Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has brought a traditional style budget for the financial year 2082/83 against the background of lack of demand in the market, accumulation of investable funds in banks and financial sector and lack of confidence in the private sector.

When a special plan (big push) is needed for the work of creating jobs by keeping economic activities running and increasing the income of the government, this time Poudel did not try to annoy many people, nor did he do anything to scare anyone.

The continuation of the past has been seen in the budget, especially with general changes in production growth, job creation, digital economy development, infrastructure development, tax and discount facilities. Of course, the resources of the government are limited, the areas where the budget should be spent from the available resources are also certain.

The government's focus on the budget seems to be focused on that. Even if the budget looks like a series of the past, this time there will be no repetition of implementation weaknesses. Because in whatever area the budget has been allocated, if it is fully implemented, it will help the economy to some extent. Therefore, the government's focus should be on the effective implementation of the budget.

Finance Minister Paudel adopted restraint not to increase the size of the budget. The National Planning Commission gave a 'ceiling' of 19 trillion 65 crores, and the budget came to 19 trillion 64 billion 11 crores. This amount is 5.6 percent more than the allocated budget of the current financial year and 18.2 percent more than the revised estimate.

For the allocated budget, the government has estimated to raise resources of 13 trillion 15 billion from revenue, 3 trillion 62 billion from internal debt, 2 trillion 33 billion 66 billion from foreign debt and 53 billion 45 billion from foreign grants. The budget raised in this way is targeted to spend 11 trillion 81 billion rupees, 4 trillion 7 billion rupees for capital and 3 trillion 75 billion rupees for financial system.

This should be fully implemented in terms of both income and expenditure, not revisions from mid-term reviews as in the past as expenditure or income has not been reached. Next year, there should be a break in the past series of increasing the size of the budget every year, approving it by the parliament and revising it through the mid-term review by the finance minister under various pretexts. Some positive steps have been taken in the

budget. 4,654 projects have been eliminated, discouraging the tradition of keeping budgets for projects that have not been prepared. No budget has been allocated for projects costing less than three crore rupees. The budget has been increased for projects of national pride which are in the final stages of construction in the infrastructure sector.

Senior citizens who have reached the age of 68 will get the allowance only after reaching the age of 70. Like every year, the tax rate of electric vehicles is changed, but this time it remains the same. The advance income tax imposed by former Finance Minister Prakasharan Mahat on the import of food grains, pulses, fruits and dairy products has been cancelled. 33 million rupees have been allocated to build irrigation infrastructure for Chaite paddy cultivation in order to become self-sufficient in rice production.

The budget has addressed some important issues that the private sector has been demanding for a long time. There is also a lot of generosity in the information technology sector. From exemption of land limits to tax facilities for setting up industries, there has been an increase. The way for Nepalis to invest abroad has also been opened. For the first time, 'sweat shares' and loan trading in companies have been given legal recognition.

There will be a 75% discount on the tax on the income received from the export of information technology services, only 5% income tax will be charged on the income of people living in Nepal and exporting information technology services abroad, startup businesses with an annual turnover of up to 100 million will not be charged income tax for 5 years. Loans ranging from 2 to 2 million rupees will be given at 3 percent interest rate to make the youth entrepreneurs.

Provisions have also been made for women entrepreneurs including free company registration and tax exemption, no fees for electronic transactions. Overall, the budget is not of a leap nature, but mostly by continuing the old programs and adding new programs with some improvements, the implementation side of which is still doubtful. Although similar new programs were introduced in the previous year's budget, the implementation was lax. There are countless instances where most of the items in the budget are not implemented.

Therefore, it is necessary to follow all the programs announced for the first time in the budget. Each of these programs will help the economy expand. When an economy expands, it increases from job creation to government revenue. For that, the budget should be submitted to the federal parliament one and a half months before the beginning of the financial year, so that the budget comes on time, it is fully implemented and spent and there is no problem in the economy.