With just days remaining in the current fiscal year 2024/25, more than half of the development budget remains largely unspent. According to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), under the Ministry of Finance, only 46.59 percent of the allocated capital budget had been spent as of July. Out of the Rs 352.35bn earmarked for capital expenditure, just Rs 164.15bn has been utilised.

The current fiscal year ends on July 16.

The government utilized 63.47 percent of its capital budget in 2023/24, 61.44 percent in 2022/23 and 57.23 percent in the 2021/22.  

What is worrying is the growing trend of eleventh-hour development spending, which not only compromises the quality of work but also fails to deliver the intended project outcomes. Data from the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) shows that Rs 1.66bn in capital budget was spent on Wednesday alone. The figures for earlier days were Rs 2.57bn on Tuesday, Rs 1.01bn on Monday, and Rs 1.19bn on Sunday. 

While officials argue that the surge in spending toward the end of the fiscal year is largely due to the release of payments for completed works, development projects are often initiated late in the fiscal year, not for genuine urgency but to bypass proper oversight. This practice, largely driven by collusion between contractors and officials, results in substandard work that escapes scrutiny under the pretext of rushed timelines. These projects are frequently delayed, poorly executed or left incomplete due to hurried implementation.

The government’s spending progress toward debt servicing, however, looks satisfactory. Out of the Rs 367bn set aside for loan and interest payments in the current fiscal year, Rs 311bn, or about 86 percent, has already been spent.

Similarly, the government has achieved 82 percent progress in recurrent spending. Out of the Rs 1,140.66bn allocated for recurrent expenses in the current fiscal year, around 82 percent, or Rs 930.72bn.

Overall, the government has spent approximately 75 percent of the total budget of Rs 1,860.3bn allocated for the current fiscal year. Minister for Finance Bishnu Prasad Poudel revised the budget downward by nearly Rs 200bn during the mid-term review of the budget in February.

Revenue mobilisation, on the other hand, stands at 74.69 percent with less than two weeks remaining in the fiscal year. Of the targeted Rs 1,419.3bn, the government had collected Rs 1,060.05bn as of Wednesday.