KATHMANDU: The government led by KP Oli has completed its one year. In a televised address to the nation on Thursday, Oli highlighted the government’s achievements, including the enactment of important laws to implement federalism. Other highlights of his speech were: one trillion investment pledged by the international community, launching of the Social Security Scheme, and the Prime Minister Employment Program. Despite his claims of prosperity, the economic indices seem to be weak. The trade deficit is huge while the development expenditure has been put at 22 percent.
Shocking trade-deficit
In the past one year, after KP Oli took charge as the country’s prime minister, the trade deficit has gone up staggeringly amounting to Rs 678.53 billion in the last six months. By the second week of October, 2017, the total trade deficit was put at Rs 493 billion. In the last six months, the capital outflow is at Rs 63 billon.
According to the record maintained by Nepal Rastra Bank, the balance sheet has a deficit of 63.68 billion. In the second week of January, 2018, the capital outflow was put at Rs 6.66 billion.
Declining foreign investment
The foreign investment has declined in the first six months of the current fiscal year. According to the statistics maintained by the government, Nepal has received Rs 4.36 billion as foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last six months.
By the second week of January, 2018, Nepal government received a total of 14.33 billion in FDI. According to the statistics maintained by the World Bank, Nepal has gone down below five positions in the terms of investment climate compared to the previous year.
Deteriorating security condition
The culprit behind the rape and murder case of Nirmala Pant in Kanchanpur, which happened after PM Oli took charge, is still at large.
Similarly, the government is still clueless on the murder of Keshav Jha, former Nepali Ambassador to France, who was murdered in Buddhanagar. The main opposition Nepali Congress has been criticizing the government saying that it failed to main law and order, with the number of rape-after-murder cases increasing ever.
Aggressive announcement, weak implementation
Even though the government at the beginning closed all the bank accounts of the transport entrepreneurs and announced it would end the transport syndicate system, it has now fizzled out. The syndicate is still intact. Likewise, the government has not arrested the main mastermind behind the 33 kg gold scam nor could it take action against those contractors blacklisted.
Optimistic diplomatic ties
The Oli government has claimed that Nepal’s relations with the international community has improved in the last one year. He has claimed that it has fostered ties with its largest development partner the United States of America. However, analysts say that the relations between Nepal and America has deteriorated following the Nepal government’s official views over the Venezuela crisis.
Social security and development initiatives
Despite having a bleak scenario on all fronts, some ministries’ performances are found satisfactory.
Labor treaty with the labor destination countries like Malaysia, employment guarantee, unemployment allowance are some of the remarkable jobs performed by the Oli government.
Similarly, the government has started implementing the social security plan and has initiated the construction of hydropower projects with the slogan ‘People’s Investment in People’s Water.’
Expediting the construction works of the Gautam Buddha International Airport and 22 hours operation of the Tribhuvan International Airport are some of the positive works of the government.
Zero tolerance policy on corruption ineffective
The government failed to take action against those involved in the embezzlement of the wide-body aircraft procurement cases in line with the report of the Public Account Committee. Nepal has gone down in the list of corrupt countries.
Federalism at jeopardy
The lawmakers from both the ruling and the opposition have accused the government of tabling bills related to Nepal Police and Provincial Police saying these bills are against federalism. They have claimed that if the bills were endorsed without any changes they will create rifts between the central and the provincial governments.
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