KATHMANDU, June 1: Former finance minister and CPN-UML lawmaker Surendra Prasad Pandey has said that it is the UML that will get applause even if someone decreases the minimum eligible age for such an allowance to 68 years. Pandey said that the old age allowance was a ‘brand’ of the UML and it would not make any difference even if the minimum eligible age for the allowance is reduced.

Speaking at a meeting of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, he said, "We have reduced the old age allowance to 68 years. No matter how much the old age allowance is talked about, it’s a concept introduced in Nepal by the UML. It doesn't matter if you drop the age to 68 or 58.”

Lawmaker Pandey said that there was a vested interest in providing induction stoves to six million families. He expressed his concern that the distribution of induction stoves was being manipulated to raise election funds. He expressed dissatisfaction over the budget cuts in the education and health sectors.

Similarly, Pandey said that it was not fair to increase the salaries of government employees of all levels even though it was okay to increase the salaries of employees by 15 percent given the inflation. He also questioned whether increasing the salary in this way was socialism-oriented.

He said, "We have increased the salary by 15 percent. But what we haven't noticed is that a 15 percent increase in the flat rate can be justified when the lower class employees and the upper class get the same rate? Is it socialism-oriented? This is how we used to do in the past? Nowhere do I see that. This may not have been a fair distribution. Even after explaining so much about the purpose of the budget, I could not agree on anything.”

 
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