Foreign debt of Rs 13,000 on every Nepali: Auditor General of Nepal

Kathmandu, June 29 (UNI) Every Nepali citizen owes a foreign debt of Rs 13,000(Nepalese currency), the country's auditor general said.

The government of Nepal has so far taken 324 billion and 540 million Nepalese rupees worth foreign loans, according to the statistics of the Office of the Auditor General.

An audit of the expenditure accounts of the Government of Nepal showed arrears of Rs 28 billion and 530 million, local media quoted Auditor General Gehendranath Adhikari as saying.

He said the arrears stood at Rs 7 billion and 240 million in 2005 and the Ministries with the highest amount of arrears are the Ministry of Finance with arrears of 25 per cent, the Ministry of Defence with arrears of 12 per cent, the Ministry of Home Affairs with an arrears of 10 per cent, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works with an arrears of eight per cent and the Ministry of Local Development with an arrears of seven per cent.

Mr Adhikari said as the government has been incurring a big loss from public corporations, it would be appropriate to either privatise these corporations or sell their shares.

The large amount of arrears was because of the non-transparency of the finance budget and the miscellaneous budget, he added.

Expenditure in the royal palace has increased significantly during the last few years, he said.

Mr Adhikari said the Royal Palace expenditure was over Rs 165 million in fiscal year 2001/2002, Rs 481 million in 2002/2003, Rs 543 million in 2003/2004 and Rs 365 million in 2004/2005.

UNI XC PA VA KN0919