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Summary Nepal doesn't have a functioning parliament, so the budget can only be brought through an ordinance.
Nepals finance secretary said Friday the government wont have enough money to keep running unless a budget is approved by mid-November, but opposition parties said the caretaker administration doesnt have the authority to approve a budget.The government will not be able to feed security forces, run hospitals and pay salaries to teachers and tens of thousands of government workers after Nov. 15, Finance Secretary Santa Raj Subedi said.Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has been trying to get President Ram Baran Yadav to approve the budget through an ordinance, but Yadav has made it clear Bhattarai needs the support of opposition parties first. They want the caretaker prime minister to resign and for a new government to have representation from all the major political parties.Dilendra Prasad Badu, spokesman of the main opposition Nepali Congress party, said the Bhattarai-led government had no legitimate rights to present the new budget.As a caretaker government, it has no right to push through something as important as the fiscal budget. We will oppose if the government attempts to do so, Badu said.Pradeep Gyawali of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) said it too would not accept the attempt and that the opposition parties would begin street protests if the government tried to bring the budget without reaching agreement with them.Nepal does not have a functioning parliament, so the budget can only be brought through an ordinance. Elections were scheduled for this month but disagreements among the parties have delayed the polls and a new date has not been set.The Constituent Assembly, which was elected in 2008 and doubled as parliament, expired in May, and Bhattarai has been running the caretaker administration since then.
