Kathmandu, May 7
After getting a new lease of life with the failure of a Nepali Congress-UCPN-Maoist effort to topple it, it’s party time for the KP Oli government, it appears. Rejoicing the sweet victory, the government is bloating the budget for the fiscal 2073-74.
The Oli-led ruling coalition is preparing to increase the budget by around 91 billion rupees in view of fresh demands coming from different ministries and government agencies.
Pointing at an uncertain fate of the government, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and National Planning Commission Vice-chairperson Yuvaraj Khatiwada have convinced Prime Minister Oli to introduce populist programmes in a bid to give the government a long life.
During the nine-month rule about 22 years ago, Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Finance Minister of the then UML government, had launched similar populist programmes, making the government quite popular among the masses.
Oli has requested the UCPN-Maoist to let this government bring the budget and promised to propose Maoist Chair Prachanda as prime minister once the House approves the budget. After Oli’s pledge, the Maoist party, which was striving to topple the government in coordination with the Nepali Congress, has agreed to let this government continue for a while.
Though aware that it will not be able to implement these populist programmes, the government is preparing long-term and ambitious programmes, a source at the Ministry of Finance said, adding: All that the government has to do is announce populist programmes. No one bothers about its implementation. Such is the prevailing mindset.
At internal discussions, Finance Minister Poudel and NPC Vice-Chair Khatiwada are saying that the budget’ size can be increased up to 10 trillion rupees, according to finance ministry officials.
