After CPN-UML lawmakers registered a proposal to cut expenditures, dissatisfaction has intensified within the ruling party itself, and uncertainty remains over the passage of the budget.
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The budget brought by the Sudurpaschim Province government for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84 has been pushed into uncertainty. The budget has become uncertain after the CPN-UML, a party within the government, registered a proposal for expenditure cuts at the Provincial Assembly Secretariat on Friday. Despite being part of the government and having its ministers present the budget, UML has rejected it, insisting that it should be rewritten and has registered a proposal for expenditure cuts.
After UML lawmakers registered the proposal for expenditure cuts in the budget, Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah on Saturday told UML to either withdraw the proposal or leave the government.
A source close to Chief Minister Shah said that he told UML ministers in the government and the party’s parliamentary leader Rajendra Singh Rawal to either leave the government or withdraw the proposal. In response, UML parliamentary leader Rawal told Chief Minister Shah not to rush, according to the source. “Discussions are ongoing at the center, please don’t be hasty,” the source quoted Rawal as replying.
Under the Congress-led Sudurpaschim Province government, four UML members, including one state minister, are included. Surendra Bahadur Pal is Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development, Bir Bahadur Thapa is Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, Hira Sarki is Minister for Internal Affairs and Law, and Nirmala Devi Saud is State Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development.
According to the decision of the UML parliamentary party, three lawmakers—Chief Whip Chakra Bahadur Malla, Deputy Leader Santosh Kumari Sharma Thapa, and Daman Bahadur Bhandari—registered the proposal for expenditure cuts. Under the government’s budget for fiscal year 2083/84, Malla proposed to reduce the expenditure of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development to one rupee, Sharma Thapa for the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forests and Environment, and Bhandari for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law. They registered the proposals as per the decision of the UML parliamentary party.
The Congress, which leads the Sudurpaschim Province government, and its coalition partner UML, both appear firm in their decision not to pass the budget presented for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84.
After strong dissatisfaction was expressed by lawmakers from the ruling parties over the budget presented by the Sudurpaschim government, the central leadership of both ruling parties sent representatives to Dhangadhi on Wednesday to study the situation. UML sent Discipline Commission Chair Pushparaj Kandel, and Congress sent General Secretary Pradeep Paudel to Dhangadhi. After holding separate meetings with their respective party lawmakers in Dhangadhi, lawmakers from both parties maintained that the budget was flawed and could not be passed in its current form.
UML leader Kandel, after hearing from the lawmakers, said he would report back to the central leadership, according to the lawmakers. Similarly, Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah said that Congress General Secretary Paudel returned without making a concrete decision after UML Chair KP Sharma Oli said the issue should be discussed at the central level and that UML should withdraw from the province.
Finance Minister Bikram Singh Dhami, in his budget speech, mentioned a total of Rs 37.70 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. However, in the budget speech booklet made public just a day later, the amount was stated as Rs 37,703,966,000. Minister Dhami also did not specify the allocations for recurrent and capital expenditures or the ministry-wise breakdown in the budget.
Previously, due to a change in government in Sudurpaschim, the province government fell into a budget vacuum in fiscal year 2081/82 after failing to pass the budget on time.
