Kathmandu, Aug 2, The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives is to begin clause-wise deliberations on the bill in regard with making provisions about fiscal work procedure and fiscal responsibility from coming Sunday.
In today’s meeting of the committee, lawmakers who earlier had registered proposals seeking an amendment to the bill, put their views on the matter. The Bill aims to make the government budget more transparent and result-oriented.
In the meeting, Finance Minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada said the recent agreement on work execution signed between the Prime Minister and ministers followed by its signing in second round between ministers and secretaries; and secretaries and chief of subordinate bodies was meant for making the bodies concerned more responsible, not staying away from responsibilities.
Stating that the ministry was making efforts to discourage the practice of transferring budget allocated under one heading to another at the eleventh hour of a fiscal year and the culture of overspending, the minister said the transfer of budget should be carried out under the limitations set by the Appropriation Act.
He informed the meeting that those projects which had remained incomplete due to several reasons the last fiscal year had been given priority in the budget of the current fiscal year
The Bill aims to make fiscal responsibility more effective, make appropriation budget fruitful and implement financial federalism, he said. Lawmaker Shanti Pakhrin stressed the need for shoulder fiscal responsibility by ending the tendency of spending budget at the eleventh hour.
Likewise, lawmaker Dibya Mani Rajbhandari underscored the need for the rapid enforcement of fiscal federalism while suggesting bringing state and local levels onboard the Bill. Rekha Sharma called an end to the tendency of budget freezing, little capital expenditure and rampant budget expenditure in haste at the end of a fiscal year.
