Finance minister Shankar Koirala has not brought solutions to unemployment and dependency in foreign employment but has repeated labour sector reforms borrowing words from previous budgets. New labour laws will be drafted to build a congenial environment in the industrial sector within the next fiscal, he said.

The government has been drafting six labour related laws including Labour Act, Trade Union Act and Bonus Act, since 2011 but there has been no consensus on the laws between trade unions and employers. Former finance minister Barsha Man Pun had promised the same in his budget speech.

The budget has planned to train 22,000 youths and allocated Rs 160 million for the purpose. Similarly, it has also planned to make 50,000 entrepreneurs by giving entrepreneurship trainings. However, the programmes are very small compared to the actual need.

About 450,000 Nepalis have been entering the job market every year and hardly one-fifth get jobs in the country.

More than 400,000 Nepali migrants have been joining foreign jobs and the budget has failed to address the issue. The remittance earners who have been helping the economy have been ignored in the budget.

The country has received remittance worth Rs 388.46 billion in the last 11 months. About 56 per cent of households have been living from money earned in foreign countries and it is equal to 23 per cent of gross domestic product.

Published on: 15 July 2013 | The Himalayan Times