Kathmandu. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel has said that he will manage resources in a disciplined manner and bring the budget for the coming year 2082/083.
In a meeting of the Development, Economic Affairs and Good Governance Committee under the National Assembly on Thursday, Finance Minister Poudel said that if resources are not managed and mobilized properly, there is a risk of getting into trouble.
According to Poudel, along with the formulation of the constitution, the government will move forward in the direction of fulfilling the aspirations of the people for prosperity and development. Stating that the role of parliamentarians will be in development along with law-making, Poudel emphasized that development and law-making should be carried out in a coordinated manner.
He said, “If we fail to manage and mobilize resources in a disciplined manner, we will be in trouble. Therefore, we should not let the country get into financial trouble. The government is aware that we need to move forward in the right way.” Shyam Psad Bhandari, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, said that the Ministry of Finance is working to make the budget realistic. He said that many ministries have been saying that the ceiling has not been reached, but the budget demand is high even though the expenditure situation is weak.
He said, “If we look at the current expenditure situation, it is around 50 percent. The demand for the budget is always high. The goal is to keep it ambitious and the expenditure limit should be kept accordingly.’
He said that there is a tendency to demand a large budget in advance to transfer money. He said that there is also a problem when plans that are not ready are included in the budget. National Assembly member Ghanshyam Rijal said that the government does not seem responsible. He said that the pre-budget discussion could not be held even in the parliamentary committee because of the Finance Minister. He expressed anger that the government did not take responsibility for being included in the ‘grey’ list.
He said, ‘The Finance Minister said that being included in the grey list was not because of the government. Who was in the previous government? Not the CPN-UML. Not the UML who led the most ministries. UML should not be held accountable for that.’ Other members urged that next year’s budget be implementation-oriented.
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