Nepal Resizes Budget – 2075/76 to NPR 1.38 Trillion

In a mid-term review of the annual budget, the Nepal Government has reduced the total budget to NPR 1.38 trillion against NPR 1.53 trillion, for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2075-76 (2019/20).

Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada has announced that the total budget for current FY has been reduced to NPR 1 trillion 385 billion and 963 million. Earlier, the Nepali Government had announced the annual budget of NPR 1 trillion 532 billion and 967 million.

The government’s decision to resize the budget is attributed to the fact that only 90.4 % of the total budget is estimated to be spent.

Nepal Revised Budget 2075-76 at a Glance:

The revision of the revenue collection target has emerged amid the government’s failure to meet the expected target.

So far, the Nepali Government has collected revenues worth NPR 433.15 billion by mid-January, against the target of NPR 537 billion. Revenue collection over the first six months stood at a mere 39% of the targeted amount of more than NPR 1.1 trillion for this fiscal year.

According to Minister Khatiwada, 27.6% (NPR 422.556 billion) of the total allocated budget has been spent so far. A total of NPR 396.068 billion (32.4 %) has been spent under the recurrent expenditure, while only NPR 62.766 billion (15.4%) under capital expenditure.

Other Notable Stats During Review Period:

• Inflation Rate stood at 6.4% compared to 4.2% during the same period last fiscal
• Trade Deficit decreased by 6.1% to NPR 41 billion
• Export Earnings increased by 26.1%
• Import Expenses decreased by 4%
• Foreign Currency Reserves increased by NPR 57 billion to NPR 1.09 trillion
• Remittance increased by 0.9% to NPR 447.26 billion

This is the second consecutive year that the Nepali Government has revised the annual budget 2075/76.