Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has highlighted that viewing Nepal’s foreign aid, grants, and concessional loans through the same lens has caused confusion about the actual aid received by the country.
Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle shared his thoughts during a meeting of Public Accounts Committee of House of Representatives. In the meeting, they were discussing about the audit of foreign assistance that Nepal gets. The minister explained that because we look at all types of aid in the same way, it has created a lot of confusion.
The Real Situation of Foreign Grants and Loans
According to Finance Minister Wagle, the government used to estimate getting big amounts as grant in the budget. However, the actual money that Nepal received was always very low. Out of total budget of 2124 Arba for this year, the target for foreign loan is only 248 Arba. The foreign loan and grant, which also includes programs like MCA, is around 62 Arba this time.
He pointed out that for last 5 to 7 years, the budget set target to receive 48 to 52 Arba rupees as grants. But in reality, Nepal never received more than 10 to 15 Arba rupees of grants.
Why Grouping Them Together is Wrong
The Finance Minister strongly believes we should not put INGOs, bilateral grants, and concessional loans from multilateral agencies in same basket. He said that grouping them together makes people have conflicting views. It is better to analyze them separately because they are very different from each other.
He also talked about the need to have a separate debate regarding the work of NGOs and INGOs. It is important to discuss how strategic the foreign aid is, how much it connects to donor’s own interest, and how much actually helps in Nepal’s development.
Minister Wagle added that NGOs and INGOs had a big boom after year 1999 and they did some good contributions. But today, the funding for INGOs has dried up a lot, which makes a separate discussion even more necessary.
AI Disclaimer: This article was originally published on https://bajarkochirfar.com. It has been translated with the help of AI. For the best understanding and accurate facts, we recommend reading the original Nepali version.
