Government Adopts Austerity Measures, Eyes Rs 100 Billion for Gen Z Damage Repair and Polls

Government secretaries have adopted sweeping austerity measures in the wake of the Gen Z protest, pledging to forgo extra allowances and cut small, fragmented projects to free resources for national priorities.

A meeting of government secretaries coordinated by Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal at the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday agreed to hold seminars, workshops and interactions within government offices, and urged provincial and local levels to follow suit. They also vowed to support the government’s plan to conduct free and fair elections to the House of Representatives on March 5, 2026.

The meeting endorsed a 21-point plan to speed up the reconstruction of damaged infrastructure under existing laws, while proposing amendments to procurement rules if they impede progress. The National Planning Commission, the Finance Ministry and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority will jointly assess damages.

The plan prioritizes uninterrupted essential services—including telephone, electricity, justice delivery, food supply, health care, drinking water, education and public transport—and calls for a detailed compensation scheme for losses to infrastructure, equipment, vehicles, furniture and information systems. Public service delivery will be made faster and more convenient in line with Gen Z demands.

To secure funds, the Ministry of Finance on Monday formed a three-member taskforce headed by Budget and Programme Division chief Suman Dahal, with Foreign Aid Coordination Division chief Dhaniram Sharma and Revenue Management Division chief Uttar Kumar Khatri as members. The team will identify savings within the current budget and recommend which projects to trim.

Finance Ministry spokesperson Tanka Prasad Pandey said the taskforce will study how to finance both the election and reconstruction by reducing or removing plans and programmes in the current fiscal year’s budget. Newly appointed Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal has already signaled cuts to politically driven or inadequately prepared projects, estimating that up to Rs 100 billion could be redirected without a supplementary budget.