Provincial governments unveiling budget for 2022-23 FY today

KATHMANDU: Provincial governments are all set to announce their annual budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23 on Wednesday as mandated by the Intergovernmental Fiscal Management Act, 2017.

The seven provincial governments have almost concluded their preparations for the budget and most of them have raised the estimates of income and expenditure for the coming year that begins on July 17. According to the primary information obtained by our correspondents in provinces across the country, the subnational bodies have prepared the budget with priorities to agriculture and infrastructure development in line with the federal budget announced a couple of weeks earlier.

The federal government has allocated Rs. 429.8 billion, 24 per cent of the total budget Rs. 1793.83 billion, for the fiscal transfer to the province and local bodies.

Province 1 is increasing the size of the budget by about 15 per cent to make it Rs. 37 billion. It is likely to get Rs. 30 billion from the federal government in various grants and revenue sharing.

Madhes Province has said that it would announce a productive budget without making it distributive. Agriculture, forestry, tourism and industry will be the priority sectors in the budget. Its budget size will also be at par with Province 1.

Bagmati Province is also according priority to agriculture, physical infrastructure and health. The province is increasing the size of budget by Rs. 10 billion compared to the budget of the current fiscal year 2021/22, Rs. 57.77 billion. The province is set to continue the Chief Minister Public Health Programme.