Kathmandu, May 9
Finance Minister Dr.
Yuba Raj Khatiwada said on Wednesday that the government would give priority to
infrastructure development in the budget of the coming fiscal year.
“Strategic roads, fast track, railway and airports,
and urban infrastructure under construction will be given high priority. A
separate legal instrument will be formulated to manage the national priority
projects and large infrastructure for their time and quality management,” said
Dr. Khatiwada, while presenting the ‘Principles and Priorities
of the Budget of 2018’ in the parliament on Wednesday.
He said that the
construction business would also be made transparent and competitive.
Likewise, priority is
to be given to the development of hydro as well as solar and wind energy projects
to increase people’s access to modern, renewable and reliable energy.
“To achieve this
target, energy projects under construction will be completed in time,
transmission lines will be expanded, and the distribution system will be
strengthened,” said the minister.
Dr. Khatiwada also pledged to expand
irrigation and river control projects and develop inland waterways. River
diversion projects will be implemented as per their feasibility.
According to him, the
government will expedite the post-quake reconstruction of private houses,
heritage sites and monuments, including the Dharahara. Relief and
rehabilitation programmes will be run for the victims of other disasters.
Similarly, the base of the
social security will be expanded and will be made contributory. Such programmes
will also be expanded to the informal sectors.
Dr. Khatiwada said that
the budget would follow the directives of the Constitution and election
manifesto of the Left Alliance.
“In order to achieve
rapid economic growth, huge investment will be mobilised, production structure
will be changed, and resource allocation will be made efficient. The government
will work to establish a welfare state and social justice,” he said.
He said that he would
give top priority to graduating the nation to the status of a developing nation
and making it a middle income country.
Nepal is planning to
graduate from a Least Developed Country (LDC) to a developing one by 2022 and
become a middle income country by 2030.
According to him, the
budget of the coming fiscal year will also focus on poverty alleviation,
entrepreneurship development and livelihood creation.
The Finance Minister
said that all the small projects and programmes would be implemented by the
local bodies, so the federal government would not allocate any budget for such
programmes.
Similarly, a system
will be developed to hold the respective authorities of the programme
implementation agencies accountable and make the public finance management
transparent, efficient and accountable.
Dr. Khatiwada said that
foreign aid would be mobilised in national priority areas. Such aid will be
utilised in large physical and social infrastructure, for export substitution,
capacity development and technology transfer.
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