I am ready to take any decision to improve economy: FM Mahat

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, April.1: Newly appointed Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat assumed his office in Singh Durbar on Friday.

While assuming the office after taking the oath of office and secrecy as the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mahat said that he was ready take any tough decision to improve the economy which has been in crisis.

“As Finance Minister, I will take stern decisions to save the economy,” he said. “Recurrent expenditure is high. Revenue is not enough to cover even the recurrent expenditure. We need to cut expenses other than mandatory.”

He committed to moving forward in coordination with the Nepal Rastra Bank to resolve the financial crisis, and expressed concerns over the low capital expenditure.

Finance Minister Dr. Mahat also said that people would suffer if the price went up higher than their expectation.

“As Finance Minister, I will take decisions to prevent the economy from getting worse,” he said, “Rather than increasing the tax rate unnecessarily, the government will increase the scope of taxes.”

He said that the government’s revenue could not be increased until investment environment was created.

He said that the country’s economy was based on remittances and the economy was heading towards crisis.

He urged the non-resident Nepalis to invest citing that domestic and foreign investments were necessary to improve the economy.

Dr. Mahat said that he would work to instill hope by increasing confidence of  the industrialists.

Born in Nuwakot district of Nepal on November 5, 1959, Dr. Mahat holds PhD in in Economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale Illinois USA. 

He has an active political career of more than three decades and  participated in the democratic movements in the country.

He has already served the nation as the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nepal for the period 2016-2017 and Minister for Energy from 2010 to 2011.

He also served as State Minister for Foreign Affairs from June 2004 to February 2005.