Butwal, June 17
Province 5 Chief Minister Shankar Pokhrel has claimed that his government will spend the entire budget amount in the first eight months of the next fiscal year that will begin after one month.
Pokhrel, who also takes charge of the Ministry of Financial Affairs and Planning in the provincial council of ministers, had presented the annual budget plan of Rs 36.41 billion on Sunday.
The Chief Minister’s statement comes at a time when the the federal government and all provincial governments including his own are struggling to exhaust the amounts allocated for this fiscal year before the beginning of new fiscal. On the other hand, the main opposition Nepali Congress has said the provincial budget was distributive and it would scatter provincial resources.
But Pokhrel says the budget plan was based on the government’s periodic plan and policy and programme.
He claims the government already spent 70 per cent of the budget allocated for this fiscal year. Likewise, it also spent Rs 1.5 billion grant received from the central government, according to him.
Pokhrel comments that the country’s economy is still centred at Kathmandu Valley and further decentralisation is needed.
“The Kathmandu-centric economy cannot develop the country,” he says.
Though Province 5 has less population than other provinces, it is ahead of them in terms of gross domestic product, Pokharel says, adding the GDP will grow by eight per cent next year.
