The talk of changing the Chief Minister and ministers in the provincial government has affected the budget preparation process of the Lumbini provincial government.

The provincial Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning had instructed the ministries to enter the amount according to the ceiling of planning and budget management and put it in the budget information system by Jestha 20. However, most of the ministries have not been able to start the work yet.

Lumbini currently has a government led by the UML including the Congress, LSP and JSP. There was an agreement between the UML and the Congress during the formation of the government to lead for 18/18 months. Accordingly, on 2081 Shrawan 7, UML's Chet Narayan Acharya became the Chief Minister. According to that agreement, the Congress has been claiming that it should be allowed to lead the government.

However, due to a dispute within the Congress about who will lead the government, there is confusion within both parties as they have not been able to decide whether to change the leadership of the government or just the ministers. Rumors among the parties that the government will be changed or only the ministers will be changed have prevented the budget preparation process for the coming year from moving forward.

The ministers of the UML and the Congress in the government are lobbying for both the leadership and ministers not to be changed before the budget. However, the provincial assembly members waiting to join the government from both parties are continuing their efforts to change the government before the budget with the support of the party center. The UML parliamentary board meeting has already urged the ministers to resign and pave the way. The Congress parliamentary party meeting has decided to write a letter requesting the center to take the initiative to not only change the ministers but also get the leadership of the government as per the previous agreement.

The efforts of the two big parties to change the government before the budget have slowed down the budget preparation process. The employees of the ministries are also confused about whether to prepare plans by listening to the outgoing ministers or wait for the new ministers. For budget preparation, the provincial Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning has directed all ministries to send the budget ceiling and enter it in the Budget Information System (LMBIS) according to the budget ceiling by Jestha 20. With less than a week left to that day, no ministry has been able to prepare a plan.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development, which has received the highest budget ceiling, has not yet been able to start the work of selecting plans. Govinda Prasad Khanal, the head of the ministry's division and spokesperson, said that the work of selecting plans has not yet started. 'We are preparing to finalize the multi-year plan in the first phase,' he said, 'Although the matter of government reshuffle is political, there is some difficulty in the plan selection and decision-making process.'

He said that after the multi-year plan is ready, budget management work will start on other small plans. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development has received a ceiling of nearly 6 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The ministry has been requested for plans worth more than 10 billion. The number of plan requests is still increasing. He said that it is difficult to prepare the ministry's plans within the deadline of Jestha 20 sent by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

The ceiling received by the ministries is used to select plans from the ministerial structures, departments, directorates, etc. at the district level. Apart from that, members of the provincial assembly also request and recommend separate plans. Federal MPs also request plans. After managing the budget for all of them within the specified ceiling, the ministries send the plans to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Although the Ministry of Economic Affairs has directed to submit the government's budget in the information system by Jestha 20, no ministry has been able to start the plan selection process so far, said government spokesperson and Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives Dinesh Panthi. ‘Some rumors of government changes may have also had an impact,’ he said, ‘as there is still a lot of work to be done in selecting plans, there was no way to enter the information system.’ He said that it cannot be said that there was a delay as all ministers, MPs and employees will be involved in selecting plans after the government’s policy program was finally passed on Wednesday.

According to sources from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, a maximum budget of Rs 35 billion has been prepared for the upcoming fiscal year. A ceiling of Rs 22 billion has been set and sent to the ministries to prepare plans accordingly. The remaining amount will be added to the federal government’s conditional and complementary plans to prepare the ministry-level budget. The Revenue Advisory Committee, which the government had previously formed, is also working to prepare the budget.

Under-Secretary and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Dhanishwar Aryal said that work is being done in various stages of budget preparation. Ministry-level discussions are underway by integrating the suggestions given by the Revenue Advisory Sub-Committees. The principles and priorities of the budget for the upcoming year have been passed. The policy program is being passed on Wednesday. ‘After that, the budget preparation work will move forward at a rapid pace,’ he said. ‘Although the rumors of a change of government have not affected the Ministry of Economic Affairs, there has been some delay in other ministries due to rumors of a change of minister.’ He said that since the budget is prepared by employees, the work is being done continuously by the employees.