KATHMANDU, Jan. 6: His Majesty the King, in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-2047 and on the advice and consensus of the Council of Ministers, issued three ordinances today. These ordinances have been issued to give continuity to the budget for fiscal year 2002/2003 that was announced on June 7 during a period when the House of Representatives had been dissolved.
As the legality of those ordinances expires after six months of being issued, the Council of Ministers had recommended to His Majesty to issue the ordinances today.
According to the Council of Ministers, the ordinances issued today are: the Financial Ordinance 2003, Appropriation Ordinance- 2003, and the Ordinance for Raising National loans 2003.
Finance Minister Dr. Badri Prasad Shrestha will make public the contents of the budget tomorrow (Tuesday).
Sources at the Finance Ministry said that no significant changes have been made in the policies and programmes and in the budget amounts. However, special arrangements have been made to clarify certain provisions.
The budget announced on June 7 had made provisions for an expenditure of Rs. 96.12 million. Of them Rs. 57.44 billion was allotted for general expenditure and Rs. 38.67 billion for development expenditure.
Out of the total expenditure, Rs. 54.80 billion is being raised from revenue sources, Rs.14.56 billion through foreign assistance and Rs. 12.41 billion from foreign loans. The budget had projected a deficit of Rs. 14.34 billion.
However, due to the precarious economic and security situation, and decline in the import and export trade, revenue collection is expected to fall short of the target.
The 191st meeting of the National Planning Commission, chaired by Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, today had approved the annual development programme for the year 2002/2003.
The meeting also approved the budget issued on June 7 and the mid-term expenditure framework (MTEF) for the year 2059/60. The programme presented by Vice Chairman of the NPC Dr. Shanker Sharma had stressed on the implementation of the policies and the programmes.