By Our Reporter
The present government led by KP Sharma Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal is marking its first anniversary tomorrow (Friday). Prime Minister Oli, ministers of his cabinet, a few leaders of the ruling Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) a
nd the media close to the party and government will surely present a long lists of the achievements made by the government in a year.
However, majority of the people will not believe them as the government totally failed to deliver anything that people can appreciate wholeheartedly over the year. As the government failed to keep majority of its promises, people are not likely to believe the government and its mouthpieces.
The indicators of the Ratsra Bank and international organisations have clearly shown that the government has miserably failed in the economic and good governance fronts.
According to the NRB, Nepal’s FDI dropped to Rs. 4.95 billion from Rs. 10.17 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year.
The forex reserve of the country saw a decline by 7.9 percent in US dollar terms. As of mid-December last year, the country’s total forex reserve stands at $9.29 billion, down from $10.08 billion in mid-July.
According to the NRB data, the overall BOP remained at a deficit of Rs 85.32 billion in the review period compared to a deficit of Rs 5.48 billion in the same period of the previous year. This is the fifth continuous month for the country to witness the BOP deficit.
Nepal’s trade deficit widened to Rs 569.50 billion in the first five months of the fiscal year as imports of oil, construction materials, machinery, automobiles, electric appliances and airplane parts soared, according to Trade and Export Promotion Centre statistics.
According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre, the trade deficit increased 35.5 percent year-on-year.
The country’s overall BoP in the first four months stood at a difference of NPR 57.33 billion compared to the surplus of NPR 2.40 billion in the same period last year
Although the business community has been demanding improvement in the investment environment, Finance Minister Dr Yuba Raj Khatiwada and Industry Minister Matrika Prasad Yadav failed to address the business community’s problems. The continuous decline in the share market is a testimony to this.
Most of the national pride projects works remain unsatisfactory. Moreover, the fate of the Melamchi drinking water has become uncertain during the tenure of the Oli government.
Prime Minister Oli though said time and again that he would not tolerate corruption, the biggest corruption occurred in the purchase of the wide body aircraft. The Prime Minister irked many when he didn’t comment or speak anything about the Rs 4.35 billion wide body aviation scam. He did not dare to sack aviation minister Rabindra Adhikari.
Officials at the Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project said that the Italian construction company quit the contract after secretary Gajendra Kumar Thakur asked Rs. 50 million from the contractor.
In foreign policy, the government has made one error after another. The convention of a controversial Christian organisation held in Kathmandu a few months ago and Venezuela case are best examples of the poor foreign policy of the government.
Indeed, Oli’s poor governance was seen right from the day he decided to divide the ministries to accommodate more ministers. As such good governance could never be expected from the government led by him.
It made tall talks to end syndicate in the transportation sector, but that still exists in practice. People have not overcome the problem of artificial price hikes. When the consumers in Kathmandu are paying Rs. 40 for a kilogram of cauliflowers, the farmers are bulldozing the vegetable farms for failing to get good prices.
Imports of vegetables and fruit are growing when the apple framers in western Nepal are unable to find market for the products. The plights of the sugarcane farmers and sugar mills are no different.
The government has failed to send civil servants and other manpower in the States and local levels, which has resulted in the poor development activities there.
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