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“I feel that my struggling days are behind me now,” Durga BK , a farmer from Deurali village of Rupa Rural Municipality-5, Kaski, told a village gathering recently. Not long ago, BK got into livestock farming and she seems quite hopeful for it to come. She has almost two dozen goats now. Her days pass tending these goats. BK is hopeful that she can easily earn Rs 500,000 by selling the goats. “There was a time when I used to wander around looking for a job. But nobody would employ me because I lacked skills,” says BK. “But now I feel that I can do something on my own.” Chitra Kumari Gurung, another villager, shared a similar story. Her husband’s income was not enough to raise the family including their children and elderly in-laws. She says her life transformed after local women got her into collective farming. These days she keeps herself busy taking care of her livestock. “The days of adversities ended for me after I got into livestock farming,” she told the meeting. BK and Gurung are among the cohort of women who have turned their lives around after getting into livestock farming through government grants and support. Until a few years ago, most of these women were jobless. Their daily lives revolved around household chores like cooking and raising children. “I almost went into depression because I had no income of my own and I had gotten into the habit of  overthinking everything,” said Goma Gurung. “The farming project has saved my life and many other women in this village.” Kho Maya Gurung, chairperson of Annapurna Livestock Agricultural Group, said they had to hire a professional to write a proposal for a grant. “We had no idea about proposal writing, so we hired a professional to help us with the proposal that we sent to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock,” she said. “The group members collaborate with one another and everything we have achieved so far is a result of teamwork.” There are several such farmers’ groups in Gandaki province, which have achieved success in livestock agriculture after participating in the grant program of Nepal Livestock Sector Innovation Project, supported by the World Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. The project has been distributing grants for individual and group farmers. “This program has helped those farmers who wanted to do something innovative, but had been stopped due to the lack of funds,” said Sushil Khadka, agriculture expert of the project. Arjun Prasad Banjara, chairperson of Chakra Devi Agriculture Group from Pokhara-31, said they were thankful to the project for supporting them with funds and for boosting their confidence. Through collaboration with Aama Milan Cooperatives, the group is running a collective cow farm. Together, they raise almost 50 cows and make their earnings by selling milk and other dairy products. “I decided to continue to domesticate cows at my home after coming into contact with this farming group,” Shovakhar Subedi , a farmer from Begnas Taal area, said. “The group has helped me find a market and earn money.” Farmers associated with these groups said the project has opened many opportunities for them. Apshara Shrestha, secretary of Annapurna Livestock Agriculture Group, said these days their local governments ask the group to take responsibility for agriculture-related tasks. Dhan Bahadur Baruwal of Annapurna Rural Municipality of Myagdi said his livestock business was largely unproductive for almost a decade until his son Narayan, who had just returned home from foreign employment, suggested he ask governmental and non-governmental bodies for grants. “We were finally linked to the Nepal Livestock Sector Innovation Project of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, which supported us to run a goat farm,” he said. Today, the father-son duo have 120 goats. Around 500 livestock farms in different parts of the country are being run with grants from Nepal Livestock Sector Innovation Project. In Gandaki province alone, there are 55 group and 60 individual farmers who are being supported by the project.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 17. 35 points to close at 1,941.77 points on Sunday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 1. 90 points to close at 369. 42 points. A total of 7,049,699-unit shares of 268 companies were traded for Rs 2. 63 billion. Meanwhile, Aatmanirbhar Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10.00 percent. Likewise, Himalaya Urja Bikas Company Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 6. 40 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 83 trillion.

Amid concerns over the high cost of pensions, French President Manuel Macron didn’t hesitate to increase the retirement age in France from 62 years to 64 years, despite months of protests against the plan. While countries are taking prudent measures to manage pensions and other long-term liabilities, not much serious thought has been given in Nepal about managing pensions as well as ever-increasing social security expenses. In fact, successive governments in recent years have been competing to increase social security allowances even though the cost of such allowances has been rising rapidly. The rise in life expectancy of Nepalis has also put a question mark on such practices. While presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2021/22, the government led by then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli raised all social security allowances by 33 percent, including the elderly allowance to Rs 4,000 per month from Rs 3,000 per month. A year later, the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led coalition government lowered the eligibility age for receiving an elderly allowance to 68 years from 70 years. This move has come at a time when the life expectancy of Nepalis has been rising. The lowering of the age for elderly allowance coupled with the decision to hike the civil servants' salaries contributed to a massive rise in government expenses in the current fiscal year. As a result, the government struggled to pay salaries to its employees and pensions respectively in a timely manner in this fiscal year as revenue shrank owing to the contraction in economic growth and decreased imports. Economists said that the government should have streamlined the social security scheme. According to them, the government could spend a higher amount of state resources on improving the quality of health and services and make these services affordable to the majority of people instead of doling out cash for individuals. “The state cannot roll back social security allowances as the constitution has mandated the government to provide social security coverage to the citizens,” said economist Chandra Mani Adhikari, “However, it has increased the liabilities of the government. Hence, it should be managed properly.” According to Adhikari, given the resource crunch the government is going through currently, it is high time to avoid duplicity in social security. “Those who’re receiving pensions from the government should not be given the elderly allowances,” he said. According to the Department of National ID and Civil Registration, the number of beneficiaries to receive elderly allowance increased by 295,281 as of mid-April of the current fiscal year 2022/23 since the eligibility age was lowered. As of mid-April this year, there were 1.60m beneficiaries of elderly allowance above the age of 68 years while there were only 1.31m beneficiaries over the age of 70 years at the end of the last fiscal year 2021/22. With each beneficiary receiving Rs 4,000 per month, the overall stood at Rs 14.17bn by mid-April and it is bound to rise by the end of the current fiscal year mid-July. Over the last several years, the number of beneficiaries of social security allowance and the amount to be given to each beneficiary has been rising rapidly. There were 2.04m beneficiaries of social security allowance in fiscal 2011/12 which increased to 3.57m in the last fiscal 2021/22. The amount being spent on them has however been rising even faster. For example, the government spent Rs 68.61bn on social security allowances in the fiscal year 2020/21, according to the Department of National ID and Civil Registration. In FY 2021/22, it rose to Rs 88.68bn. The government is expected to spend nearly double that amount in the current fiscal year due to an increased number of beneficiaries and an increased amount for them. The government has allocated Rs 105.7bn for social security allowance in the current fiscal year, according to the Finance Ministry. However, the department has already said that the allocated budget would not be enough because of lowering the age to receive the elderly allowance. The government’s social security expenses surged at a time when it is struggling to pay salaries and pensions to its employees and retired employees due to a severe constraint on resources. In the current fiscal year, revenue collection has dipped and the transfer of funds from donors has gone down significantly. According to the Financial Comptroller General Office, the revenue collection of the government decreased to Rs 778 billion as of May 24 of the current fiscal year, down from Rs 887 billion during the same period last fiscal year. But there has been rising pressure on government resources with each government focusing on increasing the long-term liabilities. Besides elderly allowances, the government also distributes social security allowances to Dalit children, widows, disabled people, tribes on the verge of extinction, and children from communities on the verge of extension among others. The first social security scheme in Nepal was launched in 1994/95 by the government led by the then CPN (UML) leader Manmohan Adhikari. The scope of the scheme, which started by providing Rs 100 a month to the elderly, was gradually expanded to include other types of beneficiaries. In South Asia, Nepal’s spending on social spending is relatively higher than many other countries. According to a report of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) released in 2020, India, Nepal, and Maldives are the only ones where public spending on social assistance exceeds 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These estimates indicate that India has the highest spending in the region (1.5 percent of GDP). At the other end of the distribution, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bhutan all spend less than 1 percent of GDP on social assistance. The World Bank in a report has said the overall public spending on social protection rose rapidly in Nepal for a decade—from the fiscal year 2010/11 to fiscal 2019/20. According to the report, the government’s spending on overall social protection was Rs 26bn in the fiscal year 2010/11, which surged to Rs 189bn in fiscal 2019/20, which includes both cash dole-out and other social protection programs.

The government is working on bringing a policy to shut down the ‘sick’ projects that have not seen any meaningful physical progress for a long time. According to government sources, the federal budget for the fiscal year 2023/24 is introducing a policy to close down such projects. While billions of rupees are being spent every year to complete the projects, not much progress has been achieved which has resulted in an additional financial burden on the government. With the government currently battling with a severe resource crunch, it is not in a situation to allocate budgets for such projects. “The government has been spending huge resources in the name of sick projects. However, such projects have not been completed,” said a senior official of the National Planning Commission (NPC). “Now there is no rationale to continue such projects. We are bringing a policy to end such projects.” Government officials said that a separate study will be initiated after the federal budget about the need for such projects. While construction of some projects will be taken forward based on priority, the majority of sick projects will be shut down. The government plans to close sick projects by shifting the human resources and machinery to other projects. Currently, many projects in the sectors such as road, irrigation, and hydropower are in ‘sick’ condition. There are a lot of sick projects, especially in the road sector. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport had recently identified 264 contracts as being in a bad state. While the government is yet to release the latest data on ‘sick’ projects, the number of such projects is estimated to be over 1,200. The report of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) three years ago, had stated that as many as 1,202 projects with a combined value of Rs 86.44bn are in a bad state. These projects—some of which were signed in 2009—are related to seven development-focused ministries. Following this discovery, the anti-graft body has repeatedly instructed the government agencies to either ensure that the works in sick projects are accelerated or terminate their contracts. One of the reasons why so many contracts have remained sick is the trend of awarding a large number of contracts to a small number of contractors. After the Covid-19 pandemic, the government extended the deadline for such projects amending the Public Procurement Regulation. Starting construction work without preparing a detailed project report (DPR), no clarity in the project implementation modality, land acquisition, and compensation disputes, and lack of inter-agency coordination in the transfer of utility services have plagued the development of the projects and billions of rupees go to waste. According to the CIAA report, the highest number of 'sick' projects are related to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, followed by the Ministry of Urban Development (442), and the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, according to the report. The CIAA also studied the projects under the Ministry of Urban Development, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Water Supply.