Publication: Reforms under Fiscal Stress : A Policy Note on the Priorities for Fiscal and Budget Reform in Nepal
Loading...
Published
2012
ISSN
Date
2013-03-12
Editor(s)
Abstract
This note, first of the several on fiscal management and policy option notes planned, provides a concise assessment of the achievements to date of the ongoing reforms to budget management in Nepal and concludes with some guidance on the key focus areas of fiscal policy and expenditure management over the near and medium term. It is a selective assessment that looks at major aspects of the policy and budget process with a view to identifying areas for strategic focus, rather than a detailed rendering of the reforms. The note highlights the fiscal challenges that are assuming increasing prominence and which must be addressed by policy decisions and medium term reforms. While recognizing the uniqueness of Nepal's initial conditions, capacities and current security related challenges, the note takes account of international experience in implementing such reforms. The note starts with the economic and political background. The second section reviews fiscal trends and outlines issues to be considered by a fiscal strategy. The third section discusses institutional issues to strengthen the budget process.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Bajracharya, Roshan Darshan; Biletska, Nataliya; Rajaram, Anand. 2012. Reforms under Fiscal Stress : A Policy Note on the Priorities for Fiscal and Budget Reform in Nepal. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12645 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe : Country Integrated Fiduciary Assessment, Volume 1. Executive Summary(Washington, DC, 2007-06)This Integrated Fiduciary Assessment is the first of its kind for Sao Tome and Principe. It combines the analysis and policy recommendations from a public expenditure review (PER), a country financial accountability assessment (CFAA), and a country procurement assessment review (CPAR). The goal of the report is to identify the major challenges facing the country in the prepetroleum era (the next three to five years) in public finance management (including public enterprises) as it attempts to implement its National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS) with a tight resource envelope. This executive summary presents recent economic developments and fiscal sustainability analysis that takes into account petroleum and no-petroleum scenarios, with corresponding analysis on which of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are reachable. The summary reports on revenue and expenditure performance since 2000-01, issues related to the implementation of the public investment program (PIP) and its coordination with the NPRS, and the budget process, including findings from the Health PER, which highlights a lack of allocative efficiency. The summary reports on the financial fragility of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the possible fiscal consequences for the central budget, especially regarding the implicit subsidies and tax breaks to (and the hypothetical tariff increases of) the electricity and water company. The summary of reports on the status of the public finance management system (budget preparation, execution, control, governance, and human resources) and the reform process that may address many of the concerns it rises. Finally, the summary presents the findings related to the procurement process, including the legislative and regulatory framework, institutional framework and management capacity, procurement operations and market practices, and integrity and transparency of the system.Publication Government of Karnataka Public Financial Management Reform Action Plan, 2014, Volume 1. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2014-05-01)The main report comprises the following chapters: executive summary provides the overall view of the reform action plan. Chapter one outlines the background, scope and methodology for the study; chapter two outlines the overview of the state finances; chapter three describe the accomplishments made against the 2004 agreed PFMA action plan; chapter four provides an overview of the analysis, gaps and recommendations made in the study; chapter five describes the way forward for implementation of the action plan; annex one: PFM reform action plan - 2014 contains a thematic-wise plan outlining the actions to be taken, the responsible department for the actions, and the expected timeframe for completing the actions. The detailed analysis of the issues and the logic for the action plan are provided in the respective sections of the appendix; annex two: 2004 PFMA action plan, outlines the current status of action taken on 2004 PFMA action plan: this contains the action plan as proposed in the 2004 report, updated with the current status of actions in the identified areas. In case where the actions have been taken and completed by the Government of Karnataka, the impact has been documented. The appendix comprises the following sections: section one: theme one: strengthening PFM legal and institutional framework; section two: theme two: enhancing comprehensiveness and credibility of the budget; section three: theme three: strengthening accounting, reporting, controls, and transparency; section four: theme four: improving fiscal assets and liability management system; section five: theme five: strengthening audit and legislative oversight; section six: theme six: improving PFM in local self-governments; section seven: theme six: improving PFM in public sector undertakings (state owned); each section describes the various areas of public financial management in the Government of Karnataka grouped into thematic reform areas. Each reform area has a discussion of the background, the reform actions proposed in the 2004 PFMA action plan, the progress of reforms over the last decade, the issues presently identified, and the rationale for the reform actions proposed; and section eight: 2014 action plan: this section describes the action plan with next steps to be followed under each activity of the action plan.Publication Liberia - 2008 Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review(World Bank, 2009-06-01)The 2008 Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review (PEMFAR) assess Liberia's public expenditure performance along four main dimensions: macroeconomic, institutional, allocations between sectors, and allocations within key sectors. At the macroeconomic level, it describes the external economic constraints and opportunities that will drive growth and revenue mobilization over the medium term and determine the likely fiscal envelope (chapter one). It next reviews the institutional structures that guide and ensure appropriate resource allocation and assesses the strength and weaknesses of the current systems using a standardized public expenditure and financial accountability scoring system (chapter two). It then assesses how public expenditure has been allocated between sectors and priorities (chapter three). It lastly reviews the allocation of resources within two priority sectors, health and education (chapter four).Publication PRSPs and Budgets(A Synthesis of Five Case Studies, 2005-01-18)This paper synthesizes the findings from a series of case studies on the interaction between the PRSP process and the budget. The five studies, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Tanzania and Vietnam aim to assess the extent to which public finance management and budget allocations reflect the principles and content of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper PRSP, hence providing insights into progress in PRS implementation. The cases also shed light on whether the PRSP process itself has fostered more accountable, efficient and pro-poor budget processes and allocations as of 2003.The PRSP process, with its focus on data and information for evidence-based policy-making, open and participatory policy-making processes, poverty results and country-led donor coordination, alignment and harmonization has the potential to significantly improve the pro-poor focus and general accountability of budgeting processes.The cases confront a number of methodological challenges. First, in some countries and sectors, lack of appropriate data constrained the extent to which the research questions could be fully answered. Second, the PRSP remains a relatively recent innovation in all the countries studied and we recognize that many of our findings are preliminary, and require additional confirmation over time. Third, any assessment of the value added of the PRSP approach needs to be cognizant of the initial conditions in country, both to avoid ascribing successes to the PRSP which pre-date its existence, and to temper expectations about what the approach can deliver in a relatively short space of time given the starting point of each country. To address this last challenge, the case studies explicitly acknowledge the pre-existing situation in-country and try to assess the value added of the PRSP process.The four countries studied have a number of common features.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, all five countries share a high-level political commitment to addressing poverty, although the extent to which this commitment permeates throughout government agencies varies from country to country.The five countries, however, also display many distinctive features. Bolivia and Cambodia, for example, both suffer from high degrees of political fragmentation, which in Bolivia has manifested itself as civil unrest on a number of occasions in the last two years. Burkina Faso, Tanzania, and Vietnam, on the other hand, benefit from more stable political systems and an inherited commitment to pro-poor policies from socialist governments.Publication United Republic of Tanzania Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Review 2008(Washington, DC, 2009-06)Rising inflation represents a serious challenge for the government, including fiscal policy. By December 2008, inflation has risen to 13.5 percent, far above the government target of five percent since 2004. It is important the government continue its effort to reduce inflation through monetary and fiscal policies, including reducing inflationary pressures on the budget by controlling wage bill growth in line with medium-term pay policy. The 2008-09 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) projected optimistic targets for domestic revenue and, at a same time, pessimistic targets for foreign aid. Although domestic revenue has been rising over the recent past, the targeted 18.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in revenue effort is high given the fact that revenue has increased by only one percent of GDP annually in the past five years. It is important to improve reliability of the macro-framework by sustaining efforts to develop capacity in macro-fiscal policy and macro-modeling, which is an important tool for the government to properly assess expected levels of domestic revenue collection over the medium term. Although some major achievements have been obtained in capacity building program, priority areas for intervention have also been identified for 2009. These areas are: (i) strengthening of macroeconomic model (MACMOD) and the macro policy framework paper, taking into account the world economic crisis as well as new data developments in Tanzania; (ii) initiating MTEF upgrades (both central and sector) as well as program budgeting starting with the ministry of health and social welfare; and (iii) preparing the second edition of the budget background and medium term framework for 2009/10 - 2011/12.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Doing Business 2014 : Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2013-10-28)Eleventh in a series of annual reports comparing business regulation in 185 economies, Doing Business 2014 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of everyday business activity: Starting a business, Dealing with construction permits, Getting electricity, Registering property, Getting credit, Protecting investors, Paying taxes, Trading across borders, Enforcing contracts, Closing a business, Employing workers. The report updates all indicators as of June 1, 2013, ranks economies on their overall “ease of doing business”, and analyzes reforms to business regulation – identifying which economies are strengthening their business environment the most. The Doing Business reports illustrate how reforms in business regulations are being used to analyze economic outcomes for domestic entrepreneurs and for the wider economy. Doing Business is a flagship product by the World Bank and IFC that garners worldwide attention on regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. More than 60 economies use the Doing Business indicators to shape reform agendas and monitor improvements on the ground. In addition, the Doing Business data has generated over 870 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals since its inception.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2011(World Bank, 2011)The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.