On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
We are confirmed that the nation is going to meet a serious accident if it continues to follow the present political model. The sitting Minister and spokesperson of the government, Rekha Sharma, said that the government relies on foreign debts to meet its expenditure. Sitting MP, Chitra Bahadur KC, addressing the House meeting, said that the nation’s revenue cannot manage the government expenditure. KC suggested scrapping the federal structure as soon as possible. The government is unable to pay its dues to the construction companies even after the completion of the construction projects for which the companies were assigned. The government is unable to manage funds against the social commitments that the government has made. The government is collecting debts to meet its monthly expenditure and the total debt amount has already crossed 24 trillion rupees. Now, the government is raising domestic debts just to pay back instalments and interests against the previous debts. How long should the nation bear the burden of federalism? At a time when the government is unable to manage general sector expenditure, how can we think about infrastructural development in the country? The government has allotted only 17% of the budget for the capital expenditure but 87% of the amount allotted in this sector is based on foreign and domestic debts. A total of 83% of the budget is allotted for the general sector expenditure, that is, paying salaries and allowances and 17% for the capital expenditure, and that too almost relies on debts. In such a situation can we believe that the politicians are going to build this nation?
The real picture of the government account is that 12.5 trillion rupees is the general sector expenditure. The government’s revenue collection is three trillion rupees less than the targeted revenue. It has to allot four trillion rupees to pay back its debts.
Among the South Asian nations, Nepal is the country where the highest tax is imposed on its citizens. In other words, the government is squeezing the citizens in the name of socialism. A system based on socialism is commonly known as the welfare of the common people, in contradiction to it, around half a dozen middlemen or commission agents have kept the supreme leaders of different political parties under their grip and the political parties in the government are serving the interests of those commission agents by taking commissions. As a result, the nation and the people are suffering, however, a handful of political leaders are gaining economic prosperity.
The corruption practice has flourished enormously and reached down to the ward committees level from Singha Durwar. The organs established for curbing corruption are unable to catch big fish. The Auditor General’s Office has pointed out an alarming level of arrears amount and every year, it is inclining as the concerned authorities are reluctant to take necessary action against such arrears.
All the political leaders, economists, and literate people are aware of the real problem in the country, unfortunately, they are unable to speak the facts as the majority of them are affiliated with different political parties and they are speaking in their parties’ interests by undermining greater interests of the nation.
If we don’t speak against these anomalies even knowing everything, it is a crime. If we don’t react even knowing the fact, it is an act of a traitor. We must raise our voice and we must act against such anomalies as we are passing through a very critical phase. If such a trend continues, it is certain that very soon the nation is going to fall into a serious debt trap. If we cannot improve the nation’s economy, the nation’s sovereignty and independence will be threatened. Therefore, a timely correction in our system is needed. The only option left to us is to cut down the expenditure on unnecessary sectors, which means, scrapping the present political system which was imposed by the foreign powers to spoil this Himalayan kingdom. Meanwhile, we should not forget those who have started to speak about dismantling the Nepal Army organization to end the crisis, which is a foreign design. The main disease is the present political system with secularism, federalism and republicanism.
It is up to us, the Nepali citizens who love their motherland, to stand up against the system and to fight for introducing a sustainable democracy which would strengthen the nation’s sovereignty and independence ending the present perversions.
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