The issue regarding reports that Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had involved unauthorized persons in budget preparation has surfaced at the extended central office meeting of CPN (Maoist Center).
Some leaders raised the issue during the meeting of the party’s former Standing Committee members and province in-charges held at Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s residence in Khumaltar on Tuesday morning.
“The main opposition has been raising this very issue in parliament. It has been saying that it will obstruct parliament. Some friends had raised questions regarding the issue,” Maoist Center leader Haribol Gajurel, who was present in the meeting, said. “The chairman has said that he will talk to Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Speaker Agni Sapkota on this issue.”
The Annapurna Post daily had published a news report claiming that former nayab subba (non-gazetted first class employee of the government) Raghunath Ghimire and others had gone to the ministry at the time of finalizing the budget on the night of May 28 and changed tax rates.
Druing the meeting, the leaders also raised the issue regarding the Finance Ministry's response that it has closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of only 13 days.
A right to information (RTI) request was filed seeking CCTV footage of the ministry from the night before the budget presentation, but the Finance Ministry said that the footage had already been deleted.
The ministry’s irresponsible response has led to calls from various quarters, including CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa, for Finance Minister Sharma’s resignation and investigation against him.
