Secretary walks out on finance minister

KATHMANDU: Has the finance secretary taken the bull by the horns or was it just a reaction in a fit of rage? It will take some time for the truth to come out, but the bureaucratic circle today was taken by surprise when Finance Secretary Rameshwor Khanal left his office, on foot refusing to take the government vehicle, following a tiff with Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikary. According to sources, while leaving, Khanal even said he would not return to office.

Though tussles between secretaries and ministers are a commonplace, following today’s incident, rumours were doing the rounds that Khanal had even tendered his resignation. Even the donor agencies were all ears to find out what exactly happened, as they have been closely working with Khanal for quite some time.

When The Himalayan Times tried to find out, Khanal briefly said he was not in the mood to talk. “I cannot speak anything now. I need some rest.” In bureaucratic circles Khanal is known as one of the most disciplined civil servants.

“Khanal was against amnesty to VAT defaulters but Adhikary was hell-bent on saving them, as he was under the influence of the defaulters,” said a highly-placed official at the finance ministry, who was well aware of the brewing tension between the two.

Worried about low revenue mobilistion in the current fiscal, the ministry has come hard on VAT defaulters and was raiding firms almost every day, but the crackdown came to a halt after Adhikary became finance minister, said ministry officials. “VAT defaulters are supposed to pay Rs 1.30 billion to the government, but instead, they influenced the finance minister,” said the ministry official.

“However, the brewing tension today spilled out of the brim at a time when Unity — a pongee scheme that has fled with billions from people — was trying to regroup itself by influencing

political parties and VAT defaulters were pressing the finance minister to transfer Khanal,” added the

official.

Today’s incident is observed by the bureaucrats as an addition in the series of tussles as in recent times they have seen war of words between former energy minister Prakash Sharan Mahat and secretary Shankar Prasad Koirala, former minister for labour and transport management Mohammad Aftab Alam and secretary Dinesh Hari Adhikari, former forest minister Deepak Bohara and secretary Yubraj Bhusal and former deputy prime minister and foreign minister Sujata Koirala and secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai during Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government.

However, bureaucrats believe that there was an urgent need to overhaul the working culture of ministers.

“How can people expect bureaucracy to work for public welfare when ministers pressure secretaries to work to fulfil their partisan and personal interests, that too going against the rule of law,” added the official.