KATHMANDU, May 22: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has said that the government has focused on implementing austerity measures to minimize the size of recurrent expenditure.
Speaking at a Parliamentary Finance Committee meeting on Thursday, Finance Secretary Ghanshyam Upadhyaya said the government is after reducing the number of ministries, dissolving unnecessary offices and structures, and curtailing unwanted appointments at the government offices. “Likewise, the government has been making an effort to end the trend of approving undesired projects for the sake of popularity,” Upadhyaya said.
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Stressing on the need for promoting private sectors’ roles in the economy, Finance Secretary Upadhyaya said the economy cannot have aspiring productivity growth just on the back of increasing public expenditure. “The budget will mark the government’s role as only the ‘catalyst’ to facilitate private sectors’ investment,” he added.
The government has been reiterating that the upcoming budget will not allocate funds for the projects not listed in the ‘National Project Bank.’ Earlier, the government had been in the practice of incorporating in the annual budget also the projects that are not registered in the government mechanism.
According to the National Planning Commission, there are already 5,300 development projects registered in the National Project Bank as of now, including 293 new projects proposed for the next fiscal year. As per the government rule, the proposed projects are needed to get entry in the mechanism by the third week of May for receiving priority in the annual budget allocation.
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