Kathmandu. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has said the foreign aid, grants and concessional loans coming to Nepal from the same perspective have created confusion. <\/p>\n
Speaking at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee under the House of Representatives (HoR) on auditing of the foreign assistance to be received by Nepal, Finance Minister Wagle clarified this year’s budget about the exact status of foreign loans and grants. He said that although it was expected that a large amount of grants would be received in the budget in the past, the actual receipts were very low. <\/p>\n
He said, “Out of the budget of Rs 2124 billion this year, the total amount of loans taken is only Rs 248 billion. And this time, the grant is 62 billion, as MCA and others have also been calculated. \u2019<\/p>\n
According to him, although the target of collecting Rs 48 to 52 billion in the budget for the last five to seven years is Rs 10 to 15 billion. <\/p>\n
“We have been collecting Rs 48, 50 and 52 billion in grants since the last 5-7 years, but in reality we have not received more than Rs 10, 12 and 15 billion,” he said. But what has happened here is that when we look at the INGOs in the same basket, the bilateral grants are also in the same basket, and the concessional loans brought by multilateral agencies are also in the same basket, there seems to be a difference of opinion. It has to be looked at in pieces. \u2019<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Wagle said that there was a need for a separate discussion on the contribution of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organizations. He said that serious discussions should be held on how strategic the foreign aid is and how much it is connected to the donor agencies’ own interests. <\/p>\n
“The NGOs and INGOs have had a lot of exposure since 1999 and have made a good contribution. But how strategic the foreign aid is, how many have come to fulfill their own interests and how many have actually come for Nepal’s development is a separate debate. The funding of INGOs has also dried up a lot,” he said. <\/p>\n
He said the bilateral grants received from India, China, the UK, Japan and the US, among other countries, are still continuing. “The importance of such grants should not be overlooked as they come out of necessity and a long process,” he said. <\/p>\n
He said, “The grants given by the Indian government, the Chinese government, the UK, Japan and the US government have been coming and are still coming in the bilateral grant.” Between $50 million and $100 million is given by our major donors and donor countries. It’s not that it’s unnecessary, it’s done through a long process. \u2019<\/p>\n
Likewise, Auditor General Toyam Raya clarified that the Auditor General has been carrying out the auditing within the constitutional framework.\u00a0According to him, the office will also have a role in the affairs of government offices, state and local levels as well as organizations with more than 50 percent ownership of the government. <\/p>\n
“The constitution mandates audit of this body on the functions, duties and powers of the Auditor General. There are names of government offices, provinces and local levels. Apart from this, if the government of Nepal or the provincial government or local government owns more than 50 percent of the shares and assets of an organization, then it should be consulted. We have been working accordingly,” he said. <\/p>\n
Auditor General Raya said that consultation with the Auditor General should be done only on the necessary matters as per the Financial Procedures and Financial Accountability Regulations. He said that there is no compulsion to send files for consultation on all issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has said the foreign aid, grants and concessional loans coming to Nepal from the same perspective have created confusion. Speaking at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee under the House of Representatives (HoR) on auditing of the foreign assistance to be received by Nepal, Finance Minister Wagle clarified thisContinue reading “‘Grants and concessional loans cannot be kept in the same basket’: Finance Minister Wagle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":97479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1391],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en"],"acf":[],"publishedDateNp":"\u096a \u092d\u093e\u0926\u094d\u0930 \u0968\u0966\u096e\u0969, \u092c\u093f\u0939\u0940\u092c\u093e\u0930 \u0967\u0969:\u0969\u096e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99098,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99097\/revisions\/99098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/97479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.kalopati.com\/kp_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}