NA meeting: Lawmakers stress on effective implementation of budget

Lawmakers speaking in the meeting of the National Assembly (NA), the upper house of the Federal Parliament, today, stressed on the effective implementation of the budget for the next fiscal year, saying the budget has considered the country’s needs.

Taking part in the general discussions on the proposal seeking deliberations on the annual estimates of revenue and expenditures for fiscal year 2024-25 in the NA meeting today, lawmaker Jag Prasad Sharma stressed on the practical implementation of the budget as it addresses the national needs in a practical manner.

According to him, the budget prioritizes the development and construction, preparing the base of socialism.

Lawmaker Devendra Dahal said the budget has prioritized the policies and programmes of the coalition government and the government’s 16th five-year plan. “It has also addressed the guiding principle of ‘Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali’, and paid special attention to export promotion,” he added, stressing on the effective implementation of the budget.

Lawmaker Dr Beduram Bhusal welcomed the budget, saying it was in the right direction. He added that the budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector is inadequate, stating the budget lacked the policy, programmes and plans for attaining self-sufficiency in food.

Lawmaker Krishna Bahadur Rokaya expressed doubts on the effective implementation of the budget, saying it was of a bloated size. He pointed out to the difficulties in its implementation as it is distributive and the expected internal loans were untenable. He further said there is problem in revenue mobilization and the budget lacked fiscal discipline.

Lawmaker Mohammad Khalid said that looking at the budgetary allocations, the indigenous nationalities, Madhesi, Muslim communities cannot take ownership of the budget, as it fails to address the needs of these communities.

He called attention of the government to the urgent need of resolving the acute shortage of water in the Tarai/Madhes region.