An increment in investment in public education stressed

Kathmandu: Experts and educationists recommended the concerned authorities to consider increasing investment in public education by taxing higher for those earning higher.

They recommended it in an interaction on “Investment on Education and Progressive Tax)” organized by the National Campaign for Education -Nepal (NCE-Nepal) in an association with TaxEd Alliance.

Furthermore, they said that investment in the education sector should be increased through the national budget, arguing that Nepal was soon graduating from the least developed country to a developing country and the foreign aid would begin to see a dip.

Parliamentarian Anjana Bisankhe viewed that enforcement of progressive tax and judicious tax system, and monitoring of its implementation status lead to effective implementation of the fundamental rights in the social sector.

Similarly, National Planning Commission’s member Dr Pushparaman Wagle opined that we should consider exploiting national resources to operate the education system at a time when the education sector in the country was not making stride as per the expectation.

Likewise, National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal (NARIM) president Hom Kumar Shrestha said that they were aware of the usefulness of investing more in education by local governments although they have not been able to carry out the expected works in the development of education at the local level.

Also speaking at the interaction Joint-secretary at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Dr Hari Lamsal said that discussions were not held on finances of education adequately. He spoke of the need to formulate policy encouraging the utilization of investment in education.

Consultant Sagarnath Pyakurel argued that it is the underprivileged and economically poor parents and students who are affected the most due to the low investment in education, and suggested taking more tax from the people with high income and investing that for the education of the underprivileged and poor section of society for the country’s overall development.

Nepal Teachers Federation president Kamala Tuladhar urged the State for investing more in education to increase the services and facilities of the teachers.

Chartered Accountant Prabesh Acharya said tax revenue was not as per the goal and the general expenditure was up to one per cent of the tax revenue. Against this backdrop, he suggested implementing a progressive tax policy and taking legal action against the tendency of evading tax.

Country Director of Action Aid Nepal Sujita Maskey, presenting statistics that 4.8 per cent of the total GDP in the world is allocated for education, stressed on increasing the budget for education in Nepal as less than this percentage of the budget is allotted to education.

NCE Nepal secretary Sudarshan Sigdel spoke of the need of initiating a debate from the citizen’s level calling for investing much for the free education of the poor children by collecting more tax from those who can pay and the least tax from those who cannot.