Nepaliese Industrialists say, not much expectation from one-third budget

KATHMANDU, July 15: Major industrialists and entrepreneurs have commented that not much could be expected from the one-third budget presented by the Government on Sunday as it was only enough to run the regular expenses of the Government.

The private sector had hoped for a full-shape budget but one-third budget has come in the backdrop of a failure of the Government to forge a political consensus on the same, so there was no ground for any enthusiasm over it, they said.

Industrialist and former CA member Diwakar Golcha said political and economic agenda should be looked at differently and a full budget should have come accordingly. However, the new budget today will not have any progressive impact on the country, he said.

The Government had formed an investment board after announcing ´investment year´, and for that a full budget was essential", he added.

However, Mr Golcha expressed the confidence that the political parties would forge a consensus soon and bring a full-shape budget sooner than later.

President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Suresh Kumar Basnet said the new budget does not include any new agenda, and thereby did not expect much from it.

"One-third means only one-third of the current Fiscal Year, so it would only give continuity to the ongoing program and continue basic services to the people living in the rural party of the county", he added.

Second Vice-president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Pashupati Murarka said the presentation of only one-third budget has disappointed the entire industry and business community. "I would not even regard this as a ´budget´, its just expenses for running the government", Murarka said.

President of Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal (SEJON), Pradip Chapagain said the Finance Minister has presented programs of a full budget but the amount is only one-third. "We have experience of a full budget not being implemented in the past, so I doubt implementation of a one-third budget too", he added.