Seven months into the fiscal year, capital expenditure in Chitwan and Parsa districts remains low as various government agencies have not asked for their budget allocations from the District Treasury Office. 

Chitwan has received a budget allocation of Rs3.6 billion for this fiscal year, but it has been able to spend only Rs882 million so far. 

“This spending rate is extremely low,” said Bhanubhakta Poudel, information officer of the Treasury Office. “We had released the budget in time, but the agencies concerned have not been able to spend it,” he said. “We don’t know the reason behind their failure to spend the money.”

Similarly, government offices in Parsa have been slow in spending their budget allocations, with only 15 percent of the money used so far. They had spent Rs519 million as of the end of the first seven months of this fiscal year. 

The total capital budget allocated for the district is Rs3.33 billion.  

The Department of Roads, Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDB), Irrigation Department and Public Health Office, among other government offices, have not yet spent a large amount of their capital budget.

The DUDB had spent a mere Rs50 million out of its Rs1.71 billion budget by the end of the first seven months of this fiscal year. Similarly, the Roads Department has spent only Rs12.8 million under the postal highway project out of the total allotment of Rs204 million. 

Bal Krishna Adhikari, chief of the District Treasury Office of Parsa, cited various reasons for the failure of government agencies to expedite capital expenditure. 

“Political instability, disputes with project affected locals, contractor’s negligence and late authorization, among others, might be the reasons behind the low level of capital expenditure,” said Adhikari. 

Although the government had presented the annual budget 45 days before the start of the fiscal year to give government offices ample time to plan their spending, it took around two and half months to issue the spending authority which slowed expenditure. 

Most of the spending took place during the second quarter of the fiscal year as government offices continued their tradition of spending the first quarter in selecting programmes and obtaining approval. 

It has been a long-held practice among them to expedite capital expenditure during the second and third quarters.