Millions of Nepali Taxpayers Money Misused for Foreign Visits

In an alarming update, the Nepal Government spent around NPR 10 million of taxpayers money on high-level foreign trips in the last month.

The Ministry of Finance revealed that the country spent a total of NPR 137,871 on Ministry of Health Joint Secretary Dr. Bikash Devkota’s daily allowance during his trip to India for the 71^st World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Summit.

Similarly, NPR 4.5 million was spent during Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali and his delegation’s trip to India to participate in the 40^th Human Rights Council meeting.

Likewise, the country has spent the following amounts of money on each delegations’ trip to various nations:

• NPR 2 million was spent on Health Minister Upendra Yadav and his delegation’s trip to India for the Summit of Global Digital Health Partnership’
• Nepal spent NPR 8.8 million on the delegation led by Agriculture State Minister for a month-long program
• The government distributed NPR 10.5 million as financial aid to various individuals
• On the occasion of the Second Pindeshwor Mahakumbh Mela, the government distributed NPR 5 million
• A total of 1 million was given to the 12^th National Bauddha Conference
• The Finance Ministry’s distributed NPR 300,000 to the wife of martyr Captain Yagya Bahadur Thapa, NPR 500,000 to Hetauda’s Tilak Bahadur Khadka and NPR 700,000 to Morang’s Govinda Raj Gautam, among others
• Lastly, the government gave a total of NPR 1.7 million to the committee led by Former Secretary Sarada Prasad Trital for investigating land encroachment cases.

It is alarming to see that such large sums of taxpayer’s money is being mobilized for government officials’ foreign visits and as funding aid for ex-army and police service men. It is important for the government to plan its expenditures, whereby it should not rely alone on taxpayers money.