KATHMANDU, May 29: The Federal Parliament Secretariat has completed all necessary preparations for Friday’s joint session, where the annual estimate of revenue and expenditure for the upcoming fiscal year 2026/27 will be presented.
The joint session of the Federal Parliament’s two houses is scheduled to convene at 4:00 PM in the multipurpose hall of the new, under-construction parliament building in Singha Durbar. Minister for Finance Dr Swarnim Wagle will present the budget.
According to Ekram Giri, spokesperson for the Federal Parliament Secretariat, initial plans had aimed to hold the joint session in the main House of Representatives chamber of the new building. However, since finishing works are still incomplete, the budget will instead be presented in the multipurpose hall where the House of Representatives currently holds its regular meetings.
Will the budget be a sharp departure from the previous ones?
Giri clarified that due to severe space constraints, officials from constitutional bodies, senior government officials, and heads or representatives of diplomatic missions based in Nepal have not been invited to this year’s joint session. Given the limited seating capacity, the Secretariat has instructed members of both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly to arrive early and take their seats well in advance of the scheduled time.
The presentation aligns with the constitutional mandate issued after the promulgation of the new constitution, which requires the national budget to be presented every year on May 29 (Jestha 15), coinciding with Republic Day.
This year’s budget is being presented by the Rastriya Swatantra Party-led government, which secured nearly a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives elections held on March 5.
In terms of content, officials say the budget is heavily guided by the election commitments outlined in the ruling party’s manifesto, the 100-point governance reform action plan issued after the government’s formation, and the core principles and priorities of the Appropriation Bill previously tabled in Parliament.
The government has placed both the direct suggestions of lawmakers from both houses and its own governance roadmap at the center of the financial plan, aiming to make this year’s budget more systematic, transparent, and result-oriented.
On the broader fiscal framework, the National Planning Commission had set a budget ceiling of Rs 1.89 trillion for the upcoming fiscal year. This follows a turbulent period for public finances. While the original budget for the current fiscal year was set at Rs 1.964 trillion, public protests on September 8 and 9 led to a change in administration.
Following the transition, then-Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal revised the budget downward through the mid-term review, reducing the active budget size to Rs 1.688 trillion.
