By Our Reporter The government has tabled a budget of Rs. 1.79 trillion for the coming fiscal year. The budget size is larger by 9.86 per cent compared to that of the current FY 2021/22. But it's 16 per cent larger than the adjusted figures for the last year's budget. Through a replacement bill 2021/22, which was endorsed by the parliament two months after the beginning of the fiscal year, FM Sharma had announced the budget of Rs. 1632.82 billion. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced a budget of Rs. 1793.83 billion for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2022/23 at a joint meeting of the Federal Parliament on Sunday. Unveiling the budget, Minister Sharma said in the budget he has given priority to agriculture, poverty alleviation and employment generation. The government has allocated Rs. 753.4 billion for recurrent expenditure, Rs. 380.3 billion for capital spending and Rs. 230.2 for financing. These allocations comprise 42 per cent, 21.2 per cent and 12.8 per cent respectively. Likewise, Rs. 429.8 billion (24 per cent) is allocated for financial transfer to the provinces and local levels. To finance these expenditures, FM Sharma has proposed to raise Rs. 1240.1 billion in revenues and Rs. 55.4 billion from foreign grants. Even after that, the size of the budget deficit would be Rs. 498.2 billion which is to be fulfilled from foreign loans and domestic borrowing – Rs. 242.2 billion and 256 billion respectively The budget endorses the policy for the transformation of agriculture to increase production and create employment, promote export and replace imports, build a self-reliant economy and end absolute poverty. The government has included an ambitious target to decrease imports of rice, maize, wheat, vegetables and fruits by 30 per cent, and imports of other goods by 20 per cent over a year. Likewise, doubling the exports and creating a trade balance in the next five years, increasing decent jobs by 30 per cent in a year, providing housing to landless Dalits, and pulling 800,000 citizens out of absolute poverty look highly ambitious. Major allocations The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST), Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) have received the largest allocations of the budget. These three ministries combined receive about 31.15 per cent of the total budget. Education Ministry has received Rs. 196.3 billion - 10.95 per cent of the total expenditure estimates, Home Ministry Rs. 185.9 billion or 10.37 per cent, and Infrastructure Ministry Rs. 176.3 billion – 9.83 per cent. Likewise, the Health Ministry received 5.75 per cent (Rs. 103 billion) allocation, Agriculture Ministry 3.34 per cent (Rs. 59.8 billion), and Defense Ministry and Urban Ministry received 3.07 per cent (55 billion) each. Other ministries in the top 10 list of the largest budget allocations are the Ministry of Finance (2.39 per cent), the Ministry of Water Supply (2.09 per cent), and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (2.06 per cent). But the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs received only 0.05 per cent of the total budget (Rs. 886 million), the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare 0.10 per cent (Rs. 1.7 billion), the Ministry of Youth and Sports 0.18 billion (Rs. 3.2 billion), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs 0.33 per cent (Rs. 5.8 billion). Budget seems populist aimed at attracting vote  The government has tried its best to woo voters in the upcoming elections by scattering budgets and introducing some popular programmes. Increasing the pay of the government employees including teachers and reducing the age of the recipients of the old-age allowance are the two main programmes aimed at increasing the votes of the ruling parties, especially the NC. The government has increased the salaries of the employees by 15 per cent in the budget. In his budget speech on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced the pay hike for the fiscal year 2022/23. The new salary will come into effect from mid-July (Shrawan). The Finance Minister announced pay hikes for the civil servants including the army, police and teachers. The price inflation allowance that the employees have been receiving has been given continuity. The new pay is as follows:    Designations Current Pay New Pay 1 Chief Secretary Rs. 67,140 Rs. 77,211 2 Secretary Rs. 62,680 Rs. 72,082 3 Joint Secretary Rs. 49,380 Rs. 56,787 4 Under Secretary Rs. 42,380 Rs. 48,737 5 Section Officer Rs. 37,990 Rs. 43,689 6 Non-gazetted Officer (Nayab Subba) Rs. 30,200 Rs. 34,730 7 Kharidar Rs. 28,610 Rs. 32,902 8 Mukhiya Rs. 24,010 Rs. 27,612 Likewise, FM Sharma has brought down the eligibility age for the senior citizen's allowance to 68 years from the existing 70 years. Senior citizens receive an allowance of Rs. 4,000 a month. However, he said that the government would honour those who announce not to take the facility. About Rs. 134 billion is allocated for social security programmes for senior citizens, single women, people with disability, Dalit senior citizens, minorities on the verge of extinction, and children under 5 years of age in 25 districts with the lowest Human Development Index, and Dalit children. Earlier, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had said that the eligibility age for the social allowance will be brought down to 65 years. But the budget announced the eligible age is 68 years to receive the allowance. Likewise, the government has given continuity to the projects initiated by the previous KP Oli-led government in a bid not to irk the voters of the project areas. Budget receives mixed reactions  The budget for the next fiscal year 2022/23 unveiled on Sunday received mixed reactions from economists, politicians and businessmen. While the politicians close to the ruling parties as well as businessmen have appreciated the budget, the politicians affiliated with the main opposition CPN-UML have criticised it. Former finance ministers and economists said that it would be challenging for the government to manage the resources and meet the expenditure targets. Former Finance Minister and CPN-UML vice chairman Bishnu Paudel said that the budget was solely aimed at increasing the votes of the ruling parties in the upcoming elections. He said the budget was scattered and was not based on any principle. Likewise, former Finance Minister Barsaman Pun said that the budget estimate for the next year was positive as it targets the production sector. “Budget target of promoting agro production which leads the economy towards self-reliance is positive,” he said. CPN UML leader and former Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, however, said that the government brought a baseless and distributary budget targeting the election. “Except for promoting the use of electric stoves in households nothing is exciting in the budget,” he said, adding that policy and priority were somewhere and the budget directed elsewhere. He also said the budget neither can maintain fiscal discipline nor can it meet the targets. Similarly, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, former Prime Minister, said, ambitious targets cannot be met, it could be only a better spice for the election to lure voters,” he said. Likewise, NC leader and former Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat said that the budget is highly relevant to tackling the challenges being faced by the economy. Likewise, economist Dr. Chandra Mani Adhikari said that the priorities and thoughts carried by the budget are comparatively good, but it has not maintained a concrete policy for addressing the present challenges of the economy such as liquidity crunch and foreign currency reserves. The budget is large and it is difficult to manage resources for the budget such as revenue mobilisation and foreign grants and loans, he said. “Proper implementation of the budget within the existing implementation mechanism and institutional setup is almost impossible,” he said. The organisations of the business communities have welcomed the budget for its programmes by reduction of imports and promoting private sectors. Senior vice-president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce Kamlesh Agrawal said that the programmes included in the budget are positive and industry-friendly. “Most of the priorities of the budget are good but the implementation of the budget looks challenging. It will be challenging to collect revenue of Rs. 1,240 billion while the government has tightened the import,” he said. Senior vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Chandra Prasad Dhakal said that the budget has given priority to give discounts on tax while investing in Karnali and Sudurpashchim provinces for a certain period which is also positive, he said. He, however, said that the implementation part of the budget is more challenging in the coming year.