Budget talks fail

The high level meeting of major political parties called by the Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal of care-taker government in his office at Singhdurbar today afternoon cound not strike deal but agreed to continue the dialogue among themselves on full-fledged budget.
"The leaders accepted seriousness of the delayed budget but they think the matter could be sorted out only after the political agreement," said advisor to the Prime MinisterRajan Bhattarai.
After yesterday's meeting with the former finance ministers, the PM has called the meeting of top brass of the major political parties to convince them of negative impact of delayed full-fledged budget. Former finance ministers have yesterday suggested the premier to convince the party top brass.
"The Prime Minister is 'still' hopeful of some-sort of agreement among the major political parties, though the big two parties -- Nepali Congress (NC) and UCPN-Maoists -- are not confortable with Nepal's initiative to bring the full-fledged budget," said one of the attendent in the meeting without wanting to be quoted.
"The NC and UCPN-Maoists have the impression that it is the care-taker government's another ploy to continue to remain in the power," he said, adding that, though all the leaders accepted that the economic scenario is gloomy. "But there is no confidence among the political parties," he added.
Nepal is trying to convince the parties to bring the full-fledged budget immdiately after the Dashain. But the UCPN-Maoists suggested Nepal today to strike political deal first before discussing on budget.
Today's meeting was atteded by UCPN-Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha, CPN-UML general secretary Ishwor Pokhrel, former finance minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Nepali Congress (NC) general secretary Prakashman Singh, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum- Nepal's leader and former governor Dr Tilak Rawal, along with central bank governor Dr Yubraj Khatiwada, finance secretary Rameshwor Prasad Khanal and Finance Ministry's advisor Keshav Acharya.
"Politics has taken over the economic agenda," CPN-UML stalwart Adhikari said, adding that the the delay in budget is hurting economic growth.
Tradition has that the budget should come by mid-July but due to political deadlock, the nation could not get budget even after three months since the beginning of a new financial year.
Since the Constitutent Assembly election, the budget has become the least priority of the political parties.
The budget for the fiscal year 2008-09 was delayed by almost three months, whereas in 2009-10, parliament took four months to pass the budget.
Similarly, the government could not bring budget for this fiscal year 2010-11, after Nepal resigned on June 30. After his resignation on June 30, Nepal is the caretaker Prime Minister only.
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey has on July 16 presented Special Budget of Rs 110 billion for one quarter of the fiscal year.
The House has failed to elect his successor despite ninth round of voting today. The delay in formation of government is hurting the government spending making the private sector shy away from any new investments.