Kathmandu.
Former Finance Minister Barshaman Pun has said that the budget is not a declaration of alliance but a document of revolutionary structural change. Speaking on the first day of the ongoing debate on the budget in Parliament, he refuted the argument made by CPN-UML Vice-Chairman and former Finance Minister Vishnu Poudel about the budget.
Stating that it was wrong for a former finance minister to call the budget a manifesto of the alliance, Pun questioned that the army, police, staff and farmers would all benefit from the budget.
“The salaries of 150,000 employees, more than 100,000 army and police personnel have been increased,” Pun said. Millions of farmers will get pension. Now everyone is in an alliance? ‘
Stating that the government’s budget increase of 32 percent in agriculture was revolutionary, he said that it was natural to increase the budget by 9 percent by reducing foreign and overall public debt by 4.8 percent.
He said that the main priority of the new budget brought by the government is to modernize agriculture, commercialize it, increase production and create employment. He claimed that the positive aspect of the budget was to manage 500,000 people who have reached the age of 18 every year in the labor market, to reduce the import of food items by 30 percent and to double the export. He claims that measures such as land reform, poverty alleviation, contribution-based farmer’s pension have made the budget more progressive and of long-term importance.
He also lauded the government’s plan to fix the support price of farmers’ produce through the budget and the government’s plan to buy it. “Farmers’ produce is no longer wasted, agricultural crop insurance and 100 community warehouses provide great relief to farmers,” Pun said. He said that the government’s budget from import-oriented has been created for production and employment through structural reforms.
Pun claims that the ‘Make in Nepal’ and ‘Made in Nepal’ campaigns launched by the budget will benefit the country in the long run.
Pun claims that the policy of creating a productive environment and reducing the supply of fuel is in the interest of the country.
Pun said that the budget should reconsider the increased excise duty on electric vehicles. Stating that foreign and overall public debt has increased from Rs 9 trillion to Rs 18 trillion under the previous government, he pointed out the need to review the last five years.
