“The Budget To Have Medium Term Frame” Yubaraj Bhushal

YUBARAJ BHUSHAL, secretary of the National Planning Commission, joined civil service back in 1980 as a

section officer. He was promoted as a secretary two and a half years ago. Bhushal,who completed Master’s

in political science from Tribhuvan University, also did a post graduate diploma from Gernal in 1995 and

a Master’s from Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Bhushal spoke to New Spotlight on various

issues. Excerpts:

The National Planning Commission is in the budget preparation process. What are going to be the main

priority sectors in the budget?

We are in the final year of the ongoing Three Year National Plan. The MDGs are also going to be

completed by 2015. So, our focus will be to on the priorities given by MDGs in the social sector. We

will also focus our attention on sustainable energy, that is, hydropower. In technical infrastructure,

we will include middle hills highway, storage power project and Hulaki road. We are also proposing to

build 10 cities along the middle hills highway, construct international airports in Nijgadh, Pokhara and

Bhairahawa. In the social sector, our priority is going to be in health and education. Our mission is to

achieve education for all by 2015. One of the major challenges of the present day is unemployment.

Nearly 3 million youths are out of the employment net now. Although ongoing Three Year Interim Plan

aimed to bring employment oriented, inclusive, pro-poor projects, we have been unable to direct our

economic growth toward those sectors. We are able to make our plans inclusive as we have already tabled

an inclusive bill in the parliament. Our budget has remained pro-poor since the eighth national plan.

Due to our focused program, we are able to bring down the level of poverty to 25.16 per cent. Our target

is to bring it down to 21 percent. The coming budget will be based on a medium term framework. We are

now concentrating on meeting the target set by the three-year plan.

Prime minister Baburam Bhattarai has said that he will double the budget in the agriculture sector. How

is NPC working in that direction?

Of course, agriculture sector is yet to get its proper share in the national budget. As you know, 74 per

cent of our population depends on agriculture and its related activities.However, its contribution to

GDP is just over 35 percent. A large number of people are employed in the agriculture sector but it is

undermined at the policy level. Agriculture sector in Nepal is like something dangerous, dirty and

difficult. Agriculture sector failed to lure our youths. They prefer to go Gulf countries for employment

rather than to work in agriculture. This is because we are unable to change the pattern of working. We

are unable to bring new technologies like power tillers. The government is now considering providing

micro-power tillers to rural areas. We don’t have marketing problems because of the extension of rural

road networks. Agriculture sector is poorly managed and it is unable to provide rate of return. We need

to improve the overall budget in marketing, research, extension, road and irrigation. There is a certain

weakness in extension. In the coming budget, we are targeting to send technicians in the agriculture and

veterinary sectors. This will increase employment opportunities. There are problems of marketing,

research and crop failures due to low grade seeds. Even prime minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has already

made it clear that there is the need to double the budget in the agriculture sector. Now, the annual

budget allocation is just 3.5 percent. We are going to double the budget in agriculture sector, not the

Ministry of Agriculture. If we mobilise volunteers, there will be the need of more money. Yes, we are

working to increase the budget in agriculture sector.

What is the state of MDGs?

Our recent studies have shown that Nepal is in a position to meet many targets set by MDGs. There are

few problems in poverty and hunger eradication, particularly as they relate to food security. Our

problems related to supply of food in the districts have been creating troubles. We also need to change

the food habits. We need to feed our population on the basis of nutrition values. We need to encourage

the population to grow more nutritious foods. We need to change the food habits. We need to introduce

better food technology. We need to protect and promote local production. We have to increase the

calories in food. We have a little difficulty on the agenda of sustainable environment goal. Despite all

these, we have been working in the Millennium Development Goals in an acceleration framework and turning

to MAF. There are certain problems in sanitation, including the lack of gender friendly toilets. We are

also suggesting the Ministry of Health to provide sanitary pads to girl children to encourage them to

attend schools. This will decrease the drop out rate.

At a time when we have been talking about sustainable development, we are also promoting roads which

destroy the nature. How do you look at this?

In the first earth summit held in Rio in 1992, Nepal took part under the leadership of then prime

minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Now another earth summit is going to take place in June this year, which

is known as Rio 20. The government has already decided to send a Nepalese delegation under the

leadership of the prime minister. The Rio summit will decide the new development paradigms, like green

economy, green enterprises, green growth, green GDP and green system. Food security will be one of the

agenda for Rio 20. Disaster Risk Management and Disaster Risk Reduction will be the other agenda. These

issues will also get a priority there. Nepal will need to apply them here. Nepal has already got the

NAPA, LAPA and CAPA. We are giving a priority to road sector because people see it as a basic aspect of

development. We are now planning to make IEA and EIA as mandatory to construct roads. We are working on

this. Some of the weaknesses are that people are spending money in roads because they can spend it as

per their needs. We want to increase the budget and encourage the private sector to invest more money in

the agriculture sector. This will help to increase our economic sector. We need to control the scattered

development budget.

What about DRR and DRM?

I am not satisfied with the present approach of DRR and DRM. There is a lack of coordination in the

areas of disaster risk. The time has come to have a separate agency like an authority to maintain an

inter-sectoral coordination. In the coming 13th national plan, we want to establish a unit in all the

offices with certain budgets set aside for the. You see, DRM is a cross-cutting issue.


(Courtesy: New Spotlight)