The people expected a people-oriented budget that would deal with issues such as development of the country, economic prosperity, production growth, job creation, corruption control and good governance. But the budget brought by the government in the financial year 2082/083 could not give such a feeling.

A budget is a political document, the ultimate tool for delivering to the people. But the budget could not do 'policy departure'. There is no solid basis for fulfilling the commitments expressed in the budget. The budget which was supposed to be 'visionary' has become 'reactive'. It has been seen that this budget standing on a weak foundation cannot give people hope, trust and a path to prosperity. 

The government has brought a deficit budget of 6 trillion. Current budget will be spent at 100%, inflation will increase due to slowness in capital expenditure and internal debt will increase, on the one hand it will increase the burden of taxes on the people, on the other hand it will be a challenge to macroeconomic stability due to the high debt burden of the state. 

service delivery, good governance and corruption control are at the bottom of the priorities. At this time, extreme corruption, irregularity, lawlessness, laxity, and commissarism have flourished. The talk of not doing and not allowing corruption was limited to speech. People are oppressed due to misrule. But concrete programs for corruption control and good governance did not come in the budget. 

This budget seems to deviate from the original goals and objectives of the constitution. The main priority of the budget should have been to give a sense of republic and build the foundations of socialism. But no thought, goal, commitment and programs could come for the development of the republic and the preparation of socialism. The private sector has been indiscriminately promoted by shrinking the public/government sector in preference to the public sector. There is no clear program to increase

production and employment. If we want to move towards socialism, we should pay attention to the judicious distribution of resources. There should be state intervention in areas such as education, health, employment, old age and children, and social security for those who can work and social security for those who cannot. There should be a gender responsive and child friendly budget.

Education, health budgets must be increased, not increased. On the one hand, privatization made education expensive and out of the reach of the common people, on the other hand, the government did not prioritize improving the quality of community education. It has not happened that 70 percent of the total budget allocated for education should be spent on vocational/technical education. Education is influenced by traditional thinking.

There was no vision to develop human resources according to the demand of the time. The development of new technologies, including AI, accelerates economic activity, making the market more competitive. There is mafia in the health sector. Expensive health care that has become a godsend for the common man. Therefore, the budget has forgotten the philosophy of socialism, it has forgotten the way. 

Currently, the main problem of the country is unemployment. Talking about socialism and not talking about jobs is like saying that 'talking doesn't get wet'. The current basic political direction is to advance the country towards prosperity and socialism by developing a free national self-reliant economy free from the shackles of broker capitalism, increasing production and productivity, creating jobs, developing national capital. There is no solid commitment and program in the budget. 

Millions of intelligent and energetic people are migrating abroad due to unemployment. Which has an impact on the development of the country. A program to increase investment in agriculture and industry and stop youth migration is needed for employment. There was a need for a program to cultivate the barren land in the village and connect the youth with entrepreneurship with modern technology to bring 'hands work and money in the pocket'.

Agriculture is the backbone of our economy. Fixing the support price of the agricultural products produced by the farmers and ensuring the sale of the produced agricultural products is the need of the moment. Setting the support price of rice and other products in the budget, arranging for purchasing through food and trade companies if there is a lack of market for those products is positive. But the budget has been reduced to 57 billion, which should be at least 1 trillion in the agricultural sector. Thus this ambitious resolution is impossible to achieve. To attract farmers to production, no concrete plans could be made to support fertilizers, seeds, equipment, irrigation, and electricity. 

Government does not invest enough in supply chain, storage or agricultural resources essential for agricultural development. There is no price stabilization fund for farmers. On the other hand, agriculture is not linked to farmers, but to middlemen. There is talk of becoming self-sufficient in rice within two years. If we cannot stop the export of rice from the border area, how can we be self-sufficient in rice? As a result, the food crisis will continue.

There has been a commitment to 'solve the problems of landless Dalits, squatters and unorganized residents and provide land ownership certificates to five lakh families' by amending the land law. According to constitutional rights, the problem between landless Dalits and real squatters and land should be resolved. But there is no situation where squatters get land in the name of squatters. On the other hand, arrangements should be made to prevent land mafia and brokers from occupying land in the name of unorganized residents through this hole in the law.  The

budget has made one of the three pillars of the economy, cooperatives, disappear and slogans like one village, one cooperative, one house, one job have been forgotten. The victims of cooperatives are waiting for the implementation of the budget's commitment to protect savings deposits up to five lakhs, to auction the assets of those who embezzled the cooperative's funds, and to return the proceeds to the savers. 

The economic growth rate of the country is low. The development cost is only around 3 billion. While the budget has reached around 20 billion. The guidelines could have been made to take a policy leap to pick up the economy which was in decline after the covid. The budget was brought to share the disappointment of the same ritualists and the people, investment-oriented and result-oriented budget was not brought. No reliable source for capital expenditure.

Revenue collection has not been as per the target. In the past, the use of grants was 42-48 percent and the use of external loans was 48-56 percent. Subsidy points are decreasing. The share of domestic debt in total debt is increasing. The use of internal debt for current expenditure and the use of debt to pay the interest on the debt is fatal from the point of view of the economy. The government has not even been able to give the payment for the work done and the amount for the covid insurance. How will the aspiration of 'Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepali' be fulfilled? The

budget has not been able to identify the goal of bringing Nepal to the level of a middle-income country by 2030 and a concrete policy to address the potential challenges and opportunities that will come after upgrading to a developing country in 2026. Currently, there is a tax system that is crushing the backs of the people.

Buying a gun and buying a child's vote is taxed at the same rate, social justice is dead here. In order to provide relief to the citizens in India, tax is exempted on annual income up to 1275 lakhs which is equivalent to 20 lakhs in Nepal. But in Nepal, only up to 5/6 lakh tax exemption is given. VAT exemption on digital transactions is fine. 

This import-oriented budget has exempted limited households, import traders and middlemen who send money abroad. Implementing a progressive tax system and improving revenue administration was imperative, but such programs were not budgeted for. At least two rates of value-added tax would achieve both economic gains and social justice. If you arrange to pay tax in installments, more tax can be collected. Digital transactions should be increased to control corruption and bribery. 

In order to support the tourism infrastructure, a 10-year tax exemption has been given to the resort hotel to give benefits to the businessmen. In order to attract tourists, the limit of Rs 450,000 imposed on them should be removed. Income could be tied up by auctioning dhalapada wood and managing vehicles stored in government offices such as customs and Singha Durbar.

Currently, about five million Nepalis are abroad and the contribution of remittances to GDP is 35 percent. This budget does not have the foresight to face the challenges that Nepal's economy will face when they return to the country tomorrow and remittances stop. A sustainable alternative will have to be found to balance remittances in the face of shrinking sources of income. The economy is made entirely dependent on remittances being used for immediate needs. It's the other way around.

In this budget, people-oriented development programs like 'Let's make our own village' were not included in the socialist model. The budget did not see the clean energy sector as a strategic asset. There is no plan to build an 'ecosystem' based on energy industries. In terms of transport infrastructure, priority should be given to completion of East-West highways and now North-South 'Economic Corridors'. Smart city, urbanization, is a pillar of modern economic development which has not been a priority of the budget. 

What programs and budgets the generation between 18 and 40 years of age want, could not be noticed. It was necessary to take a policy to encourage 'Gen G' i.e. the young generation and support them in entrepreneurship. The budget of the youth-focused 'Start-up' program has been reduced. The results of this program should be studied and reviewed. Connecting the young generation with technology is imperative. There should have been a new program to address the needs and aspirations of the new generation who have moved on to AI and deep learning. 

In today's situation where the high political leadership class is deeply immersed in crony capitalism, it was not possible to envisage a new shift with a socialist character budget and budget. The budget does not talk about the working class. There is no community, group, cooperative as a priority in the budget, nor is there a solid plan to raise the living standards of farmers below the poverty line.