May 9: Lawmakers have raised concerns over the use of 'vague' words in the government’s annual policies and programmes and in the budget.  

Each budget has ambigious sentences like 'shall be implemented', 'shall be prioritized', 'shall be stressed' and the  list goes on, according to lawmakers who were airing their views in a meeting of the National Assembly (NA), the Upper House of the Federal Parliament, on Monday. They said such phrasing makes the government’s 'priorities' further unclear, raising doubts over their enforcement.    

The government has been urged to not make the budget a compilation of such vague words.  

Narayan Dhakal demanded the government incorporate such issues which are implementable in the upcoming budget.  Expressing his concern over the weak implementation of the budget, he urged the government to make the budget a substantive and a real document. 

He was of the view of minimizing the current expenditure and finding out reasons for the dismal capital expenditure. 

Likewise, Sharada Devi Bhatta demanded for budget allocation for the establishment of a chemical fertilizer factory within the country. 

Narayan Dutta Mishra sought the promotion of domestic-manufactured electric vehicles, sufficient supplies of chemical fertilizer and adequate budget to the education and health sectors while Madan Kumari Shah (Garima) drew the government's attention towards the need of self-sufficient agriculture.  She urged the government to further promote the energy sector to reduce a huge budget being spent on energy imports. 

Meanwhile, lawmakers speaking in the meeting of the Upper House of the Federal Parliament also expressed happiness over the government determining the priority of the next fiscal year's budget by focusing on economic development.

They called on the government to focus on job creation, production growth, agriculture, herbs, forests, education and health sectors in the next fiscal year's budget. They also urged the government to address the problems encountered in development and construction works, especially those related to contracts and bidding.

Some lawmakers called for allocating the budget to the provinces based on the population and initiating measures to boost up the economy through tourism promotion, hydroelectricity development and industrialization.

Lawmakers Maya Prasad Sharma, Dil Kumari Thapa Rawal, Kamala Panta, Singha Bahadur Bishwakarma, Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav and Shekhar Kumar Singh made such demands.

Speaking at the outset of the meeting prior to this, CPN (UML) lawmaker Bhairab Sundar Shrestha drew the attention of the House saying a lawmaker had made an 'indecent statement' in the meeting on Sunday and demanded that the statement be removed from the record.

National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina said that he will take a decision on this matter only after listening to the statement.