Target of 6% economic growth rate possible, Finance Minister Pun reiterates

Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun has said the upcoming fiscal year's budget was balanced -- not ambitious -- in comparison to the size of the previous fiscal years' budgets, the status of the public finance and the size of the gross domestic productions (GDP).

Responding to the concerns raised about the upcoming fiscal year's budget in the National Assembly (NA) meeting on Tuesday, Finance Minister Pun said that resource management would be ensured to implement the budget.

Minister Pun said the budget has uplifted the morale of the private sector and less amount has been allocated for current expenditure in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal year while the allocation for the capital expenditure is higher.

He expressed confidence that capital expenditure will increase from all three layer of governments and more foreign investment would be mobilized as per the commitments made in the recently held Nepal Investment Summit.

With the effective implementation of the policies and programmes in the budget, the target of 6 per cent economic growth rate is attainable and the goals of the 16th periodic plan would also be gradually met, Finance Minister Pun asserted.

Likewise, Minister Pun said that top priority has been given to health care and education sectors as Rs 3 billion and Rs 6 billion more have been allocated respectively to these sectors compared to the current fiscal year.

He argued that climate change impacts were prioritized and climate adaptation and resilience programmes would be run and the affected communities' impacts would be addressed in an integrated and balanced way by running the President Climate Change Management Programme.

Minister Pun also stated that the usage of public debt is arranged in the production sector and the ratio of such debt to the country's GDP was less than 40 per cent thereby contributing to the country's prosperity.

According to the Finance Minister, the budget is expected to create employment within the country and create more jobs through more FDI and mobilization of the private sector's investment.

Likewise, he shared that revenue mobilization and its estimation would be made more realistic and pledged to implement the report of the high-level recommendation committee on tax system reforms.

The general debate on the budget was completed in the NA meeting on Tuesday after discussing it for three days.

The next meeting of the NA is summoned at 1:15 pm on June 10.