Speaking at Pre-Budget
Discussion programme organized by the Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal,
Minister Poudel stated that he was against distributive budget. “The new budget
for the Fiscal Year 2016/17 will aim at creating employment and economic
progress.”
He informed that he was
receiving suggestions for employment generation, economic progress, and
agriculture and energy sector development.
Gagan Thapa, chairman of
Legislature-Parliament’s Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, urged the
Finance Minister to create a calendar to implement the projects as it would
take months to authorize the budget expenditure even though the government
brought out the budget in time.
“There should be ‘policy audit’
in March and projects which are not implemented even after ten months of budget
announcement should be scrapped,” he suggested.
According to Thapa, many laws
were creating obstacles in development works. Therfore, bills like Electricity
Act, Public Procurement Act, and Land Acquisition Act should be submitted to
the Legislature-Parliament.
“National pride project Budhi
Gandaki Hydropower Project’s progress is very slow. On the other hand, work on about
18 kilometres of Mid-Hill Highway
which will be submerged by the project is on the full swing. Government should
be careful of such spending,” he said.
Federation of Nepalese Chambers
of Commerce and Industry’s president Pashupati Murarka pointed out that the
industry sector in the country was severely affected by the energy crisis
therefore upcoming budget should focus on energy development. “The government
should try to eradicate the blackout within two years.”
Saying that the business
community was not asking any facilities and special favour from the government,
Murarka urged the Finance Minister to remove the non-tariff barriers of trade.
He also urged to formulate ‘exit
policy’ for the businesses.
Economist Prof. Dr. Bishwambhar
Pyakuryal suggested structural changes in the budget implementation and
effective coordination among the government, National Planning Commission (NPC)
and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).
“The agriculture should get top
priority in the upcoming budget. In order to achieve 6 per cent economic growth
in the next fiscal, about 10 per cent of the total budget should be allocated
to the agriculture sector,” he said.
Former vice chairman of the NPC
and governor of NRB, Dipendra Bahadur Kshetry warned the Finance Minister not
to increase the budget allocated to the parliamentarians.
He suggested developing the
agriculture sector so as it could compete with the Indian agro-products.
Kumar Pandey, general secretary
of Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN) said that the
custom tax of raw materials was higher than the finished goods. He urged the
government to reduce the tax on raw materials.
Lawmaker Udaya Shamsher Rana,
Nepal Bankers’ Association vice-chairman Anil Shah, Confederation of Nepalese
Industries vice-president Satish More, Nepal Chamber of Commerce general
secretary Kamlesh Kumar Agrawal and tourism entrepreneur Bharat Basnet stated
suggestions of their respective field.
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