Only 18.65% of budget spent in first three months of current fiscal year

The government spent only about 18.65 percent of its total budget allocation in the first three months of the current fiscal year.

According to the Office of the Comptroller General, spending during this period stood at nearly 396 billion rupees. There has, however, been some improvement in development spending, or capital expenditure, compared to last year.

Office data shows capital spending this year stood at about 6.59 percent, or nearly 28 billion rupees, compared to about 4.7 percent during the same period last year. Development spending had been affected last year by the Gen Z movement in Bhadra.

Recurrent expenditure stood at about 291.65 billion rupees, nearly 23 percent of the total budget. Although capital spending has risen somewhat, the government's overall capacity to spend the budget has not improved significantly.

On the revenue side, the government has targeted collecting about 1.5803 trillion rupees this year. Nearly 298.70 billion rupees in revenue was collected in the three months, which is in line with expectations.