Lawmakers advise govt to strictly use national debt for capital formation
KATHMANDU, June 29: The House of Representatives (HoR) on Saturday passed the ‘Bill to Raise National Debt’ by a majority.
Public debt exceeds Rs 2.434 trillion, increasing by over Rs 30...
In a discussion on the proposal to approve the bill, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel expressed the government’s obligation to take public borrowings to meet the aspirations of growth of production and productivity and development and prosperity. Paudel claimed that the government through the next year budget has maintained to reduce the liabilities in recurrent expenditure to be funded by the public debt.
The government has announced its total expenditure plan of Rs 1.964 trillion for the fiscal year 2025/26. Of the amount, 60.1 percent has been earmarked for recurrent expenditure and only 20.8 percent has been allocated for development projects.
Of the allocated expenditure, the government has targeted to finance Rs 1.315 trillion from revenue mobilization. Likewise, the government has expected to receive Rs 53.45 billion in foreign grants. For the shortfall amount of Rs 595.66 billion, the government has projected to collect Rs 233.66 billion in foreign loans and Rs 362 billion from domestic borrowing.
At the Saturday meeting of the HoR, Nepali Congress Leader and Lawmaker Prakash Sharan Mahat raised serious concerns over the soaring public debt and pretty low utilization of loan amounts in capital formations. “The loans taken to settle immediate liabilities under recurrent expenditure will not be sustainable,” Mahat added.
