Speaking at an interaction organized jointly by Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Society of Economic Journalists Nepal (SEJON) on possible impacts to the economy due to delay in bringing a full-fledged budget, vice chairman of National Planning Commission Dr Jagadish Chandra Pokharel said achieving the targets set by the new Three-year Plan has become challenging due to lack of timely and concrete fiscal policy. [break]
He also stressed on the urgent need to address the persisting delay in bringing the fiscal budget and called for necessary arrangements to bring budget at the end of fiscal year at any cost.
Finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal said the absence of a full-fledged budget has heightened economic uncertainty that can adversely affect potential private sector investment.
Lack of a fiscal policy applicable for a full fiscal year hampers our efforts to adopt policies that are immediately needed to correct major economic problems that have threatened basic stability, he said.
“There was an urgent need to bring policies that promoted exports and curb imports to address an alarming rise in balance of payment (BoP), Khanal said.
Khanal said since resources allocated by the special budget is just enough to continue development activities initiated in the past, the implementation of a number of strategies adopted by the newly endorsed three-year plan could be affected.
Presenting a paper over the possible impacts of delay in budget, Pradeep Man Baidya, vice president of FNCCI, said weak governance and infrastructure status that have emerged as the major bottleneck to development is likely to worsen further due to lack of timely budget. “It is worrisome that the government has failed to bring new polices to boost agriculture sector as a result of which unemployment situation of the country is likely to worsen further,” he added.
Baidya also warned that proposed announcement of monetary policy without a full-fledged budget would not be able to address core economic problems that the economy is facing.
Senior economists Dr Bishwambher Pyakuryal said the absence of full-fledged budget is a blow to recent attempts made in improving deliveries of basic services like education and health. The squeezes in public expenditures due to lack of resources might distract potential private investments, he added.
Economist Dilli Raj Khanal stressed upon the need for a political consensus and said that it is high time the major political parties worked together for a minimum economic agenda.
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