The budget increased by 6%, 18 trillion 60 billion rupees were allocated

"Finance Minister Varshman Pun has submitted a budget of 18 trillion 60 billion 300 million rupees for the financial year"

The government's economic plan budget for the financial year 2081/82, which will begin on July 1st, was submitted to the joint meeting of the federal parliament on Tuesday.

The new budget is 6.2 percent higher than last fiscal year. This is 21 percent higher than the revised estimate.

"Facing the challenges seen in the economic and social sectors, I expect to receive constructive support from all concerned in the implementation of this budget designed to instill confidence and hope in the common citizens and make the economy dynamic," Finance Minister Pun said in Parliament.

There is a constitutional provision that the finance minister must submit the budget to the parliament on 15th of June every year.

Earlier, Pushpa Kamal Dahal was in the Nepali Congress government in the coalition government led by 'Prachanda'. Last year, Dr. Prakasharan Mahat, who was the finance minister from the Congress, announced a budget of 17 trillion 51 billion 31 crore rupees.

But at the end of January, Dr. Mahat announced a revised budget estimate of 15 trillion 30 billion.

Although the revenue was much lower than expected last year, there has been a gradual improvement in revenue collection this year. In the previous year, 10 trillion 42 billion rupees of revenue was collected.

The government estimates that revenue collection will increase by 9.7 percent this year. From July to February, the revenue has increased to 6 trillion 39 billion rupees.

As the target of 6 percent economic growth rate was set in the previous year's budget, the economic survey presented in the parliament on Sunday showed that this target will not be achieved in the current financial year, which is counted until the end of June. Earlier in the financial year 2078/79, the economic growth rate was negative due to the covid epidemic.

The main opposition Nepali Congress has been disrupting the previous parliament session demanding the formation of an investigation committee on cooperative fraud, but the obstruction in the Congress House was opened on Tuesday after the parties reached an agreement on the mandate of the parliamentary investigation committee.

Sources and Allocation of Budget

Out of the total budget amount, Rs 3 trillion 52 billion (18.9%) have been allocated for capital expenditure, also known as development expenditure, while Rs 11 trillion 40 billion (61.31%) have been allocated for current expenditure.

3 trillion 67 billion has been set aside under the financial system to pay various loans and interest.

Similarly, 4 trillion 8 billion 27 million rupees have been allocated under the financial transfer for the provincial and local levels.

Finance Minister Pun has estimated that a revenue of 12 trillion 67 billion rupees will be raised to raise the amount mentioned in the budget.

After that, for the Rs 5 trillion 47 billion that will not be reached, the Finance Minister has estimated that about Rs 2 trillion 17 billion will be raised through foreign loans and about Rs 3 trillion 30 billion through internal loans.

Economic growth rate

The government has set a target of achieving 3.1 percent economic growth and limiting inflation to 6.3 percent.

As the target of 6 percent economic growth rate has been set in the budget of the current financial year, the economic survey presented in the parliament on Sunday has shown that only 0.8 percent economic growth rate will be achieved in the current financial year, which is counted up to the end of June.

Earlier, in the financial year 2078-79, the economic growth rate was negative due to the Covid epidemic.

What are the new plans?

While delivering the budget speech, Finance Minister Varshman Pun said that the target of achieving high economic growth rate has been identified and potential areas of economic growth have been identified. The finance minister has also included in the budget the issue of economic reform program for 'digital economy' and 'green economy' and formation of a commission for that.

The government has advanced the goal of establishing an information technology hub in Nepal through the budget. It is mentioned in the budget to export 30 trillion in the information technology sector in 10 years and to create policy stability and job opportunities in this sector.

The government has included in the budget an ambitious plan to bring in 1.6 million tourists in the next financial year. Finance Minister Pun said that tourist centers will be established in the border areas to attract tourists from neighboring countries.

Five billion rupees have been allocated for the development of tourism infrastructure.

Finance Minister Pun has announced plans to start the construction of the second terminal building at Tribhuvan International Airport in the next financial year.

Finance Minister Pun has announced 'Gandaki Economic Triangle Project' to connect Chitwan, Butwal and Pokhara. The government will proceed with this in the public private partnership system.

To encourage innovation, the government has launched various schemes including the ``Nepal Startup Fund'' worth one billion rupees.

The Minister of Finance has announced that legal arrangements will be made for the production, branding and marketing of domestic liquor.

What the main opposition party said

The leader of the opposition party Nepali Congress, Prakasharan Mahat, who is also a former finance minister, has responded that although there has been a break in the trend of making a very large budget this year, the budget is above the reality.

"They have said that they will start reforms in the decade, but there is no sign of improvement, they do not know where they are doing the reforms," he said while talking to reporters at the Parliament complex.

Mahat, who submitted the previous year's budget, said that he did not expect the budget to give results as it tried to touch many topics.

"What this budget has said, it will not be fulfilled. We have not prioritized and we started the effort to end the situation in the budget. It doesn't seem to end,” he said.

He commented that the budget has failed in the policy of spending on essential places and infrastructure and not continuing non-priority infrastructure.