The mid-term review of the ongoing fiscal year budget has shown the progress in national pride projects slow off the mark. The records maintained by the Office of Comptroller General revealed that total budget spending was 32 percent till January 14. Out of this, 38 percent was under current expenditure while 14 percent under capital expenditure, and 29.44 percent financial management. Only 23 percent of the budget was spent in the national pride project till the mid-term review, the Office added.

The national pride projects were allocated a total Rs 97 billion budget in the current fiscal year, but the progress is not satisfactory.  The NPPs including the Millennium Challenge Account Nepal, South Asia Tourism Infrastructure Development Project, Kathmandu-Tarai Madhes Expressway, Pokhara Regional International Airport saw less than 5 percent expenditure till mid-January.

Newly appointed Vice Chair of the National Planning Commission, Dr Min Bahadur Shrestha, informed that the problem of low spending surfaced because the national pride projects were forwarded simultaneously.“There is resource crunch if all projects are taken together. Our contractors and constructionists lack capacity. Oversight mechanisms including bureaucracy are not able to work for it. So, certain projects should be prioritized and forwarded,” he observed.

Out of the budget allocated to Millennium Account Nepal Challenge, it spent only 0.43 percent. Similarly, Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway was able to use only 5.13 percent (Rs 1.59 billion) by the mid-term. The South Asia Tourism Infrastructure was not able to expand more than 3.23 percent out of an annual budget of Rs 2.20 billion.