Opposition parties and some lawmakers of the ruling center-left alliance have accused Sharma of inviting unauthorised persons to change their tax rates in the federal budget just a day before he presented the spending plan for the fiscal year 2022 -- 23. He denied any wrongdoing.
Unauthorised persons are people outside the government with no legal power to make amendments to the budget.
Sharma told lawmakers he had not done anything wrong and that he is resigning to help the investigation.
I am ready to face thousands of investigations. Local media reports said that the changes were made in the budget to favor some businesses. Parliamentary Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota gave 10 days to a multi-party 11-member investigating panel to examine the opposition's accusations. Pressure on Sharma has mounted after the Finance Ministry said CCTV footage from the day when the alleged changes to the budget were not available. In April, Sharma, a former Maoist rebel leader, was involved in removing central bank governor Maha Prasad Adhikari, accusing him of leaking sensitive financial information to the media. Adhikari was later reinstated by the Supreme Court. Nepali police fire tear gas and water cannons to disperse protest over US 'gift' Pradeep Gyawali, a former foreign minister and opposition leader, said Sharma should have resigned over what he said were unpardonable mistakes in allowing unauthorised people to make changes to the budget. Gyawali said that he was instrumental in destroying the CCTV footage of the day to hide his mistakes. Sharma was not available to comment on the CCTV allegation. In a lawmaker in Sharma's Communist Party of Nepal Maoist Center, Barsaman Pun said no new finance minister would be appointed pending the outcome of the investigation. Pun told reporters that if he is found innocent by the investigation panel, he will be taking over as finance minister. Nepal, a landlocked country between China and India, has been battered by rising global prices of crude oil and other commodities. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba imposed a ban on the import of luxury goods until mid-July to rein in capital outflows as the forex reserves fell to $9 billion - enough to last the country for around six months.