Kathmandu, July 3

The private sector and economists have suggested that the budget to be presented for the upcoming fiscal year 2069/70 should help create a business climate in the country.

Stating that the present political situation, load-shedding, lack of skilled human resources, high interest rate and other setbacks have messed up the business climate in the country, they called for supporting programmes to end the troubles faced by the business community and create a more investment-friendly environment in the country.

Talking to The Rising Nepal, Kush Kumar Joshi, immediate past president of the Federation of the Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that it was the major responsibility of the government to help create an investment-friendly environment in the country so that there would be more private investments.

"The private sector wants that the government should work to clear the hurdles in business sector such as the cost of doing business is going up day by day, interest rate is high, the price of dollar is mounting, and inflation is up," he said adding, "The government should bring programmes to curb the mounting inflation."

Saying that the increase in fuel price has multiple effects in business sector, he said that it should not be like this. He suggested that the government should introduce an auto pricing mechanism so that the price of fuel goes up or down in the domestic market in line with the up or down in the international market.

"As the price of fuel goes up, the wage goes up, than it affects the cost of doing business and for competitiveness."

The government should find ways to compensate the business sector for making them competitive.

Expressing that the private sector was being grinded by various hurdles in their businesses, he said that the government should introduce package programmes for compensating the private sector for reducing the cost of production of their businesses.

"It means if the government brings programmes for making our domestic industries competitive by compensating to reduce the cost of doing business, it helps substitute the unchecked import in the country."

He said that if the domestic environment was not improved, the import will go further high and the money received through remittance will fly back to foreign countries.

Therefore, the government should waive taxes, VAT for reducing the cost of business and provide other incentives for encouraging the private investors, he said.

Similarly, the local investors have been facing big security threat, which might lead them to run away from their businesses. Therefore, the government should introduce programmes to make sure that they are secure. The budget should be a development one. It should continue ongoing development programmes.

The government should bring packages for reducing interest rates, ending load-shedding, creating job opportunities, among others, he said.

Economist Janak Raj Shah said that the parties should forge consensus for presenting a full-fledged budget.

"Unless and until there is full-fledged budget, the people cannot plan. Budget is inevitable. No one should politicize it. There should common minimum agreement among the political parties on economic issues," he suggested.

He said that whoever comes in power, there should be full-fledged budget on time.