Former FMs flay government move for budget san consensus

Former finance ministers have warned the government´s attempt to announce budget for the current fiscal year 2012/13 without a political consensus would invite confrontation in the country.
"Government has no authority to bring the budget unilaterally in the absence of parliament to ensure accountability in budget spending. Prime Minister should shun his personal ´ego´ and let the country move forward through consensus budget,” said former Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya.
Speaking in an interaction in the capital on Sunday, former finance ministers had questioned the government´s intention to bring out budget unilaterally. "Announcing national budget unilaterally shows the government´s intention to ignore the constitution writing process by creating conflict among political forces,” said Acharya, who is also a central working committee member of Nepali Congress.
He stressed on the need to strengthen the politics of consensus at a time when parliament does not exist in the country.
"There is an absence of parliament in the country to make government -- the executive body -- accountable for its activities. But the government is leading the country towards a crisis by moving ahead in an unilateral way and ignoring the other forces," added Acharya.
Similarly, Surendra Pandey, former Finance Minister also echoed similar views.
"We won´t be involved in the process of brining the budget without political consensus. Undermining the significance of political consensus, the UCPN (Maoist) is instead resorting to threaten the president to endorse the budget proposed by the present government unilaterally,” said Pandey, who is also politburo member of the CPN-UML.
The government had brought one-third budget for the current fiscal year through ordinance in July. The caretaker government, which dissolved the Constituent Assembly in last May without drafting a constitution, is constantly pushing to bring the full-fledged budget for the current fiscal year.
Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun had asked all the political parties to send a representative in the budget drafting process as per the instruction of Prime Minister Babu Ram Bhattarai. "There is no emergency to bring the budget now. We still have one month to forge consensus to bring the budget,” Pandey said.
Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani also suggested President Ram Baran yadav not to endorse the budget ordinance. "There is a risk of setting a wrong precedence while endorsing ordinance of budget at this time," Lohani, who is co-chairman of Rastriya Janasakti Party, said.
Finance Minister Pun requests Khanal to lobby for consensus
KATHMANDU (REPUBLICA) - Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun has sought help from Jhala Nath Khanal, chairman of CPN-UML to build an environment for political consensus to bring full-fledged budget for this fiscal year.
According to Pun´s press coordinator Manoj Garti Magar, Pun met Khanal at latter´s residence in Dallu on Sunday evening to request the former Prime Minister to lobby for political consensus for budget.
Khanal assured his cooperation to create an environment for announcing consensus budget. Khanal also suggested Pun to intensify parley with top leaders of other parties to secure support from them for the full-fledged budget.