Nepal restricts high-level civil servants from foreign visits

KATHMANDU, March: The government has come up with measures to cut expenses due to pressure to manage financial resources for its day-to-day operation following the low revenue collection.

The records with the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) show that the budget deficit as of eight months of the current fiscal year 2022/23 has surpassed Rs 156.44 billion. While the government spent Rs 779.23 billion of its budget as of mid-March this year, the revenue collection stood at Rs 622.78 billion.

Citing the gap in the revenue collection and the public expenditure, the cabinet meeting on Tuesday decided not to allow the ministers and high-ranking government officials to visit foreign countries, unless it is absolutely necessary. The government has also stepped up efforts to cut down the overstaffing in the government offices.

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA), in this regard, has directed the federal offices to submit the details of their employees. The ministry issued a circular to all the ministries, constitutional commissions and constitutional bodies and asked them to submit the details of their employees within three days.

The circular signed by the ministry’s Under Secretary Kaman Singh Thapa states, “The ministry has asked the federal offices to submit the details of their employees to the Employee Division of the ministry within three days in accordance with the employees recruitment structure agreed upon by the ministry and the federal office and constitutional bodies concerned.

Through the circular, the ministry has also requested for the details of the post, category, service group, approved posts, vacancies and transfers, among others.

Few days ago, the government decided to cut the grant amount being provided to farmers for the purchase of chemical fertilizers. The government has curtailed the grant on urea from 80.11 percent to 64.49 percent; DAP from 59.4 percent to 52.38 percent and potash from 58.2 percent to 46.09 percent.

In February, the government announced austerity measures, targeting to cut down the unnecessary public expenditure and to maintain a fiscal discipline. The government has decided to slash 20 percent of the budget approved for various headings such as fuel, maintenance, stationery and office materials, newspapers, printing and publication of information, service and consultancy incurred by all the ministries and agencies of the federal government.

Likewise, the budget approved for information system and software operation, travel and other allowances, program cost, monitoring and evaluation cost, staff training, workshop and seminar, sundry expenses, machinery and equipment, furniture and fixtures and structural improvement of the buildings would also be reduced by 20 percent, according to the Ministry of Finance.