March 5: Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada, who had resigned from his post after his two-year term as National Assembly member expired the same day, was reappointed again to the post a day later upon the recommendation of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

It seems that the finance minister will face an uphill battle in his second stint to meet the targets set by himself in his first term in office.

Khatiwada was re-appointed to the post due to a strong backing from PM Oli despite strong opposition within the ruling Nepal Communist Party. In such context, Khatiwada’s second stint at office seems to be quite challenging on top of poor capital expenditure and revenue collection as well as hosts of other financial problems including the a downcast private sector.

He also has an added responsibility of protecting the country’s economy from the widespread effects of coronavirus epidemic.

Although he pledged to fight against poverty, illiteracy and injustice soon after assuming his office on Wednesday (March 4), the road ahead is not smooth.

Khatiwada downsized the annual budget and the target of revenue collection in the mid-term review of the budget. However, he did not revise the economic growth target of 8.5 percent. Instead, he claimed that the government will meet its target of economic growth at any cost. Coronavirus outbreak is certain to play the spoilsport.

Likewise, the finance minister’s claim that 80 percent of development budget will be spent during this fiscal year seems to be an unattainable target.

Speculations are rife that the country’s economy is in a slowdown process as a ripple effect of decline in financing by BFIs to the private sector, which in turn has affected big infrastructure projects and also reduced the demand for iron and cement.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus epidemic is most likely to decrease the inflow of remittance.

In such circumstances, the finance minister faces an improbable task of achieving the targets set earlier this year.