Nepal’s planning body’s dpty chief assures full budget despite opposition’s opposition

KATHMANDU: Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC) Deependra Bahadur Kshetry has said that a draft of the complete budget will be presented before the President since the government has planned to bring out a full-fledged budget despite protests from the opposition parties.

Taking part in a face-to-face programme organised by the Reporters Club Nepal, NPC Vice Chairman Kshetry claimed that the government would come up with the complete budget despite discontent from the opposition parties.

“The upcoming budget will be of around Rs. 450 billion and is expected to address basic needs of the people”, he said, adding that nothing will be achieved if the private sector that has seventy percent contribution to the nation’s economy is not recognized.

Also speaking at the programme, economist Dr Tilak Rawal stressed the need of bringing out the budget on political consensus. He claimed that nation’s economy would see no serious effect in absence of the full-fledged budget. “The nation’s economy is becoming weaker from every aspects and only the government employees may be hard hit from a lack of complete budget” , he opined.

Urging the ruling partners to do their best for the announcement of the complete budget, he suggested that the consensus government should bring the complete budget.

Another economist Dr Chiranjibi Nepal said the government could not bring out the budget in the absence of consensus. He added that the upcoming budget should include the general expenditures and continue the development projects that are in implementation only if it could not be brought through consensus.

Economist Dr Bishwambhar Pyakurel, former Governor Himalaya Shamser JBR, economist Keshab Acharya, Koshraj Pandey and Chamber of Commerce President Suresh Kumar Basnet underlined the need of giving the nation complete budget at any cost so as to make the nation’s economy revitalized.

They warned that the nation’s business establishment would further worsen with emergence of a crisis of trust in the foreign investment and private sectors if the nation’s economy is oxygenized for a long time. RSS