Displeased with the dismal performance in capital expenditure this fiscal year, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today directed all ministries to speed up spending of the development budget effectively.

During a review meeting with all the government secretaries regarding progress in capital spending for the fiscal year 2015-16, he directed them to use at least 80 percent of the development budget by mid-July.

“The prime minister took stock of the progress made so far on capital expenditure and directed all the concerned ministries to speed up works and utilise the capital in an effective manner within the remaining two-and-half months of this fiscal,” said Binod Bahadur Kunwar, spokesperson of the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

The secretaries had apprised the PM that only 28 per cent of development budget had been used in the past 10 months of this fiscal.

The prime minister sought to know the reasons behind such dismal performance in spending capital.

Many secretaries attributed it to the earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25, 2015 and the border blockade following the promulgation of the new constitution in September as reasons behind sluggish performance in spending the development budget, said a secretary, who was present at the meeting