Finance Minister seeks advice for upcoming FY budget; stresses on infrastructure development

KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun has stated that cooperation of former administrators and economic experts is necessary to make the budget for upcoming fiscal year objective and compatible with the times. 

According to the Finance Minister's Secretariat, the Minister sought submissions from former finance secretaries, the former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), and former vice chairs of the National Planning Commission (NPC) in an effort to secure their opinions and expertise in relation to the new budget. 

During the meeting, the participants advised the government to consider the implementation aspect of the budget, making it realistic. They recommended increasing capital expenditures while reducing general expenditure and adopting a policy for the promotion of export trade. 

The submissions from the related individuals were for the federal government not to invest in small projects that fall within the jurisdictions of the province and local government, to resolve the issues that plague the cooperative sector, and to carry out a structural improvement of bodies responsible for implementing the budget. 

Similarly, they expressed views on enhancing cooperation among the federal, province, and local levels for effectively implementing federalism, accelerating and concluding the current large projects, attracting more foreign investment, and motivating the morale of the bureaucracy. 

NPC former vice chairpersons Pushpa Raj Kandel, Dinesh Chandra Devkota, and Deependra Bahadur Kshetry, NRB former governor Dipendra Purush Dhakal, former chief secretary Bimal Koirala, and former finance secretaries Krishnhari Sharma, Suman Sharma, Shankar Adhikari, Rajan Adhikari, and Ramsharan Pudasaini were among those present at the meeting. 

Following the meeting, Finance Minister Pun said the government has realised that political parties, the private sector, bureaucrats, and experts from the economic sector are concerned about the economic slowdown and are eager to explore ways for economic revival in the country. 

He stressed the need for harmonisation between the government's fiscal policy and the monetary policy issued by Nepal Rastra Bank. The Finance Minister suggested gradually loosening the restrictions put in place when the economy was in crisis, saying discussions were ongoing with the central bank in this regard. 

According to the Finance Minister, the government is moving ahead to boost the weak confidence of the private sector and the bureaucracy. "The confidence level of the private sector and the administrative mechanism is weak. A situation has arisen in which the political leadership has to take risks to give impetus to the country's development," he reiterated. 

Expressing concern over the situation in which people who are performing well in their works are having to answer questions all around and those who are not performing well are becoming popular, Minister Pun said a tendency is institutionalised in society to view politicians, bureaucrats, and businesspersons from a negative perspective. 

"The country's development cannot pick up speed unless someone is courageous enough to take the risk to break this mentality in society and to remove such a situation," he said, and called on the political and bureaucratic leadership to muster courage for the same, and for the rest of society to support them.

On a different note, the Finance Minister emphasised the need to consider the economy, agriculture, and the market when constructing infrastructure development projects. "We constructed the Mid-hills highway, but did not establish the market and economic policy. We did not develop the production area. We have the East-West Postal Highway, but the population with the highest poverty resides in its periphery. Such is our situation. This situation has arisen because the development infrastructures were not supported by economic programmes," he explained.

Stating that the report of the high-level tax reform recommendation committee is under study, Finance Minister Pun said the reform programmes will be introduced through the budget and will be based on the commission's recommendations.

He expressed that the government has created an environment conducive to investment by amending the associated Acts through an ordinance coinciding with the third investment summit, which concluded recently. He added that the government is making efforts to instil confidence in the private sector, which comprises 90% of the nation's economy.

"It is the responsibility of the private sector to invest and create employment opportunities. It is the government's job to facilitate this, carry out policy reforms, and provide the appropriate platform," Finance Minister Pun observed.