Sunday, November 4, 2012

Government pushing country towards confrontation

The government is pushing the country towards confrontation, according to former finance ministers.
"The government is 'irresponsibly' threatening the President that would push the country towards confrontation and deepen the crisis further," said former finance minister and Rastriya Janashakti Party leader Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani.
"Constitutionally, the caretaker government cannot force the President to accept any ordinance it brings," he said, asking the government to act responsibly and forge consensus — according to the Constitution — to bring the budget. Due to absence of parliament, the political parties are the only people's representatives currently and they have to be taken into confidence to bring budget, he opined.
The UCPN-Maoist party that is heading the government currently had started the culture of resistance during the budget since the first budget immediately after the Constituent Assembly election, Lohani said, however, currently, there is no parliament to check and balance the government's accountability. "The government cannot misuse resources — the taxpayers' money — unilaterally without consensus."
Though, opposition parties including Nepali Congress has been asking the government to forge consensus to bring budget, the Prime Minister's ego has made it difficult to forge consensus, according former finance minister and Nepali Congress leader Mahesh Acharya.
The incumbent government's inefficiency and policy delusion have damaged the investment climate in the country forcing youths to migrate in search of greener pasture in Gulf and Malaysia due to lack of employment back home, he opined, adding that with or without budget, there could be no miraculous development. “But, the financial indiscipline and arbitrary distribution of resources will be encouraged in absence of check and balance mechanism."
The UCPN-Maoist is using budget as a tool to increase social confrontation that has created political deadlock, Acharya added. "The government — to fulfill its political motive of state capture by damaging the democratic institutions — is arbitrarily doling out the state coffer — taxes paid by the common people — forcing private sector not to pay tax."
Likewise, former finance minister and CPN-UML leader Surendra Pandey suspected the intention of the caretaker government. "The government had brought special budget in consensus in July but wasted the four months without any effort to forge consensus," he said, adding that the uncertainty of holding election on November 22 — that the government itself had declared — has made the future of parliament also uncertain calling for political consensus for budget as the only remedy to bring budget.

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