MoCIT sees disparity in target and progress

Various speakers have highlighted the need to further realize the financial and physical targets of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) and its subordinate agencies.

In a meeting of the fiscal year 2021/22 annual review and ministry level development problem resolving committee held at MoCIT on Friday, chiefs of the concerned agencies shared the progress of the works done so far from their end to meet the targeted plan and programmes, keeping a balance between the fiscal and physical targets in coming days. Most of the responsible authorities painted satisfactory progress of their performance.

On the occasion, National Planning Commission’s Vice-Chairperson Dr Biwo Poudel said the state-owned public enterprises should work to generate profit as per the goals they set. “The government media should also be economically viable besides making the citizens well-informed of the government’s decisions and actions," he noted.

Dr Poudel stressed the need to implement e-commerce in urban and commercial areas having dense economic activities in the first phase and gradually expand the practice to other geographies.

MoCIT Secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal said there has been no balance between the financial and physical progress in most of the agencies during the review period and highlighted that the settlement of the arrears should be augmented enough to keep fiscal discipline.

“The government media should play a coordinating role between the government and the people by disseminating factual and objective information in a timely manner”, Dr Aryal added.

Also speaking on the occasion, Joint-Secretary of the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Krishna Bahadur Raut, suggested the service providers enhance their quality through the use of the internet; film industry to present the cultural heritage of the country at the international arena through cinema; Digital Nepal Framework to be fully implemented and public procurement process needs to be gradually simplified.

Likewise, Joint-Secretary of the NPC, Kiran Rupakheti said the government's success largely hinges on the performance of mass communications, telecommunications, information communication technologies and film industry as well as MoCIT because they work to reach out the government’s activities to the people. He also noted that other ministries should also be equally responsible for implementing Digital Nepal Framework.

Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Biswo Bandhu Poudel said plans and programs should be formulated in a way to achieve the targets stipulated in the 15th five-year plan.

On the occasion, MoCIT Under-Secretary Mukunda Sharma presented the annual progress review and allocation and third-semester progress of the ministry. He had shared the progress status, annual progress details of the budgeted program, key achievements of the fiscal year 2021/22, revenue and expenditure, and arrears settlement.