Parties' silence over budget

The indifference shown by the political parties toward formulating a new budget has indicated that they are yet to understand the gravity of the country’s economic problems. Even the political leaders who pilot economic policy in their parties seem unenthusiastic. At least we have not heard of any political party formally providing suggestions to the government over the economic policy that the upcoming budget should incorporate.



There might have been some closed-door meetings or there will be when the minister of finance lays out his budgetary policies and programs to the parliament before announcing the budget, but we do expect a policy paper of major political parties that focuses on the economy and the polices and programs that the budget should adopt to boost growth. Unfortunately, we don’t see any major political party, including the opposition, bringing out such a policy paper on state of the economy. This is happening not because they are unable to do so but because of the fact that they either do not have an idea of such practices in other countries or think it is totally unnecessary.



Isn’t it the right of a voter to know what the party that he or she trusted thinks about the economy and development activities of the country? Shouldn’t the parties tell their voters about the programs and policies that they think are necessary to adopt in the budget to overcome our problems and snail-paced development? Shouldn’t the parties make their view public on rising consumption, which is being managed through imports rather than domestic production?



The result of our economic problems has already started showing in the form of widening trade deficit, thus fueling a record high deficit in the country’s Balance of Payments. It is shameful to note that an agricultural country like ours had to import goats and buffaloes worth Rs 15 billion and fruits worth Rs 5 billion this year. Is Nepal a country that should be importing garlic from China and ginger from India? Definitely not, but that is what we have been doing simply because of our failed agriculture policy.



The political culture in Nepal is such that no party bothers to communicate with voters once elections are over. There is officially no mechanism in our parties that deals with issues related to the economy. It is time parties started telling people what they think about the economy and laying out their recommendations publicly. It is their duty to convince their voters that they are trying to do what they are supposed to do.

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