Nepal Federal Budget 2018: Finance Minister Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada to Present First Budget Today

Nepal, May 29: Nepal's Finance Minister Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada will present the first federal budget of the Himalayan nation after completing the three-tier elections held simultaneously in the year of 2017. "The economic growth of the previous decade has remained average at 4.3 percent. Now it is expected to reach 5.9 percent this year," Nepal's Finance Minister Dr Yubaraj Khatiwada appraised the parliament on Sunday.

Finance Minister Khatiwada will be presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2075/76 on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. addressing the joint meeting of the Federal Parliaments on May 29. But the economic growth presumed by Finance Minister is hard to meet without increasing the tax levied on the public, the experts have projected.

"The budget is being announced on the basis of federalism. The prime duty of the government is to allocate the budget for three-tier governments which indeed has boomed the size of the budget. Pressure will be built on the government to increase the revenue, currently the government is levying 20-30 percent, afterward, it should be able to collect the revenues from about 30 percent, so the government will target on collecting more revenue, as per my opinion," Senior Economy journalist in Kathmandu Baburam Khadka, opined.

The Government of Nepal is expected to unveil the budget of about 16 trillion for the upcoming fiscal year increasing the dearth. "The expenditure has increased, the source of income has decreased constantly for which the government's major focus lies on collecting more revenue which will hike the import plumping the custom duty that will definitely result in dearth, constant increment in the price of petroleum also has shown this for the upcoming fiscal year," said Senior Economy Journalist Khadka.

Two days before presenting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year the Finance Minister also stated that the budget deficit of the Himalayan Nation is expected to grow by 10.4 percent. Though Nepal unveils its budget every year hardly 50 percent of the total allocated budget is spent on the title it is less spent and is freeze over. Along with the inflation which has become the main challenge for Nepal to take care of it has increased to 6 percent in last eight months of the current fiscal year previously it had stood to 2.3 percent.