Kathmandu. The total arrears of the country have reached over seven trillion rupees. According to the annual report submitted by the Office of the Auditor General to President Ram Chandra Poudel for the fiscal year 2081/82, arrears amounted to Rs 755 billion.

The Office of the Auditor General has audited the federal, provincial, local level, corporate institutions and other institutions and committees designated by the federal law in the fiscal year 2081/82.

According to Auditor General Toyam Raya, the audit of Rs 147.90 billion has not been carried out as the accounts of 179 offices and agencies have not been submitted due to the agitation and incidents of September 7 and 24.

The audit has found arrears worth Rs 88.09 billion that required various policy and systemic reforms. According to him, arrears amounting to Rs 53.49 billion were allocated to federal government offices, Rs 5.23 billion to provinces, Rs 19.05 billion to local levels and Rs 10.32 billion to committees and other institutions.

A total of Rs 14.63 billion has been recovered from the audit of past arrears and settlement of the payments pointed out this year. The government has audited 3,050 federal ministries and agencies worth Rs 2,917.95 billion in the current fiscal year.

Audit of 1,124 provincial ministries and bodies amounting to Rs 1109.52 billion has been carried out in the current fiscal year. Likewise, audit of 577 committees and other institutions amounted to Rs 447.77 billion and 44 institutions in 54 fiscal years, including Rs 4.688 billion in 54 fiscal years, according to Auditor General Raya.

Similarly, the Ministry with the highest arrears is the Finance. The ministry alone has 70. The arrears are equal to 37 percent. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport is in the second position. The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation is in the third position. The Ministry of Forest and Environment and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology are in the fourth and fifth positions respectively.