Govt urged to pass budget
Kathmandu, Nov 19 - With 35 development projects across the country stalled due to lack of timely budget allocation, construction entrepreneurs have urged the government and political parties to set the political agenda aside for a while and pass the budget at the earliest.
They said that mainly medium-size development projects under the Department of Road and Department of Urban Development and Building Construction and small town development and drinking water projects had been hard hit due to lack of the budget.
The government has proposed Rs. 150.34 billion for development related expenses for the current fiscal year.
"If the budget is not passed within mid-January, all the development works will be halted completely for the current fiscal year," said Yaksha Dhoj Karki, president of the Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal (FCAN) on Wednesday.
He was addressing a press conference in the capital on the upcoming 13th annual general assembly of the FCAN. The FCAN is scheduled to hold its 13th annul general assembly (national conference) from Nov. 27 to Nov. 28 in Dhangadhi, Kailali.
According to contractors, it normally takes two and half months to begin work in the field after the tendering, bidding and tender awarding process and four months of the current fiscal year have already passed without the approval of the budget.
Karki said that many contractors were not able to repay their bank loans and release the money for the workers as the construction works decreased heavily due to the absence of development works in recent months of the current fiscal year.
"Normally, this is peak hour for tender call, but the process has not started so far," said Ram Sharan Deuja, deputy general secretary (policy) of the FCAN. He said that the delay was hampering the government's aim of marking the fiscal year as Road Infrastructure Development Year.
"If further delayed, it will be hard to spend even 30 percent of the total budget allocated for development works," he said. Even last year, the government had failed to spend the budget allocated for development works. The FCAN has also demanded that the government maintain peace and security in construction business sector as criminal activities and involvement of non-professionals in tendering were increasing.
Meanwhile, the FCAN has said that the government had agreed to address their 45-point of demand after a series of talks with the government during the last nine months. "We have reached a consensus and it will be formally announced within three days," said president Karki.
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