FinMin, MPs not serious about budget: Finance committee members

KATHMANDU, April 20: Members of the parliament's Finance Committee have charged the finance minister and fellow members of parliament (MPs) of not seeming to be serious about discussing the budget for the next fiscal year after a meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning was delayed after a large chunk of MPs, the finance minister and other officials failed to make an appearance at the scheduled start.

The Finance Committee meeting, called for Tuesday 09:00 am, started an hour late when Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel finally arrived. Absentees included parliamentarians, the finance secretary and Yuba Raj Khatiwada, the vice chair of the National Planning Commission (NPC).


Paudel then expressed his views on the budget preparation and then left without listening to suggestions of the parliamentarians present at the meeting.

Former finance minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari then asked Prakash Jwala, the chair of the committee, to make a rule that the finance minister, the finance secretary and planning commission vice chair should be present at such meetings. The committee chair then ruled that the minister, secretary and the vice chair of the planning commission should be present in the next meeting.

Addressing Tuesday's meeting, Finance Minister Paudel said the government would focus on reconstruction efforts after the earthquake and on agriculture, energy and tourism. "The budget will also focus on employment generation and economic growth," he said, committing to bring the Fiscal Year 2016/17 budget by May 31, in accordance with the constitution.

Paudel also said the government was preparing the budget within the Rs 909 billion ceiling set by NPC for the next fiscal year.

The ministries have a tendency to go for budgets more than their absorption capacity.

In the current fiscal year, the government has been unable to spend its development budget, though the low spending has been attributed to the devastating earthquakes, fuel-shortage due to the Indian economic blockade, Tarai turmoil and legal and procedural hurdles.

"The government is committed to increasing its spending capacity," Paudel said, adding that spending had been a challenge in the current fiscal year.

Suresh Shrestha, the Secretary at the planning commission, told the Tuesday's meeting that ministries have a tendency to ask for more money than they can spend. "We have received some Rs 150 billion in budget estimates from the ministries," he added.

By the end of nine months of the current fiscal year, the government had been able to spend less than 20 percent of the total development budget.

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