The provincial government should be in a hurry to prepare the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84. However, the Sudurpaschim government is going through uncertainty that there may be a change. Due to which the budget preparation work has not been able to gain momentum.

Not only this year, in the past too, there have been examples of budget preparation being unable to be prepared in a smooth, planned and transparent manner due to the turmoil of government changes and internal conflicts between the ruling parties. In 2081/82, the Sudurpaschim provincial government ran out of budget for about three months.

Currently, there is talk of a change in the leadership of the provincial government between the ruling coalition parties, the Congress and the UML. The Sudurpaschim government is led by the Congress. The Congress leadership itself is seen trying to reshuffle the government in the Sudurpaschim, and the Kamal Bahadur Shah-led government is in confusion.

On the other hand, there has been a long-standing dispute within the current ruling party, UML. While the MPs are against the parliamentary party leader Rajendra Singh Rawal, party chairman KP Sharma Oli recently took the initiative to resolve the dispute by holding a meeting, differences between the MPs remain. UML MPs are internally trying to get themselves to become ministers before the budget. But it is not certain whether the leadership of the government will change, only the ministers will change, or whether the current members of the cabinet will bring the budget.

On the other hand, there is still talk of a joint government between the Nepali Communist Party, UML, and Congress. MPs say that internal efforts are ongoing and that this is having an impact on the budget preparation process.

Provincial Policy and Planning Commission member Nrip Bahadur Sunar says that the talk of government and ministerial reshuffle is creating confusion when the ministers and the government should be focused on preparing the budget.

‘At this time, with the talk of government and ministerial reshuffle, it seems that even the current ministers are not able to work confidently,’ says Sunar, a member of the commission, ‘Now, if a new minister comes and prepares the budget, he will need time to understand the system. Due to which, it seems that the budget preparation will be affected.’

He says that when the government or any minister changes in the face of the budget, the correct plan cannot be allocated in the overall budget preparation. Due to the short period, the new minister will need time to understand the policies and programs, the budget preparation process, the periodic plan, the government’s long-term strategy, and the staff mechanism, so effective and efficient planning cannot be prepared, he says.

Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives Bir Bahadur Thapa says that if the budget has to be prepared in less than a month, the budget preparation will not be completed and the correct budget will not be prepared. ‘During this time, the work of the existing ministers is also affected when the government or ministerial reshuffle is going on. Either the budget should have been revised or it should have been done two or three months ago.'

It is understood that the Sudurpaschim Provincial Government is preparing to bring a budget exceeding the ceiling set for the upcoming fiscal year. Although the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission has set a ceiling of 22.5 billion as per the decision of the Revenue Advisory and Resource Estimates Committee, the Ministry of Economic Affairs has stated that it is preparing to bring a budget of 28 to 30 billion.

The Planning Commission has set a ceiling of 22 billion 636.766 thousand for the upcoming budget. According to the commission, a ceiling of 11 billion 216.35 thousand has been set for the current budget and 11 billion 425.131 thousand for the capital budget.

Minister of State for Economic Affairs Prakash Bahadur Bam has said that preparations are underway to increase the size of the estimated savings for the current fiscal year. According to him, there will be a saving of about 4 to 6 billion rupees in the current budget.

On the other hand, even the MPs admit that the budget preparation process is not being done on the basis of long-term goal setting. ‘In our province, the budget preparation process is not transparent and based on long-term thinking.’ Whenever there is instability during the budget, everyone with access to it starts to focus on killing the budget,’ says provincial MP Naresh Kumar Shahi. ‘The failure to prepare a proper budget has brought disrepute to the provincial MPs, employees and the entire provincial government.’

The government led by Chief Minister Dirgha Bahadur Sodari presented the budget in the fiscal year 081/82. But before the budget was passed, the coalition was changed at the central level on Asad 17. After the then ruling party UML withdrew its support from the provincial government on Asad 20, Economic Affairs Minister Surendra Bahadur Pal, who presented the budget, resigned. After that, the Far West was without a budget for three months for the first time. Revenue collection was at a standstill.

Crowd of people asking for plans 

As the budget preparation period for the upcoming fiscal year approaches, crowds of people asking for plans have started flocking to ministries and offices. The general public, public representatives, party leaders and activists have started flocking to ministries, provincial offices and provincial parliamentarians to ask for plans .