All daily broadsheets published from Kathmandu on Wednesday, Nepali and English alike, have given the top importance to the announcement of annual budget statement for the fiscal year 2018/19 that Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada presented at the joint meeting of House of Representatives and National Assembly on Tuesday. Many newspapers have not included any other issue beside the budget on their front pages today. However, few dailies have published issues about other contemporary political issues including the celebration of Republic Day and the presidential pardon given to murder convict Maoist leader Bal Krishna Dhungel.
Important
Budget draws mixed responses
Kantipur lead story for the day says the budget makes an attempt to maintain fiscal discipline whereas Gorkhapatra and Rajdhani report that it has tried to establish a foundation for the journey towards prosperity.
The Himalayan Times says the major focus of budget is transformation of production sector and development of physical infrastructure. Likewise, the budget proposes a string of reforms in social and agricultural sectors, according to The Kathmandu Post. Nagarik reports that the budget targets increasing the revenue collection by 34 per cent.
Meanwhile, the government gave continuity to the controversial pork barrel project by increasing its size by Rs 10 million, according to Kantipur.
Naya Patrika, however, says the budget tabled by the most powerful government of the history is very disappointing though it had talked of ambitious dreams earlier. The report comments that the budget statement largely ignores the left alliance’s election manifesto; neither is it populist and focused on projects.
Further, the total size of budget is just three per cent bigger than the last year, which is disappointing because it used to be at least 20 per cent in previous years, according to the report.
Ignored
Khanal boycotts House meeting over protocol row
Former prime minister and senior leader of ruling Nepal Communist Party, Jhala Nath Khanal, on Tuesday boycotted the Parliament session during which Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada presented the annual budget statement for next fiscal year, according to Nepal Samacharpatra. The report informs that his decision not to show up was apparently caused by the decision of his party to keep him under another former PM and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal in the new ranking structure of the recently unified party.
Khanal, however, could not be contacted for his comment over the issue, according to the report.
Interesting
Republic Day: Ruling, opposition leaders ‘committed to nation building’
The country marked the 10th Republic Day yesterday. The government has already decided to cancel the public holiday on the occasion. However, it also organised a formal event to commemorate the achievement.
Meanwhile, leaders of ruling and opposition parties expressed their commitment to nation building while speaking at a function in Kathmandu organised on the occasion of Republic Day, according to Rajdhani anchor story. The report quotes Nepal Communist Party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the party’s Standing Committee member Subas Chanda Nembang on the ruling side and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba on the opposition side to inform that the leaders have called on each other for unity among the parties for the sake of democracy, the country and its people.
