Second session of federal parliament to convene Sunday

Kathmandu / May 5: The second session of the Federal Parliament, made up of the House of Representatives (lower house) and National Assembly (upper house), will convene at 4:00pm on May 6, Sunday at the International Convention Centre in New Baneshwar, said the Federal Parliamentary Secretariat.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has, on the recommendation of Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, summoned the session for tomorrow. The session is also defined as the ‘budget session’. Meetings of both the Houses shall commence simultaneously.

According to the Federal Parliament Secretariat, in the meeting of both the Houses, a letter received from the Office of President regarding the summoning of the House session will be read out. Likewise, the session will offer tributes to all known and unknown martyrs and will likely to see the presentation of four ordinances issued before the session.

Presentation of reports of the regulations drafting committee related to the respective Houses is also featured in the agenda of the tomorrow’s meetings, as stated by parliament secretariat assistant spokesperson Keshab Aryal.

In the meetings to be held after the Sunday session, deliberations will be held on the reports of regulations drafting committee, amendments will be presented regarding such reports, their endorsements will take place and ordinances tabled in the first meeting will be gradually passed.

According to the secretariat preliminary agenda of the session, it will probably hold the pre-budget discussions on May 9-11.

During the session, the President will present the government policy and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year in the third week of May. The meetings to be held thereafter will discuss about the policies and programmmes, the Prime Minister will respond queries of lawmakers regarding such policy and programmes and the House will endorse them.

As per the constitutional provision, the Finance Minister shall present the budget, an estimate of income and expenditure of the government for the upcoming fiscal year, on the 15th of Nepali month Jeth.

The session will spend a week for theoretical discussions on the budget and the Finance Minister will reply questions to be raised during the discussions. The presentation and endorsement of an appropriation bill will take place in the later meetings and other subsidiary bills—economic bill, bill to recover national debt and debt and securities bill– will be probably presented there, according to Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara.

In the course of the session, discussions will be held on various bills related to the constitution, and on proposals of public importance to be registered in the Parliament Secretariat.

Committees that are deemed important for parliamentary practice will be formed during the second session of the Federal Parliament. The House of the Representatives is headed by Krishna Bahadur Mahara, while National Assembly by Ganesh Timilsina. HoR has a total of 275 members, and NA 59. RSS