Kathmandu, June 11: Finance Minister Dr Swarnim Wagle has reminded that the government forwarding agenda of good governance would not betray citizens in two months of its formation.
In response to the queries raised by lawmakers in the parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Wagle said, “If he was involved in irregularities of even a penny, he would give up not only the ministerial post but also the entire public life.”
The Minister asserted that the irregularities reported on revision of tax rate were a misleading publicity. The market is not self-made nor is it self-controlled, so state needs its regulation. Government is for creating wealth through budget, he added.
“Budget is focused on creating jobs and making permanent source of income. It was remittance that contributed to reduce poverty in the last two decades,” he said, adding that budget makes environment of income through employment.
According to him, farmer-focused agriculture system and reform in social security schemes are other features.
He further asserted that negative publicity was made on three percent tax imposed on institutional schools. Government has raised tax ceiling for individual income, Wagle informed.
Another confusion was created on electricity tariff, while government is not imposing tax up to 50 unit of power consumption.
The country had 262 MW electricity available once the party-less panchayat system collapsed. The electricity supply and availability increased gradually, so some tariff was introduced for power expansion, he explained.
“Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has no luxury to indulge in populist politics. The government has adopted policy to develop community schools in a model of Budhanilakantha School,” the Finance Minister made it clear that budget and programmes were forwarded in a manner the Ministry of Infrastructure had set the goals of three years.
“Rs 2100 billion budget is not a sweeping one, it is for initiating measures for development,” Dr Wagle viewed, pointing out the need of investment from private sector.
Environment is needed for private sectors’ five-times more investment than the government’s investment. This principle is adopted whiling unveiling this budget.
He, however, admitted language/writing errors while finalizing finance bill by the Law Ministry. It is corrected and submitted in the parliament accordingly, the Finance Minister added. #nepal #rss
