Finance Ministry Prepares Action Plan for Policy Priorities and Minimum Programs

The Ministry of Finance has prepared an action plan for the implementation of the policy priorities and minimum programmes.

According to the Ministry, the action plan mentions policies and programmes, milestones, resources, time limitations, monitoring and evaluation indicators and so on.

The action plans to talk about promoting effectiveness in revenue collection, further systematising the revenue system, and maintaining professional neutrality while changing the revenue rate and controlling the revenue leakage.   

It also incorporates topics such as formulation of fiscal and monetary policies, to take necessary decisions for expenditure cuts and granting agreements for organizations and for management surveys for the construction of buildings, except the most essential one, to advance towards economic growth and economic stability.

As the document says, projects remaining incomplete and those in limbo will be identified and resources will be managed on a need basis for their operation if it is proposed by the bodies concerned.  More, it presents the idea to launch a ‘hedging service’ to manage ups and downs in foreign investment.

It has provisions for necessary reforms in Ministry bodies being based on self-assessment reports and other reports relating to foreign exchange, revenue policies, government grants, non-amendment to bank loan policy, and elimination of investment for money-laundering and activities of terrorism. 

It states to create a base for achieving five-digit economic growth in the next five years, to coordinate among the three-tier governments, review the customs rates, and to proceed with reviving the closed government entities after a study. In addition to this, it talks about undertaking policy and structural reforms in the insurance sector, to revise laws relating to securities and make the stock market more transparent and competitive. 

More, it has the provisions of operating the commodity market and its infrastructure, assisting in the mobilization of capital required for small and medium-scale companies and carrying out reforms in the financial sector.

Additionally, the Finance Ministry under the action plan to implement the government's policy priorities and minimum programmes has prepared and implemented an action plan to implement points relating to the ministry following the direction by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' to government secretaries on January 3. 

The action plan has promised sufficient budget allocated for transformative and national pride projects, non-transfer of the budget for other projects and non-amendment of programmes.

The Inland Revenue Department and the Department of Customs are also required to mobilise target revenue and carry out policy reforms accordingly.

The action plan is required to resolve current problems in the country's economy by taking the private sector into confidence, implementing the aim to replace imports and promote exports, resolving problems in service delivery within the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry through the ministerial level and address the issues at the policy level.

The Finance Ministry's spokesperson Aananda Kafle said both action plans would be implemented while reviewing their periodic progress.

The high-level political mechanism on January 9 published the government's policy priorities and minimum programmes.