By Our Reporter Nepal’s foreign trade has shrunk marginally in the last fiscal year 2023/24. According to annual trade statistics for the fiscal year 2023/24 made public by the Department of Customs on Monday, foreign trade has declined by 1.33 per cent to Rs. 1,745.36 billion during the last fiscal year as compared to the previous fiscal year 2022/23. The declines in both exports and imports have contributed to a fall in foreign trade during the fiscal year. Imports decreased by 1.16 per cent during the last fiscal year. Goods worth Rs. 1,592.98 billion were imported in the review period. The country imported goods worth Rs. 1,611.73 billion in the previous fiscal year 2022/23. Likewise, goods worth Rs. 152.38 billion were exported over the last fiscal year while goods worth Rs. 157.14 billion were exported in the fiscal year 2022/23. Although exports decreased by 3.03 per cent, the country's trade deficit is still Rs. 1,440.60 billion, less by only 0.96 per cent than the previous fiscal year. The export trade dropped because of a decrease in the export of soybean and palm oils. Soybean oil worth Rs. 902 million had been exported during the last fiscal year while it was Rs. 8.47 billion in the previous fiscal year. Palm oil worth Rs. 6.33 billion and sunflower oil worth Rs. 163 million had been exported during the review period. The export of soybean oil decreased almost by 90 per cent, palm oil by 68 per cent and sunflower oil by 60 per cent during the review period. The country exported palm oil worth Rs. 20.50 billion and sunflower oil worth Rs. 441 million in the fiscal year 2022/23. During the review period, the country exported cement and clinker worth Rs. 3.85 billion, tea and coffee worth Rs. 3.77 billion, yarchhagumba worth Rs. 701 million, cardamom worth Rs. 7.9 billion, carpets worth Rs. 11 billion and garment worth Rs. 9 billion. Meanwhile, crude soybean oil worth Rs. 13.44 billion, crude palm oil worth Rs. 13.02 billion and sunflower oil worth Rs. 17.83 billion were imported during the review period. The crude soybean oil worth Rs. 35.58 billion, palm oil worth Rs. 25.91 billion and sunflower oil worth Rs. 18.04 billion were imported during the fiscal year 2022/23. In the last fiscal year, petrol worth Rs. 68.10 billion, diesel worth Rs. 143.97 billion, kerosene worth Rs. 1.33 million, aviation fuel worth Rs. 20.78 billion and liquefied petroleum gas worth Rs. 55.61 billion had been imported. Petrol worth Rs. 66.84 billion, diesel worth Rs. 153.76 billion, aviation fuel worth Rs. 20 billion and liquefied petroleum gas worth Rs. 58.15 billion were imported in the previous fiscal year 2022/23. During the review period, the country imported about 11,700 four-wheeler electric vehicles worth Rs. 29.5 billion. The country imported cereals, including maize, paddy rice and wheat worth Rs. 45.8 billion during the last fiscal year. Widening footpaths around New Road good or bad? By Our Reporter New Road areas remained tense this week with locals strongly protesting the footpath widening drive of Mayor Balendra Shah. The local shopkeepers, who had been angry with Mayor Balen since he removed the parking lots from the city area, expressed their wrath when he started works to widen the footpaths by not allowing the contractors to dig the roadside south of Juddha Shalik to expand the footpaths. The locals staged a sit-in by pitching tents amid the monsoon rains prompting the Mayor to sit for talks. Interestingly, ward chairman Chinkaji Shrestha of Ward No.22 led the protest. Now that the two sides agreed to form a committee to study the issue in the areas where the KMC has not to dig roads to expand the footpath KMC will expand the footpaths in the areas where it dug the roads. The committee will submit a report on November 17, which means New Road will remain calm till mid-November. Interestingly, most people have supported Mayor Balen's drive to widen the footpath of New Road, because in cultural city areas like New Road, there is a practice of having wider footpaths restricting vehicular movements. Even in India's Red Fort areas, in many ancient cities in China and other countries, vehicular movements are restricted near the heritage sites. But in Kathmandu, vehicular movements are allowed even in the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar areas. Balen has a plan to widen the footpaths where people could enjoy food and other items while walking and enjoying the scenes of the city. When vehicular movements are prohibited, the area will be peaceful free from pollution. But the locals in New Road tend to see every move of the government with their personal economic gains, they fear with the restriction of the vehicles, the customers will not visit them. But in reality it is otherwise. What the KMC Mayor is doing in Kathmandu will turn fruitful in the long run for all. Poor use of development budget continues By Our Reporter The use of the development budget has remained poor for the last five years in Nepal. It is always less than two-thirds of the total allocation.  It was no different in the last fiscal year either. In Fiscal Year 2023/24 - which ended on July 16, only 63.5 per cent capital budget was utilised, according to the country's economic status report released by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Tuesday. The figures are discouraging given the demand of development amidst the government's inability to mobilise the funds for the same. Last year, the then Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat had allocated only Rs. 302.7 billion ( 17.25 per cent) of the Rs. 1751.31 billion budget for the development sector. But the government could mobilise only Rs. 192.21 billion in a year. This is a negative growth of 18.3 per cent compared to the previous FY 2022/23 when the government could utilise 61.7 per cent (Rs. 234.62 billion) of the Rs. 380.38 billion capital allocation. Likewise, total capital expenditure stood at 61.7 per cent in the FY 2022/23, about 57.2 per cent in 2021/22 and 64.8 per cent in 2020/21 while it remained all time low in 2019/20 with just 46.3 per cent mobilisation. The government could achieve above 80 per cent utilisation of the budget allocated for development works only once in the last decade. In Fiscal Year 2017/18, the government could mobilise 80.8 per cent of Rs. 335.27 billion capital allocation which has remained all-time high for the decade. The size of the annual budget of that year was Rs. 1279 billion. Rs. 803.5 billion was allocated for recurrent expenditure. That year also witnessed a better mobilisation of recurrent expenditure as well with 85 per cent utilisation of it. Similarly, the total expenditure of the federal government has remained below 86 per cent of the total budget in the last decade. Likewise, revenue collection remained below three-fourth of the annual target. In the last FY, the government could collect Rs. 1058.9 billion in revenue which was 74.4 per cent of the annual estimates of Rs. 1422.54 billion. However, this is 10.6 per cent growth compared to the previous fiscal 2022/23 when only 68.2 per cent achievement was made. That year, the government collected Rs. 957.35 billion in revenue against the target of Rs. 1403.15 billion. Likewise, the gap between the federal income and expenditure has remained wide, for example, last year, total income could cover only 70 per cent of the Rs. 1409 billion expenditure.