KATHMANDU: Even though the government was all set to give the 10-day tourism leave for civil servants with an aim to promote domestic tourism, the scheme has been put on hold by the Ministry of Finance.
According to Prem Subedi, Spokesperson at the Tourism Ministry, the Ministry had sent the final work procedure to MoF for its opinion, but, work procedure file has remained in limbo at MoF. As per him, MoF has stopped any further work procedure, because of a lack of confidence on the budget, even though the work plan was formed on the basis of the budget speech.
The replacement budget does not mention this issue and the draft tourism work procedure 2078 drafted by the MoCTCA states that a lump sum budget should be provided to the Ministry of Tourism. However, voices have been raised from all government staff that the budget needs to be distributed in each ministry.
No decision has been made regarding the budget distribution issue from MoF, therefore, the 10-day tourism leave to government staff has stayed stranded as of now.