Koshi Province Sets Budget Ceiling of 28 Billion for Upcoming Fiscal Year

Arjun Acharya May 14, 2026

Koshi Province Sets Budget Ceiling of 28 Billion for Upcoming Fiscal Year

Biratnagar. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning of Koshi Province has set a ceiling of approximately 28 billion for the upcoming fiscal year (2083/084) for all ministries and offices for budget construction.

According to that ceiling, ministries and subordinate bodies must enter their plans into the system (PLMBIS) by Jestha 15, as clearly stated in the Project Classification, Basis and Criteria Determination and Project Bank Management Procedure, 2082.

However, it appears to be difficult for the ministries to enter their plans. The budget ceiling given by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to the Ministry of Social Development is 1 billion 150 million. 4,100 projects selected for the project bank have been included for that ministry.

'Our ministry has 44 areas of work. Within that, we had also requested plans from the local levels. We have now received more than 41 hundred plans. The cost of which is more than 39 billion rupees,' said Uddhav Prasad Rizal, Secretary of the Ministry of Social Development.

Sachib Rijal

According to Rizal, the ministry's budget ceiling is only 1 billion 150 million. He stated that out of the 1 billion 150 million ceiling, 880 million is mandatory liability. 'We have to address plans worth 39 billion with the remaining 270 million,' he said.

Not only in the Ministry of Social Development. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development of the province has an even larger pile of plans. According to the ministry's secretary Milan Acharya, there are 13,292 projects entered into the project bank for the current fiscal year alone.

As many as 23,047 projects were entered into the project bank in the previous fiscal year. The total number of projects for both fiscal years reaches 36,339. The ministry estimates that the cost of all these projects will be more than 400 billion.

'The projects entered into the project bank in the current fiscal year alone are worth 2 billion 210 million. Our ministry's ceiling is 7 billion. Now, the project bank will probably prepare the budget by selecting projects from the project bank,' said Secretary Acharya.

Adding the estimated cost of previous projects, the ministry estimates it to be more than 400 billion.

This data clearly shows how much pressure the provincial government is under. Although the compulsion to shrink a demand of 39 billion into 270 million sounds amusing in Secretary Rizal's words, it is a policy and politically challenging task. With the total budget ceiling of Koshi Province being around 28 billion, the arrival of demands worth billions in a single ministry raises questions about the project selection process itself.

According to Ambika Regmi, Information Officer of the Project Commission, the work of filtering and verifying so many projects is underway. 'That verification work is ongoing. It will be finalized only after the commission's meeting,' she said.

Bajet bare (1)

Regmi stated that although the ministries can look at their plans themselves, the final recommendation will be made by the commission. She said, 'After a consolidated verification, the commission will make the recommendation. It will be recommended after removing duplication.'

On the other hand, Secretary Acharya of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development says that the project commission will also select the projects to be included in the red book. 'How can we screen so many projects? The project commission will prioritize and select them for the red book,' he said.

Problem Connecting Project Bank and PLMBIS

The technical aspect of budget construction appears even more complex. According to Sushil Bastola, Spokesperson and Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, employees are forced to work manually due to the lack of interrelation between the project bank and the budget entry system (PLMBIS).

'The two systems are not linked. It would be easier if PLMBIS and the project bank were linked. If there was a system like 'Forward to PLMBIS' to select a plan called 'A', it would be easy. But since they are two separate systems, one has to search manually to find them. This is cumbersome,' he said.

Due to this technical deficiency, it is taking a lot of time for employees to find suitable projects from thousands of plans and enter them into the budget system. Employees are under pressure due to the deadline of entering all plans by Jestha 15. Bastola also stated that the Project Bank Procedure may not be followed. 'Now there will be a situation where we have to trust and cannot verify ourselves,' he said.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs has sent the ceiling to all ministries. However, Secretary Rizal of the Ministry of Social Development confirmed that the province's own budget has also shrunk due to the cut in grants from the federal government.

He said, 'Our budget was around 1 billion 880 million. This includes federal complementary and federal conditional grants. Our own provincial budget is similar to this year, around 1 billion 400 million. This year, the ceiling has further decreased to 1 billion 150 million.'

Although the main basis for budget construction should be the provincial government's policies and programs, in Koshi Province, more attention seems to be focused on how to include the projects in the project bank in the budget. The lack of coordination between ministries, the distance between technical systems, and the pressure of time are likely to raise questions about the quality of the budget. Government officials themselves admit that due to the compulsion to enter plans through manual search, some important plans may be missed or plans may enter based on access.

72 Thousand Projects in Project Bank

For the fiscal year 2083/084, 32,000 new projects from various provincial bodies have been entered into the project bank. Currently, there are 72,972 projects in the project bank that are intended for implementation.

The provincial government currently has more than 6,000 projects in operation. This year, the provincial government has adopted a policy of including only projects below 2.5 million in the budget.

According to the Project Classification, Basis and Criteria Determination and Project Bank Management Procedure, 2082, the deadline for ministries and provincial bodies to 'filter' projects for the upcoming fiscal year was set for Baishakh 20. However, the filtering work is not yet complete. This time, the Project Commission has entered projects within the limit of 2.5 million.

According to the Project Classification, Basis and Criteria Determination and Project Bank Management Procedure, 2082, the limit for roads and bridges is 10 million, buildings, suspension bridges, physical infrastructure related to irrigation, education and health, physical infrastructure related to sports, drinking water projects, physical infrastructure in religious and cultural areas, physical infrastructure related to agricultural business promotion, construction of drains and sewers in urban areas, and any physical infrastructure within the exclusive jurisdiction of the province is set at 2.5 million.

However, the procedure states that when operating multi-year projects, the maximum limit for social infrastructure projects-programs should not exceed 150 million and for other projects, it should not exceed 300 million.

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