May 17: The new session of the federal Parliament will commence from today (May 17).

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has summoned the new session of parliament from today upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers. A cabinet meeting on May 8 had decided to recommend the president to call the house session in order to pass the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

There is a constitutional provision of announcing the budget on 15 Jestha (May 29 this year) almost one and a half months ahead of the new fiscal year. The new fiscal year begins on July 17 this year.     

Meanwhile, the meeting of the federal parliament has been called at the parliament building, New Baneshwor, at 4:00 pm today.    

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota reportedly reached the parliament building on Monday and took stock of the preparation of the House of Representatives meeting.    

Similarly, Speaker Sapkota has called a meeting of Business Advisory Committee of parliament for 2:30 pm today. The meeting of the Business Advisory Committee would decide on various issues including the agenda of the parliament meeting.     

The government's policies and programmes as well as the budget would be presented in this session. As per the schedule, the government will be presenting its policies and programmes on May 21. Once the policies and programmes are endorsed by the parliament, discussions will be held during the pre-budget session. However, the pre-budget session this time has become uncertain due to lack of time as the budget has to be presented at any cost on May 29.