KATHMANDU: Lawmaker and former Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel has said the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2023/24 has failed to accept the reality of economic slowdown and to fall in line with the government policies and programmes.
Taking part in the deliberations on the government's estimations of its annual revenue and expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year in a meeting of the House of Representatives (HoR) on Sunday, he said priorities and plans mentioned in the new policies and programmes were not given a space in the budget.
"This budget lacks coherence and consistency with its policies and programmes and principles and priorities," he said, adding that it was inconsistent with the policies and programmes. Matters of granting a discount on electricity tariff (up to 30 units in winter and up to 50 units during the monsoon) and the programme to develop the Geta Medical College as the Dashrathchand Medical University are missing in the budget," he said.
The budget has failed to recognise the existing economic issues, assess its challenges and opportunities and present possible ways for solutions, according to Paudel.
"Economic growth below 2.16%, 7.5% consumer price inflation, current account deficit worth over Rs 54 billion and the situation suggesting the negative reserve fund by Rs 2 billion by the end of the current fiscal year have not been addressed by the budget," he said.
As he evaluated, 7.96% banking loan disbursement in private sector, negative Gross Domestic Growth in the first and second quarters of the current fiscal year, economic slowdown, a significant loss in employment opportunities and skyrocketing prices suggest the Nepali economy is marred by a crisis.
He said that 38.12% capital expenditure, mobilisation of foreign grants less than 10% of the targets and a fall in revenue collections by 12% than the last fiscal and 56% of the target this year provided room to question the government's capacity to effectively steer the national economy.
The projection of economic growth in the upcoming year less than the current fiscal and a fall in the appropriations suggest that the government is not capable to mobilize the available resources fully, according to the lawmaker.
"The existing scenario of the capital market reflects the situation of the national economy," he said adding that three years ago, the Nepal Stock Exchange Index had touched 3,200 with a daily turnover of up to 20 billion. But now, it dwindled to 1950 with Rs 2 billion daily turnover. The market capitalisation has shrunken from Rs 450 billion to Rs 280 billion," former minister Paudel said, adding that none was ready to take responsibility for this negative picture of capital market.
[caption id="attachment_37973" align="alignnone" width="1000"]
Lawmakers attend a meeting of the House of Representatives at the Federal Parliament building in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, on Sunday, June 11, 2023. Photo: RSS[/caption]
According to him, although it is mentioned in the budget statement to decrease the current expenditure, the current expenditure proposed for the upcoming fiscal year exceeds the current fiscal year's current expenditure by 97 billion. Poudel stated the allocation towards capital expenditure, which was around 20% of the total budget on average for the last six years, has been reduced to 17% this time.
"It is mentioned in the budget that implementation of fiscal federalism will be emphasized while on the other hand, the fiscal transfers to the province and local levels have been allocated with a deficit of Rs 29.75 billion as compared to the allocations of the current fiscal year. In this way, the resource management and the allocation made for the current and capital expenditures in this budget are unrealistic, unbelievable, self-contradictory and difficult to execute," argued the former Finance Minister.
Removing and downsizing the capacity of the past programmes like the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP), the President Educational Reform, the President Women Empowerment, the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation, urbanisation of the district headquarters in Tarai districts, industrial zone infrastructure and issuing loans keeping the academic qualification certificates as collateral, among others indicated that the budget is taking pleasure not in 'game change' but only in 'name change', Paudel sarcastically said of the budget.
He commented that the budget has not allocated money for providing compensation for health insurance, delimited the provision of asking for loans by keeping the academic certificates as collateral and scattered the budget even in the projects implemented by the local level wards and municipalities.
The former Finance Minister said the budget has not addressed the potentiality in the water resources, tourism and agriculture sectors, and it lacked novelty. "Rather it is like the continuation of the past programmes," he added.
According to him, some programmes in the budget were highly contradictory. Mentioning that the programme of exporting stones and pebbles abroad by quarrying the Chure had met with opposition in the past, and wondered on what ground this programme has been brought in the budget. Likewise, Paudel expressed his objection regarding the beneficiary of the Citizen Pension programme, its action plan and sources included in the budget.
Paudel also termed as inappropriate the decision made by the government through the budget statement to dissolve and merge 20 various government corporations for reducing expenses. In his view, the government should cut down on the facilities of the President, the Vice President, members of the Council of Ministers, and lawmakers among others for reducing the expenditure.
The former Finance Minister also took exception to the provision of the budget providing Rs 50 million to the MP through the Parliamentary Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme. He also declared in the parliament that he wished to spend the amount under this programme he gets as a parliamentarian in the construction of infrastructures in public education sector through the ministry concerned.
Former Finance Minister Poudel claimed the change in the tax rate in the budget is also not logical. He opined that the government should address the justified demands made by the private and cooperative sector, and share market investors, saying they were dissatisfied with the tax proposed by the government.
Meanwhile, speaking in the meeting of the House of Representatives today, lawmaker Deepak Giri viewed that the parties should not be divided into ruling and opposition bench in policy matters as budget but should move ahead by making programmes collectively. He also called on the lawmakers to be responsible to the citizen towards addressing their problems, no matter how petty they might seem to be. Giri also called on the parliament to rethink the time of presenting the budget in parliament.
By RSS
READ ALSO:
Lawmakers attend a meeting of the House of Representatives at the Federal Parliament building in New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, on Sunday, June 11, 2023. Photo: RSS[/caption]
According to him, although it is mentioned in the budget statement to decrease the current expenditure, the current expenditure proposed for the upcoming fiscal year exceeds the current fiscal year's current expenditure by 97 billion. Poudel stated the allocation towards capital expenditure, which was around 20% of the total budget on average for the last six years, has been reduced to 17% this time.
"It is mentioned in the budget that implementation of fiscal federalism will be emphasized while on the other hand, the fiscal transfers to the province and local levels have been allocated with a deficit of Rs 29.75 billion as compared to the allocations of the current fiscal year. In this way, the resource management and the allocation made for the current and capital expenditures in this budget are unrealistic, unbelievable, self-contradictory and difficult to execute," argued the former Finance Minister.
Removing and downsizing the capacity of the past programmes like the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP), the President Educational Reform, the President Women Empowerment, the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation, urbanisation of the district headquarters in Tarai districts, industrial zone infrastructure and issuing loans keeping the academic qualification certificates as collateral, among others indicated that the budget is taking pleasure not in 'game change' but only in 'name change', Paudel sarcastically said of the budget.
He commented that the budget has not allocated money for providing compensation for health insurance, delimited the provision of asking for loans by keeping the academic certificates as collateral and scattered the budget even in the projects implemented by the local level wards and municipalities.
The former Finance Minister said the budget has not addressed the potentiality in the water resources, tourism and agriculture sectors, and it lacked novelty. "Rather it is like the continuation of the past programmes," he added.
According to him, some programmes in the budget were highly contradictory. Mentioning that the programme of exporting stones and pebbles abroad by quarrying the Chure had met with opposition in the past, and wondered on what ground this programme has been brought in the budget. Likewise, Paudel expressed his objection regarding the beneficiary of the Citizen Pension programme, its action plan and sources included in the budget.
Paudel also termed as inappropriate the decision made by the government through the budget statement to dissolve and merge 20 various government corporations for reducing expenses. In his view, the government should cut down on the facilities of the President, the Vice President, members of the Council of Ministers, and lawmakers among others for reducing the expenditure.
The former Finance Minister also took exception to the provision of the budget providing Rs 50 million to the MP through the Parliamentary Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme. He also declared in the parliament that he wished to spend the amount under this programme he gets as a parliamentarian in the construction of infrastructures in public education sector through the ministry concerned.
Former Finance Minister Poudel claimed the change in the tax rate in the budget is also not logical. He opined that the government should address the justified demands made by the private and cooperative sector, and share market investors, saying they were dissatisfied with the tax proposed by the government.
Meanwhile, speaking in the meeting of the House of Representatives today, lawmaker Deepak Giri viewed that the parties should not be divided into ruling and opposition bench in policy matters as budget but should move ahead by making programmes collectively. He also called on the lawmakers to be responsible to the citizen towards addressing their problems, no matter how petty they might seem to be. Giri also called on the parliament to rethink the time of presenting the budget in parliament.
By RSS
READ ALSO:
- Finance Minister to reply to questions raised during deliberations on budget in HoR
- Budget general discussions: Lawmakers doubt implementation of budget
- Budget prioritises increase in capital expenditure: Finance Minister Mahat
- Tax rates sans evaluation of impact on consumers, businesspersons to keep recession up: FNCCI
- Tax rates have been proposed in a scientific manner: Finance Minister
Published Date: June 12, 2023, 12:00 am
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