By Binod Ghimire in The Kathmandu Post, June 26, 2023
Amid growing demand for a revision of the national budget, even the ministers and ruling party leaders have said the House can amend the budget if the legislature deems it necessary.
Taking part in the budget deliberations on Sunday, they said the concerns of the lawmakers expressed in the weeks-long discussions must be addressed.
The national budget is mandatorily presented in the House on Jestha 15 (May 29 this year) every year. First, both the Houses discuss the budget’s theoretical aspects for around a week. This is followed by topic-wise discussions on funds allocations for each ministries before the budget is put to a vote. The entire process takes over a month. However, there has been a practice whereby not even a comma or full stop is revised.
Any amendment to the budget is seen as a failure of the government. Answering the questions on the budget related to his ministry, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha said there was no point in spending a long time in discussing the budget if the feedback from the House is not entertained.
“What is the meaning of having weeks-long discussions if the budget does not change? Let’s break with the traditional way of the Parliament’s functioning. Let there be a serious discussion among the ruling and opposition parties to find a way out to address the feedback of the House in the budget,” he said. “The current Parliament is more than a continuation of the traditional one. We must break the wrong practice of not allowing any amendment to the budget.”
There are various provisions in the budget that have drawn severe criticism from lawmakers across parties. But, traditionally, by the time it is put to vote the ruling party lawmakers give up their reservations and approve the budget.
Questions have been raised from different quarters over the protracted budget discussions in the House even though there is no provision for making any changes to it. “In a democracy, we cannot move ahead by ignoring the concerns of the House. But it seems we don’t have enough time to revise the budget this time,” said ruling party lawmaker Ramesh Lekhak, who is also the chief whip of the Nepali Congress. “We need serious discussions on determining the role of Parliament in finalising the appropriation bill and finance bill. Let us break free from the sacrosanct notion that the budget cannot be revised.”
Leaders of the Rastriya Janata Party, the CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Janamat Party have openly challenged the budget. Vice-chairman of the ruling CPN (Unified Socialist) Rajendra Pandey has publicly threatened to shoot down the budget if it is not amended. His party has mainly opposed ‘discriminatory budget allocation’.
For instance, huge sums have been allocated to Gorkha, Dadeldhura and Nuwakot, the home districts or constituencies of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, respectively. Also, big amounts have been allocated to the constituencies of some influential ministers.
Experts on parliamentary affairs say the budget is a bill and like any other bill, it can be amended. “I don’t see any legal barrier to revising the budget. The ruling alliance has a majority to endorse any bill,” Som Bahadur Thapa, former secretary at the parliament secretariat, told the Post. “If parties really want to make changes, there is no problem. I don’t think the regulations of the House of Representatives bar the House from making changes. Even if it does, such provisions can easily be amended.”
https://kathmandupost.com/politics/2023/06/26/demand-grows-to-empower-house-to-amend-budget
