Various government bodies have returned more than Rs 5 billion to the state treasury after failing to utilize their allocated budgets, with most of the unspent funds falling under capital expenditures.
According to Ambika Prasad Khanal, Information Officer at the Ministry of Finance, Rs 53.4 million was refunded from recurrent expenditures, while Rs 5.03 billion was returned from the capital expenditure budget.
Major returns came from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, which refunded Rs 2.35 billion, and Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Nepal, which returned approximately Rs 2 billion. Other notable refunds include the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (Rs 367.08 million), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Rs 300 million), and the Office of the Auditor General (Rs 16.01 million).
Among the agencies returning significant amounts under capital expenditures are the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Rs 9.5 million), Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (Rs 3.9 million), Election Commission (Rs 24.02 million), and Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (Rs 15.8 million).
Under the Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility Act and its regulations, agencies are required to return unspent funds to the Ministry of Finance by the third week of April if they are unlikely to be used by the end of the fiscal year.
MCA-Nepal’s has a weak spending record.
MCA-Nepal returned about 58% of its allocated budget this fiscal year, a slight improvement from the 70% it had returned in the last fiscal year.
For the fiscal year, MCA-Nepal was allocated Rs 13.36 billion—Rs 9.9 billion from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Rs 3.45 billion from internal sources.
Spending delays have been attributed to bottlenecks in land acquisition and compensation distribution for the power transmission line project, according to the state news agency RSS.
Read: Trump Administration Reportedly Preparing to Shut Down MCC: International Media
Meanwhile, uncertainty clouds the future of projects funded by the US government. International media reports suggest that the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) itself may be dismantled. Citing a leaked recording and an internal email, Reuters reported last week that the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has ordered the closure of MCC operations. Staff were reportedly informed during an April 23 meeting that all MCC programs would be terminated. However, an MCC employee told Reuters that except a few active construction projects—including electrical grid projects in Nepal and Senegal, a wastewater treatment facility in Mongolia, and school construction in Ivory Coast—almost all activities are being suspended.
(With inputs from RSS)
