Budget is not large in size, Finance Minister Dr Wagle says

Kathmandu, May 31: Minister for Finance Dr Swarnim Wagle has said that the size of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84 BS is not ambitious at all.

In a press meet organized at his office today, Finance Minister Dr Wagle stated that the upcoming budget is not small by any means, it is relatively modest when measured against the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Finance Minister on Friday unveiled the budget for the upcoming fiscal year of Rs 2124.34 billion in size.

Minister Dr Wagle reminded, “In the previous years, debates post announcement of the budget would often center on whether the proposed budget, irrespective of how good it is, would actually be implemented.”

Dr Wagle stated, “This time, such concerns have been seldom raised. The budget is not overly ambitious and has been formulated within realistic fiscal limits.”

He shared that the estimates for the income and expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year amount to 28.5 per cent of the estimated GDP.

Recalling his involvement in budget formulation in Nepal since 2014, Minister Dr Wagle noted that the size of the country’s annual budget began expanding significantly since the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015.

He explained, “Before the earthquake, Nepal’s budget typically ranged between 25 and 29 percent of the GDP while actual expenditure stood between 22 and 25 percent.” He added that the size of the budget increased considerably, with some years’ reaching as high as 37 percent of the GDP in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake. —