Sunday, July 14, 2019

Some 6 dozen local units in Province 2 fail to present budget

Though the Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangement Act mandates the local units to bring budget within June 25, some 72 local governments still failed to bring their annual fiscal policy for the next fiscal year 2019-20, and surprisingly most of them are in the Province 2.
According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, some 72 local governments have not presented the budget for the next fiscal as of Sunday morning. “Half of those local governments are from Province 2, while 10 are from Province 3, six each from Provinces 1, 5 and Karnali, and four each from Province 1 and Sudurpaschim,” the ministry confirmed, adding that failure to present budget by June 25 is a violation of law, but there is no specific provision on what to do, if they donot present the budget.
In the absence of the budget, the local governments can spend – in the next fiscal year – only one third of the budget they have spent in the current fiscal year, according to the Intergovernmental Fiscal Transfer Act. The delay will also hit the development works, as they will have no budget to implement them.
Around a dozen local governments did not present their budget on time for the current fiscal year 2018-19, and the story is even bad as some 72 local governments including Kalikamai Rural Municipality missed the deadline to present their budget for the next fiscal year 2019-20.
Though, there are few options for the federal government to pressurise the local governments to bring the budget on time, the National Natural Resource and Fiscal Commission could recommend the allocation of reduced funds for such local governments. “The local governments which didn’t present the budget on time for the current fiscal year and failed to spend budget have received less budget for the next fiscal year compared to other governments doing well under this criterion.”
Likewise, the appropriation bill passed by the federal parliament recently has authorised the federal government to suspend grant to local governments if they fail to report their expenditures.

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