KATHMANDU: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has been suggested to mull white paper on every facet of the national economy. Economists at the Committee meeting viewed that a white paper could be brought for the uniformity on the statistics generated by various government agencies including Finance Ministry, Nepal Rastra Bank, and National Planning Commission.
The Committee held the meeting on revenue mobilization, budget implementation, the trend of capital expenditure, economic indexes on Wednesday.
According to the economic experts, the Committee could play an interventionist role to make a budget by abiding by the integrated budget system. Massive reform is imperative to narrow down the gap following the spirit of the constitution, political documents and country’s economy.
Former Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Shanker Sharma urged the government to immediately stop local level leaderships for they were acting against fiscal discipline. The trend of revoking development announcement by State government was equally worrisome. “If Nepal’s energy was sold to the Bangladeshi market, it can help minimize trade deficit to some extent,” he stressed.
Similarly, Professor Bishwombhar Pyakurel, argued that the government failed to meet expected capital expenditure because it randomly distributed budget- without relevance, and study of pattern. Policy and structural problems are impeding the economic development and prosperity, he added.
A former member of the National Planning Commission, Gobinda Nepal, however, claimed that the country’s economic status was improving although revenue and remittance data are not in a positive trend.
Economist Dr. Dilliraj Khanal said although the country had relatively stable politics, capital expenditure was poor due to undue influence in the allocation of the development budget.
Another economist Keshab Khadka also wondered why the country was not up to the mark on revenue collection and capital expenditure.
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