Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki suggested that the forthcoming fiscal budget should focus on economic development by including only concrete issues and programmes.
“Here, fear is being created by showing the Sri Lankan economy. The budget should come in such a way as to give a new direction to the country’s economy,” he said while speaking at the discussion on policy programmes and budget held at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Tuesday.
The MoF has hold discussions with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) about policy programmes and budget of the latter for the upcoming fiscal year 2022/23.
Finance Minister (FM) Janardan Sharma, Minister Karki, Finance Secretary Madhukumar Marasini, Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Puskar, Communication Secretary Dr. Baikuntha Aryal, members of the budget writing committee and others were present at the discussion.
On the occasion, the MoCIT presented the issues to be included in the policy programme and budget for the coming fiscal year.
FM Sharma directed to bring an action plan to modernise the postal services and include it in the upcoming fiscal budget.
“Let’s modernise our postal service. Private sector has made significant progress on it. We should not live in the old style,” he said. FM Sharma said that there was a need to run the postal service in a new way even if that meant recruiting new manpower.
In a proposal of the MoCIT to build a film city in Dolakha, FM Sharma suggested finding suitable partners and including the programmes and budget.
Presenting on the programmes, Secretary at the MoCIT Dr. Aryal said that the postal service was run in a traditional style and needed improvement.
The ministry has proposed that post offices should also be used in e-commerce platforms.
All government bodies have also proposed to make it mandatory to deduct 3 per cent of the amount paid for the advertisement and to deposit the amount deducted in this way in the fund of the Advertising Board.
“If all the offices deduct 3 per cent of the amount paid for the advertisement and submit it to the fund of the Advertising Board, there will be no pressure on the budget allocation for public welfare advertisements,” said Aryal.
Source : TRN,
