Blame Game

Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat claims that the economy of the country is not as bad as explained by others. He defended the economy, saying that it is in the course of improvement and will soon take a proper course. He blamed the previous finance ministers, saying that they spent the government coffer without viewing the future impact on the national treasury. The present reality is that the government is unable to meet the revenue target, due to which, it is unable to pay the salaries of civil servicemen and the dues of many construction projects. In the first two months of the current fiscal year also, the government was unable to meet the targeted revenue. One of the reasons is the flourishing smuggling of goods under political protection. There is no strong mechanism to control smuggling. Besides, there is no zeal for controlling smuggling, as we saw quintals of gold being smuggled even from the Tribhuvan International Airport. In today’s world of technology, it is not a big problem to scan the containers carrying goods but the ill-intentioned political leaders, who have developed a network with the smugglers, have closed their eyes to the smuggling business. If regulated the NepalIndia open border, to some extent, the smuggling of goods could be curbed. Hopes are there as the tourism market is improving and remittance revenue is encouraging. Meanwhile, the government expenditure on the non-productive sector has increased due to the unbearable load of the federal structures. The government is unable to manage the fund for capital investment or say development sector expenditure. The existing practice is that the government is spending the remittance revenue on importing luxury goods to meet the revenue target. If it would invest the remittance revenue in the infrastructural development sector, the nation could move towards the path of self-reliance. Unfortunately, Nepal has become a consumer country as the government started to enjoy from the customs revenue received through the imports of luxury goods. If such a trend continues, the country cannot become a self-relined economy. Moreover, the government must cut down the unproductive sector expenditure for which, the federal structure should be scrapped and should increase investment in infrastructural development as much as possible. Otherwise, it will be a gone case.