KATHMANDU, April 8: Speaker Subas Nembang told the government on Thursday that the government may not be able to table the annual budget on May 3 as parliamentary procedures may take more than a month.
Nembang put forward such views during his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari at Singha Durbar.[break]
"We don´t have the practice of tabling the budget during the winter session. Budget session must be summoned for that, and other parliamentary procedures should also be followed. So I don´t think the government will be able to present the budget on May 3 " a leader close to Nembang quoted him as telling Adhikari, who was accompanied by Revenue Secretary Krishnahari Baskota.
Going by the parliamentary regulations, the government should also hold pre-budget discussions for 15 days in the parliament prior to tabling the budget, adjourn the ongoing winter session with a gap of a couple of days, summon a budget session, and the president should present the government policy and programs for discussion before formally tabling the budget. According to Parliamentary Secretariat officials, it will take more than a month if the due procedures are to be followed.
"The finance minister came to my office to talk about the parliamentary procedures on the budget. I told him that the government should first talk to other political parties about the government plan," Nembang told Republca.
According to sources, the speaker was not happy with the government for fixing the date for budget presentation without consulting him on the procedures. "He knew about it after reading the newspapers on Thursday," said a parliament secretariat source.
In the previous two years, the political parties suspended the provision of 15-day pre-budget discussions, citing various constraints. "The provision was not duly followed in the past. But there is no reason for suspending that provision this year," said Nembang.
Giving up the plan to present a supplementary budget that fell into controversy, the cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to present the annual budget on May 3.