Finance Ministry asks line ministries to start budget implementation

Finance Ministry today asked the ministries today to start getting their Priority 1 (P1) projects approved by the National Planning Commission (NPC) within a fortnight and start implementating the budget the government has brought a day before.

All the ministries should start capital expenditures not only to increase development expenses but also to ensure their output, said the finance minister Shankar Koirala addressing the secretaries here at the Finance Ministry.

Capital expenditure and its effectiveness have been always under scanner since some years back, he said, adding that the government has always been blamed for weak implementation. “The NPC will pass the projects within the three days after the ministries register them at the Commission.”

The P2 and P3 projects should also be cleared within a week, he suggested the secretaries. "The government has also made it mandatory for ministries to award the contracts of approved projects by mid-November."

The Finance Ministry will monitor the projects status regularly, said the minister, who also told the secretaries that the projects could not be amended in the last trimester.

The Finance Minister will release the budget after the line ministries monitor the development works and submit the progress report to it, Koirala added.

The government has presented Rs 517.24 billion budget – on July 14 for the current fiscal year 2013-14 – that has allocated Rs 85.10 billion for capital expenditure for around 452 projects.

Of the total 452 projects, some 301 are under P1, some 129 are P2 and the remaining 22 are P3 projects.

The ministries can spend budget of P2 and P3 projects on their own whereas they have to take approval for P1 project from the planning commission.

“As the government has targeted 5.5 per cent economic growth and containing inflation at eight per cent, the timely and effectively implementation of budget is key to achieve the targets,” said finance secretary Shanta Raj Subedi, on the occasion.

The Finance Ministry has also made signing of performance review agreement with project heads mandatory to ensure timely and effective implementation of big projects, he said, adding that a high-level committee under the Finance Minister – that will be formed – will review the status and performance of projects that have more than Rs 150 million budget.

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