Recently Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expanded his 13-member cabinet to 41. This expansion has placed a bigger financial burden on the country. He has got together all the smugglers and made them ministers, at a cost of Rs 50 million per year, an additional burden on the country. It was estimated that the total expenditure of the earlier cabinet that had only 13 ministers would be only Rs 25 million per year. This estimate has been revised for this huge cabinet, and now stands at Rs 75 million.
There were not enough flag-bearing vehicles for all these ministers and so the government has hired seven vehicles for the ministers of state. The people realise that the prime minister formed this huge cabinet only to tighten his grip on power, and to increase the duration of his term as prime minister. People also realise that this is not beneficial to the nation and is a purely political move. Immediately after the formation of this huge cabinet a decree was passed allowing the prime minister to appoint 49 ministers. In addition, each minister of cabinet rank could appoint seven people and each minister of state and deputy minister could appoint five people.
Recently Prince Paras and his wife were made Crown Prince and Crown Princess. The palace has sent a letter to the government requesting that they be given their due as set out by the civil list. The palace has asked for Rs 3.5 million immediately, though in this fiscal year no money was set aside for them. This year's budget for the civil list was Rs 12 million. .