KATHMANDU: The secretariat meeting of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) today decided to halt the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Nepal's activities until the parliament approves of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) deal.

NCP (NCP) secretariat member and party spokesperson, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, told THT Online that the meeting decided to halt any activity related to the MCC, which is yet to be approved by the parliament. It is, however, mentioned in the federal budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 presented by Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada.

Shrestha quoted the Prime Minister as saying that activities of MCC will take place only after the parliament approves of it.

Discussions were carried out to clarify the inclusion of MCC in the annexure of the budget. The MCC would be brought into implementation if ratified by the parliament, otherwise, the government would move ahead seeking an alternative, Shrestha has quoted the Finance Minister.

In the budget, the government has pledged to build Lapsiphedi-Ratmate-Hetauda and Lapsiphedi-Ratmate-Damauli-Butwal 400 KV electricity transmission line and has mentioned MCC's Rs 5.73 billion in the foreign aid.

It has been learnt that some senior leaders were not satisfied with the mention of MCC in the budget which is yet to be approved. Before the budget was presented, the leaders had sought to know whether the electricity transmission line projects were government's own or part of the MCC agreement.

Prime Minister and Co-chair of the party KP Sharma Oli, Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, General Secretary Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, Bamdev Gautam, Narayan Kaji Shrestha, Ishwar Pokhrel, and Ram Bahadur Thapa are the members of the party secretariat.

Also present in today's meeting were Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada, Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali, and standing committee member Bhim Rawal -- members of the task force to study MCC Nepal compact agreement.

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