Preparing Bills

WHEN Nepal went for a bicameral legislature, it was not without reason. A well-functioning National Assembly (Upper House) of the parliament can make a difference in the parliamentary check-and-balance. When bills originating in the Lower House (House of Representatives) is passed to the Upper House, it is expected to be vetted by the National Assembly members and receive the required inputs. Certain stipulations handicap the National Assembly in involving itself much in the business of legislating. One reason for such a state of affairs is definitely the set back with which National Assembly functions as far as legislating is concerned. The National Assembly cannot move any bill if it has any financial implication. Which means that only the House of Representatives can move bills, practically speaking, as most bills come with the ‘finance’ tag. Lack of a clear definition of finance bill in the constitution has given rise to such a situation. National Assembly members are justified in complaining about being virtually shunted out of the business of legislating. Speaker Taranath Ranabhat also indicated this practice may not be good. He has thrown his lot with the National Assembly members. In an interaction with media representatives at the Parliament Secretariat Monday, Speaker Ranabhat assured the elders that such a situation should no longer continue. National Asssembly Chairman Dr. Mohammad Mohsin promptly welcomed the Speaker’s determination to solve this problem. Coming days will show how the Speaker will go about ensuring that National Assembly too contributes its share bill tabling. Whether it is the Lower House or the Upper House, the bills have to be drafted properly. As is the situation now, most legal professionals find that the parliament has been passing many weakly-drafted bills with little preparation and homework on them. Consequently, often the bills require amendments soon after their passage. This is an unfortunate situation. This translates into a lot of waste of parliamentarians’ time. Speaker Ranabhat blamed ministries as being uncooperative in bill-drafting. The issue must be taken up seriously by the government. The unhelpful ministries must be taken to task. And the coming session of parliament should hopefully see improvement in bill-drafting in general as well as in the bill-tabling practice vis-à-vis the National Assembly.

Resolve Soon

THE timeline of two months that the government had given to the committee formed for the resolution of the dispute between hoteliers and their employees over the ten per cent service charge is soon going to be over. However, no solution has been found as of yet. The tourism industry has suffered because of the unwanted wrangling between hotel owners and employees which needs to be solved once and for all in order to save Nepal’s tourism industry, which is the major foreign currency earner. The statistics have shown that the arrival of tourists into Nepal has already declined, which means this sector is going to suffer a serious blow. Tourism industry has contributed a lot to our national economy from earning the foreign currency to creating employment opportunities. It is, thus, very necessary to solve this problem as soon as possible and for this both the hoteliers as well as the workers need to give up the adamant attitude and become pragmatic. Unless and until all sides sit across the negotiating table and discuss the difficulties of both sides the issue cannot be solved. It needs to be taken into account that both the hoteliers and the employees are in the same boat and if the boat sinks all will suffer. As such, it is more important to save the tourism industry and work for its development. Only if this sector prospers, both the employees and the hoteliers would gain and prosper. Thus, it is vital that both sides understand it and solve the issue amicably so that tourism industry would not suffer any further loss. Ego and conflicts never benefit anyone and one needs to be pragmatic for the solution of the problem. Hoteliers and employees need to be extra cautious not to develop on unfortunate situation due to their wrangling which would damage the tourism industry. Nepal’s tourism sector is one of the success stories. Once this sector loses image, it would be difficult to regain that image which all concerned people must realise. At this time, there is a need to find a middle way to resolve the crisis and maintain smooth relation between the employees and hotel owners for the interest and benefit of all. The government is serious about the issue and has already formed the high level committee headed by vice chairman of National Planning Commission, which is working for the permanent solution of the problem. Other sectors— hotel owners and employees— now need to think pragmatically and cooperate the government in order to end this more than three month-long deadlock and allow smooth operation in hotel business.