CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that Speaker Agni Sapkota is ready to issue a ruling to conduct an investigation on Finance Minister Janardan Sharma.
Addressing a meeting of the party’s former Standing Committee members at his residence in Khumaltar on Tuesday, Dahal said that the issue related to Finance Minister Sharma has been raised in parliament and the speaker has also shown interest in it.
After some leaders raised questions over the finance minister at the meeting, Dahal also informed that he would discuss the matter with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Speaker Sapkota.
“UML has strongly raised the issue about the finance minister in the parliament. The speaker has also said that there is pressure to form a parliamentary committee,” a leader quoted Dahal as saying. “Now I will discuss with the prime minister and the speaker about how to take this issue to a conclusion.”
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.
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.
