"At the meeting today [Monday] we decided on the preparations for unveiling new annual budget by mid-November as various vital government agencies have already faced budget crunch and it is going to be alarming within few weeks everywhere," Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi told Republica.[break]
A leader from Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Tripathi claimed that the ruling parties were determined to bring new budget come what may.
He said the ruling leaders were one on the view that they would be ready to make compromises with the opposition parties but wouldn´t allow the situation to develop where the country would be left without a budget.
"Not even the president, prime minister, opposition leaders or anyone can stand against it because budget belongs to the country, the people and not to the government or ruling parties," claimed Tripathi.
He said that the government was ready even to involve opposition parties in the process of preparing the budget so that the country´s economy and development activities wouldn´t incur huge loss due to lack of annual budget.
The present government that came to power in August 2011 has not introduced annual budget so far because at the end of the last fiscal year the president had already declared the present government a caretaker coalition following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly. The government had to introduce one-third of the previous budget through ordinance as the provisional arrangement after the opposition parties barred the caretaker government from unveiling new annual budget in the absence of parliament.
Tripathi said several government agencies were already in dire need of budget. According to him, government was already running out of money even for providing daily rations of inmates, government medical institutions and civil servants.
However, opposition leaders have repeatedly said that they wouldn´t allow the present coalition to bring annual budget.
Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala, CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and CPN-UML´s senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal during their recent separate meetings with President Ram Baran Yadav had urged the head of state not to issue any ordinance on budget if the government pressed him to do so.
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