Already, as a result of our failure to pass a full budget in mid-July (when the country’s fiscal year starts), the country has suffered immensely on the development front. Under the Special Budget, the government is not authorized to award annual contracts for development projects as a result of which public construction works has come to a standstill. In a country that is woefully short of infrastructure, this is nothing short of blasphemy.
Now, if the government cannot endorse a new budget by Nov 16, we will witness a serious crisis on multiple fronts. Since the Special Budget allows the Finance Ministry to spend only an amount equal to one-third of the actual expenses of last year, the government will not be able to pay the salaries of public service officials and teachers, among others. There have already been instances of how some of our offices have run short of money. National Sports Council had to borrow money from the Cricket Association of Nepal to purchase flight tickets to send our players to the Asian Games underway at Guangzhou, China. Similarly, the government had to arrange money from the budget allocated to service foreign loans and interests to pay Oberthur, the French firm that has won the bid to supply us with machine readable passports.
Additionally, it is now coming to light that businesses are postponing crucial decisions because they are not sure about the tax structure the new budget will propose. The government could have changed tax rates and influenced the pattern of imports, consumption and even production. However, this tool now remains simply unavailable in the absence of a new budget.
In this background, the Maoist stand that they would not endorse a full budget sounds quite worrying and irresponsible. UCPN (Maoist) must immediately stop linking the budget with the government formation and peace process issues. They can keep on having debates and discussions on those crucial issues but the budget must be endorsed without any delay. We truly hope and believe that the Maoist stand until now that the budget cannot be passed without first settling the political differences that they have with the other parties is just public posturing and that they would agree to pass it without any further delay.
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