KATHMANDU, July 10: The political parties have agreed not to bring full-fledged budget for this fiscal year.
Speaking with reporters Nepali Congress (NC) leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula who had attended the all-party meeting called by UCPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal at BICC building, New Baneshwor said the parties have agreed not to bring full-fledged budget. [break]
Ruling parties including UCPN (Maoist) have objected to opposition parties—NC and UML—proposal to bring one-third budget for now.
“The one-third budget will not be able to address the issues related to Constituent Assembly (CA) election and army integration,” Maoist leader Narayankaji Shrestha said.
However, the parties have also agreed to continue talks to discuss on model and process of bringing the new budget.
All senior leaders of the political parties including Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai were present in the meeting that got underway at 4:30 pm.
Leader of the newly formed CPN-Maoist, Dev Gurung, was also present in the meeting.
Opposition parties boycott all-party meeting
Opposition parties, including Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, have boycotted an all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Tuesday morning.
However, the meeting took place at Singha Durbar in the absence of the oppositions and also deputed Pushpa Kamal Dahal, chairman of UCPN (Maoist) to create an environment for an all-party meet. [break]
Dahal is likely to call the meeting of all the 33 political parties representing in the then-parliament at 4 pm on Tuesday.
Emerging from the meeting, Minister for Health and Chairman of Sadbhawana Party, Rajendra Mahato said that the government would bring the budget as per agreement with the political parties.
Also talking with reporters after the meeting, the PM´s political adviser, Devendra Poudel said that the incumbent government is putting in sincere efforts to forge consensus on the issue of a full-fledged budget, despite the protest from the opposition parties.
He also claimed that the government is still committed to forging consensus among the political parties and argued that the government is authorized to bring a complete budget as per Article 88 of the Interim Constitution 2007.
Except for a few opposition fringe party leaders, leaders of the ruling alliance were present in the meeting.
Prime Minister Bhattarai had called the meeting with a view to forging consensus on major contentious issues, including the budget.
Opposition parties boycotted the meeting on political and moral grounds as it was called by a caretaker government. Earlier, they had decided to boycott any formal events attended to be attended by the PM.
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