Finance Minister’s Secretariat Misrepresents Amendment Process

May 9, Kathmandu — The Secretariat of Finance Minister Dr. Swarnim Wagle has misinterpreted the amendment process in the matter concerning tax rate adjustments.

In a statement titled “The Truth About Amendments to the Finance Bill,” the Secretariat claimed, “After some ambiguities and linguistic errors were identified in the finance bill presented to both houses of Parliament on May 29, the Ministry of Finance sent a request on May 31 to correct these errors, along with the corrected version, to the Parliamentary Secretariat.”

The statement also listed, point by point from one to five, the amendments requested by Finance Minister Dr. Wagle and the errors that were rectified and clarified.

It stated that the Parliamentary Secretariat informed the Ministry of Finance that all lawmakers received the corrected pages included with the bill.

The Secretariat further claimed that during table and page layout adjustments in Parliament, page 16 number was omitted, and no words were altered without notifying Parliament.

The Secretariat posed the question, “Is it permissible or not to correct errors and clarify language?”

The statement emphasized that the finance bill, unlike other legislation, is highly sensitive as the tax rates apply immediately upon presentation in Parliament; therefore, any errors identified need to be promptly addressed to avoid significant impact on the market and revenue.

It continued, “If there are linguistic errors or clarifications needed in a bill already presented in Parliament, the Finance Minister can register a correction request with the Parliamentary Secretariat, similar to how lawmakers are afforded the opportunity to propose amendments. This has been the Ministry of Finance’s past practice as well.”

The Secretariat also stated that if a bill has errors, the government can correct them and the process is the same as for lawmakers submitting amendment proposals.

Procedures for advancing a bill in Parliament are outlined in Section 15 of the House of Representatives Rules. According to this, a motion to seek permission to proceed with a bill must be submitted and lawmakers may oppose it. Then the House decides.

Subsequently, a general discussion on the bill takes place. After this, a motion to consider the bill is introduced and, once approved, lawmakers are given time to submit amendment proposals.

Rule 112 of the Rules specifies, “Any member wishing to submit amendments must provide notice to the Secretary within 72 hours after the close of the general discussion, including the text of the amendment proposed.”

However, these procedures have not advanced in the House yet, and the bill has not reached the stage where lawmakers can propose amendments.

The bill tabled by the Finance Minister was uploaded to both the Parliamentary Secretariat and Ministry of Finance websites, though the Ministry repeatedly edited and removed details.

Though a letter to correct errors was sent to the Parliamentary Secretariat on May 31, Secretariat staff explain it is not permissible to register corrections for a bill already tabled in Parliament by submitting a letter.

Meanwhile, in the bill tabled in Parliament, Finance Minister Wagle made discretionary changes to tax policies and rates, but the Secretariat limited this characterization to mere linguistic errors.

The Secretariat asserted that previous Finance Ministers had similarly corrected errors in the finance bill during consecutive budget presentations, with the current Finance Minister following the same practice. “The joint government of Congress and UML last year altered the tax rates for 73 subheadings of five items in the finance bill,” the statement cited.

However, a former senior official of the Parliamentary Secretariat told a media outlet, “We opposed such manipulations of bills already tabled in Parliament in the past. It is wrong to amend a bill after tabling it by circumventing procedure. It is surprising that the current Finance Minister justifies this illegal practice by saying ‘others did it, so I am doing it too.’”

According to the Secretariat, the Finance Minister sent the correction letter to Parliament on May 31.

However, since amendments are not accepted for bills already tabled in Parliament, the Secretariat did not register it.

After media reports emerged alleging arbitrary amendments to tax rates by the Ministry of Finance, Minister Wagle reportedly pressured the Parliamentary Secretariat to register the amendments, a source within Parliament revealed.

The source said, “Even though the Minister sent a correction letter, since the bill was already tabled in Parliament, employees refused to register the amendment. However, on Wednesday, June 3, Secretary-General Padam Prasad Pandey directed registering it, and it was finally incorporated and re-uploaded.”

Opposition parties have raised questions, stating that the government unilaterally amending a bill already tabled in Parliament and writing letters to the Secretariat to shield such actions violates parliamentary procedure and legislative principles.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Labour Culture Party have even demanded the resignation of the Finance Minister.

Following calls for resignation, the Secretariat issued a statement confirming the error corrections but misrepresented the fact that the letter was sent to the Parliamentary Secretariat before the period for amendments had begun, effectively providing a justification for the actions.