Kathmandu June 11:

The National Assembly meeting today approved a motion for the consideration on Appropriation Bill 2077 with majority votes. Earlier, Finance Minister Dr Yubraj Khatiwada had tabled the motion along with a letter received from the House of Representatives. Responding to the queries during the discussions in principles on the Appropriation Bill, Dr Khatiwada said that the budget has given special priority to the economic recovery, agriculture and health care sectors stating that uplifting economic activities while safeguarding the people’s life was the government responsibility. On the occasion, the Finance Minister also said that provision has been managed to ensure job opportunities to the foreign returnee youths. Claiming that the budget would be spent on the basis of needs and its maximum mobilization would be done, Dr Khatiwada pointed out the need for reaffirming national unity shown by all political parties during the disaster in the coming days as well. More efforts would be made to make the budget gender responsive, he said that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been allocated more for women, children and senior citizens. Taking part in the discussions, lawmaker Jitendra Narayan Dev urged the government to unveil programmes to troubleshoot the current problems the country is facing. He also bemoaned for lack of budget allocation by identifying areas of priorities during the time of pandemic. Lawmaker Radheshyam Adhikari said that prosperity of the country was not possible without modernization of agriculture as agro sector is considered as the main source of employment. He further said that the government should store the agro production and purchase the production from farmers. Saying farmer’s production could decay in the farms itself until supply systems were not smooth, Adhikari questioned how the agro sector would be self-dependent against this backdrop. Similarly, NA member Pramila Kumari demanded the government to make arrangement of additional budget in health sector as the budget allocated in health sector would not be sufficient in this difficult situation. Lawmaker Gopi Acchami shared that the goal for guaranteeing the budget for development projects of national pride and spending the internal loan in development budget is very important. Blaming that the budget has encouraged the high-class people rather than lower-class, Anita Devkota said that the programme including tax increase in electric vehicle has not been able to meet the target of the budget. Likewise, Debendra Dahal urged the government to bring relief programme addressing the farmers, industrialists and entrepreneurs hit hard by coronavirus. NA Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina said that ministry-wise discussion would be held on ‘Appropriation Bill-2077’ from June 15-18.