By Our Reporter As speculated earlier, the government has revised the annual budget for the current fiscal year. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma ‘Prabhakar’ Friday unveiled a budget replacement Bill of Rs. 1,632.83 billion in the House of Representatives, modifying the budget presented by the previous government through ordinances, amidst protest of the CPN-UML. The previous government led by UML chair KP Sharma Oli had unveiled a budget of Rs. 1,647.57 billion on May 29. Of the total allocation in the replacement budget, about Rs. 677.99 billion (41.52 per cent) is allocated for recurrent expenditure, Rs.  378.10 billion (23.16 per cent) for capital budget and Rs. 189.44 billion (11.60 per cent) for financial management. Similarly, Rs. 387.3 billion (23.72 per cent) is separated for the provinces and local bodies for financial transfer. Financial transfer to provincial and local governments includes equilisation grant of Rs. 325.75 billion and development budget of Rs. 61.55 billion. The budget has expected to raise Rs. 1,050.82 billion from the revenue mobilisation and Rs. 59.92 billion from foreign grants. The budget has a source gap of about Rs. 522.09 billion. The previous government had envisaged to collect Rs.1024.90 billion through revenue mobilisation and Rs. 63.37 billion foreign grants. Presenting the budget replacement Bill, Minister Sharma said that Rs. 283.09 billion would be managed from foreign loans and Rs. 239 billion from domestic borrowing. The revised budget has reduced the share of internal debt and foreign debt proposed in the Appropriation Ordinance- 2078 by about Rs. 37 billion. With the hope of providing COVID-19 vaccines to all citizens by mid-April next year and bringing COVID-19 under   control   and   boosting    economic    activities,   the government has projected to achieve a growth of 7 per cent in the current fiscal year while the previous government had set a target of 6.5 per cent growth. The budget has proposed to prepare detailed plans to review the earlier efforts to reduce the poverty within three years and implement them in integrated ways to reduce poverty as the recent report showed that multidimensional poverty in Nepal is still 17.4 per cent. The government has also cut budgets of different headings, including meeting and fuel allowance, travel allowances, training and monitoring and evaluation expenditures by 10 per cent each. Finance Minister Sharma informed that Rs. 5 billion saved from cutting expenditure of theses headings has been allocated to purchase COVID-19 vaccines. The government has announced a monthly allowance of Rs. 5,000 for the patients with serious cancer and kidney diseases and spinal cord injuries. Finance Minister Sharma also announced to provide monthly Rs. 3,000 allowances to the families of the martyrs. The budget has given continuity to the relief, concession and economic rehabilitation programmes introduced for the revival of businesses affected by COVID-19 with additional amount. “As a relief to the extremely poor 500,000 families in the informal and unorganised sectors who have lost their jobs and income because of the impact of COVID-19, I have made arrangements to provide cash grant at the rate of Rs. 10,000 on the basis of certain criteria for one time,” he said. The budget has increased the insurance premium subsidy from existing 50 per cent to 80 per cent for the farmers engaged in growing agricultural crops and livestock. The government has made an arrangement to make at least 500 unemployed youth self-employed by disbursing loans in each municipality. 1,400 road projects suspended In order to implement the road construction, which is the basis of building a prosperous Nepal, in a planned manner, a road network mapping will be prepared and a policy will be adopted to construct roads with clear jurisdiction at the federal, state and local levels. “I have postponed the implementation of about 1,400 road projects that have not been studied from the economic and technical point of view and can be implemented at the province and local levels without any prior preparations,” he said. The budget has also made arrangements to attract investment in reservoir and semi-reservoir hydropower projects with capacity above 200 MW. The government has announced to give 100 per cent income tax exemption for the first 15 years and 50 per cent for the next six years from the date of commencement of commercial operation of the 200 MW reservoir and semi-reservoir hydropower projects which will be financially managed by 2082 BS. The industries producing vaccines, oxygen gas and sanitary pads will be given 100 per cent tax exemption for three years from the date of commencement of production and 50 per cent for the next two years.