Focus on reviving economy, FM tells states

Kathmandu, May 4

Minister for Finance Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada has said to the provinces to focus the state budgets to the revival of the economy that was weakened by the coronavirus pandemic, employment generation and strengthen the fiscal federalism.

In a video conference with the ministers of economic affairs and planning of the states on Monday, he asked them to focus on the responses to the economic measures to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus crisis.

Dr. Khatiwada is also the chair of the Inter-governmental Fiscal Council.

He recommended the states to prioritise the programmes that help in creating employment at the local level in addition to the programmes implemented by the federal government.

"States and local governments should ensure effective implementation of the programmes being jointly executed with the federal government. You need to prepare a record of the programmes and projects with conditional grants completed in this fiscal year," he said.

He also asked to determine the taxes without duplicating with the other governments.

FM Dr. Khatiwada also said that the sub-national governments could design and implement programmes to revive the economy of the respective region.

The economic affairs ministers of the states said that the ceiling for the internal loan for the states should be raised, standards for the allocation of the income made from the natural resources should be created and packages should be designed to address those who lost jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 5 May 2020.