NGO for taking all stakeholders on board in budget making process

The Azm-e-Nau, a local non-governmental organization (NGO), has underlined the need for taking all stakeholders on board in the budget making process so that a workable, growth-oriented and poor-friendly fiscal plan could be ensured.
The organization, working on open and transparent budget process, urged the government to take input from every segment of the society in finalising the annual budget, setting new targets and development priorities.
“A democratic government should open up its budget process and bringall the segments of the society in the discussions on its economic and development priorities that will be set up in the upcoming federal budget,” Azm-e-Nau Executive Coordinator Omar Sadik said this while talking to APP. He highlighted the importance of participation of people’s representatives in the budget-making process, adding that it should not be left alone on the bureaucracy. He was of the view that the developed nations spend a substantial part of their parliamentary year debating their economic budget plans. “Parliament is the supreme representative body of the nation and it should lead the budget process in accordance with the aspirations of the nation.” He suggested that the Parliament should discuss the nation’s development priorities at the beginning of the budget process and provide its input to the finance ministry in the form of recommendations so that they could be made part of the draft strategy paper being presented to the cabinet.
The meetings of parliamentary committees should be open to media so that the issues highlighted in these meetings could be analysed and debated by the nation as well as the relevant experts and the feedback could be provided to the committees. He also suggested that the Parliament should debate the budget proposals at least for 60 working days.