Finance ministry discusses with international development partners for upcoming budget

KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has discussed with the international development partners in Nepal about the budget for the next fiscal year 2023-24.

The discussion was attended by heads and representatives of multilateral development partners such as World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and International Finance Corporation, United States Agency for International Development, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, European Union, Germany and other bilateral development partner organizations.

During the discussion, Dr. Mahat expressed his views on the priorities of the Nepal government in the coming days, the direction to be taken by the upcoming budget, and the principles. He reaffirmed the government of Nepal’s commitment to utilizing all available tools and resources.

He also informed that in the context of the increasing debt of the government of Nepal, it is a priority to invest in productive sectors that can pay interest in the future. He also said that the government of Nepal is very aware of the obligations that will be created in the future.

Dr. Mahat requested to provide substantial subsidies along with foreign loans and since Nepal is not the cause of climate change, the aid coming to this region should also be mobilized as a subsidy.

The heads and representatives of international development partners have assured that they will support, help and support the priorities and programs taken by the Nepal government in the budget.

He expressed his commitment to implement the goals and priorities taken by the Government of Nepal by the development partners and mobilize foreign aid through Nepal’s national policy, system and structure.

Similarly, it has been suggested to increase investment in health, education, social security and nutrition, expand the scope of taxes, improve low capital expenditure and poor purchasing power, gradually change the informal sector to the formal sector and expand the scope of taxes.

Likewise, promoting small and medium-sized enterprises and internal entrepreneurship, expanding investment in human capital, prioritizing economic goals as well as environmental and social goals, prioritizing project preparation, prioritizing major reform agendas, assigning responsibilities to project employees at the same location for a certain period of time, inter-agency Suggestions such as increasing coordination and making full use of subsidized loans have been given.

It has been suggested that capital expenditure should be improved, public institution management should be improved, duplication of expenditure should be reduced, improvement plan should be prepared for internal resource mobilization, public and private financial resources should be flowed as national priority.