The House of Representatives has endorsed the annual budget for fiscal 2023-24 by a majority on Wednesday.

The motion to endorse the appropriation bill tabled by Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat was passed through a vote division as demanded by the main opposition party CPN-UML.

In the 275-strong parliament, 147 lawmakers voted in favour of the motion while 108 stood against it. A total of 255 parliamentarians were present at the meeting of the lower house.

Despite threatening to vote against the appropriation bill, demanding amendments, the ruling parties Unified Socialist Party and the Janata Samajbadi Party ultimately voted in favour of the motion on Wednesday.

Likewise, two major ruling parties, the Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Centre) were in favour of the budget.

The CPN-UML and Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) voted against the motion. The Janamat Party also stood against it.

House Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire, based on a voice vote, declared the fiscal budget was endorsed by a majority.

However, UML Whip Mahesh Bartaula demanded that a vote division be carried out claiming that the number of lawmakers against the motion was in higher number. Then Ghimire conducted a vote division.