• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Nepal government running out of money

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Oct 29, IRNA -- Nepal's government will run out of money next month if parliament does not approve the annual budget, unable to pay police and school teachers and forcing hospitals to close, a finance official warned.

The budget was supposed to be approved by mid-July but a political stalemate in which parliament has been unable to agree on a prime minister has delayed the proceedings.

An interim budget was approved to allow the government to pay workers and run day-to-day activities for four months, but that expires Nov. 16.

'After mid-November we will not be able to pay any salaries to government employees,' said Keshav Acharya, adviser to the Nepal’s Finance Minister, Asian Age reported it on Friday.

Foreign workers in Nepal's diplomatic missions abroad will not be paid, and government hospitals will be forced to shut down services. There will be no free medicine for the poor, Acharya said.

Delivery of food by government agencies to remote mountain villages would be halted, he said. The government also will not be able to pay for fuel for vehicles, utility bills or rent. Projects to construct and repair roads would also be affected.

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and his government resigned in June.

Since then, parliament has tried 13 times to elect a new prime minister without success.

Nepal and his Cabinet are running a caretaker administration, attending to little more than the most urgent functions of government.

The prime minister is elected by a majority vote of parliament.

Meanwhile, the country has been in political limbo since the June 30 resignation of Nepal. It has stalled the country's peace process and delayed the annual budget, bringing the nation on the brink of financial crisis.

Nepal’s lawmakers on Tuesday failed to elect new Prime Minister 13th time in a row.

The next two rounds of the election will take place on October 29 and November 1, according to Parliament Secretariat.

As per Nepal's interim constitution, the election process should continue till a new leader is elected in the parliament through a simple majority of 301 vote.

The Maoists, who joined mainstream politics after the 2006 peace deal with the interim government led by G. P. Koirala, won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the April 2008 elections.

The Maoists led by Prachanda won the 2008 elections and formed a government, but it later collapsed after a dispute with President Ram Baran Yadav over their attempt to replace the then army chief Rukmangad Katwal.