05 June 2022
NPI is keen to put forth its collective take on these two critical documents of the Government’s that have only recently been out in the public domain. Please note though that, of the two, the Policy Speech (which contains the government’s program of action for the year to come) is of greater import for purposes of policy analysis although an assessment of both will provide a more comprehensive picture of the state of the public policy domain in the country.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on them along the lines of the short template below. Bullet points will do, and are actually preferred!
Please provide your feedback on these two economic documents; the list below is indicative of the topics you could consider (bullet points will suffice)
1. General direction of the government’s development agenda (specifically, a comparative perspective of the development program announced by the government, and whether it is aligned with the Government’s Policy and Program declaration announced by the President of the Republic)
2. Risks inherent in the policy program, ie, are the proposed programs realistic and achievable?
3. Credibility of the budget (for example, is this a realistic one and are there adequate elements for successful implementation in the stipulated timeline?)
4. Comprehensiveness of the budget (eg, is budget and fiscal risk oversight comprehensive?)
5. Budget components (eg, are key constituent parts of a budget such as the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, Asset Management, etc. well articulated?
6. Public expenditure norms (eg, are the principles of how public money is to be expended made very clear?)
7. Views on fiscal discipline (eg, do the budget and the government’s policy and program demonstrate that they are aware of how to stay within means?)
8. Views on inter-governmental fiscal relations (given the centrality of federalism in Nepal now how well are inter-governmental fiscal relations articulated?)
9. Any other views?