Upset with 2016-17 budget, NC demands Paudel's resignation

Demanding Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel's resignation, the Nepali Congress has said that the budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 was brought by violating fiscal discipline and it could not be implemented.

A joint meeting of the NC Parliamentary Party and Central Working Committee held at the Legislature-Parliament Building in Naya Baneshwor today concluded that the budget announcement would be limited to imagination as it had no policy and structural arrangements for implementation.

The Nepali Congress leaders said Paudel should tender his resignation on moral grounds as information regarding size of the budget and its priorities were disseminated a day before the budget was presented at the Parliament.

They said that the budget would increase inflation and leave a negative impact on the economy.

Talking to the Rastriya Samachar Samiti after the meeting, Nepali Congress leader Prakash Sharan Mahat said that the government would face challenges in course of implementing the budget as it would fail to collect resources from the sources mentioned.

Although issues of salary increase of employees and hike in room rent allowance for parliamentarians were good, the announcement in overall would increase general expenses and increase inflation, said the Nepali Congress leaders.

They also said that different programmes were included in the budget for cheap popularity, adding the budget lacked concrete base to control inflation and increase production.

Nepali Congress leader Ramesh Lekhak said that the ambitious budget for next fiscal could not be implemented as 20 percent budget of the current fiscal had not been spent yet.