House discussion on budget priorities begins

Kathmandu, May 19: Discussion on principles and priorities of the Annual Appropriation Bill-2079 (except tax) for the coming fiscal year began in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Wednesday.

Lawmakers of the ruling coalition stood in favour of the document and the main opposition opposed it. Lawmakers from the ruling alliance said that the document was the need of the hour to make better appropriation for next fiscal year as several targets were waiting to be fulfilled. However, the opposition lawmakers said it was just a traditional draft which could not fulfill contemporary needs of the country.

Participating in the Lower House session, Pushpa Bhusal, whip of ruling Nepali Congress, said that her party NC welcomeed the document of priorities and principles as they  spoke for developing entrepreneurships and maintaining fiscal discipline in the coming year. “Agro-production and rural development are covered in the document which is good for us, we welcome it,” she said.

However, another leader of the alliance Haribol Gajurel was unhappy with the government for not discussing among the ruling parties and the opposition before the presentation of the document in the House. “A tradition of drafting a leader-oriented budget has developed which is not good,” he said.

Jhalanath Khanal, former Prime Minister and a leader of CPN-Unified Socialist, stressed the need for using electric vehicles to control increasing trade deficit. “Principles and priorities should guide the economy towards energy production and its domestic consumption,” he said, adding that use of alternative energy can discourage petroleum consumption and control the trade deficit in the country.

Similarly, former minister and CPN-UML leader Yogesh Kumar Bhattarai said that the principles and priorities of the Bill lacked a base for advancing the country on the path of socialism and it neglected strengthening public health and education.

 “Nothing is mentioned about public health and education in the principles and priorities document, how willyou build a socialism-oriented economy then?” he asked a question to the Finance Minister.

He further said the economy was in critical phase, trade deficit was widening each passing year and foreign reserves were not sufficient in the central bank’s vault. 

“Hiking petroleum prices has multiple negative effects. How will you deal with this problem?” he said. Bhattarai seemed to be worried about the widening size of the informal economy.

Umashanker Argariya, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Prem Suwal and other leaders also participated in the pre-budget session and expressed their concern over the document of the government.

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had presented the priorities and principles of the Appropriation Bill for the upcoming fiscal year on Tuesday seeking its discussion.

The discussion will continue on Thursday before the government presents policies and programmes for the year.