State budget aims to connect state economy to national one: State 5 Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel

State 5 government chief minister Shanker Pokharel has said the main objective of the budget announced by the state government is to link the state economy's size to the national economy.

Chief Minister Pokharel, who is also handling the ministry of economic affairs and planning, said this while addressing a news conference the ministry organised here today in connection with the state budget for fiscal year 2019/2020 announced on Sunday.

He said although the rate of growth of GDP of State 5 was in the first position in the whole country, the size of the state economy was weak in terms of its population size. This remains as a challenge, he added.

Chief Minister Pokharel reiterated that emphasis would be given for the implementation of the state budget in a way to establish the State 5 as the centre of economy by linking the size of the economy with the national economy.

He said the budget has projected to increase the GDP beyond eight per cent in the coming fiscal year.

The state government has become successful in the context of increasing the sources rather than bringing a deficit budget, he said, adding that a realistic budget has been brought based on the sources. Moreover, the state budget is based on periodic plans and includes many programmes with new model like modernization of agriculture, agro commercialization and reaching subsidies to the community level, among others.

He said that the budget includes agriculture programmes targeting the youths to attract them in agriculture and agro-enterprises.

Chief Minister Pokharel said that the budget has internalized tourism as the basis for the State5's prosperity and prioritized tourism infrastructure development.

The State 5 government presented budget of Rs 36.416 billion for the fiscal year 2019/2020 in the meeting of the State Assembly on Sunday.