MP Kinley Wangchuk
The Economic and Finance Committee of the National Assembly presented the review report on National Budget for the Financial Year 2019-20 with 18 recommendations in the House yesterday. The National Budget Report was referred to the Economic and Finance committee on May 24.
Of the five recommendations deliberated, the house endorsed four. The deliberations for other recommendations continued today.
Presenting the review report, the committee’s chairperson Athang_Thedtsho MP Kinley Wangchuk said the decreasing trend on both private and government’s investment is a cause of concern for the country. This is because the country’s economy is projected to grow in between six to seven per cent. Contrary to this, the committee pointed out that, the government’s investment was dropped by 9.5 per cent in 2017-18 and it is further expected to drop by 25.7 per cent in 2018-19.
“We are recommending the government to review and revise the Economic Development policy, Foreign Direct Investment Policy and National Employment Policy,” MP Kinley Wangchuk said.
The House endorsed the recommendation.
The House also endorsed the committee’s recommendation to overhaul and restructure its fiscal principles and policy. The committee reported that increasing recurrent expenditure and decreasing capital expenditure is a clear indication of inefficient and unstable public finance policy and management system.
Regarding the committee’s recommendation on the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the house decided to research and advocate the general public of the GST system. Considering the importance of taxation, the opposition leader said it will help in reducing the country’s risks of increasing grants and loans.
“Tax is the main source revenue for the government. So if the government do away with it we will have to look for external grants and get loans. Therefore the main strategy is to collect tax and for that government should research and advocate on it,” OL Pema Gyamtsho (PhD) said.
The committee’s proposal to use the budget allocated under Common Minimum Infrastructure (CMI) for blacktopping and maintenance of gewog centre roads and farm roads was also endorsed.
However, the House rejected the committee’s proposal to the education ministry to develop a proper admission and scholarship guidelines in private schools for class X students, who do not qualify for government schools. The Committee observed that the budget of about Nu 247 M provisioned for providing scholarship to the class X passed students starting from the academic year 2019, “although found commendable in terms of human capacity development, from the economic point view, it is unsustainable and imprudent expenditure.”
