Govt presenting annual budget in House today

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May 28: Finance Minister Barsaman Pun is going to present the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2024/25 at the joint session of the Federal Parliament on Tuesday. 

According to the constitutional provision, the government needs to present the budget for the coming fiscal year on Jestha 15 (May 28 this year) every year. Finance Minister Pun is scheduled to present the budget at the joint session of the Federal Parliament at 1 pm on Tuesday.

The size of the budget for the next fiscal year will be around Rs. 1,800 billion, as per the budget ceiling fixed by the National Planning Commission (NPC) in February this year. 

As per the preliminary estimates of the NPC, the total resources of the government for the next fiscal year 2024/25 will be equal to Rs. 1,800 billion. For its source, around Rs. 1,245 billion can be collected from the government revenue.

Earlier, President Ramchandra Paudel presented the policy and programmes of the government for the upcoming fiscal year 2024/25 at the joint session of the Federal Parliament on May 14.

In the policy and programmes, the government has given priorities to the growth of production, productivity and employment, good governance, social justice, and prosperity while bolstering federalism and jumpstarting the economy to enhance domestic production and job creation.

Through the ‘Partnership for Production and Employment’ programme, collaboration between government tiers, the private sector, cooperatives, and communities will be maintained to boost domestic production and employment opportunities.

The government is preparing and implementing a roadmap to enhance agriculture through modernisation, commercialisation, and marketing. The decade commencing from the fiscal year 2024/25 will be declared as the ‘Investment Decade in Agriculture’

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Finance Minister Barsaman Pun have repeatedly said that the new budget will focus on increasing production and productivity of agriculture, jobs creation, raising the confidence of the private sector and people as well.

In the meantime, the economists and private sector, among others, suggested the government introduce a realistic and implementable budget instead of a large one to accelerate the sluggish economic activities.

The budget should focus mainly on increasing the production and productivity of agricultural commodities, increasing overall demand and raising the confidence of the private sector to overcome the present challenges in the national economy, they suggested.