Jun 04, Kathmandu- In the capital budget of about 350 billion rupees, 87 percent of the resources are to be financed through loans. The government has arranged that only 13 percent of the capital budget of 350 billion will be spent from revenue.

Shiva Prasad Nepal, former joint secretary of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, says that capital expenditure is entirely dependent on debt.

It seems that infrastructure construction is not a priority of the state due to internal debt and external debt. "The budget has come to collect 47.74 percent of internal debt," said Nepal.

Compared to last year, the Ministry of Urban Development has increased by 66 billion rupees and the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport by 19 billion rupees to 150 billion rupees.

"Madan Bhandari Highway and Hulaki Highway are being spent more than the allocated budget," says Nepal, "There is also a problem in transferring the money without allocating the budget to the place where it is spent."

He said that due to the lack of coordination between the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and the Ministry of Finance, the budget is allocated and spent on random projects. He said that the government also takes foreign loans for land acquisition.

"2 billion rupees have been allocated for the Gandaki Economic Triangle project. which includes 1.95 billion capital expenditure. If there is no preparation for the project, it is unlikely to be spent", Nepal said, presenting an example of haphazard allocation, "it has kept 5 billion for land acquisition. 1 billion 320 million rupees were allocated for this project last year".

He said that the government is not clear about land acquisition and land management. The budget has not addressed the delays in infrastructure.

He said that in the budget, capacity building of offices and staff, selection and preparation of plans, plans for national pride are not prioritized. He said that the problem of stone, gravel and sand has not been solved due to the lack of jurisdiction and construction materials of the union, state and local levels.

Similarly, the Senior Vice President of Nepal Construction Professionals Federation, A.D. Lama, while presenting a working paper on the role of Nepal's construction industry and media, informed that out of the capital expenditure of 350 billion rupees, 200 billion rupees will be spent by construction professionals.

He said that now, from tea shops to cloth shops, when all the builders are builders, there is a problem of getting away with contracts at 50 to 60 percent less. Despite the increase in prices due to external and internal reasons, the builders complained that they had to sell their houses and fields because of the lack of price adjustments.

The government has been accusing businessmen of not having capital expenditure because they are unable to work. This is a lie", Lama says, "The government has not been able to pay more than 30 billion rupees to the businessmen. Businessmen have not been able to work due to lack of money, on the contrary, they have been abused".

He said that there were problems in many projects due to lack of change in the main projects with the government.

"Businessmen have been demanding that the government make a standard that allows them to take contracts only according to their capacity. There is a situation where one person has taken more than 100 contracts," he says. "The public procurement rules are changed frequently and the businessmen themselves are blamed. But when there are many amendments, the builders themselves do not know".

Roshan Dahal, General Secretary of the Federation of Nepal Construction Professionals, said that due to legal problems in the infrastructure sector, even businessmen who are successful abroad fail to work in the country. While giving the official view of the federation on the budget issue, he mentioned that many suggestions submitted by the federation have not been implemented.

"Compared to last year, the increase in the budget of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Urban Development is positive", Dahal says, "Construction businessmen have been hit by not getting the payment of 60 billion rupees that they have submitted."

The sponsor of the discussion program, Construction Business Promotion and Management Implementation Committee and Nepal Construction Business Federation cooperated.