Kathmandu. The High-Level Economic Reforms Advisory Commission has suggested that the government not to send businessmen to jail for common crimes, saying it has a major impact on economic growth.
The commission, led by former Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal, submitted its full report to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel on Friday and asked the government not to take any action that would halt economic activity.
Commission Chairman Rameshwor Khanal said that the commission has suggested that the government not to do so, saying that sending businessmen to jail for common crimes has an impact on the industry as well as the entire economy.
He said, “Basically, the government should play a facilitating role.” If there is too much control, there will not be much economic growth. The government should provide business freedom and economic freedom without any restrictions. The government should reduce control. In the process of doing that, some laws are control-oriented, so sending people to jail for even common crimes and closing down businesses cannot expand economic activities. We have recommended repealing such laws. Some laws should be formulated anew. The kind of problems that exist in the current policies. They should be improved. We have made suggestions in each sector.’
According to Khanal, the current problem in the economy in economic terms is that aggregate demand has weakened. People’s spending capacity has weakened. Businessmen also did not try to invest.
Demand for investment has also weakened. Khanal said that the economy has slowed down due to weak demand, but when the Commission analyzed the actual situation, it was found that the problem lies not only on the demand side but also on the supply side.
According to Khanal, our production capacity has not been improved at present. There are obstacles in this. The economy has slowed down due to obstacles in the areas of economic growth such as land, forestry, agriculture, energy, tourism, and ICT.
The Commission has asked the government to improve both demand-side and supply-side policies. In the area of public finance, the recommendations of the Public Expenditure Review Commission led by Dilliraj Khanal have not yet been implemented. The commission led by Rameshwor Khanal has asked the government to address the issues highlighted there, while the High-Level Tax System Reform Committee led by Bidhyadhar Mallik has asked it to implement the suggestions given for reforms in both the policy and administrative aspects of the tax side.
The commission has now also asked the government to take an open approach. The commission has also asked the government to do some things that have not been done so far to benefit from the international accounts.
The current expenditure that is high should be kept within the revenue limit, revenue savings should be maintained, financial discipline should be maintained, if the projects currently underway cannot be completed within 5 years, then all of them should be put on hold and the government should only move forward with projects that can be completed within 5 years, and not care about the size of the budget, whether it is big or small.
The commission has suggested to the government to abolish offices related to finance in particular, Khanal informed.
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