Traders threaten to hit the street

Traders today threatened to take to street, if the government fails to bring full-fledged budget soon.
"The business community will take to street, if the political parties fail to reach consensus within a week," said Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) president Surendra Bir Malakar speaking today at the Reporters Club in the Valley. "Due to delayed budget, some 2,000 projects have already been closed," he added.
"If there is political consensus, Finance Ministry is ready to bring budget within five days," said senior advisor at the Finance Ministry Keshav Prasad Acharya. "The ministry is preparing to bring the full-fledged budget by October 26," he said, adding that the economy has been hurt due to absence of full-fledged budget.
"If the full-fledged budget could not be announced by Mid-November, there could be disaster," Acharya added. "If the budget could not be announced by the mid-November, the government cannot pay regular salary to its employees. Even the Maoists combatants cannot get their salary."
"The political instabity has forced around three million youth leave the country in search of greener pasture," he said, adding that the country has to pay dearly if it cannot give them alternative. "Even the growth rate has come down to three per cent due to current situation."
Former governor of the central bank Deependra Bahadur Chhetri agreeing with Acharya said that the country is going to suffer in absence of the full-fledged budget that will encourage massive corruption.
"Nepal is heading towards a failed state," said economist Chiranjivi Nepal warning the politicians to take stock of the situation seriously. "Are 601 CA members ready to take the responsiblity for pushing the country towards failed state," he asked, adding that the people could also loose their trust on the government and political parties, if they cannot bring budget.
Major allies of the present caretaker coalition, Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML, have also been saying that the budget should be presented but there is an environment of mis-trust among themselves making it difficult for the government to bring budget.
"NC has already agreed on budget," said Deep Kumar Upadhayaya, NC leader blaming Maoists supremo Prachanda and CPN-UML chairman Jhalnath Khanal for the political deadlock that has led to the current situation.
However, Pradeep Gyawali CPN-UML leader said that his party is ready to bring budget in a week.
But the UCPN-Maoist is insisting that the care-taker government has no authority to present the budget. Dev Prasad Gurung, UCPN-Maoist central committee member warned that the peace process would be derailed, if the current care-taker government announced the budget. "The political dead-lock should be solved before the budget," he added.