Budget is realistic, not ambitious: Finance Minister Sharma

Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has said that the budget for the fiscal year 2022/23 has made a proper allocation of means and resources by adopting maximum restraint.

He said so while responding to the queries raised in course of the deliberations on the principles of the budget in the House of Representatives today. Minister Sharma defended the budget saying it is not ambitious but realistic.

Stating that the budget for the next fiscal is only 9.86 per cent bigger in size compared to the budget of the current fiscal, he said it should not be labeled as ambitious. The budget has been formulated keeping in mind the main goal of the constitution and federalism.

The Finance Minister said the budget included programmes as incentives to the agriculture sector, utilization of the uncultivated land and attracting the youths towards agriculture. In this connection, he mentioned about the contribution-based farmers welfare fund for drawing the farmers towards agriculture and the budget's emphasis on domestic production.

He insisted that the budget was directed towards taking the country ahead to rapid production through the linkages in the available resources, capital and technology, which is the present need. The budget also incorporated topics as development of production-based industries and export promotion, he added.

Finance Minister Sharma said as this budget has been brought in line with the constitutional obligation of presenting the budget on the May 29 every year although it is an election year, expressing the confidence that the government to be formed after the election will also give continuity to this budget.

Stressing that the nation's economy is on the road to recovery and that all sectors except tourism have come to their previous state, he said the revenue collection too was satisfactory. The Finance Minister also expressed the conviction that the economic growth rate in the coming fiscal year would be 8 %, mainly due to the investment made for promoting agriculture production and tourism.

He stated that the foreign assistance in the current fiscal year is encouraging and the basis for bringing in foreign investment next fiscal year has been prepared, hoping for the targeted economic growth.

The Finance Minister gave assurances that farmers will not be facing fertilizer shortage as budget would be managed as per the requirement since adequate budget has been allocated for fertilizer and seed.

He pledged that mega projects including Nijgadh International Airport would be started from this year.

Reiterating that priority has been given for tourism recovery, concession in investment and promotion of programmes in agriculture and forestry, the Finance Minister said the educational reform programmes have been given continuity and technical and physical improvement programmes were emphasized upon in the budget.