KATHMANDU, JUNE 9

Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada today said that he is responsible for business activities and economic indicators before the spread of the COV- ID-19 contagion and not after the crisis began.

Addressing queries raised by lawmakers on the Appropriation Bill at the meeting of the House of Representatives today, Khatiwada said that blaming the finance minister for the downturn in economic growth — including the halt in economic activities, industry operation and development activities — is illogical.

“Economic activities and indicators before the spread of coronavirus were healthy while the economy has certainly faced a lot of challenges after the pandemic started and different measures adopted to contain it. Even development expenditure was good before the lockdown,” he claimed.

Responding to questions regarding inadequate relief packages for crisis-hit businesses, Khatiwada said that the government has announced relief package of more than Rs 300 billion for businesses for their sustainability and revival in terms of subsidised loan, interest subsidy and other tax relief measures.

Similarly, he also mentioned that the government had spent Rs 10 billion so far to contain the coronavirus and assured the lawmakers that the government would make public the expenditure details soon.

While responding to queries raised on increasing the import duty on electric vehicles, Khatiwada said that the government has raised such tax for only high-end electric vehicles and that the government will promote energy consumption in different other sectors. “It is not that electricity consumption can be increased only by promoting electric vehicles. There are other sectors where consumption of electricity can be raised and the government is looking into it,” he added.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 10, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.