The government will have to rush to spend more than 60 percent of the capital expenditure in the remaining two months to meet its spending target. The federal budget for this fiscal had initially set a capital expenditure target of Rs 380.38bn, which was slashed to Rs 313.85 percent in the half-yearly review of the budget. The Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) data shows capital expenditure has amounted to Rs 125.67bn till mid-May (Baisakh). This means the government will have to spend Rs 3.13bn daily to meet the revised annual spending target. With only two months left for the current fiscal year, the government's capital expenditure has remained dismal as ever. The FCGO data shows only 40 percent of the capital expenditure has been spent in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.

Official statistics show that the government has managed to spend only 72 percent of the capital budget on average every year. The majority of capital spending takes place in the last month of the fiscal year i.e., Asar (mid-June to mid-July). The report of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) also shows that 40 percent of the total capital expenditure takes place in Asar.

While utilization of capital expenditure remains disappointing, 66.40 percent of the recurrent expenditure has been spent during this period. According to FCGO, the government has spent Rs 786.74bn in recurrent expenditure till mid-May. The total government expenditure in the first 10 months stood at Rs 1047.76bn, which is 58.41 percent of the total budget. The situation in revenue collection is much more severe this year than the capital expenditure. The government has been able to meet only 53.9 percent of the revenue target by mid-May as revenue collection stood at Rs 756.25bn. During the review period, the total income of the government stood at Rs 797.34bn. Half of the federal government’s revenue comes from taxing imported goods. The federal government’s major revenue collectors— the Department of Customs (DoC) and Inland Revenue Department (IRD) have reported poor revenue collection as of mid-May of the current fiscal year. IRD collected revenue worth Rs 34.46bn in Baisakh (mid-April to mid-March) this year compared to Rs 35.66bn during the same period last year. The total revenue collection of the IRD in the first 10 months of this fiscal stood at Rs 371.59bn compared to Rs 378.32bn during the same period of the last fiscal. The department has not been able to meet its target from the beginning of the current fiscal year. IRD, which set a target to collect Rs 489bn in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, has achieved only 76 percent of the target. Budgetary operation FY 2022/23 (First 10 Months)

Description	FY 2022/23
Total Expenditure	Rs 1,047.76bn
Recurrent Expenditure	Rs 786.74bn
Capital Expenditure	Rs 125.67 b
Financing	Rs 135.33bn

Revenue collection FY 2022/23 (First 10 Months)

Description	Collected Amount
Revenue	Rs 756.25bn
Tax Revenue	Rs 684.83bn
Non-Tax Revenue	Rs 71.61bn