Govt’s policies and programs prioritize populist programs for next year’s budget

Published On: May 24, 2022 06:25 PM NPT By: Republica | @RepublicaNepal

KATHMANDU, May 24: The government is all set to announce yet another populist budget this year at a time when the country is struggling to improve its economic condition.

Announcing the government's policies and programs for the fiscal year 2022/23 in a meeting of the federal parliament on Tuesday, President Bidya Devi Bhandari put forth a number of ambitious projects for the next year. The government’s policies and programs are one of the main guidelines for the budget that is scheduled to be announced on May 29.

According to President Bhandari, some measures to increase remittance inflow, to increase in hydroelectricity production and distribution and improvement of supply chain will be introduced through the budget. However, she spent most of her time talking about construction of big projects in the country.

Construction of the 945 km east-west railway lines, metro railway in the Kathmandu Valley and Rasuwagadhi-Kathmandu and Raxaul-Kathmandu railways have found places in the priority lists of the government. Likewise, an adequate budget will be allocated for the construction of cable car and ropeway next year.

The government has planned to construct a new provincial level airport at Bheriganga Ramghat of Surkhet district. The government will also construct a utility corridor on the road stretch of Maitighar and Tribhuvan International Airport along with a number of urban infrastructures throughout the country.

Similarly, the government will be promoting the construction of the Great Himalayan Trail that connects Taplejung in the east to Humla and Darchula in the west for tourism promotion. A total of 800 km of new construction and additional 257 km of roads will be upgraded in the next fiscal year.

As some measures to address the ongoing problem of surging import, the government will focus on improving the supply chain to reduce the impact of external factors. Currently, the country is feeling the heat of surging prices of essentials mainly due to an increasing inflation in import source countries triggered by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Effective implementation of anti-dumping and countervailing duty rules, auto pricing system on petroleum products, providing subsidies to export-oriented businesses and improvement of electricity distribution system have been listed as the government’s targeted programs.