March 6: The government has projected expenditure of around 91 percent of the allocated budget in the current fiscal year. The government made such announcement during the half-yearly budget review for the fiscal year 2018/19 on Tuesday, March 5.

Of the total allocated budget of Rs 1.315 trillion, the government has estimated the expenditure of Rs 1.199 trillion which is 91.2 percent of the total allocated budget.

The expenditure in the last FY 2017/18 stood at Rs 1.084 trillion. The government has projected the expenditure to grow by 10.5 percent in the current fiscal year.

Making the half-yearly budget review report public on Tuesday, Finance Minister Yuva Raj Khatiwada said that the government has decided to downsize the budget as a part of its austerity measures.

“We are having discussions with the ministries as well as project offices that are responsible for development expenditure,” Khatiwada said, adding, “The new estimation has been made considering the expenditure incurred so far.”

According to Khatiwada, the government has plans on transferring the amount from projects that don’t spend their budget. Likewise, the government is also preparing to make the payment system easier and aims to expand the ability of ministries to spend in order to increase the expenditure in the current fiscal year.