Nearly a year after the government unveiled its budget on May 28, 2024, dozens of programmes—many of them carried over from previous years—remain unimplemented or neglected. As the government prepares to introduce its new budget for Fiscal Year 2025/26, it is clear that a significant portion of the current fiscal year’s plans have failed to materialise.
Several major initiatives announced during the tenure of former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal have seen no progress. Among them is the Gandaki Triangle Project, which aimed to connect Bharatpur, Pokhara, and Butwal. Although the government allocated Rs 2 billion to develop the corridor as a public-private partnership model for industrial relocation and job creation, the project has not moved forward. No implementation guideline has been prepared, and no groundwork has been laid. According to Finance Ministry officials, the project was included in the budget under then-Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and endorsed by then-Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini, bypassing the standard requirement for detailed feasibility studies.
Other projects have met a similar fate. The Prime Minister’s Daughter Self-Reliance Programme has been abandoned, and the government has yet to act on its commitment to bring a strategic partner into Nepal Airlines. Likewise, ambitious announcements such as transforming the Nijgadh-Itahari stretch of the East-West Highway into a Nepali Carpet Corridor, promoting Janakpur as a wedding destination, and developing Lumbini as a birthing hub remain only on paper.
Several agricultural and infrastructure initiatives have also stalled. These include plans to commercially legalise cannabis, expand the Butwal–Narayangadh road, and develop specialized agricultural corridors, such as a rice corridor around the Tila River in Jumla, an aromatic rice corridor in Rukum and Salyan, and an air logistics corridor in Kolhabi–Simara, Bara. Despite being highlighted in the budget, none of these projects have seen any tangible progress.
Many programmes introduced in previous fiscal years, particularly under Janardan Sharma, have also languished. Initiatives such as the Returnee Entrepreneurship Programme, the “Our Responsibility to Our Parents” campaign, and mega school kitchens across the seven provinces have not been implemented. Similarly, proposals to establish souvenir houses to support women entrepreneurs, operate a national sales and exhibition centre in Chobhar, and develop the “One Municipality, One Downtown” model remain neglected.
The government is set to present its policies and programme for Fiscal Year 2025/26 today (Friday), with President Ram Chandra Paudel scheduled to deliver the announcement in a joint session of Parliament. Federal Parliament spokesperson Ekram Giri has confirmed that all preparations are complete.
Officials say the upcoming policy may include efforts to formalise informal economic activities. However, scepticism persists within the Finance Ministry. Finance Secretary Keshav Kumar Sharma recently stated that achieving 100% budget expenditure is “not even imaginable,” citing delays in the tender process, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and political indecision as major obstacles.
The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has come under particular scrutiny for its consistent failure to implement budgeted projects. Ministry officials argue that even with the necessary materials and manpower, progress stalls when allocated funds are delayed or not released. One official noted that while the capital expenditure target last fiscal year was 72%, only 60% was actually spent—and that figure could be even lower this year. Some projects, he added, had made partial physical progress but were ultimately left incomplete due to funding shortfalls.
Former officials have criticised the growing trend of making ambitious announcements without genuine intent to follow through. “There seems to be no real intention of execution—only a desire to make populist announcements,” one senior official remarked.
List of unimplemented projects:
- Gandaki Triangle Project
- Prime Minister’s Daughter Self-Reliance Programme
- Developing Lumbini as a birthing hub
- Promoting Janakpur as a wedding destination
- Developing the area from Nijgadh to Dhalkebar as a Nepali Carpet Corridor
- Establishing souvenir houses to support women entrepreneurs
- Operating a sales/exhibition centre in Chobhar, Kathmandu
- “Our Parents, Our Responsibility” programme
- Returnee Entrepreneurship Programme
- Establishing mega school kitchens in all seven provinces
- Starting the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project
- Expanding the Butwal–Narayangadh road
- “Learning from Friends, Teaching Friends” initiative
- One Municipality, One Downtown model
- Legal recognition for the commercial production of cannabis
- Operating an IT park
- Inducting a strategic partner in Nepal Airlines
