The government should immediately withdraw from the latest process of buying 1,150 shot guns, 1,000 pistols and 25,000 rounds of ammunition through agents of the Italian company Beretta. The government’s attempt to buy arms worth Rs 840 million while controlling imports of consumer goods on the pretext of declining foreign exchange reserves – even by transferring funds at the end of the fiscal year – cannot be justified from any angle.
The justification for the purchase of arms cannot be confirmed when it comes to how to increase the country’s foreign exchange reserves and reduce unnecessary imports. This is not happening when buying weapons by transferring funds allocated for other purpose. It is totally illegal to spend money that is not in the budget at a time when we have to think twice to import the materials mentioned in the budget. So this seemingly inconsistent buying process should be stopped at any cost.
Even if the government’s intentions are clean, buying weapons at this time is totally untimely. Moreover, there is a big question mark over the intention of the government in this case. It is an open secret that middlemen, political power centers and high-ranking police officials have been extorting money from state coffer as commission.
At present, those who go for foreign employment can only get up to 200 dollars at and those Nepalis going abroad on tourist visas can exchange only a maximum of 500 US dollars per person. The import of about a dozen goods has been banned keeping in view the foreign reserves but purchase of arms is encouraged.
Therefore, such acts of abuse of power, further mounting pressure on foreign exchange reserves and exploitation of the national treasury must be stopped immediately. Otherwise, the concerned bodies including the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority should look into such inappropriate steps of the government.
Reproduced from People’s Review
