Kathmandu : The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has been suggested to mull white paper on every facets of national economy.
Economists at the Committee meeting viewed that a white paper could be brought for the uniformity on the statistics generated by various government agencies including Finance Ministry, Nepal Rastra Bank, and National Planning Commission.
The Committee held the meeting on revenue mobilization, budget implementation, trend of capital expenditure, economic indexes on Wednesday.
According to the economic experts, the Committee could play interventionist role to make budget by abiding by the integrated budget system. Massive reform is imperative to narrow down the gap following the spirit of constitution, political documents and country’s economy.
Former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission Shanker Sharma urged the government to immediately stop local level leaderships for they were acting against fiscal discipline.
The trend of revoking development announcement by State government was equally worrisome. “If Nepal’s energy was sold to Bangladeshi market, it can help minimize trade deficit to some extent,” he stressed.
Similarly, Professor Bishwombhar Pyakurel, argued that the government failed to meet expected capital expenditure because it randomly distributed budget- without relevance, and study of pattern. Policy and structural problems are impeding the economic development and prosperity, he added.
Former member of the National Planning Commission, Gobinda Nepal, however, claimed that country’s economic status was improving although revenue and remittance data are not in positive trend.
Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said although country had relatively stable politics, capital expenditure was poor due to undue influence in allocation of development budget.
Another economist Keshab Khadka also wondered why the country was not up to the mark on revenue collection and capital expenditure.
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