Kathmandu,
Nov. 11: Chairman of the Unified CPN (Unified), Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal
held talks with former finance ministers to forge consensus on budget.
During the talks held at Chairman Dahal's
residence at Lazimpat, former finance ministers and governors, Chairman
Prachanda said the UCPN-Maoist as the largest political party has taken special
initiative to forge consensus and urged the former finance ministers not to do
politics on budget as it was urgent for the prosperity of the country.
UCPN-Maoist
Chairman Dahal blamed the opposition parties of politicking on budget and urged
not to obstruct bringing budget so as to use it for the partisan interests.
According
to Minister for Finance, Barshaman Pun, UCPN-Maoist Chairman Dahal urged the
finance ministers to take initiative and support the government to bring the
budget in time though political consensus on other issues could not be forged
immediately.
Finance
Minister Pun said, "Today's meeting was important. We are hopeful that the
former finance ministers agreed that the budget should be brought as per the
need of the nation."
They
agreed that consensus on budget should be made though the political parties
have their own stances on budget. However, they put their reservations in the
meeting, said Finance Minister Pun.
The
government has made preparations to present the budget to President Dr. Ram
Baran Yadav on Monday.
Minister
Pun said that Dahal from the post of Chairman of a party, which has led the
government, had held discussions on the issue.
In
the meeting, former finance ministers and former governors suggested the
UCPN-Maoist to bring the budget only after forging political consensus.
After
the meeting, former governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, Tilak Rawal, said that
they suggested that the budget be brought on political consensus and today's
meeting was positive.
Rawal
said today's meeting organised by the UCPN-Maoist to forge consensus on budget
was positive and they expressed their views that it would have been better if
such meeting was held before.
Similarly,
Nepali Congress leader and former finance minister, Dr. Ramsharan Mahat, who
participated in the meeting, said that they suggested UCPN-Maoist Chairman
Dahal to bring the budget by forging consensus.
Mahat
said that he expressed the view from the side of NC that budget was necessary
for the nation and economic crisis should not been created in the country, but
consensus should be forged among political parties for the same.
He
further said that Dahal was also in favour of bringing budget based on
consensus.
Likewise,
former finance minister Surendra Pandey said that they urged the UCPN-Maoist to
forward process of budget only after holding meeting with political parties on
it.
He
said, "We do not want to stop the budget and that is not our
intention. We only want that budget
should come on consensus and for which there should be special efforts by the
government and UCPN-Maoist."
Dahal is also scheduled to meet top leaders of
opposition parties including NC and UML.
Finance
Minister Pun said discussion was started with top leaders as the discussion
with former finance ministers was positive.Present in the meeting were PM Dr.
Bhattarai, DPM Narayan Kaji Shrestha and NPC Vice Chairman Dipendra Bahadur
Chhetri.
The
time line of the previous one third budget is to end soon and a new budget
should come from mid-November. Meanwhile, the PM's Personal Secretariat said 95
percent of the works on budget has already been completed.
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