KATHMANDU, Oct 4: With the fourth session (monsoon session) of House of Representatives (HoR) completed, the house has only passed 12 bills so far. Although these four sessions passed 12 bills, dozens of bills remain unapproved. The government did not register the necessary number of bills for discussion during the past four sessions. In the recent past, the HoR had set a precedent of passing 40 bills in a single session.
However, compared to the previous sessions, the monsoon session saw a higher number of bills passed. The first session of Parliament did not pass any bills, while the second and third sessions passed a total of four bills. The fourth session passed eight bills, including the Nepal University Bill, the Public Service Broadcasting Bill 2020, the Archives Preservation (First Amendment) Bill, the Food Safety and Quality Bill 2020, the Security Printing Bill, the Bill for the Amendment of the Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act (Third Amendment), the Customs Duty Bill 2024, and the Bill to amend some Nepal Acts related to Investment Facilitation 2024.
In the second session, a bill to amend some Nepal Acts related to the Civil Code and a bill to amend the Nepal Citizenship Act 2006 were passed. Meanwhile, the Monitoring and Evaluation Bill, as well as the bill to amend some acts related to the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Promotion of Business Environment, were passed in the third session.
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The Parliament Secretariat has stated that despite numerous bills being passed by the parliamentary committees and presented in the HoR, there is insufficient business for the upcoming session. Even if all the bills in the committee are passed in the upcoming session, it appears that additional bills will still be needed throughout the session.
The government can register bills when the parliamentary session is not in session. However, it seems that the government has not paid attention to this provision. Since there are no topics to include in the agenda after the parliamentary session begins, HoR Speaker Devraj Ghimire seems to have become frustrated with the previous sessions. His efforts to pass bills have also not been effective.
The monsoon session has ended. However, the committees have not been able to establish a schedule for how to proceed with their work. Officials from the Parliament Secretariat say that the bills from the committees can reach the house and create pressure on the government to register new bills only when the committees create a work schedule and adhere to it.
The government also seems unable to present a plan for how many bills to pass in each session. If it is to prioritize lawmaking, it must first introduce a plan outlining how many laws will be passed in which session.
Two important bills related to the implementation of federalism are currently in the House of Representatives: the Federal Civil Service Formation, Operation, and Conditions of Service of Federal Service Bill, 2080 BS in the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee, and the School Education Bill, 2080 BS in the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee.
The Constitutional Council (Functions, Duties, Powers, and Procedures) (First Amendment) Bill has been passed by the committee and is currently in the process of being approved by the House.
Similarly, six economic bills related to the budget have been passed in the four sessions. The Bill to Raise National Debt 2080 BS, Economic Bill, and Appropriation Bill 2080 BS were passed in the monsoon session of 2080 BS, while the monsoon session of 2081 BS saw the passage of additional bills. These bills are introduced to facilitate the implementation of each fiscal year’s budget.
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