The Kathmandu Metropolitan City is finally set to unveil an annual budget of Rs25.11 billion for the upcoming fiscal year 2025-26.

A meeting of the revenue advisory committee, led by Deputy Mayor Sunita Dangol and the resource estimation committee, led by Mayor Balendra Shah, held on Friday decided to propose a budget of that amount.

“All procedures to unveil the budget of the upcoming fiscal year have been completed,” said Dhurba Kumar Kafle, assistant spokesperson at the city office.

“Bureaucrats and elected representatives have been working on the budget for a long time. Now we have the ceiling, and the budget will be prepared accordingly.”

Along with the meetings of the revenue advisory committee and resource estimation committee, the city office also held a municipality executive committee meeting on Friday, where it was decided to convene another executive meeting on Sunday morning and a municipal assembly meeting in the afternoon.

The mayor’s proposal to hold the next executive and assembly meetings on Sunday to present the metropolitan city’s annual budget was passed by the meeting unanimously.

“The next executive meeting will endorse the budget, which will be presented in the municipal assembly meeting in the afternoon,” said Nurnidhi Neupane, information officer at the city office. “Mayor Shah will present the policy and programme of the metropolis while Deputy Mayor Dangol will present the budget in the municipal assembly.”

The metropolis has not been able to bring its annual budget on time due to a long-running dispute between the federal government and Mayor Shah. Most local units, including five of the six metropolitan cities in the country, unveiled their annual budgets on June 24.

Mayor Shah had not convened an executive meeting for over six months. His refusal to do so stemmed from the ongoing row with the federal government, which began after he sent the chief administrative officer on leave over corruption allegations.

Mayor Shah had sent Chief Administrative Officer Saroj Gruragain on leave on December 23, accusing him of being involved in financial irregularities related to the approval of a construction plan for Kathmandu Tower at the Old Bus Park.

However, instead of appointing a replacement, the federal government reinstated Guragain in the first week of April, defying Shah’s objections.

In response, Shah deployed municipal police to stop Guragain from entering the office. But the attempt failed as Deputy Mayor Dangol, along with other ward chiefs close to the ruling parties, and staffers, who had remained unpaid for several months due to the chief administrative officer’s absence, assisted him in resuming office. The chief administrative officer holds the financial authority.

It has already been over six months since the last executive meeting was held at least once every month as per the Local Government Operation Act 2017.

As per the Local Government Operation Act and the Inter-Governmental Financial Management Act, local governments must present their annual budget by Asar 10 (June 24 this year).

Other elected representatives and the bureaucrats of the city office had been urging Mayor Shah to put differences aside and bring the annual budget for the upcoming fiscal year, as they said that no one’s ego should stall development and hamper regular work of the metropolitan city.