Nepal economists object to high figure budget

Kathmandu, Sept 24 : Economists of Nepal today said that the budget for the fiscal year 2008-09 has increased the nation's dependence on the foreign countries as the budget is heavily dependent on the foreign aid.

They objected the government's decision to come up with a budget of such high figure depending solely on the foreign aid.

Speaking at a program organized here, former Vice President of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Dr Shankar Sharma said that it was too ambitious to present a challenging budget banking heavily on the foreign aid.

"It was difficult to utilize the foreign aid without its effective monitoring," he added.

Former minister and Constituent Assembly member Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat warned that the economy of the country could go worse if the budget is not expended according to the priorities.

"It would not be easy to achieve the goals of the budget as there is more investment in the unproductive areas," he added.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai will be answering all the queries at the Constituent Assembly (CA) meeting to be held at Legislature-Parliament here today.

The three day discussion on the government's budget at the Constituent Assembly ended on Tuesday.

The lawmakers of the alliance parties accused the government of bringing Maoist oriented budget.

The opposition parties have alleged that the budget has tried to destruct the economic sector of the country by forwarding a huge sized budget, Kantipur reported.

ANI