It has been agreed that a plan worth Rs 28 million each will be included in the next year's budget for 59 MPs, both directly and proportionally.
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The 59 MPs of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly are going to take up projects worth Rs 2 billion in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84. Minister for Economic Affairs Jit Bahadur Sherchan is presenting the budget on 1 Ashar with a political consensus to give equal ceiling to direct and proportional MPs this time.
A total of Rs 2.4 billion worth of projects, including Rs 1.368 billion from 35 directly elected MPs and Rs 672 million from 24 proportional MPs, will be included in the budget. The budget will include projects worth Rs 28 million each for all 59 MPs, both direct and proportional, on a ministry-wise basis.
Each directly elected MP in Gandaki, which has 36 constituencies, will receive a separate road or bridge-related project worth Rs 10 million, which can be contracted for a multi-year contract. Rs 10 million has been allocated as ‘one constituency, one multi-year road’. But the directly elected MPs hijacked it as their own plan,' said a proportional MP. 'There has been a tendency to burden 70 percent of the capital expenditure of the province on MPs and distribute the remaining 30 percent to the Chief Minister, Ministers and Secretaries in their own plans, which is wrong.'
Each MP has been given a ceiling of Rs 1.5 crore in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Rs 5 million in the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Drinking Water, Rs 4 million in the Ministry of Tourism, Rs 3 million in the Ministry of Social Development and Rs 1 million in the Ministry of Forests. The MPs have submitted their chosen plans within the ceiling to the relevant ministry.
While in previous years, different budgets were allocated between direct and proportional MPs, this time, the same ceiling has been given to all except one plan for the constituency, said the MP. In the past, there had been loud voices in the Parliament saying that everyone should have the same status in the Parliament even though they were elected under two systems. "This time, due to pressure from proportional MPs and the fact that two ministers also came from proportional representation, an agreement was reached on the same ceiling," the MP said.
It is seen that the upcoming budget will come in a size similar to the current fiscal year. In the fiscal year 2082/83, 31.97 billion rupees were allocated. Of this, 12.63 billion rupees were allocated for current expenditure and 19.34 billion rupees were allocated for capital expenditure.
Although a ceiling of about 29 billion rupees has been set for ministries, leaders say that the total size of the budget will be around the same as the current year. Although the largest amount will be allocated for physical infrastructure, new programs are being prepared to be introduced in the agriculture and tourism sectors in the upcoming budget. It is said that a significant amount will also be allocated for programs to link production and marketing in agriculture and to complete unfinished projects of the ministries of energy, water resources and drinking water.
