“New budget shall prioritise increasing capital expediture”

KATHMANDU, MAY 3: Finance Minister Barshaman Pun has said the cooperation of former administrators and economic experts is needed to make the budget for the upcoming fiscal year effective and efficient.  The Minister made such a remark in his meeting held yesterday with former finance secretaries, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) former governor and former vice chairs of the National Planning Commission to secure their opinions and expertise regarding the new budget for the next fiscal year 2024/25. During the meeting, the participants advised the government to bear in mind the implementation aspects of the new budget, making it realistic.

Ther suggested allowing the provincial and local governments to invest in small projects, resolve the problems that plague the cooperative sector and carry out a structural improvement of bodies responsible for implementing the budget.

According to them,  increasing capital expenditures with a reduction in general expenditures and adopting a policy for the promotion of export trade are also very important.

Similarly, they were of the views of enhancing cooperation among the federal, provincial and local levels for implementing federalism effectively, accelerating and concluding the current big projects, garnering more foreign investment and motivating the morale of bureaucracy.

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

During the meeting, the Minister said the government has realised that the government, political parties, private sector, bureaucrats and experts from the economic sector are worried about the economic slowdown and eager to explore ways for economic revival in the country. He stressed the need for harmonization between the government’s fiscal policy and the monetary policy issued by Nepal Rastra Bank. The Finance Minister suggested gradually loosening the strictures put in place when the economy was in crisis, saying discussions were on with the NRB to that connection.

 

On a different note, the Finance Minister stressed the need to take into consideration the economy, agriculture and the market while building infrastructure development projects. “We constructed the Mid-hills highway but did not make 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 come because the development infrastructures were not backed by the 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 would be brought through the budget and 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 infuse confidence in the private sector which comprises 90 per cent of the nation’s economy. “It is the task of the private sector to make investments and create employment opportunities. And, the government’s job is to facilitate them in this regard,” Finance Minister Pun observed.