Kathmandu, May 7

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari is scheduled to present the government’s programmes and policies for fiscal year 2020-21 on May 15.

As per the schedule prepared by the Parliament’s Secretariat, the programmes and policies of the government will be presented during a joint session of the House of Representatives and National Assembly after concluding the pre-budget discussions.

President Bhandari, on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, has already summoned the budget session of Parliament at 4:00pm on May 8. As per the Parliament’s Secretariat, pre-budget discussions will be held in the House of Representatives for three days starting from May 10, while the pre-budget discussion in the National Assembly will be held for two days starting from the same date.

Though the pre-budget discussion used to kick off only after the programmes and policies were presented in the Parliament in previous years, it has been reversed due to time constraint and unfavourable context owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Dasharath Dhamala, assistant spokesperson at the Parliament’s Secretariat.

As per the Constitutional provision, the government should bring the fiscal budget on the 15th day of Nepali month Jestha, which falls on May 28 this year, and conclude the pre-budget discussion 15 days before the budget announcement.

President Bhandari will present the annual budget for 2020-21 during the joint session of the House of Representatives and National Assembly on May 28.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF), which is preparing the programmes and policies of the government and the budget for the next fiscal year, said that both programmes and policies and the budget will focus on supporting the economy and its revival from the coronavirus pandemic.

“Technical committees and the budget division at the Finance Ministry are working on government’s programmes and policies and the budget. As the entire country and the economy is suffering from the spread of coronavirus and different resultant circumstances, both the programmes and policies and the budget will focus on lifting the businesses, economy and the entire country out of the ongoing crisis,” said Uttar Kumar Khatri, spokesperson for MoF.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 8, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.