Kathmandu, Mar. 31: The Ministry of Finance Wednesday held a discussion with the secretaries and joint secretaries of all the ministries and the representatives of the Nepali Army on budget preparation for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23.

During the discussion, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma directed the government officials to submit their action plans regarding the plan and policy to be formulated by the federal, provincial and local levels to exercise their power as per the spirit of federalism within seven days.

Stating that there was a tendency to include fragmented plans in the budget, Minister Sharma said the federal, province and local level should implement the programme and budget as per the provisions specified in the constitution ‘Some rights have been divided since the country adopted the federal system, it is written in the constitution. Let's read that,” he said. “There is one provision in the constitution but we are doing the opposite. This is a violation of the constitution. Let the province and local level do their work."

Finance Minister Sharma said that it would be easier for the federal body to send small projects to the province and local levels.
He directed all the ministries to submit their action plans within seven days mentioning the projects, plans and policies to be included in the budget as per the federal spirit.

"Give me your action plan within seven days according to the nature of the works of your ministries including suggestions to increase the utilisation of resources, clearly mention what kind of policy can be made in the budget according to the federal spirit," he said. “This will make the budget preparation task easier.”

He directed the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to provide a map of the number of schools and students across the country and the estimated details of the students who may enroll in the new academic session.

The Minister directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development to submit an action plan for import substitution stating that there would be no need to import paddy and rice if sufficient improved varieties of seeds were distributed to the farmers in time.

"If we give enough improved varieties of seeds to the farmers this year, there will be no need to import paddy and rice," he said.