The National Assembly of Sudurpaschim Province has endorsed the budget for next fiscal year 2078/79 that was announced on June 15. The budget which is worth Rs 30.33 billion was passed by the assembly on Monday. Minister of Economic Affairs and Planning of Sudurpaschim, Prakash Bahadur Shahi, had announced the budget for next fiscal year on June 15. However, lawmakers of the ruling party
CPN UML and those of
CPN (Maoist Centre) had objected to the budget during discussions held on the fiscal policy.
Some lawmakers of the ruling party itself had alleged that the budget had been formulated in nexus with middlemen and that it would not help in developing the province as expected. However, on Monday, Minister Shahi was able to convince the disgruntled lawmakers and get
the budget endorsed through the National Assembly.
While responding to the questions put forth during the budget discussions, Shahi refuted all the allegations that the budget had been formulated in nexus with middlemen. He said the budget had been drafted based on the prevailing laws. The minister also mentioned that if any person can point out any policy or programme that had been included in the budget due to pressure from middlemen with valid proof then he would exclude such policies and programmes.
Minister Shahi also made a commitment to correct the mistakes that have been pointed out in the annual register. He said that the names and addresses of some projects which were wrong would also be corrected.
He further added that the budget had been allocated to various sectors without any bias. Minister Shahi mentioned that the budget had given priority to uplifting the backward communities in the province.
