General discussion in the budget concluded in the House of Representatives on Sunday after 25 lawmakers made their deliberations on it.
Airing their views on the budget for the fiscal year 2023/24, some lawmakers today suggested ways to improve the budget while others criticised some provisions inserted in the new budget.
Prticipating in the deliberations, former Finance Minister and UML lawmaker Bishnu Prasad Paudel said that Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat insulted the lawmakers by allocating Rs. 50 million to each of them under the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme in the name of equitable distribution.
CPN-UML vice president Paudel recalled that he had scrapped the fund when he was the Finance Minister considering the criticism it received from the public in past.
However, Finance Minister Dr. Mahat revived the programme of the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme for the upcoming fiscal year.
Expressing his unhappiness over the revival of the programme, he said, “Allocating the budget based on equitable standards in the name of the balanced development of each constituency is not the need of this time.”
He also requested that the budget allocated in the name of the Constituency Infrastructure Development Programme for his constituency be spent on the infrastructure development of the public education sector through the relevant ministry.
Paudel also demanded justification of the decision to increase the customs and excise duties on the electric vehicles with relatively low capacity and to reduce the customs and excise duties on expensive electric vehicles. He further said that facts proved the Finance Minister’s claim to ‘rationalise’ the customs and excise duties on the electric vehicles were wrong.
Similarly, Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa said that the Finance Minister should focus on improvements for the public delivery. “If the government improves loopholes, the budget is practical in general,” he said.
MP Deepak Giri from the NC asked the government to unveil the budget in the early hours instead of tabling it in the evening from next fiscal year.
With the conclusion of the general discussion, Finance Minister Dr. Mahat will respond to the questions raised during the deliberations on Monday before detail deliberations on the budget related bills begin in the House.
