Govt to present economic survey tomorrow, budget on Saturday from Singha Durbar

KATHMANDU: The government is set to present the Economic Survey for 2021-22 fiscal year tomorrow (Friday) while the annual budget will be unveiled on Saturday from Singha Durbar.

Following dissolution of the Parliament, the care-taker government led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is bringing the fiscal budget for 2021-22 through ordinance. Amid coronavirus fear, Finance Minister Bushnu Prasad Poudel will unveil the Economic Survey and the budget virtually with limited physical appearance of journalists and government officials, as per Ministry of Finance sources.

The Constitution has mandated the government to unveil the fiscal budget on May 29 every year and release Policies and Programmes of the government 15 days before the budget. However, the government has already failed to bring Policies and Programmes for the next fiscal year on time while it plans to unveil the fiscal budget on time.

While experts have been saying that the caretaker government cannot bring a full budget, it has been understood that the Oli government is going to bring programmes to please the voters as it has announced the election in November.

As PM Oli has already announced to raise old age allowances and salary of government staffs, the government is expected to bring a large-sized ‘popular’ budget.