Former FinMin Paudel terms white paper as factless allegation paper

KATHMANDU: Former Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has termed the white paper submitted by Finance Minister Janardan Sharma to the Parliament as a factless allegation paper.

He said so while speaking at a Parliament meeting on Thursday.

Paudel said that the issues like where the budget should be brought, when it should be brought, whether the parliament should be dissolved through ordinance or not would not reflect the economic situation of the country.

“Though it is said that the white paper reflects the current economic condition of the country, I find that the document was prepared to protest the previous government,” he said.

The government has no basis to criticise the statistics brought from the government offices like Financial Comptroller General Office, Central Bureau of Statistics and Nepal Rastriya Bank.

Leader Paudel said though the economic growth rate was negative at 2.1 percent in fiscal year 2019/20, the white paper has forgotten that the economic growth rate was 7 percent in the last fiscal year.

“The country has spent Rs 33 billion for the reconstruction while KP Sharma Oli was leading the government. The government has allocated Rs 4 trillion for the reconstruction,” he said.

Paudel said that the poverty rate had declined to 17 percent from 20 percent during the government led by KP Sharma Oli and the rate might have been increased in the recent time due to Covid-19.

The erstwhile government had made significant progress not only in physical infrastructure but also in the human development, he said.

The former minister said that the Prime Minister’s Employment Programme has created many jobs in the country.

He said that it was not bad to spent 58 percent of the capital expenditure on the national pride projects amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paudel claimed that the KP Sharma Oli-led government had done a commendable job by reducing the liability of Rs 8 trillion in the multi-year project to around Rs 3 trillion.