PM instructs for production-focused fiscal budget

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Mar. 28: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has instructed the officials to prepare the budget for the next fiscal year targeting the increment of production and employment instead of following a traditional format.

 Speaking at a meeting related to resource estimation for the fiscal year 2024/25 held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Wednesday, Prime Minister Prachanda directed to prepare a production and employment focused budget in order to boost up hope in the people.

The Prime Minister said, "There are two 'schools of thought' in policies and programmes and budget formulation. One point of view is - the economy is under pressure, let's make a traditional budget to sustain the economy. The other point of view is - there is an opportunity to do something vis-à-vis the challenge and give results. Therefore, let's do something new through policies and programmess and the budget. Let's get rid of the comment that nothing happens in the country. I am determined to do something new."

Prime Minister Prachanda has instructed to proceed with a new action plan to increase the revenue mobilisation.

He said, "I want to instruct you to focus on making revenue collection effective. Focus on increasing the scope of revenue and plugging leakages. Be particularly proactive in increasing the absorption of capital expenditure. The main reason behind not increasing capital expenditure is that the budget cannot be spent and is stuck in unnecessary places."

"Increase the budget in the plan that is doing well and reduce the budget for the unnecessary space."

Prime Minister Prachanda directed to pay heed to prioritisation of projects while allocating budget.

He said, "Give priority to those projects that have done well and have good spending capacity. Where there has been some work, continue it. Where there has been no work, remove such plans and projects. Let's not have plans to only add liabilities. Let's focus on the budget on production and job creation."

In the meeting, Finance Minister Barsaman Pun said that as the economy is under pressure, the economy should be accelerated by focusing investments in places that will give results fast.

Vice-Chairman of National Planning Commission Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha, Chairman of National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission Balananda Paudel, Chief Secretary Dr. Baikuntha Aryal, secretaries of various ministries, officials of the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission were present on the occasion.