In today's meeting of the House of Representatives, the majority approved the proposal that 'Economic Procedures and Financial Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill, 2081 should be considered'. The proposal presented by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel was approved by the majority of the meeting.

Deputy Prime Minister Paudel, while answering the questions raised by MPs in the theoretical discussion of the bill, said that the Economic Procedures and Financial Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill is mainly aimed at making the budget implementation system effective and discipline the budget system.

'When we are preparing the budget, it is too late to return to discipline. This amendment has come in consideration of the seriousness of the discipline of budgeting,' he said. Depicting the situation where the revenue is failing to cover ordinary expenses, Deputy Prime Minister Paudel mentioned that the budget was presented with low allocation even under the heading of several mandatory obligations in the allocation of the current financial year and that even when the budget was allocated based on the target of 31 percent revenue growth, it was difficult to meet the ordinary expenses.       

Deputy Prime Minister Paudel said that about 18,000 projects have been selected in the current financial year and ensuring the implementation of those projects is becoming very challenging. He said that the government is aware of the role of bilateral and multilateral development partner organizations and the needs and priorities of Nepal.

He expressed confidence that he will stand on his own ground and move forward with the support of the international community. Commenting on the issue of liquidity and size in the bank, he said that the government is creating an investment environment through policy and legal reforms and its positive effect has been seen. 

Stating that some provisions of the Public Procurement Act need to be amended, Deputy Prime Minister Paudel informed that the government is doing homework to amend the Act so that it is not misused based on national needs.

Earlier, while participating in the theoretical discussion of the bill, MP Dr. Amresh Kumar Singh said that the government should be serious about the increased revenue leakage, reduced foreign aid, the situation of big donors including the World Bank, the liquidity of the banking sector, etc. MP Devendra Paudel insisted that unless the country's economic system is managed, it will not be possible to guarantee the improvement of the economic system and hope for the citizens.      

Public debt has exceeded 26 billion, remittances alone have come in at 9 billion rupees in the last seven months and foreign exchange reserves are 24 billion rupees, and the money has not been spent in the market.

He emphasized that the local level and the state government could not spend capital and that the money deposited in the bank should be transferred and jobs should be created. 

Member of Parliament Rajendra Kumar KC expressed his belief that the bill will help to increase capital expenditure and control revenue leakage, saying that the bill has been brought in order to distribute income and expenditure in a transparent manner. 

MP Abdul Khan said that everyone should be serious about reforming the budget system, maintaining financial discipline and transparency. Member of Parliament Janardan Sharma stressed that after finding the cause of the problems in the country's economy, restructuring the economic system and building a production-oriented economy. He said that it is necessary to manage the budget by giving priority to education, health and other sectors.

MP Hitraj Pandey pointed out the need for the bill to give priority to issues such as setting budget priorities and boosting the country's economy. MP Manish Jha said that the bill should address the issue of people's livelihood.