Finance Minister Warns of Organized Smear Campaign Amidst Major Financial Crime Probe

Kathmandu. Finance Minister Dr. Swarnim Wagle has stated that an organized attempt is being made to tarnish the government with mud as an investigation into the biggest financial crime in Nepal's history is underway. Speaking at a meeting of the Finance Committee under the House of Representatives on Wednesday, he claimed that those involved in the case and those who distort the country's politics will soon be brought to justice. Responding to questions raised by MPs in the committee, Finance Minister Wagle said that some issues have been exaggerated and baseless accusations have been made with the intention of weakening the government that came with the slogan of good governance. 'An investigation is currently underway into the biggest financial crime in Nepal's history. Those involved, those who hold the country in their fist and distort the entire politics and political parties, will soon be brought to justice,' he said. 'I am confident that no mistake has been made and the intention is completely right. However, after mud is thrown on white clothes, some stain may remain, and this attack is intended to ensure that the attempt to weaken the government is successful.' Finance Minister Wagle clarified that the recent news about changes in customs rates in the finance bill and the disappearance of pages from documents is misleading and exaggerated. He stated that there was no policy manipulation in the customs rates and informed that only a minor change was made for purely humanitarian reasons in the customs rates for carriers transporting blood and vaccines. Denying the allegation of 16 pages missing from the document, he clarified that this was a technical issue with Microsoft Word. 'In a 457-page document, if the column is stretched by just 1 millimeter, the number of pages can increase to 500 or decrease. Not a single dot, comma, or full stop in the content has been changed,' he said. Stating that no unauthorized changes were made to the bill after it was presented in the sovereign parliament, he termed it an attempt to create 'a storm in a teacup.' Clarifying the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84, Finance Minister Wagle said that the pro-poor and welfare programs of previous governments have been continued. He stated that the government has adopted a new policy to transform agriculture from subsistence to commercial and industrial. The budget has allocated 32 billion rupees for fertilizer subsidy. He informed that to address the complaints that subsidies given for seeds and agricultural materials in the past did not reach the actual farmers, a policy has now been adopted to link subsidies directly to production. For this, individual or collective projects investing up to 20 million rupees in agriculture will be given production-based subsidies. He said that this program is currently being implemented on a trial basis and will be expanded further if successful. In the context of infrastructure development, Finance Minister Wagle said that national pride projects such as the Postal Highway, Mid-Hill Highway, and North-South Corridor have been prioritized. Mentioning that the budget for the Ministry of Infrastructure has reached approximately 300 billion rupees, he pledged to provide additional budget based on work progress, even though it is not possible to address all demands at once due to limited resources. Similarly, the Ministry of Finance has made significant policy reforms to facilitate budget implementation. Minister Wagle said that the authority to reallocate funds as needed for ongoing projects has been given to the respective ministries, and the situation of having to go to the Ministry of Finance carrying files for normal reallocations has now ended. He said that the government is moving forward to resolve legal complexities related to 'sunset law' and forest and environment to make budget implementation effective.