September 13: Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma has announced that the government has set a target to achieve economic growth of 7 per cent for the current fiscal year.

He expressed hope that the economy would remain afloat thanks to the increasing activities due to the slowdown of COVID-19 infection.    
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Minister Sharma said that the economic growth rate of 7 per cent was easily achievable. He said that the environment is being gradually created for this.    
According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the finance minister said that the impacts of COVID-19 have gradually slowed down, economic activities have gained pace and a clear roadmap has been drawn to increase capital expenditure while policy-level reforms have also been ensured to meet the target of economic growth in the current fiscal year.    

"We have set an achievable target. We are confident of meeting the target," RSS quoted Minister Sharma as saying.    
The finance minister reportedly said that the economy will gain momentum after expediting activities of development, widened tax ambit and subsidies given to the raw material-based industries.    
Similarly, he said that massive reforms would be ensured in market monitoring, test and investigation while payment system would be further simplified and the problem of low billing would be resolved to further expand the country's economy, RSS further reported.    
On the occasion, Sharma said that the government would unveil concrete programmes for poverty reduction soon.    
Regarding trade deficit, he said that the government was focused on self-reliant economy and its top priority was import replacement.    
Stating that the budget has given top priority to the industrial sector, Sharma said that crop insurance has been increased to 80 per cent to make the country independent in agriculture.    
On the occasion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that the incumbent government has only made slight changes to the budget unveiled by the erstwhile government led by KP Oli.

He added that a mechanism would be developed to access the progress details of the projects every month.