Amid ministerial reshuffle, pressure from lawmakers, and expectations of increased domestic revenue, the Far West government is preparing to present a 'large' budget on Monday.
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The Sudurpaschim provincial government is preparing to present the largest budget to date. Although the provincial government was supposed to present the budget on Monday, it was busy with internal discussions until Sunday afternoon. The budget preparation has been delayed due to last-minute ministerial reshuffles and pressure to increase the size of the budget.
Nrip Bahadur Sunar, a member of the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission, who is also a member of the Budget Source Estimates Committee, said, "This year's budget size will probably be slightly larger." In the current fiscal year, Sudurpaschim had brought a budget of 31.62 billion rupees.
An official from the Ministry of Economic Affairs said that the government has made the savings in the current fiscal year's budget the main basis for increasing the size of the budget. Sunar, a member of the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission, said that at least 8 billion rupees are expected to be saved from the current fiscal year's budget. According to officials involved in budget preparation, another basis for increasing the size of the budget is the expected increase in internal revenue compared to the current fiscal year. The official said that additional revenue is also expected to come from raw materials from forest resources, gravel and sand. The government had estimated that a total of Rs 1.65 billion would be collected from internal revenue in the current fiscal year. The budget is scheduled to be presented in the provincial assembly on Monday afternoon.
On the other hand, there was a cabinet reshuffle in the Far West five days ago. During that time, the Minister of Economic Affairs was also changed. Officials of the Ministry of Finance involved in the budget preparation said that the delay occurred after the newly appointed Minister Bikram Singh Dhami started rewriting the budget preparation done by the previous minister, Bahadur Singh Thapa. “The projects and budget prepared by the old minister have been completely changed by the new minister,” said an official. “The same situation is happening in other ministries where ministers have changed, so there are delays. Preparations will be completed by Monday afternoon.”
Along with economic affairs, there were also ministerial reshuffles in the Social Development Ministry and the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, which were led by the Congress. Bel Bahadur Rana Magar from the Congress was appointed in place of Meghraj Khadka, who was the Minister of Social Development, while Man Bahadur Rawal was appointed in place of Shivraj Bhatta, who was the Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment.
On the other hand, due to the strong pressure from the ruling party's MPs and party ranks for budget and project demands, the government is preparing to increase the size of the budget, said an MP. The government has already collected projects from them to provide a separate budget for the MPs. The government has already increased the budget for the MPs and allocated a total of Rs 3.29 billion. The Chief Minister's Office has already collected budget figures and a list of projects from the MPs.
Amid the rush to prepare the budget in the ministries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Physical Infrastructure Development has announced that meetings have been suspended in the ministry. A notice has been posted at the main gate of the ministry, saying, "This is to inform you that meetings have been suspended from Thursday due to the busy work of the Honorable Minister."
Dhan Bahadur Rokaya, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said that this decision was taken after the ministry started to gather more people to ask for plans. There have been allegations in the Far West that plans are being distributed on the basis of buying and selling plans and accessibility since the past. Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah has been saying that projects costing less than Rs 2.5 million will not be included in the upcoming budget.
