As formation of a new government is still not in sight, a cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to ask Speaker Subas Chandra Nembang, who is currently in Canada, to arrange time in parliament for the budget upon his return. [break]The meeting held at the prime minister´s residence at Baluwatar also directed the Ministry of Finance to be on standby to prepare the budget for the current fiscal year.
"Though this is a caretaker government, it has not lost its majority support in parliament. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned not because he did not command a majority in parliament.
Hence, this government enjoys full authority not only to present the budget but also to take any other major decision," government spokesperson and Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel told journalists after the cabinet meeting.
According to Minister Pokharel, the cabinet meeting decided to request the Speaker for time to present the budget in parliament in a bid to avoid a financial crisis due to deadlock over the budget. T
he government is currently running out of the budget it passed under a special provision of the Interim Constitution. The government is said to have left only Rs 9 billion rupees from that budget endorsed by parliament three months ago.
"The government commands the majority needed to get the budget passed in parliament,” Pokharel further added.
Minister Pokharel also said the government would not ignore the possibility of consensus among major political parties over the budget. "Meantime, the government would hold talks with major political parties to forge consensus over the budget," he clarified.
Meanwhile, Finance Ministry officials said that they are technically ready for the budget. "We are ready for the budget. We can have the budget ready on five days´ notice," said Keshav Prasad Acharya, chief economic advisor to the ministry.
Cabinet approves China visits by prez, veep
The cabinet meeting has approved the upcoming goodwill visits by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav and Vice President Parmananda Jha to China.
The meeting has finalized a 17-member team to accompany the president to China and an 8-member team to accompany the vice president. President Yadav will be in China to participate in the Shanghai- Expo while Vice President Jha is scheduled to participate in the China International Fair.
"The cabinet did not agree on the financial proposals sought for the visits. The meeting decided to ask the president´s and vice president´s offices to review and reduce the size of their financial proposals," a minister told Republica on condition of anonymity.
In yet another decision, the meeting has constituted a probe committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Land Reform and Management Dambar Shrestha to investigate encroachment of public lands.
"The trend of transferring public lands to the names of private individuals is rampant. The cabinet meeting formed a probe committee to curb this trend," Pokharel said.
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