June 2:  The Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has expressed its dissatisfaction over the budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2017-18.

The private sector shared that though it had been providing suggestions to the government through the Revenue Advisory Committee, the government has not taken any issues seriously.

FNCCI expressed its dissatisfaction saying that the government is taking suggestions from the private sector just for the sake of formality due to which Nepal will never become a country with investment-friendly environment.

Shekhar Golchha, Senior Vice-President of FNCCI expressed the view that the programmes in the budget do not promote the productive sectors and do not address the declining exports. "The budget could not show any basis for encouraging the investors to invest in the country," Golchha said.

However, the FNCCI has judged that the budget is not limited to becoming an average.   Bhawani Rana, President of FNCCI said that the budget is more administrative in nature. "As a whole, the budget could not encourage us to make investments," she said. 

In the past, the programmes in the budget were not implemented even at the end of the fiscal year. In the budget speech of the upcoming FY, this issue is considered as the main challenge in budget implementation. In the previous fiscal years, the government could not spend the allocated capital expenditure.

The Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has said that the budget promotes self-employment and employment opportunity which is a good step by the government. "However, the issues of revenue in the budget might create problem in taxation," said Kamlesh Kumar Agrawal, General Secretary of NCC. He said the suggestions NCC sent to the government to address the issue of paying tax, which is regarded complicated, was ignored in the budget.

Similarly, the Nepal Foreign trade Association expressed the view that the decision of the government to give grants for export and make standard lab is appreciable. However, the government has set a target to collect Rs 200 billion additional revenue as compared to the last year without increasing any economic activities, which is one of the weaknesses in the budget," said Shiva Kumar Agrawal, General Secretary of the Association.

Likewise, the Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI) welcomed the budget by organising a press meet in the capital on May 31.

Shyam Giri, President of the Federation said the budget allocated for the projects of national priority is welcome, but expressed doubt on the implementation of the budget in local level.