KATHMANDU: Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma has said that the 10 million COVID-19 vaccines were managed.

While issuing a fact paper on current status of the national economy in the House of Representatives (HoR) here Tuesday, Minister Sharma said managing vaccines was utmost priority of the government. He also shared that he had released five billion rupees to procure the vaccines on the very first day he assumed the office.

On another note, Minister Sharma said that the government would move ahead on the journey to socialism following the constitutional guidelines to this effect. He said they were working to make the government responsible to the people and the nation.

Finance Minister Sharma said that the government prioritized to develop the capital in the country. He also committed to control the price hike, increase capital expenditure and accelerate the fiscal activities in the country. He pointed out that the Ministry was facing difficulties as developmental efforts were found started without proper management of the fund.

Finance Minister Sharma pointed out the need of mobilizing the remittance in developmental and productive sectors. He also stressed on improving the management of the public corporations as they were found bearing loss.

The Minister shared that 18.7 per cent population in the country was under the poverty line and it was worsening due to COVID-19 pandemic effect; therefore policy level reforms was needed to tackle it. He said weaknesses in implementation process of some national pride projects were failing to give better result. The upper Tamakoshi and Melamchi Drinking Water Project were the instances of it, Sharma said.