Country's economy at risk: FM Paudel

KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 12: Deputy Prime and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel lamented the country's economy is at risk due to both internal and external challenges. He, however, said he was continuously effortful to resolve the economic problems. He made this statement while delivering a speech on the matter relating to the half-yearly report of the budget for the fiscal year, 2022/23 in today's meeting of the House of Representatives.

"I am effortful in shoring up business confidence of the private sector, making relations between the government and the private sector credible and helpful, ending anomalies and divergences in revenue mobilisation, and resolving existing problems in the implementation of the budget and the financial sector," he said. However, it would take time for his efforts to be fruitful due to structural limitations and some foreign impacts, he said. The government has come up with the policy of maintaining budget balance, stressing the need for increasing the capital expenditures, reducing expenses except in emergencies, making the revenue administration prompt and expanding the tax obedience and controlling its leakage, he informed.

Economic growth target of 8 percent unattainable

The Finance Minister said that the target of an 8 percent economic growth rate set by the government for the current fiscal year could not be attained. An assessment of the existing trend of the economy shows that the target of an eight percent economic growth rate cannot be achieved," he said. The Finance Minister bemoaned that the country has not been able to run the production-oriented industries at full capacity, causing a slowdown in the economic growth rate.

Similarly, according to him, the inflation ceiling set for the current fiscal year has been overshot. "The target was to contain the inflation to 7 percent in the current fiscal year. However, the year-on-year inflation based on the CPI has reached 7.26 percent," he added.