Business Desk :
The government has projected its expenditure to remain at 17 per cent of the GDP in the next two fiscal years defying the adverse impact of coronavirus, although the pandemic pulled down the rate slightly.
In the current 2021-22 fiscal, the government expenditure has been set at 17.3 per cent of the GDP while it was 17.4 per cent of the GDP in the revised budget of 2020-21 fiscal, reports UNB.
According to the official budgetary document, government expenditure was 13.9 per cent of GDP in 2015-16 fiscal and declined to 13.6 per cent in 2016-17 fiscal.
In 2017-18 fiscal, the rate increased to 14.3 per cent of the GDP whereas the rate shot to 15.4 per cent in 2018-19 fiscal. But in the 2019-20 fiscal it slightly went down to 14.9 per cent of the GDP.
As per the document, with a successful implementation of reforms in Public Financial Management, government expenditure has been increased since 2015-16 fiscal.
“In the medium term (2023-24), the government intends to pursue a moderate consolidation path to keep budget deficit within a sustainable limit,” the document said.
It mentioned that due to the outbreak of coronavirus, the government has changed its spending priority to expand healthcare and provide stimulus programmes to achieve desired economic recovery.
On the other hand, as per the document, the growth rate of nominal government expenditure fluctuated between 6.0 and 21 per cent over 2015-16 fiscal to 2019-20 fiscal.
The average growth rate of nominal government expenditure over 2015-16 fiscal to 2019-20 fiscal 14.8 per cent was achieved. As per the revised budget of 2020-21 fiscal, nominal growth of government expenditure is 29.7 per cent, which is the highest during the 2015-16 fiscal to 2020-21 fiscal and beyond.
