Kathmandu, 22 JAN

Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Gokul Prasad Banskota, has warned of budget freeze if the subordinate bodies failed to expedite the works within the month of Magh.

Minister Banskota gave such warnings during a half-year review of the bodies under the ministry for the activities to be conducted in the current fiscal year. "If the budget allocated for the particular activity is not spent as per timetable, the ministry retrieves it," he said, adding that it was not good to keep money useless for the activities that have not begun yet.

"Chief of the bodies failing to use the budget on time will face departmental action," the Minister further warned. He directed the chiefs of the departments and agencies to furnish justification for why they could not spend the budget as per the timeline. The Minister, however, said if the budget is inadequate for any undertaking begun, the Finance Ministry would consider it.

Minister Banskota urged the concerned bodies to enforce the decision of selling Radio Nepal's land to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA). Nepal Television officials were asked to bring forth modality of the English World Channel of Nepal Television. Similarly, it was directed for the formation of a study team to analyze the spending on social networking sites as Facebook, and the revenue and tax relating to it.

On the occasion, National News Agency (RSS) Chairman Harihari Adhikari 'Shyamal' urged the ministry to pass the RSS by-regulation which is under consideration in the ministry. He also said the additional budget was needed for furniture in the newly constructed building. Chairman Shyamal reminded that RSS had proposed the ministry to appoint permanent correspondent to RSS in Beijing and New Delhi.

He further informed that the print archive of news RSS disseminated from 2018BS to 2052BS was scanned to an image file and they were being put online. Various bodies under the ministry had presented their half-yearly review in the meeting. According to the ministry, the overall capital expenditure of the ministry so far was 24.08.