May 22: Though the government is saying the budget to be announced on May 29 would be a caretaker kind of budget, the preparation is being made for regular-sized budget.

With the budget presentation day just round the corner, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has accelerated the preparations of a regular annual budget as per the constitutional provision.   

Madhu Marasini, Joint Secretary of MoF is hopeful that the government will announce the budget on the fixed time by forging political consensus. “The political aspect will be fixed by the government, and we will accelerate the administrative works,” he said, adding, “The budget will come on the fixed date and on a regular size.” The economists also opine that the said budget will be of a regular size.

The compulsory constitutional provision was made as the annual budget of government affects taxation of the whole year, revenue and other programmes and as there were increasing politicisation in the past on the budget itself.

Speaking to Aarthik Abhiyan, Bharat Mohan Adhikari, former finance minister said the budget will be of regular size and nature as the constitution has not mentioned anything about a complete or a caretaker budget. “Caretaker is only a word used by the government for political agreement,” he said adding, “There is no such provision in economics and constitution.” The government can bring the budget by maintaining election code of conduct.

However, the constitutional provision has allowed the government to bring supplementary budget for the new programmes in view of the situation which can be changed after the election.

Similarly, the budget to be presented on May 29 will not be approved by the house immediately. The government will announce vote on account budget so that government activities do not get halted during the time.

On the basis of size, the vote on account will be one fourth of regular budget. Likewise, the house should provide the permission to spend only one fourth of the budget within three months of its announcement.