Kathmandu, June 9 -- This week, all seven of Nepal's provincial governments announced their annual budgets even as debate in the federal parliament over the central budget has been stalled for two weeks due to obstruction by the opposition RSP.

There are no big surprises in the provincial Red Books - they are all in the red with reduced allocations from the centre. Even so, while Gandaki and Lumbini have slightly reduced the size of the budget compared to the preceding fiscal year, the budget for the other four provinces are marginally bigger.

Even though revenue is short, the central and provincial governments have chronically been plagued by their inability to spend what has been budgeted, especially under capital expenditure. Five ou...