PRINCIPLED DIFFERENCE REASON FOR KHANAL RESIGNATION

FINANCE MINISTER APPEARS BEFORE PAC AMID CHARGES BY RAMESHWOR KHANAL ADHIKARI PREPARED A
SUPPLEMENTARY WITHOUT CONSULTATIONS IN MINISTRY

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 3 April: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat
Mohan Adhikari Sunday morning began deposing before parliament’s public laccounts committee (PAC) after first ignoring summons last week as former Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal charged the ministry for by-passing ministry to bring a supplementary budget.
“I learnt a supplementary was prepared outside the ministry from other
sources. It wasn’t good. Work was going on at ministerial quarters and
houses of influential people. Budget division chief Bodhraj Nuraula was
also in the dark like me,” Khanal Saturday told reporters in Parbat where was was visiting his maternal uncle after abruptly leaving office last week.
Khanal didn’t mince words in confirming he quit in disgust with the
behaviour and functioning-style of Adhikari and his colleagues who he accused of ‘greed’ and pushing ‘personal interests’.
Khanal said he discussed attempts to prepare the supplementary budget outside the ministry with his boss who he described as the ‘captain of a ship’.
‘The minister took my thoughts as uncooperative. Without the confidence,
it wasn’t proper to continue as a waste. That’s why I left,” the incorruptible Khanal said revealing he is related by marriage to the minister.
“I got the copy of the budget prepared outside the ministry. It’s clear I was by-passed,” the secretary revealed.
‘The budget was distributive. There were no sources for expenditure.
I said such wasn’t proper; he only listened.”
Khanal’s statements widely reported in the print media Sunday indicate and expose his principled differences with Adhikari and the functioning style of the UML-Maoist government.
The walkout has come as an embarrassment to the government of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal who hasn’t succeeded in expanding his government
even two months after his election 3 February with Maoist support.
Donors have evinced interest in the developments by officially writing to the prime minister.
Khanal opposed the supplementary budget being presented before three
months before the end of the current fiscal year 2010/11.
“It’s’ not practical to implement a budget being brought at the end of the
fiscal year. The budget is very distributive. A populist budget will have long-term adverse impact,” the secretary argued.
The former finance secretary sad he doesn’t believe government can protect tax evaders and those who have tampered with VAT bills.
“Unity has cheated thousands of ordinary citizens.I feel nobody can dare save the operators,” Khanal said.
“’The most frightening crime that has now surfaced art the fake VAT bills, signatures, stamps and details. This is not revenue leakage or tax evasion. This revenue plundering,” the secretary said.
“I didn’t walkout suddenly. I worked for 31 years. This was only time for explosion of a
a crisis brewing for a longtime.”
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