Former Finance Minister Bhattarai finds budget lacking in priorities

Kathmandu –Naya Shakti Party Nepal's coordinator and lawmaker Dr Baburam Bhattarai has said that the Finance Minister seemed like a traveler confused at the crossroad while formulating and presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2018/19. 

Taking part in the budget discussions in a meeting of the House of Representatives, he said the two-third majority government failed to incorporate promises that political parties in this government made in their election manifesto in the budget. 

The budget that came in a special time was itself the base for taking the country to a new era. The former Finance Minister was of the view that people had much expectation in this budget, which according to him, have some good aspects such as the Prime Minister Employment Programme and the programme to provide educational loan. 

Referring to the Prime Minister's statement, Dr Bhattarai took the time to criticise that the budget was not like a jet plane with two pilots, instead it was like a normal motor vehicle. He said he saw the lacking of vision and listing of priorities in the government, underlining the need of taking the agro economy on a fast gear to achieve the target of an eight percent economic growth. 

The former Prime Minister was of the view that the socialism-oriented economy should be the country's future course of action. 

According to him, economic development model of the East and South Asia and of India will be appropriate in the context of Nepal. 

His prediction was that the achievement of the 8 percent economic growth rate remained unachievable by spending just one-fourth of the budget in development endeavors. The budget, however, failed to promote the private sector and ensure sufficient provisions for the development and promotion of medium-scale and small industries which had a significant role in the economic development, he added. 

In his view, budget allocated to the construction of an international airport in Nijgadh of Bara was not sufficient and it should be clear that which modes of transportation was the priority of the nation. "Motorable road should be the priority in the present context." 

Increase in payroll is necessary to motivate employees, he said and advised the government not to increase tax rate but expand the tax net. Finance Minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada on May 29 presented the estimated income and expenditure (budget) before the joint meeting of the Federal Parliament. 
Discussions over the budget are underway in the House since Thursday. 
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