Kathmandu: Lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties have been deliberating on various aspects of the annual estimates of income and expenditure (budget) for the upcoming fiscal year 2024-25 in the meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Federal Parliament.
Lawmaker Rajendra Prasad Pandey of the CPN (Unified Socialist) said that there are contradictions in the tax system announced in the budget for the next fiscal year. He criticized the budget, saying it failed to put to an end the tax evasion situation and creating an environment wherein the tax-payers would be able to voluntarily pay tax.
“The budget has been criticized that tax has been imposed without justified principles. It is said that tax has been levied in sectors not making profit and earning. The Finance Minister should respond to these allegations,” he said.
Lawmaker Pandey also said that the budget has failed to come up with plan for the entrepreneurship development of the foreign employment returnee youths.
“The Agriculture decade has been declared without any supportive programmes. There are no programmes for utilising the uncultivated land,” he pointed out.
New phase of economic reforms announced through budget
Taking part in the deliberations, lawmaker Dr Swornim Wagle of the Rastriya Swatantra Party said that the budget for the next fiscal year has announced a new phase of economic reforms. He argued that the budget is balanced and has specified a clear goal of the economic transformation.
Lawmaker Wagle believed that economic prosperity is possible through employment and production growth and the export of information technology services.
Stating that the budget has delineated a clear outline for the development of the energy and agriculture sectors, he said the Gandaki Economic Triangle connecting Bhartpur, Pokhara and Butwal will support in attaining the goal of economic growth.
‘Budget positive but implementation challenging’
Lawmaker Ram Kumar Rai opined that the next fiscal year’s budget will win the confidence of the Nepali people. He expressed the confidence that the five priorities of the budget will resolve the existing challenges in the economy. He however said that the implementation of the budget seems to be challenging.
Budget is traditional and it does not address existing challenges: Lingden
Lawmaker and President of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Rajendra Lingden described the budget for the next fiscal year as ‘traditional’, which cannot address the existing challenges of the economy.
He also said that the budget has failed to infuse hope among the people and it has merely fulfilled the tradition. “There is no situation to make a leap ahead in the current situation of the national economy. The budget has not been able to generate optimism,” he said, adding it would be difficult to attain the goal of economic transformation with a budget based on ‘estimation, grant and loans’.
Stating that the programmes should have been brought in a different manner, he said there is big gap between the current and capital expenditures in the current fiscal and the budget has made no efforts to reduce this gap. (RSS)
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