Wednesday 26 / June / 2024
Kathmandu: A Nepali lawmaker on Tuesday tore the budget booklet on the rostrum of the House of Representatives protesting the uneven distribution of the annual budgetary allocations.
Rajendra Prasad Lingden, Chairman and the former Deputy Prime Minister from the opposition Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) tore the budget booklet on the rostrum.
He shredded the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure's budget booklet in protest.
"Usually, I consider myself a person who expresses less anger and gets less angry. Anger sometimes flares up but subsides after a while. However, since I got my hands on the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure's budget booklet, I've been so enraged that I want to tear it apart and throw it off. I want to throw it to the specific place but that would be against parliamentary decorum that's why I will dump it here," Lingden said as he tore the budget booklet.
"It solely isn't something that I only wanted to do. If there was a device to measure (dissatisfaction), members present in this house, regardless of the parties- except four constituencies, it is the matter of mind of the lawmakers who are present in this house," Lingden asserted.
The chairman of the Pro-monarch party which now remains in opposition consistently has been opposing the budget since its introduction in May.
Further, the RPP Chair accused the government of acting without any sense of shame or responsibility, allocating the budget arbitrarily without naming specific districts in the plans.
Lingden highlighted that in some of the electoral constituencies projects worth billions have been allocated.
"...While other constituencies remain null, why has it been so? Which procedure and method has been adopted to allocate the budgets? It should be briefed, informed," Lingden said.
Dissatisfaction has continued to surface from the ruling party of the incumbent alliance led by PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" over the budget introduced on May 28 this year.
Former PM KP Sharma Oli and the lawmakers from the Rastriya Swatantra Party also have voiced dissatisfaction over the allocation of the budget claiming it only has focused on the constituencies of the ruling ministers.
Earlier on May 28, Nepali Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun announced the budget for the upcoming fiscal year which is set to start from mid of July.
Addressing the joint session of the Parliament, Minister Pun said that the recurrent expenditure has been estimated to be Rs 1.14 trillion, which is 61.31 per cent of the total budget.
Likewise, the capital expenditure has been estimated to be Rs 352 billion, which is 18.94 per cent of the budget, and the expenditure for financial management has been estimated at Rs 367 billion, 19.74 percent of the budget.
According to Pun, the source of financing will be Rs 1.26 trillion from revenue, Rs 330 billion from internal loans, Rs 217 billion from external loans, and Rs 52.3 billion from foreign grants.
