This development became possible at the end of a four-hour meeting Tuesday evening of the parties represented in the dissolved Constituent Assembly. [break]
But the ruling and opposition parties continue to differ over the kind of partial budget. While the ruling parties have argued that the government should be allowed to bring a partial budget, the opposition parties maintained that such a budget should be such as specified in Article 96A(2). This provision allows the government to introduce a budget not exceeding one-third of the total expenditure of the current fiscal year.
"We have agreed not to introduce a full-fledged budget not because the government is a caretaker one; we agreed in order to avoid [possible] confrontation between constitutional bodies and to not harm the environment for consensus," said Deputy Prime Minister and Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha about the agreement among political parties. "But we are yet to agree on the modality of the partial budget."
The agreement has put an end to the row over full-fledged budget. In recent weeks, the government and the opposition were at loggerheads over the kind of budget, with the government batting for a full-fledged budget and the opposition objecting to such a budget introduced by a caretaker government.
Deputy Prime Minister Shrestha said there are complications in introducing a partial budget in view of the election and the integration of Maoist ex-combatants into the Nepal Army.
"In the budget of the current fiscal year, there was no allocation for the election and the integration," Shrestha further said, adding, "How can we manage funds for the election and integration [if we introduce a budget as specified in Article 96A(2)]?"
But the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML said the government, in its caretaker capacity, can introduce a budget only under Article 96A(2).
"We will not accept a budget exceeding one-third [of the total expenditure of the current fiscal year]," said Nepali Congress President Sushil Koiral, emerging from the meeting of parties at the CA building at New Baneshwor.
Earlier, prior to the understanding on the budget, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Finance Minister Barshaman Pun had stressed the need for introducing a full-fledged budget by removing the constitutional difficulties involved, according to CPN-UML Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam, who also participated in the meeting called by the Maoist chairman.
Dahal had called the meeting after the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML boycotted a meeting called by the prime minister for Tuesday morning to forge political consensus on the budget. The main opposition parties had said they would not attend any meeting called by the prime minister and demanded his resignation.
Gautam said Dahal is hosting yet another meeting of all the parties in his bid to bring them to a consensus on the kind of partial budget.
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