Main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has on Monday bitterly criticized the agendas of the Nepal Development Strategy Paper (NDSP) presented by the incumbent government for upcoming Nepal Development Forum (NDF), scheduled to take place in mid-May.

“The growth agendas and projections of the NDSP not only lack national consensus but also they are based on fallacious premise,” lambasted Dr Ram Saran Mahat, former finance minister as well as senior NC leader.

According to Dr Mahat, the high level taskforce designated to write the NDSP did not consult with the opposition political parties, intelligentsia, civil society, economists and development experts while preparing the same.”The NDSP is supposed to replace the present Three Year Interim Plan by scrapping its third and final year. But the NDSP has neither gone through parliamentary Finance Committee of the National Development Council,” further remarked Dr Mahat.

He also claimed that the estimates for growth and other macro economic variables are highly exaggerated. “The target set by the NDSP to achieve a growth rate of 8.5 percent in 2011, generation of total revenue of Rs 532 billion in constant prices in there year’s time, government investments of 25.6 percent of GDP and the foreign resources of 7.1 percent of GDP is ridiculously unrealistic,” he stated.

According to him, there is also a complete absence of framework policy to increase gross domestic saving from 8 percent to 18.2 percent of GDP and, capital formation from 21 percent to 39 percent of GDP in 2011.The NC also mocked the promise of the NDSP to make the country foreign aid free by 2025.

“Given the fact that the NDSP has raised foreign aid estimates from Rs 51 billion in the current year to total of Rs 233 billion in three years period (i.e from 5.4 percent of GDP to 7.1 percent of GDP in 2011), the promise, the promise to make the country aid-free sounds hollow,” he said.

The NC also advised the government and donors/development partners to seriously ponder over the past emphasis on macro economic stability, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and Medium Term expenditure Framework (MTEF) in order to ensure consistency of their approach to the development paradigms and the reform agenda. nepalnews.com nd April 20 09