"In view of the special circumstances obtaining in the country, the budget will be presented in parliament after holding necessary consultations and forging a consensus (among the major parties)," said a three-point agreement reached among the party leaders at a meeting held at Gokarna Resort on Monday.[break]
They have entrusted former finance ministers Dr. Baburam Bhattarai of the Maoists, Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat of NC and Bharat Mohan Adhikari of UML to hold talks and resolve differences among the parties in connection with finalizing the budget.
Introduction of the new budget has been delayed by nearly four months as the political parties have failed to elect a new prime minister even after 16 rounds of voting in parliament after Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from the post on June 30. Earlier, the main opposition party UCPN (Maoist) had stood against any proposal by the caretaker government to present a new budget, saying that this should be done only by a new government.
The political leaders at the three-party meeting also decided to defer the next [17th] round of voting to elect a new prime minister scheduled for Monday, and hold it instead on November 19. They decided to defer the voting in light of the Supreme Court verdict over the matter last week. The apex court had suggested to the Speaker and parliament to end the ongoing ´meaningless´ elections and find an appropriate alternative.
Following the leaders´ decision, the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of parliament decided to defer the voting scheduled for Tuesday.
Speaker Subas Nembang has called the next meeting of the House for November 3 for holding the prime ministerial election as well as presenting the annual budget. The government on Sunday had written to the parliament secretariat saying that it is preparing to present the annual budget on November 3 and requesting parliament to make necessary arrangements.
The party leaders have decided to hold their next meeting on November 18.
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