Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Budget will be acceptable to future govt: Finance Minister

Finance Minister Shankar Prasad Koirala has said that the programs proposed in the budget for the fiscal year 2013/14 will be acceptable to the elected governments in the future as it was formulated in line with the approach paper for the upcoming three-year plan.

Koirala´s remarks comes amid the concern: whether the budget will be owned by the future governments or not.
After series of discussions with stakeholders, including political parties, the government had approved last week the 13th Development Plan, which has envisions a road map of development for next three years.

"In line with the next three-year plan, we have announced the budget with the only programs that are necessary to run the country and mobilize necessary resources. These programs in the budget are easily acceptable for the government formed after the Constituent Assembly (CA) election," Koirala told at a press conference on Monday.

Koirala also said the government reviewed some tax rates after two years of gap to make additional arrangement of resources. The budget has increased the exemption limit for income tax for individual and couple to Rs 200,000 and Rs 250,000 from Rs 160,000 and Rs 200,000, respectively. Similarly, excise duties on tobacco and liquor have also been raised.

Koirala further said that the timely announcement of the budget and stringent measures to be adopted by the government for its effective implementation would help attain the target of 5.5 percent growth in the fiscal year 2013/14.

"Timely announcement of the budget will help attain satisfactory progress in development projects. We are also coming up with measures for the budget management and accountability when it comes to its implementation to ensure effective implementation, which will eventually lead to a higher economic growth," Koirala added.

The number of projects included in the budget has decreased to 452 for the fiscal year 2013/14 from 459 last fiscal year. "The decline in the number of projects is a message that we are more focused on implementation rather than increasing the number of projects," said Koirala.

Similarly, the budged has made provision not to make the new amendment in programs after mid-April of the particular fiscal year, timely authorization of budget so that the concerned ministries could ensure implementation of the programs announced in the budget on time.
As per the new provision, the concerned ministries will have to take permission from National Planning Commission (NPC), the apex policy-making body of the government, for the implementation of Priority-one (P1) and Priority-two (P2) projects from mid-July.

NPC Vice-Chairman Rabindra Kumar Shakya said that a number of projects have been prioritized in the budget considering their viability and the chances of immediate result from them.

Amid concern over the rising inflation in the country, Koirala assured that the government will take all necessary measures, including strengthening supplies, effective monitoring of the markets and increasing domestic production, to contain the inflation at a set limit of eight percent.
src : republica

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