By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, May 13: The government on Tuesday decided to table its policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year on May 15 and the annual budget on May 28.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar today decided to appeal to President Bidya Devi Bhandari to address the joint meeting of the House of Representatives and National Assembly at 4:00 pm on Friday, Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Hridayesh Tripathi told The Rising Nepal.
During the meeting, President Bhandari will make public the government’s policies and programmes before the announcement of the annual budget for the next fiscal year 2020/21 on May 28.
There is a constitutional compulsion to bring fiscal budget on May 28.
The policies and programmes and the budget would chiefly dwell on resolving multidimensional effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the achievement of economic and developmental goals and increasing agricultural productivity.
Along with this, the budget will also focus on expansion of health infrastructure, revival of the economy with necessary encouragement to the private sector, promotion of capital formation, job creation, and achieving social justice through good governance.
“The Cabinet meeting today discussed the government’s policies and programmes to be presented for the upcoming fiscal on May 15 and the annual budget on May 28,” Minister Tripathi said after the end of the meeting.
Through the budget the government is looking forward to adopting austerity measures in public expenses amid revenue shortfall.
The budget and resource allocation will focus on executing the 15th periodic plan of the government, achieving

sustainable development goals, and Nepal’s goal of graduating from the least developed nation status, said one of the members of the National Planning Commission on condition of anonymity.
Furthermore, the government is set to adopt monetary and financial instruments through the budget to cope with and reduce the impact of COVID-19.
Minister for Finance Dr Yuva Raj Khatiwada, while publicising the principles and priorities of the budget at the House of Representatives, on May 10 had said that the government would expand tax net for the upcoming fiscal while tax rates would not be revised.