KATHMANDU: Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has said he would welcome any formal investigation into alleged tax rate changes and formatting inconsistencies in the federal budget.

Responding to queries during a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, Wagle emphasized that if a dedicated probe body is constituted, he has no objection to it examining the issue in detail.

He urged lawmakers to distinguish between clerical or technical mistakes and deliberate policy manipulation, arguing that the reported discrepancies stemmed from human fatigue and last-minute compilation work during the budget preparation process.

Explaining the nature of the errors, the Finance Minister said that exhausted staff working until early morning hours led to minor formatting shifts, including what appeared to be “missing pages,” though he maintained that the substantive tax provisions remained unchanged.

While accepting political and administrative responsibility for any procedural lapses, Wagle defended the contested tax structure for electric vehicles targeting the middle class and urged the committee to prioritize broader fiscal concerns such as large-scale revenue arrears and systemic leakages.