MAHENDRANAGAR, July 22: Nearly Rs 900 million allocated to Kanchanpur district in Fiscal Year 2016/17 has been frozen.
A total of Rs 890.38 million, twice as much compared to fiscal year 2015/16, allocated to the district remained unspent in the past fiscal year, according to District Treasury Controller Office, Kanchanpur.
The district could spend around 88 percent of the allocated Rs 9.88 billion in 2016/17. According to the office, only 94 percent of Rs 5.85 billion, or Rs 5.49 billion, allocated for recurrent expenditure was spent in the review fiscal year. Similarly, government offices spent only 78 percent of Rs 4.37 billion, or Rs 3.14 billion, allocated for development works in 2016/17.
Rs 545 million frozen in Udaypur
According to District Treasury Controller Office, 10 district offices reported high amount of unspent budget in the past fiscal year. They are: District office of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (Rs 160.49 million), District Drinking Water and Sanitation Division Office (Rs 1.3 million), District Land Revenue Office (4.49 million), Division Road Office (Rs 715 million), Mahakali Irrigation Project - Phase III (Rs 6.3 million), Mahakali Pathriya Mohana Irrigation Management Division Office (Rs 4.8 million), People's Embankment (Rs 933,960), Irrigation Development Division (Rs 203 million), District Coordination Committee (Rs 203 million), and District Technical Office (Rs 3.7 million).
Division Road Office had highest unspent budget in the past fiscal year, while People's Embankment had the lowest.
Shankar Dutta Bhatta, the information officer for the District Treasury Controller Office, said that various reasons have caused the budget to freeze. “The tendency of contractors bidding at low rates and leaving projects midway, delay in release of funds by development partners, and long working procedure, among others, are the reasons behind budget freeze,” he added.
Locals are worried at the growing trend of budget remaining unspent. They have requested that the government offices prioritize developmental works, improve their administrative machineries, and plug loopholes in bidding process to speed up spending.
Meanwhile, the district mobilized Rs 1.49 in different taxes in 2016/17 which is Rs 46.753 million higher than what it had collected in 2015/16.
