June 5: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has defended the budget announced for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) after around a dozen programmes included in the budget courted controversy.

Members of Parliament have raised questions over the provision related to old-age allowance as well as hike in tax for import of electric vehicles and lowering of tax on sanitary pads among others.

The government has been criticized for lowering the age bar for receiving old-age allowance from 70 years to 68 years at a time when it is struggling to manage resources for the budget. Finance Minister Sharma defended the move arguing that the average life expectancy of people from the backward communities is lower than that of the general population. According to him, the data collected for the 15^th periodic plan of the government showed that the average life expectancy of Sudur Paschim and Karnali provinces is 67/68 years. Therefore, the government decided to grant old-age allowance to elderly citizens of 68 years and above.

Minister Sharma claimed that the government has not increased tax for importing electric vehicles. According to the minister, the government has not increased tax on 13 different models of electric vehicles of less than 100 kilowatt capacity. The import duty on electric vehicles of above 100 kiliwatts has been increased marginally, said Minister Sharma.

“An electric vehicles that costs Rs 6 million at present will cost Rs 6.8 million. We increased the tax marginally after it was found that the country has to spend more foreign currency for importing electric vehicles than the vehicles driven by fossil fuel,” said Sharma.

He argued that only well-off people purchase electric vehicles of more than 100 kilowatt capacity and an additional tax of Rs 800,000 to Rs 1 million will not be much of a burden to the affluent class of people. “The general public will not have to bear the brunt,” said Sharma.

Likewise, Minister Sharma said that the government decided to waive customs duty on sanitary pads upon the pressing demand from women.

“Last year, women had protested demanding rebate on pink tax. So we waived the tax to fulfill the demand,” said Sharma.

He further said that the government had given concession on imports of raw materials in order to promote domestic industries.

Stating that the budget for the next fiscal is only 9.86 per cent bigger in size compared to the budget of the current fiscal, he said it should not be labeled as ambitious. He argued that the budget has been formulated keeping in mind the main goal of the constitution and federalism.    

The finance minister said the budget included programmes as incentives to the agriculture sector, utilization of the uncultivated land and attracting the youths towards agriculture. In this connection, he mentioned about the contribution-based farmers welfare fund for drawing the farmers to agriculture and retaining them and the budget's emphasis on domestic production.    
The budget also incorporated topics as development of production-based industries and export promotion, he added.    
Stressing that the nation's economy is on the road to recovery and that all sectors except tourism have come to their previous state, he said the revenue collection too was satisfactory. The finance minister also expressed his belief that the economic growth rate in the upcoming fiscal year would be eight per cent, mainly due to the investment made for promoting agriculture production and tourism.    
He stated that the foreign assistance in the current fiscal year is encouraging and the basis for bringing in foreign investment next fiscal year has been prepared.    
The finance minister gave assurances that farmers will not be facing fertilizer shortage as budget would be managed as per the requirement. He said that adequate budget has been allocated for fertilizer and seed.    
He pledged that mega projects including Nijgadh International Airport would be started from this year.     (With inputs from RSS)