The Open Budget Survey, 2023 has revealed that Nepal has improved in budget transparency score (50) which is higher than global average score (45) out of 100.
Nepal scored 31 in public participation in budgetary process which is higher than the average global score 15 out of 100.

Likewise, the country scored 36 in legislature oversight, lower than global average whereas Supreme Audit institute (SAI) oversight is 67 which exceeds global average.
However, Nepal’s budget transparency score is short of score (61) that is considered minimum threshold to foster an informed public debate on fiscal policies and practices, the OBS summary mentions.
With this, Nepal secured 59th position among 125 countries surveyed in 2023 while it was 77th in 2021 according to the International Budget Partnership’s (IBP) latest Open Budget Survey.
The overall budget transparency results indicate improvement of public access to budget information in Nepal.

Nepal has improved the availability of budget information with publication of key budget documents, mainly Year-End Report in time which however was published late in the previous cycle of open budget survey in 2021, reads the press release by Freedom Forum, an organization which has been conducting OBS in Nepal since 2009.
Despite arduous advocacy efforts from CSOs and media, Nepal has not produced and made publicly available the pre-budget statement (PBS) and Citizen Budget, said Freedom Forum’s Executive Chief and budget researcher Taranath Dahal.
The OBS 2023 survey tells snapshot of Nepal’s current practices related to budget disclosure, opportunities for public engagement in the budget cycle, and effective checks and balances.