The Ministry of Finance has intensified the preparation of the budget. This year, it is working to bring a budget of around Rs 1.65 trillion. As the social security allowance will be increased along with the salary increase of the workers this year, the budget is going to be increased as compared to the current fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance estimates that an additional 13 percent will be spent on social security even if the social security allowance is paid at the same rate as last year.
According to the three-year medium-term budget estimates and projections prepared by the National Planning Commission, a budget of Rs. 1,697.75 billion will have to be prepared in the coming fiscal year. According to the projection, current expenditure is estimated at Rs 1 trillion, capital expenditure at Rs 492 billion and financial management at Rs 200 billion. However, the budget division has been saying that it cannot go according to the projection of the commission.
The government has started work to make the next budget populist. The budget that distributes the budget in a way that makes the people happy without looking at the economic condition of the country and the real nature of the economy is generally called populist budget.
Economists fear that the government, which plans to hold federal parliamentary elections in December and local elections in February, will bring in a populist budget to win public sentiment in the next election.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has pledged to increase salaries and increase social security allowances in the forthcoming budget, even if it does not provide relief to workers in Corona.
He has already signaled to increase the salary of government employees. As the current year’s budget came in the midst of the Corona epidemic, it was not possible to increase social security allowances and staff salaries. As there is a trend of increasing the budget of the employees in 2-2 years, the Ministry of Finance is under pressure to increase the salary this time.
An official from the finance ministry’s budget division said the government was working on resource management for social security allowances and salary increases and was consulting with donors. Increasing social security allowances and government employees’ salaries add billions of rupees to the government’s liabilities. Despite pressure on the government to increase allowances and salaries due to the Corona epidemic, a small increase is being prepared, according to a Finance Ministry source. However, Prime Minister Oli has publicly announced an increase in old-age allowance and salary. That is why he is under pressure to increase even a small amount.
Even last year, the salaries of the employees were not increased. Employees are also pushing for a pay rise. There are about 600,000 government employees and teachers in Nepal.
