The Sudurpashchim Province government presented a budget of Rs 37.70 billion for fiscal year 2083/84 in the Provincial Assembly on Sunday, 87 days after the fiscal year began. Economic Affairs Minister Chakra Bahadur Malla tabled the revised budget statement, keeping its total size unchanged from the amount previously proposed. The delay followed a change of government on Shrawan 29 and the political turmoil that came after it.
Budget tabled after an unsettled period
The budget totals Rs 37 arba 70 crore 39 lakh 67 thousand, or Rs 37.70 billion. Its presentation marks the latest stage in a budget process that began under the previous, Congress-led government. That administration had presented the appropriation and finance bills on Asar 1, but the proposals could not be passed after the UML changed its coalition and left the Congress.
The subsequent change in government disrupted the process, leaving the province without an approved budget at the start of the fiscal year. The new government has now placed a revised budget statement before the assembly. Although the statement is revised, the overall allocation remains at the same level as the earlier proposal: Rs 37.70 billion.
The 87-day interval between the start of the fiscal year and the budget’s presentation reflects the political uncertainty that followed the coalition shift. The budget was not tabled at the beginning of the year, as initially planned under the previous government. Instead, it reached the Provincial Assembly only after the change in leadership and the developments that prevented the earlier bills from being passed.
Earlier bills stalled after coalition change
The Congress-led government’s appropriation and finance bills had been presented on Asar 1. However, those bills did not secure passage after the UML changed its coalition and withdrew from the arrangement with the Congress. The resulting political turmoil was followed by a change of government on Shrawan 29, which further delayed the budget process.
That sequence is central to understanding why the province’s budget came 87 days into the fiscal year. The initial bills had been placed before the assembly, but the political circumstances changed before they could be passed. The current government has now tabled a revised statement rather than presenting a different-sized budget, retaining the same total amount that had been proposed earlier.
The presentation and the earlier failure to pass the bills are distinct stages in the process. The new statement puts the Rs 37.70 billion proposal before the Provincial Assembly, while the information available on the presentation does not set out a detailed allocation breakdown or indicate when the budget will complete the remaining steps. What is clear is that the budget was delayed by the coalition change and its aftermath, and that its headline size has not been altered.
Total remains unchanged
Minister Malla’s statement keeps the proposed budget at Rs 37.70 billion for the current fiscal year. The figure is the same as the amount previously proposed by the Congress-led government before the budget process stalled. The revised statement therefore changes the timing and circumstances of the presentation, but not the total budget size reported by the provincial government.
The delay places the budget presentation well after the start of fiscal year 2083/84. With the statement now tabled in the assembly, the province has moved past the uncertainty surrounding the earlier bills and placed its current-year budget proposal before lawmakers. The circumstances that caused the delay remain tied to the political shift: the UML’s departure from the Congress-led coalition, the inability to pass the initial appropriation and finance bills, and the government change on Shrawan 29.
