Koshi Province Government Forms Task Force to Resolve Budget Dispute
Biratnagar. In an effort to temporarily ease the controversy surrounding the Koshi Province government's budget for the fiscal year 2083/84, the ruling Congress and UML parties have informally formed a six-member task force. Both parties are optimistic that the task force will find a solution.
The budget allocation has been criticized by MPs from both the ruling UML and Congress for lacking balance and being concentrated in a few areas, leading to warnings that the budget would be defeated, causing the provincial assembly meetings to be affected. The provincial assembly meeting, scheduled for Ashar 11, was postponed due to disagreements over the budget and rescheduled for Ashar 16.
Even on the 16th, Tuesday, as no consensus could be reached, the Provincial Assembly Secretariat issued a notice postponing the meeting again to Thursday, Ashar 18. With the meetings being continuously postponed, the facilitation committee has become active in finding a consensus between the government and the disgruntled MPs, said Congress Chief Whip Gopal Tamang.
Tamang stated that an informal committee has been formed to resolve the controversial points and programmatic imbalances in the budget and is working accordingly. The six-member task force includes three members from each party. From the Nepali Congress, the members are Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party Himal Karki, Chief Whip Gopal Tamang, and Finance Committee Chairman Binod Bantawa. From the CPN (UML), the members are former Finance Minister Ram Bahadur Magar, Chief Whip Ramesh Basnet, and Infrastructure Development Committee Chairman Hom Bahadur Thapa. This task force has been given the responsibility of collecting the practical and technical demands of the disgruntled MPs and preparing concrete proposals on how to make the budget balanced and acceptable to all.
Tamang said that during the task force meetings held at various levels and at the Koshi Provincial Assembly Secretariat throughout Tuesday, discussions were held on the demands of the disgruntled MPs and possible alternatives for budget revision. The disgruntled MPs have complained that the budget allocation for infrastructure development programs and projects is not equitable. They have insisted that the practice of passing the government's budget without any changes in its traditional form must be broken this time, and necessary amendments should be made to the schedules of the appropriation bill itself.
'It's not about what happened in the past. Just following tradition led to the current rebellion. We need to do something new in parliamentary practice as well,' said Congress MP Bhupendra Rai.
On the other hand, both sides appeared to agree on the issue of the budget's imbalance during the day-long discussions on Tuesday. However, no conclusion was reached on how to rectify it, said Tamang. 'Everyone agrees that the budget is unbalanced. This used to happen in the past as well,' Tamang said, 'but no conclusion has been reached on how to correct it.'
Although the past practice has been that budgets are not revised, members of the task force including Hom Bahadur Thapa, Himal Karki, and Binod Bantawa emphasize that the budget can be further refined and balanced within democratic and parliamentary practices. Other members, Magar, Tamang, and Basnet, stressed the need to explore other alternatives as there is no practice of revising the budget.
'The only options to balance the budget are to commit to providing additional budget for the programs in the red book (reallocation) or to balance it through financial transfer,' Tamang said. 'Budget revision is something that doesn't happen in the world. I don't think this will happen. But we are still discussing.'
After discussions throughout the day, the task force held discussions with Chief Minister Hikmat Kumar Karki on Tuesday evening. However, no conclusion was reached, said Tamang. 'The situation is the same as it was before. No agreement has been reached,' Tamang said.
In this context, task force member and CPN (UML) Koshi Province Parliamentary Party Chief Whip Ramesh Basnet emphasized that the budget dispute would be resolved within the established values and norms of the parliamentary system. 'Discussions are ongoing regarding the dissatisfaction expressed by the honorable members regarding the budget and balancing the allocation,' Basnet said. 'Our goal is to revise, refine, and improve the dissatisfaction through democratic methods. The government is also positive about this issue. We are confident that an agreement will be reached before the Ashar 18 meeting.'
Congress Chief Whip Tamang also expressed confidence that the parliament would function on Ashar 18. 'It's not right to postpone the parliament any further. If the parliament doesn't function on the 18th as well, there won't be enough time to pass the budget,' Tamang said. 'We are making efforts. The parliament will function with consensus.'
On Ashar 1, Finance and Planning Minister Bidur Kumar Linghthep presented a budget of Rs 40.44 billion 98 million in the parliament. This budget has been opposed mainly by the chairpersons of parliamentary committees, stating that it is unbalanced and minister-centric. Some MPs have also stated that they are running a signature campaign to prevent the budget from being passed in its current form and to defeat it through voting.
This specific news has been automatically translated by AI. As a result, there may be some inaccuracies or language errors.
