Formulation Of The Budget
Task Forces Have A Role To Play

By Prem N. Kakkar

THE stalemate in the House is a matter of concern to all. It is over a month that the winter session started but no progress has been made towards the House resuming its normal works. All this have happened because the Main opposition parties, including CPN(UML), have not allowed it to function demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Peculiar

Such a stalemate in the House is unfortunate. But, whatever that may be the process of the country’s development activities cannot be allowed to be held at ransom. This fact is peculiar to Nepal in the sense that any political controversy is bound to bring the whole country almost to a standstill.

This fact cannot be further proved by the fact that when general elections take place in the country, even the bureaucracy almost stops any further work. This may be because of a certain degree of uncertainty about the outcome of the elections. But, this is a situation only to be found in a country like ours.

There may be many reasons why action on many issues are deferred till a new government comes to power. It may be linked with the allegiance or just a way to shirk responsibilities while the election campaigns and the elections are in progress. This creates a unique situation to which all the Nepalese are well aware of.

At the moment, the House proceeding is not moving ahead. With two ordinances to be approved and a number of other important Bills yet to be tabled, it is not something to be cheerful about.

But what one considers as a good sign is that the Ministry of Finance with the cooperation of National Planning Commission (NPC) and Nepal Rastra Bank have formed various task forces to provide suggestions for the necessary reforms that is required for the formulation of the budget for the fiscal year 2001-2002. This may be a bright sign that despite the problems arising within the House, the other organs of the government are going ahead with what is considered as their responsibilities.

It is true that the national budget reflects the overall picture of what priorities have been made and the amount allocated for various development projects. Besides, the annual budget also pinpoints what were the drawbacks of the previous year and the steps taken to rectify them.

It is only since last year that the presentation of the budget was shifted about a month and a half ahead of the usual last week of Ashadh (mid-July), the last month of the fiscal year. The outcome of presenting of the budget almost two and a half months before the start of the new fiscal year has its obvious advantages. It makes known what are the government’s thrust and priorities well ahead in time.

Another advantage lies in the allocated budget reaching the places all round the country right at the beginning of the fiscal year which helps in the implementation of the development projects and other related activities. Compared to the past practice this is more beneficial. In the past, when the budget was presented in Ashadh, the allocated funds would reach the districts or concerned agencies a month or two later. This hampered with the goals set for development works. This would obviously lead to less progress by the end of the fiscal year.

Now, it is already one year that the new date has been fixed for the presentation of the national budget. Despite some teething problems as seen the year before, it is hoped that things will be better this time around.

The deadlock in the House aside, the process of development must go on. And hesitation on this aspect will be dear.

Among the task forces formed, one is to suggest policy reform in poverty alleviation and employment generation sector. This is all the more important because the Ninth Plan itself has laid focus on this. These are two significant areas which have to be given full attention if the country is to achieve the desired growth rate besides raising the living standard of the common people. There have been some attempts to stem poverty and unemployment but the implementation aspect has not been satisfactory. It is not only the policies and programmes that need attention but the effectiveness of the implementation aspect. Without this, the result cannot be very positive.

Another task force is to study various aspects of the national budget and the recent budgets of other countries and their impact and then present its suggestions. This, indeed, is a welcome step in seeing that the budget to be formulated for the next fiscal year will be result-oriented rather than populist. Of course, the people are the focus of any annual or five-yearly plan. But the Nepal-Pakistan Ties

Getting Better

By Arun Ranjit

EVER since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Nepal and Pakistan in 1960, the relationship of the two countries has been cordial and friendly. Exchange of visits by the senior leaders from both the countries have also enhanced more closer and better understanding of goodwill towards each other.

As Nepal and Pakistan were among the founding member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), both the countries have been enjoying opportunities to enhance, consolidate and deepen the relations of friendship, understanding and goodwill apart from joining hands in solving the bilateral problems of development and promote peace by respecting the sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-interference in internal affairs remain valid to even this day.

Pakistan is an acronym derived from the words Punjab, Afghan, Kashmir, Sind, Baluchi —all of which are either people or component parts of a geographically divided nation’s western wing.

Located in the western part of South Asia and with Iran in the west, China and Afghanistan on the north and India on the east as neighbours, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a total area of about 310, 403 sq. miles and a population of around 132.19 million.

The Indus River, which rises in the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas, flows for over 1000 miles through the fertile valley and empties into Arabian Sea. Between the three mountain ranges in the north lies a beautiful unspoiled valley. With its complex geographical features, Pakistan, which has about 25 percent of the cultivated land, is endowed with adequate natural resources.

As In Nepal, tourism is the major source of income for Pakistan where many mountain peaks including the world’s second highest mountain—K2 also called Mt. Godwin Austin with the height of 28, 250 feet is situated.

Like many other third world countries, Pakistan, with the literacy rate of 38 percent, too has a vast rural sector comprising some 45,000 villages where agriculture is the main occupation.

Considering the significance of this sector in the country’s economy, it has been given throughout the past fifty-three years of independence high priority. The impact of this emphasis is palpable thus; improvement in the villages is visible.

Pakistan’s overall development performance in its five decades of history has been quite encouraging along with the growth in GDP and per capita. Thus, it can be said, it has been enlisted as one of the middle-income developing countries.

The current rural development efforts are multi-dimensional in approach. They encompass improved basic infrastructure, productivity and increased employment.

In Pakistan, there is a strong political commitment to rural development with the induction of representatives to local bodies; effective instruments of local planning and implementation have been created. These primary units of democracy at grass-roots level have been playing the most significant role in rural development. The local leadership is now fully involved in tackling a part from the general problems of backwardness peculiar to each area.

The present military led government of Pakistan, with determination on the process of taking the country back to democracy within the time frame given by the Supreme Court, is rebuilding a relationship to bring change in the people to trust their leadership, civil or military for the life of people in every sphere to go undisturbed and democratically. With the introduction of new system, Pakistani women have been benefited with allocated seats being reserved in the local state.

The Pakistani government has also been up-front with its people and with the world at large. The efforts to revive the economic realities and bring back the billions of looted rupees and wealth from abroad with improve transparency has shared all the relevant facts and information with the international community too. Thus, the people have declared previously hidden assets of over 100 billion rupees making officially documented.

As Pakistan has been giving high priority to Nepal there should be more expanded bilateral ties in trade, commerce, education, arts and culture, Info-tech, vocational etc. or even the exchange of visits of the Fourth State People might heightened the mutual interests. The scholarship quota being provided by Pakistan to Nepalese students for various subjects under the Pakistan Technical Assistant Programme should also be increased.

As the visit of high level leaders from both the countries are delayed for many years the diplomatic circle seeks visit of high level leaders in very near future.

Having additional direct air service from Kathmandu to Islamabad despite having Kathmandu-Karachi flight would be more convenient and beneficial to the people of both the countries and could help in tying more the friendship knot at the people and government level.

Cooperation on the various sectors should be sought for prompt ties in days to come. The present government of Pakistan has succeeded in maintaining and promoting the relation with Nepal in the highest esteem.

Let’s hope the growing spirit of cooperation will pave the way for a new era of peace and prosperity between Nepal and Pakistan.

The relation between our two countries has withstood the test of time and has always been warm and friendly. Such a development would no doubt serve the cause of peace and stability in the decades long Nepal-Pakistan relation.

ed arises for making the budget comprehensive so that it can address the challenges in front and solution to contribute towards the prosperity of the nation. The fine examples of successes achieved in other countries must be studies and if relevant could be applied to the country. Borrowing for borrowing’s sake must be eliminated. What good we learn must be suitable to the country then only it becomes valuable.

An important task force has also been formed to provide suggestions for structural reforms in public corporations. This is necessary that strategies must be formulated for making the public corporations efficient. At present the condition of most of such corporations is miserable. Without the needed reforms it may not be long before the corporations collapse. It is also essential that the degree of political interference must be lesserned. It is agreed that the government has every right to control and check such corporations but they must be done to raise their efficiency and not push them to the edge of the cliff.

Appropriate

With the formation of these task forces, it can be hoped that the budget of the next fiscal year will have more inputs geared towards revamping the economy and take the country the path that is the most appropriate.