Finance Minister’s discontent over meagre capital expenditure

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has expressed displeasure over the meagre capital expenditure. He stressed the need for adopting new system to increase spending. At a meeting of ministry level development problems solving committee and first progress review of fiscal year 2021/22 on Wednesday, Finance Minister Sharma viewed why the capital expenditure was not increased in a noticeable manner. If such trend persists next month too, new system needs to be adopted, he stressed. “I’m planning a new way to increase capital expenditure in case this trend continues,” he reiterated at the meeting. Similarly, he showed concern over rising import rate though there were bases to decrease it. The Minister argued that as the import did not decrease, it impacted on trade balance and foreign cash reserve. He also underscored the need for lowering interest rate of micro credits to one digit. Making digital transaction broader is another priority, according to him. On the occasion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini argued that import of gold could be tightened to reduce the pressure on liquidity. He urged all ministries to increase capital expenditure. —–