Kathmandu. The Gandaki state government has presented budget with a vision of ‘self-reliant and prosperous state: happy state’ to encourage investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and industrialization.

Presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2083/84 in the Gandaki Province Assembly on Monday, Minister for Economic Affairs Jit Bahadur Sherchan said the province would join hands with the private sector for socio-economic transformation. According to him, ‘My State: My Responsibility’ and ‘Invest Gandaki’ would be implemented as campaigns for economic development and employment generation by attracting investment in the province. Minister Sherchan said policy, legal and procedural reforms would be made to create investment-friendly environment.

On the occasion, Minister Sherchan said that the budget has set objectives and priorities to make Gandaki Province self-reliant and full of opportunities and possibilities. Emphasis has been laid on increasing production, productivity and employment by encouraging public, private and cooperative sectors for investment.

The budget has allocated budget for ‘Return to Village’, ‘Apples of Manang and Mustang’, ‘Paddy of Nawalpur, Orange of Syangja, Pride of Gandaki’, ‘Plant Indigenous Crops, Save Health and Environment’, among other programs.

Minister Sherchan said that the ‘Return to Village’ campaign would be launched to attract youths towards agriculture. A budget of Rs 40 million has been allocated for interest subsidy, implementation of minimum support price (MSP) and promotion of commercial agriculture.

The budget has stated that an Information Technology Park would be constructed in Pokhara, the tourism capital of Nepal, with the concept of ‘Connect in Technology, Let’s Connect in Prosperity’. Of the total budget of Rs 32.99 billion, Rs 11.96 billion has been allocated for physical infrastructure development and transport.

A total of Rs 4.77 billion has been allocated for energy, water resources and drinking water sector, Rs 3.21 billion for health, Rs 2.16 billion for social development, youth and sports sector, Rs 1.21 billion for forest and environment, Rs 2 billion for industry and tourism, and Rs 2 billion for agriculture, land management and cooperatives.

The government has allocated Rs 12.72 billion for current expenditure and Rs 20.02 billion for capital expenditure. This is 38.56 per cent of the total current allocation and 60.68 per cent of the capital expenditure. Minister for Economic Affairs Sherchan said that Rs 250 million or 0.76 per cent of the budget has been allocated for financial management.

The government is expected to receive Rs 7.84 billion from fiscal equalization, Rs 10.16 billion from revenue allocation, Rs 514.8 million from royalty, Rs 3.93 billion as conditional grant, Rs 554.4 million as supplementary grant and Rs 395.4 million as special grant.

Likewise, the provincial government is expected to generate Rs 5.84 billion from internal revenue mobilization, said Minister Sherchan. It is estimated that there would be cash reserve of Rs two billion after the implementation of the annual programme of the current fiscal year. The shortfall would be met through internal loan mobilization of Rs 1.75 billion.