Finance Minister defends PM’s recent address to Lower House

Kathmandu, Jan 8 . The Ministry of Finance has said that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s address to the House of Representatives session on January 6 was based on facts.

The Ministry has said that its attention has been drawn towards comments made public regarding some financial statistics presented by the Prime Minister during the address.

The Ministry, quoting the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the annual basic price was 4.2 per cent in the first four months of the current fiscal and price rise in the first five months came down to 3.7 per cent. The latter figure in the corresponding period last year was 4.2 per cent.

Similarly, the revenue collection growth in the first five months is 32 per cent. The handover of responsibility of dealing with some areas of taxes including vehicle registration, land and house rent to the province and local levels led to the increase.

Likewise, the statistics of Financial Comptroller General Office, the total expenditure in the first five months (till mid December) increased by seven per cent while current expenditure decreased by 13 per cent and the capital expenditure witnessed the 25.3 per cent rise.

The conclusion of the ministry is that a lower rise in the total expenditure was due to austerity in current expenditure. Last year, the figure was high as there was the election time in the corresponding period.

The figure of people setting out for abroad jobs in the first months went down by 41.2 per cent as compared to the corresponding period last year, the remittance flow increased by 36 per cent.

According to the NRB, the remittance flow in the first four months of the current fiscal enlarged by 36.4 per cent and reached Rs 3312.26 billion. The remittance inflow in the same period last year had dropped by 1.4 per cent.

The remittance inflow in the US dollar went up by 23.1 per cent and last fiscal year, this figure increased by 2.2 per cent. In the review period, total transfer income grew by 33.6 per cent to reach over 352 billion. Such income fell by 0.5 per cent in the corresponding period last year.