Lawmakers begin discussion on budget

June 2, 2000
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Kathmandu, June 2: Deliberations on the annual estimates for revenue and expenditures for Fiscal Year 2000/2001 started today at the House of Representatives.

At the outset, Chief Whip of the CPN-UML Bharat Mohan Adhikari criticised the budget saying that it fails to introduce concrete programmes for the agriculture, industry and trade sectors and encourage the poor, the jobless, women, farmers and people of downtrodden communities or to direct the national economy on the right path.

He said the government has also initiated a process of losing its decision making capacity through dependence on others.

An industrial revolution will not take place without a revolution in agriculture, he said and remarked upon the lack of any new programme in this sector or investment in irrigation, a total end to the subsidy for chemical fertilisers and the way the 20-year Agricultural Perspective Plan has been more or less forgotten.

He said “the proposed budget totally neglects the rural regions and lacks any thinking concerning the alarming problem of unemployment. Moreover, the grants meant for the DDC, municipality and VDC have also been dropped.”

Ex-finance Minister Adhikari said that poverty alleviation could not be achieved merely through the economic growth rate, and the experience of other countries also show this. Development of agriculture and industry and resolution of the unemployment problem are indispensable for poverty alleviation, he noted.

He also accused the government of failing to introduce measures for controlling price rises and failing to respect the censor motion for controlling market prices adopted by parliament.

He expressed sadness over the lack of policy for revitalising sick industries and failure on the part of the government to bring in the 20-year industrial policy which it has already announced. “The government is only concerned about privation, not about the plight of sick industries.”

No national consensus was sought prior to the Nepal Development Forum meeting held in Paris, he said adding that it is a matter of sorrow that discussions were not held at national level in advance of Nepal’s accession to the World Trade Organisation.

“An increase in pay scales for government employee is praiseworthy but the ratio of the increases is not justifiable”, he opined.

Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat of the Nepali Congress said that there are many positive aspects in the budget as its has made overall analysis of the government activities, and has attempted to make a leap by giving new programmes.

He said there are new programmes in the agriculture sector though it has not talked about the long term Agricultural Perspective Plan, and the Karnali zonal special programme, the rural electrification programme, the rural road repair fund and the programme to provide all the the local bodies the collected land revenue.

Dr. Mahat said dozens of programmes have been brought for poverty alleviation, the export tax, tax on bonus, the proposal to charge agriculture reform fee are some positive aspects and the proposal to confiscate property lacking income source is a good medium for good governance.

Dr. Mahat said the target to raise Rs 53 billion revenue is ambitious and suggested that development expenditure should be increased by curtailing unproductive programmes to lower general expenditure.

Dr. Mahat said the Finance Minister also needs cooperation from all including the opposition, employees and citizens for implementation of the budget even though the theoretical aspects are good.

Pashupati Shumsher J. B. Rana of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party said the budget is ambitious, the business community opposes the value added tax considered in the budget as the main component to increase revenue, adding that the provision to charge 0.5 per cent of income tax in the income from the stock of goods declared by the taxpayer himself, the provision to pay only 25 per cent by curtailing 75 per cent supposing that the 10 per cent tax has already been paid in the declaration of stock is expected to benefit the industrialists and businessmen thereby making adverse impact on the revenue.

He said the 44.5 per cent increase made in development expenditure is a random increase at a time when it has not been able to spend 80 per cent of it in the current fiscal year.

Mr Rana said that as not more than 70 percent of the targetted estimate of development budget had been spent in the past 4-5 years, a development budget of Rs 15 billion has been presented for the next fiscal year.

The budget cannot be sustained with available resources and our administrative capacity and development manpower cannot implement it, Mr Rana said, adding that the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, the Nepal Oil Corporation and the National Trading Limited have not been privatised so far and the salaries of the government employees have not been increased on fair basis.

Expressing happiness over the appropriation of Rs 1 billion and 160 million for the Melamchi project, he said the local people should be given employment and a overall socio-economic development plan should be implemented to alleviate poverty as a compensation to the environmental and social impact there.

Mr Rana said the carpet export has decreased though the export trade has increased by 50 per cent this year, adding that a permanent plan for revitalising the industry should be formulated.

Nepali youths should be trained as security personnel and their service be exported and capable ornganisations should be established for this, he said, drawing the attention of the government towards the possibility of catering to the demand of Indian tourists for a hill station in Dadeldhura, Palpa, Rasuwa, Sindhupalchowk, Dolkha, Dhankuta, Ilam and Panchthar districts.

He commended the positive aspects of the budget such as formulating a law considering the income more than the declared source as corruption, and conducting trade with China and India through banking which is expected to check customs leakage.

Hridayesh Tripathi of the Nepal Sadbhawana Party commented that the budget is not centred on favour of the agricultural and marginal workers for poverty alleviation, on irrigation, plotting of land, and revolutionary land reform.

He said the budget has increased inflation, no clear basis has been made for collection of targeted revenue, increase in general expenditure by curtailing development budget, general expenditure also found in the appropriation heads allocated for development expenditure and added that there can be difficulty in conducting transactions through banks.

He expressed happiness over making transparent the foreign loan and grant, control of the non-government organisations, attempt to control smuggling of gold from the airport, the commitment made to implement the report of the joint committee of the parliament constituted to investigate leakage of revenue and the increase of the salaries of the civil servants.

Pari Thapa of the National People’s Front said though there are some positive things in the budget, there seems to be no difference in the basic interest of the country and the people, adding that the budget is feared to increase budgetary irregularities, more amount has been appropriated in law and order by overshadowing the development budget, no commitment made to protect the national economy, and to set up fertiliser factory, oil refinery and security press, and send qualified doctors to the remote areas.

He also said that there should be no privatisation of industries.

Ram Bahadur Bista of the Nepali Congress said as the situation in the country is deteriorating, the budget has focussed on poverty alleviation. Some of the laudable provisions made in the budget are that it has given attention to the problems of the remote areas, programmes brought for the safety and increasing the living standard of the people victimised by maoists, and increasing the confidence of the employees.

Rajendra Prasad Pandey of the CPN-UML said though the Nepali Congress has presented nine of the 12 budgets in the past ten years, no remarkable development has been seen for which the same party is responsible, adding that the budget has not given attention to irrigation for development of agriculture. The budget has been misutilised in the name of creating new police forces, he said, expressing concern that the budget given to the academies built in memory of the national leaders have been curtailed.

Ram Janam Chaudhari of the Nepali Congress said it is a laudable move to increase the amount in the MP’s development fund as it is more effective. The first priority given to law and order is good as there will be no meaning of development if life is not secure.

Netra Lal Shrestha of the RPP said no concrete programmes have been brought to address the problems of the nation that has been mentioned in the budget speech, the Salyan -Dang road has been neglected by the minister in the context that ginger and sutho has been wasted due to lack of market. He said if we are to uplift the villages we should depute one sub-overseer, one assistant health worker and a JTA in each VDC, he added.

Mangal Siddhi Manandhar of the CPN-UML said the amount allocated for social service, education, health and local development in the general and development heads has been decreased even when the amount of budget has been increased as compared to the last fiscal year, and added that the increase of standard of the government schools where more than 4.6 million students study is a must and agriculture development is necessary for achieving a high economic growth rate for poverty alleviation, he added.

He said the budget has made no economic commitment to the higher secondary education, no amount has been allocated for the district election commission offices. He expressed the view that access to the schools of the dalits and backward classes should be increased. Bharat Kumar Shaha of the Nepali Congress said the commitment should be fulfilled as regards the value added tax, reconsideration should be made in the threshold level as dishonesty is continuing. Levying of vat on cigarette, beer, alcohol, and excise in bricks, and corruption control and commitment to resolve foodgrains crisis are some of the positive aspects of the budget.