KATHMANDU, Oct 1: Parliament has endorsed the remaining budget-linked bills, paving the way for the government to collect taxes.
 
Parliament meeting on Friday endorsed the Finance Bill, National Debt Recovery Bill and Debt and Guarantee Bill through majority vote. Main opposition CPN-UML lawmaker remained silent during the voting in parliament. “We supported the bill by remaining silent during the voting, as they were the same bills tabled by our government,” said CPN-UML Chief Whip Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal. Earlier, UML lawmakers had announced to vote against the bills, on Thursday.

The bills had been rejected by parliament after Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN (Maoist Center) voted against the bill on July 22. 

After the rejection of the bills, the government had been collecting the taxes under the Periodic Tax Recovery Act, 1955. The act allows the govenrment to collect taxes for six months after the endorsement of the appropriation bill, which was endorsed by parliament on June 28.
 
Responding to lawmakers queries during the deliberations on the bills, Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the bills propose contextual revision of taxes on luxurious items. 

 
• finance bill
 
• budget-linked bills
 
• parliament