Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat today directed secretaries of different ministries to sufficiently spend the allocated budget on time to get the desired result.
Addressing the secretaries at the Finance Ministry, he urged them to make the ‘Budget Implementation Year’ a success. The government has announced the current fiscal year as ‘Budget Implementation Year.’
The ministries should not have any problem on spending the budget as they have been already given the authority to spend on the very first day of the fiscal year – on July 17 itself, he said, adding that there should be no complaints and excuses for not spending the budget.
He also briefed the secretaries that the current session of the Parliament will endorse the Public Procurement Bill that has been since long blamed for low development expenditure.
Likewise, the House will also endorse Bills related to economic reforms, Mahat said, informing them that many Bills related to economic reform have been registered at the Parliament.
The incumbent government has started the process of second generation reforms as the outdated Acts have been blocking the industrialisation and economic development process in recent years.
He also asked the central bank to bring the stimulus package to revive sick industries. “The government is serious on reviving the exports that has seen a huge plunge in recent years,” he said, “due to decreasing exports and increasing imports, the trade deficit has been widening dangerously.”
In the last fiscal year, the country has exported Rs 84.84 billion and imported Rs 801.22 billion worth merchandise, widening the trade deficit to Rs 716.38 billion despite various attempts of import substitution to bridge the ballooning trade deficit by successive governments lately.
National Planning Commission vice chairman Dr Govind Raj Pokharel asked for an increase institutional capacity for effective budget implementation.

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