January 1: The state treasury is in a surplus of Rs 32.61 billion, according to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office as result of low capital expenditure and the government meeting its revenue collection target.

As of December 25, the government has spent a total of Rs 353 billion while it has collected Rs 386 billion.

The government has collected 32 percent revenue of its annual target while it has been able to spend only 24 percent of the annual budget, informed Deputy Financial Comptroller General Gyanendra Poudel.

“The government’s income is in accordance to its target. However, the spending is poor. If the government wants to spend the money, it has plenty of development budget in the state coffers,” said Poudel.

The government’s development expenditure  as of December end is not satisfactory. It has spent only 12 percent of the development budget in the review period, informed the office.

The government’s daily capital expenditure is not more than Rs 300 million while the current expenditure is more than Rs 4 billion per day.

The capital expenditure will increase only if the development works gathers pace. However, the capital expenditure is low as the development works have not gained momentum at the moment.

Authorities at the Financial Comptroller General’s Office say that the current expenditure is high because of the implementation of the Covid-19 impact reduction programmes and the payment of government staffers, allowances, social security allowances, pensions among others.

Former member of the National Planning Commission Dilli Raj Khanal says that it is not appropriate for the government to keep the allocated budget unused when it has plenty of opportunities to mobilize the amount.

According to Khanal, the government should have expedited development works from the month of Mangsir (midmid-November to mid-December) but it has failed to do so.

“The government’s job is not to collect money and keep it stored in the treasury but to revitalize the economy by mobilizing the money,” said Khanal.

Of late, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and the NPC are reviewing the budget expenditure every month. However, the government bodies responsible for the expenditure have not changed their way of spending the budget.