Kathmandu June 4: The budget estimates for the fiscal year 2000-2001- the millennium’s first budget, presented by the Minister of Finance Mahesh Acharya, according to the economists and academia, has failed to introduce any specific programmes to bring down the level of poverty to 32 per cent as targeted by the Ninth Five Year Plan. They termed the budget as the continuation of budgetary tradition. ‘It has nothing new. The budget cannot be realistic in the absence of economic discipline.’ On the one hand the significant chunk of the budget seems to bank on the foreign aid- (particularly grant), it lacks appropriate vision while allocating funds on the other, they said.

In fact the budget should have addressed the core economic issues like poverty alleviation by giving utmost priority to agriculture, hydro power, irrigation and tourism, said Prof. Sharad Sharma.

Speaking at a programme on ‘Post Budget Discussion’ organized by Center for Policy Studies (CPS) today Prof. Sharma strongly emphasized the need for narrowing down the gap between rural and urban areas in supplying basic needs. Pointing out the volume of the foreign aid in the budget he queried ’How can a nation make progress by always depending on foreign aid. It should be a temporary phenomenon. But in our case it has become a permanent feature of the Nepalese economy.’ Prof. Sharma said that the budget should have given emphasis to make the data base system more reliable and accurate, so that it would help implement the programmes. The main drawback lies without data base system, he said.

Prof. Jaya Raj Acharya stressed the need for long term vision in agriculture. The government should always accord its top priority to enhance agriculture productivity and identify the products in which it has comparative advantage. ‘Fault lies not with the stars, but with ourselves’, quoting the saying of William Shakespeare, Acharya said ‘We ought to examine our weakness in economic fronts. Since the budget is the national programme, it has to be linked with the need of every citizen. Hence the budget should have that vision, he said. Prof. Acharya also said areas like agriculture, hydro power and tourism should be given high priority.

Elucidating the overall picture of the budget Prof. Shreeram Paudyal said that it should have specific programmes for agriculture that is directly connected with poverty alleviation programme.

Prof. Kanaiya Bhakta Mathema presenting his views on the budget’s priority agriculture sector said the target set by the budget to achieve seven percent growth is optimistic. However, the provision of consolidation of land in the budget for commercial will have positive impact to enhance agricultural productivity, he added. Another positive aspect of the budget is the provision of increasing irrigated land as per the Agriculture Perspective Programme (APP), said he.

Shurabir Paudyal, an economist said that the budget should have been focused on poverty eradication. How can poverty alleviation programme be successful with the allocation of 0.5 per cent budget? he queried.

Similalry Bamdev Sigdel, stressed the need to lessen the dependency over foreign grant. Like other economists he said agriculture should have been the main focus of the budget.