Finance Minister Janardan Sharma presents White Paper in Parliament on August 10. Photo: Rss

August 11: The government has unveiled white paper on the current economic situation of the country heavily criticizing the previous government.

Presenting the document in the federal parliament on Tuesday (August 10), Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that the government will introduced a bill to replace the ordinance budget issued by the previous government

He also claimed that the Oli government had not taken the country's economic situation forward in a proper way. 

He added that he would soon introduce a replacement bill to address the common minimum program agreed between the ruling parties. It will reflect the policies and priorities of the current government as well as the people's aspirations and the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.    

He also said that sudden dissolution of the House of Representatives a week before presenting the budget and the caretaker government introducing programs and policies for long term development plans is not legitimate. He further said that the previous government prepared the budget without paying attention to the state coffers, and failed to maintain financial responsibility and discipline.

The white paper claims that most sectors of the economy are adversely affected. The economy observed a contraction of 2.1% in the fiscal year 2019/20 and couldn't improve significantly even in 2020/21. He however didn't present the data of the economic growth. According to a high level source at the Central Bureau of Statistics, the country had achieved the economic growth rate of 1 percent that year.

Sharma said the projected economic growth of 6.5% is not achievable in this fiscal year due to the adverse impacts of the pandemic. According to the White Paper, the state treasury was in deficit of  Rs 143 billion during last fiscal  year against Rs 48 billion three years ago. Similarly, the amount of public debt has been increasing, informed Sharma. According to him, the government would be unable to maintain recurrent expenses solely through revenue collection.

The White Paper pointed out that 18.7 per cent population in the country was under the poverty line and the situation was worsening due to the impact of COVID-19.  Similarly, in recent years, the government's economic policies have not been able to focus on the poor and the marginalized groups, which has led to the accumulation of wealth among a limited class. This has resulted in an increase in inequality. Minister Sharma added that policy level reforms was needed to tackle the issue.    

Meanwhile, Minister Sharma said that the government’s top-most priority has been the vaccination campaign. Ever since he shouldered the responsibility of the ministry, Rs 5 billion had been released for the purchase of vaccines, said Sharma.

The lawmakers of the main opposition party UML referred to the white paper as a document of revenge presented to discredit the previous government by distorting the facts. 

UML MP Khagraj Adhikari commented that the Maoist had forgotten that they themselves were part of the previous government and had not brought the factual issues to the fore.