Kathmandu: The government’s estimate of income and expenditure for the upcoming fiscal year 2079-80 BS (2022-23) has been presented in the House. The government has announced a total budget of Rs 1.793 trillion for the fiscal year 2022/23, which is 8.86 percent more than the budget for the current fiscal year. Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma is now presenting the budget before a joint session of the Federal Parliament.
The budget plan, which has a total size of Rs 1.793 trillion, has many ambitious programmes whereas it also repeats some unimplemented programmes from past years. Of this, 42 per cent is allocated for recurrent expenditures, 21 per cent for capital expenditures, 12.8 per cent for financing, and 24 per cent for grants to provincial and federal governments.
Out of the total budget for 2022/23, the government has allocated Rs 753.40 billion (42 percent) for recurrent expenditure. The recurrent expenditure for the current fiscal year is Rs 678.61 billion.
Similarly, the budget has allocated Rs 380 billion (21.2 percent) for capital expenditure compared to Rs 374 billion for the current fiscal year. A total of Rs 230 billion has been arranged for financial management. A total of Rs 400 billion will be provided as fiscal grants to the provincial and local governments.
Of the allocated expenditure, the government has targeted to finance Rs 1.240 trillion from revenue mobilization. For the rest of the amount, the government will be collecting a domestic borrowing of Rs 256 billion and foreign loans of Rs 242.26 billion while Rs 55.46 billion will be managed from foreign grants.
The government has revised the minimum threshold for foreign direct investment (FDI) to Rs 20 million from the existing Rs 50 million. Delivering his budget speech for the fiscal year 2022/23, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma introduced a new threshold to attract more FDI.
The budget was endorsed by the Council of Minister before its presentation in the House.
Budget Higlhligts:
Govt makes a slew of announcements for development of sports, Rs 2.46 bn allocated for sports ministry
Rs 25.03 billion for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, Rs 6.35 billion for local governments, and Rs 5.6 billion for the local level
Rs 161.56 billion for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport in total
Dolakha film city project in Dolakha, indoor studio in Kavre
Rs 75.1 billion for energy development in total
715 megawatts of electricity to be added to the national transmission line
Singhadurbar to be free of gas cylinders to promote electric stove usage, and metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities to follow suit
The government has announced plans to distribute electric stoves to all households in the new fiscal year that will begin from mid-July.
The government has announced plans to launch a program to welcome one million tourists in the coming fiscal year 2022/23.