Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle Sacked? No, Viral Claim Is Edited

A video claiming that Swarnim Wagle has been sacked from the post of finance minister for his failure to work as per the aspirations of the people is going viral on TikTok.

The video is being shared in the wake of growing speculation that the relation between Prime Minister Balendra Shah and Finance Minister Wagle is souring over economic policies. The speculation is fueled by the conspicuous absence of Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle in several meetings held by Prime Minister Shah with industrialists, businessmen and investors from the private sector.

Against this backdrop, TikTok user @reporter042 posted a video carrying a huge poster bearing Nepal government’s official logo and a photo of Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle. Text written on the poster reads, “Important notice. Swarnim Wagle has been removed from the post of Finance Minister for his failure to work as per people’s aspirations and readjusting tax rate after the budget speech among other misdeeds. The decision will be effective from today. “

The video posted on July 15 has garnered 5973 likes, 421 users have shared it and 594 people have commented on it.

Fact Check /Verification

To check the veracity of the claim, Newschecker checked the official website of Nepal’s Finance Ministry and found that Wagle is the current finance minister. We also checked the social media pages of the ministry but we could not find any posts indicating that Prime Minister Balendra Shah has sacked Finance Minister Wagle.

On checking the Facebook page of Finance Minister Wagle, we found an interview audio of Kantipur media, dated July 18, regarding the demise of Devendra Raj Panday.  A distinguished civil society leader of Nepal and renowned development economist and former minister of Nepal Pandey died at his residence in Bishalnagar, Kathmandu on July 18.

We also checked the latest Cabinet decision on the website of Nepal’s Council of Ministers but could not find any credible reports. There are no credible reports to confirm the claim that Swarnim Wagle has been sacked from the post of Finance Minister.

We found an article, dated July 23, posted on Khabaurhub online regarding Finance Minister Wagle’s meeting with tax officers under the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). In the meeting, Minister Wagle said the government has been making efforts to remove Nepal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘Grey List’. 

Earlier in April, PM Balendra Shah had removed Labour, Employment and Social Security Minister Deepak Kumar Sah from office. He was sacked after the Rastriya Swatantra Party recommended his dismissal for allegedly abusing his authority.

Further, we analysed the design, font structure and photo carried in the viral video and noticed some AI-generated texture. So, we took a key-frame from the viral video and checked it through DeepAi and ZeroGPT—both of which indicated 61% probability of the poster being generated by using AI.

Thus, our findings clearly indicated that Prime Minister Balendra Shah has not sacked Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle until the time of posting this article.

Conclusion

No, the government has not fired Swarnim Wagle from the post of Finance Minister. The viral video is created by using AI and thus is misleading.

Sources
Cabinet Office
Swarnim Wagle /Facebook
Ministry of Finance
Ratopati.com