The National Assembly endorsed five ordinances that were passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. These ordinances now need to be replaced by corresponding bills to give continuity to the new provisions introduced through the ordinances.

The ordinances approved by the National Assembly on Thursday are the Ordinance to Amend Some Nepal Acts Related to Promoting Good Governance and Public Service Delivery-2025, the Economic Procedure and Financial Accountability (First Amendment) Ordinance-2025, the Privatisation (First Amendment) Ordinance-2025, the Ordinance to Amend Some Nepal Acts Related to Improving Economic and Business Environment and Enhancing Investments-2025, and the Ordinance to Amend Cooperative-related Laws.

Beduram Bhushal, Maya Prasad Sharma, Nar Bahadur Bista, and Suresh Kumar Ale Magar, among others, proposed rejecting the Economic Procedure and Financial Accountability Ordinance and the Privatisation Ordinances. However, their opposition proposals were rejected by the majority of National Assembly members paving the way for presentation of the ordinances for approval.

The government has succeeded to get the ordinances passed despite the fact that the present coalition of the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML which commands a strong majority in the House of Representatives couldn’t garner a majority without support from the two Madhesh-based political parties–the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal (JSP-Nepal) and the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP). The issue of the ordinances had become challenging for the Congress-UML coalition after the JSP-Nepal and the LSP strongly opposed one of the six ordinances the government introduced in December and January, when the parliament was not in session.

After a month-long negotiations, the JSP-Nepal and the LSP became ready to vote in favour of the five ordinances only after the government agreed not to forward the land-related ordinance for the time being.

The government now needs to pass replacement bills within this month. Any provision introduced through an ordinance becomes inactive if not replaced by a regular bill within 60 days after the commencement of the House.