KATHMANDU, April 9: Amid growing concern over lack of effectiveness of federal government’s budget and programs, parliament’s Finance Committee has formed two separate panels to reach to all provinces to study their respective fiscal policies and programs.
The panels will hold discussions with the general public, officials of provincial governments and local units, and other stakeholders to collect their opinion for the budget-making process.
These discussions are being organized to provide input to the federal government for framing budget and policies for the budget for the new fiscal year which starts from mid-July.
Members of Finance Committee told Republica that the discussions will also bridge the governance gap among three tiers of the government.
In addition, the panels of lawmakers will also monitor different development projects, national pride projects and revenue offices, among others.
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A team led by former finance minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki will visit Jhapa and Biratnagar of Province 1, Janakpur and Birgunj of Province 2 and Hetauda of Province 3.
Likewise, another former finance minister Surendra Pandey will lead the second team that will organize discussions in Pokhara of Gandaki Province, Butwal and Nepalgunj of Province 5, Surkhet of Karnali Province, and Dhangadhi of Sudurpaschim Province.
Each panel will have 12 lawmakers. The panels will leave for provinces for discussions in the third week of April.
Secretary of the Finance Committee Surendra Aryal said that the panels will provide inputs to the government on budget-making process by holding policy dialogue throughout the country. These are probably the first parliamentary committee discussions held in provinces after the government embraced federal system.
“Besides, there are also issues like duplication of tax issues and spending of development budget by provinces as well as monitoring of national pride projects, among others,” added Aryal.
Both the panels will prepare detailed report and submit it to the government. The federal government will incorporate suggestions made in the report while preparing budgetary programs for FY2019/20.
“These arrangements have been made for policy intervention, said Aryal.
The parliamentary panel formed the study panels two weeks after lawmakers of Karnali Province blamed the federal government for not providing needful resources after implementation of the federal system.
A team led by former home minister Janardan Sharma had met Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli, Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada and vice chairpersons of the National Planning Commission, seeking equitable distribution of budget.
The government has implemented several recommendations on budget-making process, including setting the date for tabling budget and programs in parliament, made by the Finance Committee. This has ended uncertainty of fiscal policies.
Though the country has adopted federal setup and three tiers of government are in operation, provinces and local units are facing dearth of technical know-how and quality manpower which is affecting their planning process.
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