Report in The Kathmandu Post, June 10, 2023
Ruling coalition leaders have publicly criticised the budget for the fiscal year 2023-2024 unveiled on May 29 as the fiscal estimates are being discussed in Parliament.
Speaking at the general convention of the Press Organisation on Friday, CPN (Unified Socialist) Vice-chair Rajendra Pandey said the annual budget has done extreme injustice to the people and they would not tolerate it, even if that meant quitting the government.
Pandey criticised the government for the budgetary allocations made under the physical infrastructure ministry to Gorkha, Dadeldhura and Nuwakot districts. “Rs2.35 billion has been allocated for three districts, while Rs2.65 billion is distributed to other 74 districts. Is that right? Injustice is not right.”
He added: “As a vice-chair of the party, I say even if it makes us leave the government, that’s okay. We won’t tolerate this injustice.”
The government has presented a budget of Rs1.75 trillion for the next fiscal year beginning mid-July. The outlay is 2.37 percent smaller than the unrevised budget of the current fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs1.14 trillion or 65.2 percent of the total budget for recurrent spending, which consists of regular expenses like salaries and allowances.
It set aside Rs302 billion or 17.25 percent of the budget for capital spending, to build projects and critical infrastructures. The budget allocated Rs307 billion, or 17.55 percent of the total, for debt servicing.
At a time when the opposition parties—CPN-UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party—have been strongly criticising the budget, ruling parties’ key leaders have also expressed their dissatisfaction.
Speaking at the House of Representatives meeting on Wednesday, Janata Samajbadi Party chair Upendra Yadav said the new budget has deviated from socialist principles. “Though it was promulgated by firing bullets on the Madhesis, the constitution has a socialism-oriented financial system. But the budget is not socialism-oriented, it is based on bikrit [anomalous] capitalism and neoliberalism principles,” said Yadav.
Meanwhile, upon returning from New Zealand on Wednesday, Unified Socialist chair Madhav Nepal said he had heard that the budget spending is centred around Gorkha, Dadeldhura and Nuwakot. “If such an action has any basis, that will be a different matter. Otherwise, they should have done that with some basis,” said Nepal.
https://kathmandupost.com/national/2023/06/10/leaders-of-ruling-parties-criticise-new-budget
