Budget discussion in confusion after Chief Minister and Minister's plan missed in Lumbini
The chief minister of the Lumbini government has become dissatisfied with the budget for the next financial year. The discussion on the budget, which was supposed to be held from Sunday, has become uncertain after most of the ministers and MPs, including the Chief Minister, the Minister of Economic Affairs, opposed it.
Since the plans recommended by the ministers and parliamentarians are not included, the parliamentarians of the ruling coalition Congress-UML are warning that the budget will not be passed. On June 1, the government had informed the state assembly that the budget would be discussed from June 7, the same day the government introduced the budget. However, the 14th meeting of the sixth session of the Provincial Assembly on Saturday has been postponed until further notice. Since then, both the Congress-UML parties have been continuously discussing internally. In the meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party, Congress ministers and members of the state assembly have pressed to withdraw all the ministers and send new ones. UML's parliamentary board meeting held on Saturday decided that since the budget came under the command of the Congress-led finance minister, the Congress should take responsibility for all the shortcomings of the budget. Likewise, UML Parliamentary Party Deputy Leader Bhoj Prasad Shrestha said that missing the plans of ministers and MPs is a serious issue and decided not to call the meeting until an environment is prepared to investigate it and include unbalanced and missing plans. "It was seen that the finance minister did not follow the instructions of the chief minister," he said, "therefore, the budget must be revised." According to
sources, the Ministry of Economic Affairs had also sent the supplemental subsidy budget while sending the ceilings to the ministries. However, the Ministries selected the plan according to the budget ceiling and sent it aside from the supplementary plan. As this will increase the size of the budget, Chief Minister Acharya instructed to return the budget of the supplementary plan or include it in it and send it. After the ministries other than health refused to return the supplementary budget, other ministries also increased the pressure on the Ministry of Economic Affairs for more ceiling. After that, when Congress and UML ministers stood in different positions, the entire budget making process was disrupted. Due to the controversy and stance of the ministers, some ministers stopped the entry of the plan and put the budget on hold. A minister said that after the ministry submitted the plan late, the Ministry of Finance will study more plans and there was no time to increase the budget and the two plans in the 'VIP' files prepared in the office of the Chief Minister and the Minister of Economic Affairs were missing. "It doesn't seem that the plans of the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister will be missed," said the minister, "but it is true that some plans and funds of the VIP file have not been entered." Even though the health ministry returned the ceiling budget with supplements, the Ministry of Forest, Social Affairs, and Agriculture refused to return it. The minister said that the size of the budget has increased after the ceiling was increased on Saturday night, but after the plans for the 'VIP' file were missed again, they were trying to increase the dissatisfaction and increase the political conflict. Economic Affairs Minister Karki has expressed displeasure that some Congress ministries have deliberately missed the plans recommended by the Economic Affairs Ministry. He had complained that his plans were intentionally missed in the meeting of the parliamentary party.
Economic Affairs Minister Karki's complaint was aimed at Congress Minister of Water Supply and Urban Development Saroj Thapa. The budget was hurriedly brought three hours late on June 1 amid confusion whether to return the supplementary budget or not. According to
sources, the plans under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development and Water Supply and Urban Development recommended by the Chief Minister and the Minister of Economic Affairs have been omitted from the budget. The Congress Lumbini State Committee has issued a statement protesting against the budget brought by Congress Economic Affairs Minister Karki. Chairman Amarsingh Pun has accused the government of creating a budget under the pressure of themselves and certain interest groups, contrary to the essence of the federal government system, the spirit of development through democracy, and the just need for the overall development of Lumbini province. "The budget has been prepared with the participation of unauthorized persons or groups outside the relevant ministry or place and at unauthorized places, so the Congress cannot accept this budget," the statement said. A minister said that when the plan sent by the Chief Minister and the Minister of Economic Affairs was rejected by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development, both of them became dissatisfied. UML's Bhumishwar Dhakal, Minister of Physical Infrastructure Development, is in Lumbini. Congress Parliamentary Party leader and former Chief Minister Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary said that after missing some plans in the budget, both the Congress and UML parties are discussing and will come to a conclusion within a few days. "Both the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister are not happy with the budget," he said. I understand that no one is satisfied.'' He said that since many members and ministers were dissatisfied in Sunday's meeting, it was decided to find out the weaknesses and hold further discussions. The Lumbini government has reduced the size of the budget by 60 million from last year to 38.91 billion.
