A meeting of the ruling coalition partners has decided to ratify the Millennium Challenge Corporation-Nepal Compact with ‘interpretative declaration’ from the second meeting of the House of Representatives on Sunday.

“We have decided to endorse the MCC clarifying the unclear provisions from the second session of the Parliament today,” Ram Chandra Poudel, senior leader of Nepali Congress, told reporters after the meeting held at Baluwatar. “The interpretative declaration will be attached with the agreement.”

The House meeting has been scheduled for 1pm.

The coalition partners’ decision follows a decision by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) to vote in favour of the compact, which was tabled in Parliament on February 20, if the interpretative declaration is attached with the ratification document.

According to Poudel, the declaration will include the statements that the MCC is not part of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Nepal’s constitution will be above any provisions of the MCC and the country will perceive it purely as an economic assistance.

A meeting of the Business Advisory Committee has just started and it will finalise the day’s agenda.

“The decision of the agenda will be finalised by the ongoing meeting of the Business Advisory Committee,” said Gopal Nath Yogi, secretary of the House of Representatives. “How long it will take to endorse the MCC compact depends on how many lawmakers wish to speak.”

Signed in September 2015, the MCC compact which is meant for building electricity transmission lines and improving roads in Nepal, was registered in Parliament in July 2019. However, the grant agreement had run into controversy with some political parties saying its implementation undermined Nepal’s sovereignty.