Macro-economic stability govt’s priority: FM Sharma

Kathmandu, May 21: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has clarified that ensuring macroeconomic stability will be the priority of the government while drafting the policy and programme of the government for the next fiscal year. 

Responding to the queries of the lawmakers in the House of Representatives (HoR) on Friday, Minister Sharma said that the federal government had a clear roadmap in its principles and priorities of the annual appropriation bill-2079 (except taxes) to push the national economy towards productivity and make the country self-reliant.

“I will take a note of all suggestions while drafting the budget document for coming fiscal year, they will be guides to me,” he said while speaking in the House.   

Leaders, former ministers and lawmakers who participated in the pre-budget discussion had asked the Finance Minister several questions as to how he would draft a better budget document relying on such traditional priorities and principles. They claimed that the principle he presented in the House was continuation of tradition. Some of the lawmakers had suggested discouraging import of consumable goods and encourgaing domestic production. 

Minister Sharma said that the government would focus on production sector which could make the economy self-reliant and it would also focus on balanced resource distribution. Sharma said that the government emphasis would be on agro-production, rural development, tourism and social justice. 

Finance Minister Sharma stated that introducing private sector friendly policy was the prime demand of the business community. “We are asked to draft a private sector friendly policy to achieve greater economic growth this year which is the reason the government has planned for this,” he said. Sharma said that the government has a plan to expand tax range too. 

He also stated that the government would work to control corruption and increase public trust on the government. “The government is going to address the areas of comparative advantage in the budget by promoting agriculture and industry. We will prepare the budget in such a way that there will be no shortage of resources in the areas of national pride and national priority projects,” he said. 

He said that the budget would focus to meet the basic needs of the poor, marginalised, dalits and the general public.

 He also said that economic stability would be maintained by keeping public debt within the limits. He said that the budget would give priority to public service delivery and construction of large infrastructure to fulfill the people’s aspirations for development and prosperity.

Emphasis will be given to use all cultivable land and collective farming system in the land, he said, adding that industrial development, expansion of industrial areas and industrial villages and productive industries would be encouraged. “Road infrastructure, tunnels and expressways will get budget. At least one road to reach the local level in all seasons will be developed, the Finance Minister said. 

Budget session of the House had begun on Tuesday. 

Earlier, Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa had proposed to the government to declare one decade as National Production Decade from the forthcoming budget. He drew the attention of the Finance Minister to start the work immediately. 

Rajendra Prasad Gautam of the CPN-UML said that socialism-oriented economy is not possible with the principle and priorities set by the governmnet. “Parties in the coalition government have different ideologies so the government has no clear roadmap for the year ahead,” he said.

Similarly, former Finance Minister and CPN-Maoist Centre leader Barshaman Pun suggested prioritising energy sector in the upcoming budget. He said that since only the energy sector could contribute to foreign exchange reserves by increasing exports, it should be given high priority.

Investigate into rape culprit 

Meanwhile, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota directed the government to bring the culprit to justice by investigating the incident of sexual violence that has been made public through social media. 

A teenager who participated in a beauty pageant in 2014 made public 20 video clips on social network Tikt Tok on Wednesday and revealed that one of the organisers of the event had raped her.

Policy and programe on May 24 

The policy and programme of the government for the upcoming fiscal year will be tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (May 25). Speaker Agni Sapkota said that the document will be tabled in the joint session of the Federal Parliament. 

President Bidya Devi Bhandari will read out the document in the joint session of the parliament.