Hardly 35 days before the constitutional deadline to present the national budget, the government is unsure when to prorogue the current House session and summon the budget session.

The first session of the House of Representatives elected by the November 2022 vote began on January 25. The ongoing session needs to be prorogued and a new session called for pre-budget discussions and for the presentation of the government’s policies and programmes before the budget is presented in Parliament on May 29.

However, it is still unclear how long the current session will go. The President, on the recommendation of the government, summons and prorogues the sessions of the federal parliament.

“There have been no concrete discussions on the House’s prorogation between the Speaker and the government,” Shekhar Adhikari, press adviser to Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire, told the Post.

An official at the Parliament Secretariat said the budget session must commence latest by May 8 to complete the preparatory works before the fiscal budget for 2023-24 is presented. Rule 145 of the House regulations says pre-budget discussions must be completed 15 days ahead of the budget presentation.

That means pre-budget discussions must conclude by May 14 in order for the budget to be presented on the constitutional date of Jestha 15 [May 29 this year].

“We need around a week to present the proposal for pre-budget discussions and conduct deliberations on it,” Ek Ram Giri, spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, told the Post. If the new session commences, latest, on May 8, pre-budget discussions can be completed by May 14, he added.

Before the finance minister presents the budget on May 29, the policies and programmes are read out by the President to a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. The Speaker has to allocate a few days for lawmakers to discuss this document.

The government wants the endorsement of three bills related to transitional justice, anti-money laundering and the Constitutional Council before proroguing the winter session, also called the bill session. Similarly, the parties want to form the House committees in the ongoing session.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Friday discussed the formation of the House committees along with other issues. “The next meeting of the House is likely to constitute its committees,” Govind Acharya, press adviser to Dahal, told the Post.

Formation of the 10 committees in the House and two joint committees, which have representatives from both chambers of the federal parliament, has been delayed. The main opposition UML has been demanding the leadership of four out of the 12 committees. However, the ruling parties haven’t agreed to it.

The House meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday. However, formation of the committees and endorsement of the pending bills is not possible in a single sitting, even if there is unanimity among the parties. That will take another three to four meetings. The bills then need to go through the National Assembly before they are sent to the President’s Office for authentication.

“The present session won’t be prorogued next week or shortly afterwards, if the government wants the three bills to be endorsed by this session,” said the official at the Parliament Secretariat.

Neither the constitution nor the parliamentary law is clear on what should be the shortest gap between two sessions, although the constitution says the gap cannot exceed six months.

Experts on parliamentary affairs say such problems arise when there is no calendar for the House. The lower house, while endorsing its regulation, rejected the proposal of Rastriya Swatantra Party to have a calendar in place.

“Without a calendar in place, arbitrariness in calling and proroguing House sessions is inevitable,” said Som Bahadur Thapa, a former parliament secretary. “Such confusion could have been averted with a calendar.”