KATHMANDU, JULY 14: The budget for the fiscal year 2022/23 presented by Prakash Bahadur Rawal, Minister for Economic Affairs of Sudurpaschim Province Government, in the Provincial Assembly meeting has not yet been discussed.
Lawmakers of the opposition parties as well as the ruling party have expressed dissatisfaction and protest against the budget, saying that the budget was prepared on the basis of commissions and not on the basis of necessity and justification. According to the ruling and opposition parties, the budget has been allocated on the basis of commissions rather than issues and areas to accelerate development including education, health and projects.
The discussion on the budget on June 22, 26, 30 and July 10 was postponed by posting a notice before the meeting of the Provincial Assembly.
Sudurpaschim Province Assembly approves budget by majority
Apart from the ministers representing the CPN (Unified Socialist) party in the government, there is strong dissatisfaction and opposition from other parliamentarians.
Speaker Arjun Bahadur Thapa had announced that the meeting of the province assembly was adjourned as the opposition CPN-UML, JSP and LSP Members of Parliament (MPs) were absent in the meeting. Opposition parties as well as Nepali Congress and Unified Socialist MPs were absent in the meeting held at 12 noon on Tuesday. Ministers and CPN (Maoist Center) lawmakers were present at the meeting, while only one Unified Socialist lawmaker was present, said Dev Bahadur Bogati, secretary of the provincial assembly secretariat.
The second meeting held at 3 PM on Tuesday was also postponed due to the boycott of the meeting by the opposition.
Ruling party MPs deeply dissatisfied
The CPN (Maoist Center), Nepali Congress and CPN (Unified Socialist) have formed the government in Sudurpaschim Province. The coalition government is led by the Chief Minister of the Maoist Center, Trilochan Bhatta. Even the ministers in the cabinet are dissatisfied with the budget. A minister has said that this budget, which was brought without any discussion among the ministers, is not acceptable.
Nepali Congress MP Bharat Bahadur Khadka said that the budget was allocated according to the plans of middlemen. "Financial discipline has not been followed while preparing this budget. The budget has been distributed in an unbalanced and chaotic manner," he said, adding that the demand of Nepali Congress MPs is that the budget should be passed only after amendments.
MPs of the main opposition party CPN-UML have said that this budget made taking financial benefits is unacceptable and they will not participate in the discussion of this budget. CPN-UML MP and former minister Pathan Singh Bohara said that this budget is against the Economic Act. He said that by allocating low budgets for important development plans including education and health, a lot of budget has been allocated for unproductive areas on the basis of commissions. "Not all sectors, subjects are covered; there is no budget for important works but the budget has been allocated for unproductive sectors," he said, "There is a lot of corruption behind it."
On June 15, the provincial government announced a budget of over Rs 36.74 billion for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23.
