HoR session: Former Finance Minister Karki calls for promoting IT as productive sector

Kathmandu, June 16: Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has underlined the need of developing the information technology as a productive sector.

Taking part in the discussions on the Annual Estimates of Revenue and Income for the fiscal year 2082-83 BS in a meeting of the House of Representatives today, the leader said,” At present, around 70 percent of population have access to mobile and internet services. Millions of youths are unemployed. Our neighbours are earning a significant amount of dollars through the export of IT service,” he said, advising the Nepal to follow the practice of neighbours.

Expressing his solidarity to the budget, he argued that it has potentials to address the people’s aspirations and achieving durable economic reforms, reflecting the existing reality of economy.

The former Minister for Communications and Information Technology welcomed the budget priorities and goals, claiming that it has prioritized achieving a high, sustainable, and broad economic growth rate, poverty alleviation, entrepreneurship development, and expansion of public and private investment to create employment.

He further advised that the Finance Minister should undertake an evaluation of allocation capacity, implementation capacity, accountability, and targeted interventions to make the budget more result-oriented.

“Unless the budget commitments are not implemented, it will be hard to achieve goals,” the former Finance Minister said.

Similarly, lawmaker Padam Giri claimed the budget is focused on bringing economy back to its track and capable of addressing the people’s aspirations for ‘happy Nepali, prosperous Nepal’.

The budget for the upcoming fiscal year is implementable and likely to help achieve the economic goals, he said, advising the government to center on reducing public expenditures and managing public entities in loss.

Udaya Shamsher JBR said the budget allocated for the upcoming fiscal year is practical and implementable. He mentioned that the budget has encouraged the private sector, which has been feeling disappointed. MP Rana stated that a tax exemption for five years for startups will motivate new entrepreneurs.

Bhagawati Chaudhary stated that assessing the balance, realism, resource assurance, potential, and effectiveness of the budget, meaningful results could be achieved from it. She said that the budget has planned to provide opportunities for the new generation within the country, and the plan to attract the youth in information technology is commendable.

Nagina Yadav stated that although the budget aimed to solve the country’s economic problems, there are challenges in its implementation. She emphasized that federal laws need to be formulated to simplify the tax system. Yadav alleged that the budget allocation was done ignoring the Madhesh Province.