Stakeholder suggestions to increase the effectiveness of budget implementation
Of the 63 items related to the private sector in the budget of the current financial year, only 12.7 percent have been fully implemented by the second quarter. While overall legal reforms were encouraging through the second quarter, capital spending and construction of major projects remained sluggish, a study showed.
Experts are of the opinion that the growing distance between the annual budget announced by the government and its implementation in the 'Budget Watch Focused on Industrial Development' program organized by the Confederation of Nepal Industry in collaboration with the Nepal Economic Journalists Society (SEJAN) is affecting the overall economic activity. Rajesh Kumar Agrawal, president of the Confederation, said that while it is positive to include suggestions from the private sector during budget formulation, disappointment will increase when it reaches the implementation level.
He says that even though the government has introduced new plans through the budget, disappointment will increase when it reaches the implementation stage. Giving examples of plans like Gandaki Economic Triangle, Industrial Ecosystem Building, Startup Board formation included in the budget of the current financial year, the stakeholders expressed their concern about the weakness in the implementation of the budget.
There is data from the budget watch book that zero progress has been seen in 27 out of 63 points for 6 months. The booklet shows that work has not started on Gandaki Economic Triangle, formation of startup board, provincial economic hub etc. In the budget, the plans to make Koshi an industry, Madhesh for agriculture, Bagmati for information technology, Gandaki for tourism, Lumbini for small and medium enterprises, Karnali for herbs and Far West for religious tourism were put forward. But with only three months left for the end of the financial year, no initiative has been taken. Although it was said that a startup board would be formed this year by giving priority to topics like startup, innovation and youth entrepreneurship promotion, no progress has been seen.
Former Industries Secretary Krishna Gyawali attributed this to the lack of ownership of budget plans in the government machinery and weak inter-agency dialogue. "The lack of inter-agency ownership and the lack of inter-agency dialogue and consultation have also led to weakness in budget implementation," he said. Gyawali pointed out that the private sector should also be accountable in its role in public-private partnership plans.
Industries Secretary Krishna Bahadur Raut claims that there is significant work in the field of startups and innovation. "The startup policy has been approved, the startup board is in the process of formation, in such a situation it cannot be called 'zero progress'," he said. Raghunandan Maru, president of the Cement Producers Association, said that practical reforms are needed for 'ease of doing business'. "The complexity of the process is so much, it takes at least 5 years to get a mining permit," he said, "We businessmen spend the whole day wandering around the agencies."
Prakash Kumar Shrestha, a member of the National Planning Commission, is of the opinion that an 'execution matrix' is needed to evaluate budget implementation. A mechanism to track the implementation of the budget has become necessary, he said. Every year they try to include a new theme, but they are stuck because of lack of conceptual clarity about it.' The participants suggest that the government should be serious about reducing this trend as it has been repeated every year, even though the plan to create hope in the budget is not only this year but it is stuck in the implementation.
