House Okays Budget

Despite strong resistance by the opposition political parties and some lawmakers belonging to the ruling coalition partners, the House of Representatives (HoR) has approved the annual budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2023-24. A motion concerning the bill that was tabled by Minister for Finance Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat at the meeting of the HoR on Wednesday was endorsed through a vote division. In the 275-member Lower House of the federal parliament, altogether 255 lawmakers were present in Wednesday’s meeting. Of them, 147 voted for the motion while the remaining 108 rejected it. Following the voting, Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire announced that the budget was passed by a majority. For the first time in history, the federal parliament had to opt for a vote division for the annual budget after CPN-UML Whip Mahesh Bartaula demanded for the House to move the process through voting. In the past, the Speaker used to make a declaration about the ratification of the budget just on the basis of voice vote. The UML called for a vote division, saying that a greater number of parliamentarians was against the motion.  

Ruling parties -- Nepali Congress, CPN-Maoist Centre, CPN-Unified Socialist, Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP), Rastriya Janamorcha and Nagrik Unmukti Party — voted in favour of the Appropriation Bill. The main opposition UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Janmat Party and Nepal Peasants and Workers Party voted against it. UML had wanted the government to fail in getting the budget passed in parliament. It had criticised the government for being unable to introduce a budget that could deal with the nation’s current economic problems. Earlier, even some governing political parties like CPN-Unified Socialist and Janata Samajbadi Party had warned of voting against the bill as they had sought amendments to the budget. The parliament rejected numerous amendment proposals on the budget. However, the Finance Minister Dr. Mahat announced that the government's plan to scrap the district election offices was withdrawn. 

Anyway, the endorsement of the appropriation bill from the parliament has prevented the present coalition government from being toppled. This has contributed to maintaining political stability in the centre. This has also paved the way for the government to send the budget to the National Assembly for ratification. As per the statutory mandate, the federal government had unveiled a budget of Rs. 1.751 trillion for the next fiscal year on Jestha 15 (May 29). Of the total budget, the government has allocated 65.20 per cent for recurrent expenditures, 17.25 per cent for capital expenditures and 17.55 per cent for financing. The government aims at achieving an ambitious economic growth of 6 per cent and containing inflation within the limit of 6.5 per cent in the coming fiscal year. With its various new as well as repeated programmes, the government wants to take the nation out of the existing economic crisis and create more jobs in different sectors like agriculture.   

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' said that the nation's economic condition was coming back on track owing to a myriad of measures adopted by the government. Shedding light on some signs of economic recovery, he said that the nation had witnessed 20.9 per cent in foreign exchange reserves and a drop of 15.2 per cent in trade deficit. Addressing the meeting of the HoR before getting the appropriation bill endorsed on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said that about three dozen foreign aid agreements were signed, resulting in about Rs. 35 billion foreign investments and generating around 15,000 jobs through 274 projects in the industrial sector.