Nepal’s Finance Minister assures full budget through consensus this time around

KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Barshaman Pun has said that the government would bring a full-fledged budget on the basis of consensus among the political parties.

However, the government would present the complete budget keeping in mind the necessity of the nation even in the absence of political consensus, he said urging the opposition parties not to politicize a sensitive issue of the nation like the budget.

Speaking at a press meet organised by the Janasanchar Abhiyan here on Friday, Minister Pun urged the opposition parties to think about the interests of the nation and work accordingly.

The incumbent government has continued the policies and programmes that were announced by the previous government and let the way for political consensus on the budget with the announcement of the one-third budget, he said and added complete budget is the demand of one and all while stressing that the budget should not be interpreted for the sake of political interests.

The President cannot prevent the budget from being tabled, said the Finance Minister and added that if this happened, it would be a great misfortune to the nation. The government has a compulsion of presenting the budget through an ordinance since the nation is running without a parliament, he said.

According to Minister Pun, the government has been planning to announce an estimated budget of Rs 429 million.

He said Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai would resign from his office once the political consensus on the disputed issues was forged.

Stating that guarantee of people’s rights was the sole interest of the UCPN (Maoist), he said the government and the coalition partners are ready for fresh elections.

Minister Pun said that government does not want widen differences with the President, making the opposition parties irritated. RSS