March 21: The stakeholders and experts have stressed on strong accountability on every layer of the state in the new federal setup. They expressed such views during a panel discussion ‘Doing Business in Federal Nepal: Global Experience and Lessons for Nepal’ organised by Nepal Economic Forum on March 19, Monday.

The participants of the programme said that federal structure will provide equal opportunity to all layers of the state.

According to Lejla Catti, public finance and governance expert from Bosnia and Herzegovina,  accountability is the most important factor in all levels of fiscal federalism. She said that under federalism, creating balance in public spending and tax is the most challenging part.

According to economist Catti, development can take place if the government takes a flexible policy and develop transparent system. According to former vice president of National Planning Commission, Shankar Sharma, fiscal federalism is in the initial stage and it will take time to address the challenges related to it.  He shared that federalism will give a good opportunity to the state and the local governments and this opportunity should be fully utilised.

“To make federalism more effective, the government should be clear on what work they should do,” said Rajiv Malhotra, professor at Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, India. According to him, if there is conflict and confusion among the federal government, expected development cannot be achieved in a country.  

The panel discussion moderated by Sujiv Shakya, chairman of Nepal Economic Forum, saw the participation of policy makers, media persons, experts and students.