Kathmandu, March 12: The ‘Economic Procedure and Fiscal Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill, 2081’ has been tabled in the House of Representatives. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel presented the bill in today’s meeting of the lower house of the Federal Parliament.
Responding to queries raised by lawmakers who had submitted notice of protest on the occasion, Minister Paudel argued that it was not constitutional that the federal government should make laws only and all development works should be given to the provincial government.
“The statement that the federal government should only make laws and give all the development works to the provincial government may seem attractive to the ear at first. But the country does not make progress in this way. We have a three-tier government, we have provided a structure with executive, legislative and judicial powers at all three levels,” he said.
DPM and Finance Minister Paudel said that the government would move ahead after discussing the tax-related policies while preparing the upcoming fiscal budget.
Lawmakers Prabhu Saha, Prakash Jwala, Prem Suwal, Chitra Bahadur KC, Devendra Poudel and Narayani Sharma had registered a notice of protest against the proposal seeking permission to introduce the Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill, 2081 BS.
Saha said the government has not been able to give anything to the people in return for collecting taxes from them while Jwala said that the government has ignored the parliament, parliamentary committees and lawmakers.
Suwal said that the new generation should be made cultured and disciplined to make the economic procedure transparent. He said that the incident of vandalisation of the office of the Dean of the Institute of Science and Technology by the students of one of the ruling parties has come to light.
Chitra Bahadur KC demanded that the country’s economic development should be done in a proportional manner in practice.
Devendra Poudel opposed the Economic Procedure and Fiscal Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill, 2081, saying it had reduced the role of the Planning Commission.
Narayani Sharma protested that the government had brought the bill through an ordinance without completing all the procedures at a time when the Economic Procedure and Financial Responsibility Bill was moving ahead in the process of discussion in the parliamentary committee.
The meeting had rejected the notice of opposition regarding the Economic Procedure and Fiscal Responsibility (First Amendment) Bill, 2081 by a majority.
