Finance minister says flood rebuilding has forced cuts to development and social budgets
The government has had to cut development and social-sector budgets to find money for rescue, relief and reconstruction after the disasters, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle said on Wednesday. He was speaking at a discussion at the Nepal Pavilion of the COP31 climate conference in Turkey, OnlineKhabar reported, citing the state news agency RSS.
The cuts fall on school and hospital construction, social security and other development programmes, he said. Neither OnlineKhabar nor Merolagani gives an amount. Nor do they name the budget lines or say when the cuts were made.
Nepal cannot carry the cost of climate disasters alone, Wagle said. He asked for a special international package of grants, concessional loans and debt relief for countries at risk. No pledge in reply was reported.
He also said Nepal had received about US$20 million from the loss and damage fund, its first grant from it, and called the sum welcome but very small. The fund's board agreed that allocation on October 22 and had not yet paid it out, Climate Home News reported at the time.
Why it matters: Nepal still has to send the fund a proposal for how it will use that money, Climate Home News reported. Wagle is at COP31 in Antalya, which runs to November 20, The Kathmandu Post reported.