Nepal government is presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 in Parliament on Tuesday amid the crisis in the cooperative sector, which, according to the constitution, is one of the three economic pillars of the country.

Instead of the market-driven economic policies that Nepal adopted after the Peoples’ Movement of 1990, the constitution promulgated in 2015 had adopted the three-pillar economic model acknowledging the role of public, private and cooperative sectors under the mixed economic system.

Through the participation and development of the public, private and cooperative sectors, sustainable economic growth will be achieved with the maximum utilisation of available means and resources, the constitution states.

However, due to the problems seen in cooperatives, one of the pillars of economic policy, the victims have taken to the streets, while the main opposition party Nepali Congress has been obstructing the parliament demanding an inquiry committee be constituted to probe Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane’s alleged involvement in the misappropriation of cooperatives funds.

Considering the cooperative’s issues alone, the government is unlikely to reevaluate the three-pillar economic policy outlined in the constitution, experts say. They do, however, also believe that the government ought to put up a budget to deal with the problems that the cooperative victims and the entire cooperative sector are facing.

This is the second budget to be brought by the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government formed after the elections held in November 2022. The previous budget was brought by the Congress-CPN (Maoist Centre) coalition government. The current budget will be brought by the CPN (UML)-Maoist Centre coalition government.

Following the formation of the Dahal-led government, a series of scandals, including those involving Bhutanese refugees, gold, cooperatives, and the Giri Bandhu Tea Estate, have rocked the country. Amid this, public dissatisfaction with the country’s political trajectory is growing as the government has been unable to resolve any issue rationally and the guilty are freed based on their political connections, experts say.

Under these conditions, the general public has shown little enthusiasm for the upcoming budget.

Ram Manandhar, a 49-year-old resident of Thamel, Kathmandu, says he is not particularly interested in the budget that will be unveiled on Tuesday.

“After every budget presentation, we have been experiencing inflation in the market,” Manandhar, currently unemployed, told the Post. “I have no expectations from this budget except that the same circumstances won’t recur this time.”

For a lack of enough opportunities within the country, youths are increasingly immigrating to foreign countries. In light of their mounting dissatisfaction, the government should have raised some hope in the youths through various policies and programmes, but this hasn’t been not the case.

Gokul Ghimire, 25, of Malangwa in Sarlahi, is studying Japanese language in Kathmandu and looking forward to foreign employment in Japan. He contends that since the earlier budgets were unable to meet the aspirations of the younger generation, he is pessimistic that anything significant will occur this year.

“The budget might attract the cadres of the political parties and interest groups who have a political nexus. Otherwise, individuals without political access seldom expect much from the budget,” Ghimire told the Post. “In a country where the leaders compete with one other to consolidate and maintain power rather than formulating policy, there is no reason to be enthusiastic about the impending budget.”

Due to the rigidity of the ruling parties and opposition parties, regarding whether to constitute the parliamentary probe committee against Home Minister Lamichhane, the House has stalled for the last three months.

The ongoing political crisis where the ruling parties and the opposition parties are adamant about implementing their agenda in national politics further aggravated the resentment of the youths, say experts.

They say that because the country is at the peak of social despair, the government should bring a budget that addresses the problems of the youth.

“Youths are frustrated due to continuous political chaos in the country. At such a time, the government should bring a youth-oriented and social welfare budget,” sociologist Meena Poudel told the Post.

While the resentment towards politics is increasing among youths, the government is presenting the budget without the prior discussion of its policies and programmes in Parliament.

Both chambers of the federal parliament on Sunday passed the government’s policies and programme for the next fiscal year amid protest from the Congress. Despite the Congress obstructing the House of Representatives, Speaker Devraj Ghimire conducted the discussion on the policies and programmes, which was later passed by a majority of lawmakers.

There could be challenges in implementing the budget given that the policies and programmes have been passed without discussion in Parliament, say experts.

“If the policies and programmes were discussed in the House, the government and the opposition could have put their opinion, due to which there would be room to include some topics that needed to be included in the budget,” economist Govinda Nepal told the Post. “Amid this, how the government will implement the budget, which has not even considered the opinion of the opposition, remains to be seen.”