Khanal argued that the present ruling coalition had no mandate to introduce a full-fledged budget as the government had already lost its legitimacy following dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (CA) in May.[break]
"The government´s move to bring a new budget must be in accordance with the interim constitution, which clearly states that the budget must be brought through political understanding," Khanal told reporters while emerging from the president´s office at Shital Niwas. "The government has no other option as it is bound by constitutional provisions to forge consensus with opposition parties."
Khanal was of the view that bringing a full-fledged budget has become urgent to avert a serious economic crisis but only a new government commanding broad political consensus could do so. He claimed that the ruling UCPN (Maoist) party was the main stumbling block in reaching a political understanding as the former rebel party had concentrated all its efforts on prolonging its stay in power.
Khanal´s statement comes at a time when the ruling and opposition parties have been sharply divided over the issue of introducing a new budget. The ruling parties are preparing to bring a new budget, saying that failure to do so would be tantamount to pushing the country into serious economic crisis, while the opposition parties have announced that they will foil the government´s plans to implement the new budget.
The government needs to introduce the new budget through ordinance and that has to be endorsed by the president as there is no parliament at present.
Khanal also came down heavily on leaders from the ruling parties, accusing them of making controversial remarks against the head of state. Some UCPN (Maoist) leaders, including Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun, recently accused the president in public of trying to take over power by dissolving the present government.
Khanal said that it was very unfortunate to find a party, the government and responsible leaders, including the prime minister and other ministers, involved in making baseless criticisms of the president.
"Making baseless remarks is not what a responsible government should be doing," said Khanal.
The president, immediately after the CA´s demise in May, had declared that the present government had automatically converted into caretaker status with the dissolution of parliament, from where the prime minister was elected. Since then, the opposition parties have been claiming that the present caretaker government can´t take any decision having long-term impact, without the consent of the opposition parties.
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