With just 10 days left before the government presents the budget for Fiscal Year 2025/26, it is under pressure to screen development plans and secure sufficient resources.

Amid sluggish public revenue collection and rising public debt, the government is finding it difficult to meet the budget ceiling of Rs 1.906 trillion set by the National Resource Estimation Committee for the upcoming fiscal year.

Vice Chair of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr. Shivaraj Adhikari, described the task of managing resources and prioritizing projects for the next budget as a major challenge. To address this, the NPC held discussions on Monday with former vice-chairs and members to explore solutions for effective project selection and resource allocation.

"Revenue, which declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, has yet to recover. Foreign grants are also decreasing. These problems have become chronic and systemic," Dr. Adhikari said. He added that weak coordination among different levels of government further complicates resource management.

Due to the shortage of resources, the government has signaled that the upcoming budget will include significant cuts to development projects.

Dr. Adhikari stated that projects listed in the government's Red Book that remain unimplemented or have failed to deliver results will be slashed.

"As of the current fiscal year 2024/25 (2081/82 BS), over 18,100 projects were listed in the national project bank. Based on our resource capacity, we have trimmed that number to around 7,000," he said.

The revised project bank now includes only those projects that have specified deadlines and cost estimates, have completed preparatory work, and have the potential to enhance or transform public assets upon completion.

He further noted that only projects costing more than Rs 30 million will be included in the project bank, and any project left unimplemented for more than five years will be automatically removed from the list. -- RSS