Nepal's finance minister resigns after parliament speaker orders investigation

Nepal's Finance Minister, Janardan Sharma, resigned on Wednesday while addressing a meeting of lawmakers after the parliamentary speaker ordered an investigation into allegations of unauthorised changes in the budget. Opposition parties have accused him of inviting unauthorised persons to make changes in the budget just a day before he presented the federal budget for the fiscal year 2022-23.

Nepal's Finance Minister, Janardan Sharma, resigned on Wednesday while addressing a meeting of lawmakers after the parliamentary speaker ordered an investigation into allegations of unauthorized changes in the budget. Opposition parties have accused him of inviting unauthorized persons to make changes in the budget just a day before he presented the federal budget for the fiscal year 2022-23. He has denied any wrongdoing.

"I am resigning to help the investigation," Sharma said, adding that he was ready to face the investigation as he had not done anything wrong. "I am ready to face not one but thousands of investigations."