Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat presented the budget for the next fiscal year 2015/16 at the Parliament.

The total size of the budget announced for the new Fiscal Year 2015/16 is Rs 819.47 billion. This is 32.6 per cent greater than the budget allocated for the Fiscal Year 2014/15.

Earlier, a meeting of the Cabinet held this afternoon had endorsed the budget for the upcoming fiscal. Minister Mahat said the government is likely to collect only 93 per cent of the revenue estimated for this fiscal year, due to the April 25 earthquake.

He said the earthquake is likely to increase poverty in the nation. That, however, will be restricted to 25 per cent, he claimed.

The government is facing a serious challenge to maintain economic growth rate above eight per cent to graduate the nation from the least developed countries into the developing countries by 2022, he added.