5 January, Kathmandu. The meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Thursday sent new secretaries to the Ministry of Finance. According to Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel’s proposal, Toyam Raya is the Finance Secretary and Dr. Dr. is the Revenue Secretary. Ramprasad Ghimire has got it. Raya was transferred from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply to Finance. Ghimire was in the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
Ever since the formation of the new government, economists have been suggesting reforms in finance and revenue administration. They alleged that the revenue leakage had increased and the administration of the Ministry of Finance was corrupt.
Madhukumar Marasini stopped coming to the Finance Ministry after Finance Minister Janardan Sharma was acquitted of involvement of outsiders in the determination of tax rates. Then Revenue Secretary Krishnahari Pushkar, who was embroiled in the same controversy, was made Finance Secretary by Finance Minister Sharma.
Pushkar finance secretary with a controversial background and Rameshwar Dangal, less experienced as secretary, became the revenue secretary, causing more problems in the government finances of the economy. In the current fiscal year 2079/80, as the collection of annual revenue is less than last year, a situation has arisen that the government has to take loans even to cover current expenses.
The government has reshuffled the administrative leadership on Thursday, considering that it is necessary to handle the government finances and the broken financial administration in this challenging situation.
In the first six months of the current financial year, most of the economic indices are showing bad signs. In this situation, the government has brought relatively experienced leadership in financial administration.
Raya was promoted to secretary in August 2076. Before being promoted to Secretary, he has a long experience of working in finance administration. He worked at Tribhuvan International Customs Office. Having led various tax offices, he has experience working as a deputy director in the Internal Revenue Department. He also worked as a director general in the customs department.
While he was joint secretary in the Ministry of Finance, he also worked as the head of the financial sector management division. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Yuvraj was Khatiwada. After that, he was promoted to secretary and was appointed as the chief secretary of Bagmati province. After that role, the government gave him responsibility in the Authority Abuse Investigation Commission and the Ministry of Supply.
While he was in the Ministry of Supply in the last year, he was involved in more controversies, even when two contracts for the construction of fuel storage of Nepal Oil Corporation were put in ‘setting’, he remained silent. Being the chairman of the board of directors of the oil corporation, he was criticized after increasing the transport fare of the fuel transport businessmen. He was criticized for not adjusting the prices even though Nepal Oil Corporation has earned high profits.
Dr. who was promoted to secretary in July 2078. Ghimire also has experience in financial administration. He worked in the Institute Coordination Division and Economic Policy Analysis Division in the Ministry of Finance.
Having worked in the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, he also has experience working in the National Natural Resources and Finance Commission. He has also worked in the Office of the Comptroller General, National Planning Commission, Ministry of Tourism and National Vigilance Center. He has also worked as secretary of Madhesh province and Gandaki province. He is a secretary who is not involved in much controversy and is interested in policy, research and planning.
The challenge of increasing development expenditure by filling the coffers
The biggest challenge for the finance administration this year is to bridge the gap in revenue collection. Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel has discussed with the higher officials of Internal Revenue Department and Customs Department and has instructed to increase the revenue.
The responsibility of leading it has fallen on the shoulders of Raya and Ghimire. According to the Comptroller General’s Office, the government has collected only 3 trillion 62 billion 88 million rupees in revenue till 20th of January. This is only 25.86 percent of the target.
In the meantime, the government’s expenditure has reached 5 trillion 17 billion 59 million. In this too, the development expenditure is only 11.65 percent of the target. Another challenge is to control the gap that may occur in foreign currency reserves when imports have recently been opened.
When the revenue is low, the government has to rely on loans to run its daily activities. At present, there is a need for agile management in internal debt and external debt mobilization.
Lack of demand for resources due to rising interest rates, and reducing the impact on internal revenue as the economy is not running, is a challenge for the new leadership.
Economist and former executive director of Nepal Rastra Bank Nar Bahadur Thapa sees the need to work to create revenue administration. ‘Paying taxes and getting tax payment certificates is a hassle, we had to make it easy by using technology to remove it,’ says Thapa, ‘even adding that the office and manpower are not enough, we had to make the service effective.’
He said that the provision of tax exemptions for the wealthy should be removed, so that there is social justice, we should think about taxing the poor and needy.
“Secretaries should pay attention to frugality, a study by the government has shown that an additional 300 billion in taxes can be raised,” said Thapa, “The new secretaries who have come to the Ministry of Finance should have a role in the work of accelerating development spending and maintaining economic governance through the utilization of foreign aid.”
Economist Dr. Resham Thapa says that it is not right to bring a close secretary to the ministry when the minister changes. He says that such practice should not be encouraged as such practice will lead to loss of institutional memory and regular administration will be confused.
Economist Dr. Online Khabar asked whether this was done to avoid the loss of revenue. Thapa says, ‘It is wrong to think that changing one secretary within the permanent system will change everything. There is such a big team within the Ministry of Finance to implement the policies and decisions taken by the political leadership with the will to reform.’
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