The
increased off budget expenses has not only worried National Planning Commission
but also revealed the trend of misusing the tax payers money for the partisan
interest.
"In
recent years, the off budget spending has increased making the planning
commission more worried of the financial indiscipline," said joint
secretary at the National Planning Commission (NPC) Gopi Nath Mainali.
In the
fiscal year, 2006-07, the off budget expenses by the finance minister stood at
Rs 360 million, which has increased to Rs 1.03 billion in the fiscal year
2007-08," he said, adding that in the fiscal year 2008-09, it further
increased to Rs 1.36 billion.
During the
fiscal year 2006-07, the finance minister was Dr Ramsharan Mahat of Nepali
Congress, whereas in 2007-08, Dr Baburam Bhattarai was the finance minister and
in 2008-09, Surendra Pandey was the finance minister.
The
successive finance ministers contributed in promoting financial indiscipline
for their partisan interest hurting the public purse.
The increasing off budget
expenses revealed the government's irresponsibility towards the people and
national exchequer, whereas they should have been accountable for the public
finance, according to the chairman of Freedom Forum Taranath Dahal.
The Forum is working on making
the government more accountable and transparent in public finance. "The
government must be transparent and accountable for the maximum utilisation of
tax paid by the people," he said, adding that the Forum has also sought
various information regarding the public spending using the 'Right to
Information' Act.
National Planning Commission
alone cannot stop such financial indiscipline until the public spending is made
transparent, he added.
The planning commission as a
policy think-tank only provides budget ceiling based on three-year Interim Plan
or periodic plans. It also provides guidelines for the spending but the Finance
Ministry is responsible for monitoring the spending.
The
current three-year Interim Plan has planned to spend Rs 1,616.45 billion in the three years, which means the
budget for the next fiscal year 2014-15 could stand at around Rs 600 billion as
the budget for the current fiscal 2013-14 year stood at Rs 517.24 billion and
the next fiscal year.
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