Kathmandu, July 16 :

The Advance Expenditure Bill turned into an Advance Expenditure Act, 2006, today after the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Subhash Chandra Nembwang, approved it.

This is the first time after the reinstatement of HoR that a bill has turned into an Act by the approval of Speaker as per Rule 135 of the new regulations of HoR. Earlier, the King used to put the royal seal on bills passed by the HoR.

The HoR unanimously passed the Advance Expenditure Bill, 2006, after the Minister of Finance Dr Ram Sharan Mahat proposed the House do so. The House also unanimously passed the proposal coming from Dr Mahat for a discussion on the Appropriation Bill, 2006. It will be discussed throughout 21-27 July in HoR.

Earlier, while answering the MPs’ questions on the budget Dr Mahat said that the budget had been prepared on the premise that the conflict would be resolved through dialogue and that there would be place for revival of the economy.

“The interim government can have only a limited mandate so it won’t be able to take much of a stand on the budget. This government has the people’s mandate, so the budget was prepared for the whole fiscal year,” said Dr Mahat.

He assured the MPs that the government was committed not to allow regression to rear its head again. “If the HoR had existed earlier, the King would not have been able to become an autocrat. Now, the reinstated HoR has the people’s mandate and none should be suspicious about this reinstated House,” he said.