The Kathmandu Metropolitan City on Tuesday unveiled its Rs15.5 billion budget for the next fiscal year 2019-20. 

The budget, presented by Deputy Mayor Hari Prabha Khadgi, this year gives priority to infrastructure development; and for the purpose, the City has allocated Rs7.43 billion—39 percent of the total budget—to the sector. 

The city’s annual budget has grown by 17.4 percent in comparison to last year, when it had presented Rs13.2 billion budget. 

Under infrastructure development, the office has presented ambitious projects such as construction of flyovers, monorails, metropolitan elderly hospital, purification of rivers in the metropolis to name a few. Institutional development, social development, economic development, environment and disaster management are among the other priorities of the metropolitan city office.  

  The metropolitan city office expects to raise the highest amount of its fund—Rs7.5 billion—through revenue from its internal sources.

The annual budget shows that the metropolitan city has targeted to generate Rs3.6 billion from local tax revenue, Rs2.4 billion from non-tax revenue and Rs1.5 billion as revenue sharing. 

For office operation expenses, the city has allocated Rs594.3 million. The metropolitan city has allocated Rs1.41 billion to pay salaries and allowances for its staff. For its capital expenditure, the metropolitan city has allocated Rs 1.55 billion. 

While presenting the budget, Deputy Mayor Khadgi said the metropolitan city has not been able to meet its revenue target because it has not been able to bring big taxpayers under the tax net due the delay in formulating laws.