Lack of full budget to hit dev works

KATHMANDU, NOV 23 -

Contractors have said that use of the budget issue by political forces to settle their political agendas would leave the nation facing serious problem in infrastructure development. They fear that the absence of a full budget for a year would leave bad impact on economic activities for up to five years.

“All budget s brought in the last five fiscal years have neglected development sector,” said Jay Ram Lamichhane, president of the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal (FCAN), speaking at the federation’s 15th annual general meeting. “The nation has not got physical infrastructure what it was supposed to have by now for the budget being political issue each year.”  The government presented two-thirds budget on Tuesday, earmarking Rs 51 billion for development expenses including the ongoing projects. However, the contractors said that there was no possibility of spending the allocated amount as the money had to be spent based on the size of the sum used in ongoing projects during last fiscal year.

“The amount set aside for the development works this year is also Rs 20 billion less compared to what was allocated last year,” said General Secretary of FCAN Sarad Kumar Gauchan. He, however, said that the budget brought through ordinance provided some respite than having no budget .

During the 15th annual general meeting slated for Nov 26 -27 in Bharahawa, the contractors are set to discuss a number of issues in the construction sector with focus on the impact of two-thirds budget on their business and the government’s negligence to implement the 45-point agreement reached three years ago.

According to Lamichhane, mainly 14,000 plus small contractors relying each year on low- budget projects would face worst result in the absence of full budget . He said that it would have a knock-on effect on more than 1.4 million people associated with those contractors, forcing many to leave the country for overseas jobs.

Source: The Kathmandu Post