By Our Reporter  The total outstanding debt of the government of Nepal has reached Rs. 2,388.26 billion as of mid-March. According to the report of the Public Debt Management Office under the Ministry of Finance, out of total debt, external debt has reached Rs. 1,202.73 billion and domestic debt is Rs. 1,185.52 billion. During the first eight months of the current fiscal year 2023/24, the total outstanding debt has increased by 4.04 per cent with an increase in external debt by 2.7 per cent and domestic debt by 5.36 per cent. The share of external public debt to the total outstanding debts is 50.36 per cent while the share of domestic debts is 49.63 per cent. It seems that the ratio of domestic public debt has been increasing rather than external debt to meet the expenditure. The government has taken an additional loan of Rs. 218.86 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Out of additional public debt, the government has taken a loan of Rs. 163.31 billion under the domestic public debt and Rs. 55.55 billion under the external public debt. The government has set a target of collecting an additional Rs. 452.75 billion of loans to meet the budget deficit for the current fiscal year. Out of this Rs. 240 billion is aimed to be collected through domestic borrowing and Rs. 212.75 billion through external loans. Sadly, a big share of the debt collected by the government goes into the pockets of corrupt politicians, their middlemen and the bureaucrats. People hardly benefit from such debts, yet per head debt of people is multiplying over the years. The data also shows that the government has paid only Rs. 126. 03 billion as principal payments for such loans. Of them, the government has paid Rs. 102.97 billion for principal payment of domestic loans and Rs. 23.06 billion for external loans. When the revenue collection of the government has hit rock bottom, the government is making up the budget deficit by raising loans. On the other hand, as the principal and interest of the loans are increasing every year, a large part of the annual budget is being spent on it. The total debt to GDP ratio is 44.38 per cent as of March 13, 2024. The external debt to GDP ratio is 22.35 per cent and the domestic debt to GDP ratio is 22.03 per cent. At the end of fiscal year 2022/23, the debt to GDP ratio was 42.73 per cent consisting of 21.75 per cent on external debt and 20.98 per cent on domestic debt. The total public debt was Rs. 2,295.43 billion by the end of last fiscal year 2022/23.