In Nepal, Parliament finally passed the annual budget amounting to 285.93 billion rupees for the year 2009-10 by overwhelming majority. As soon as House began its session, Finance Minister Surendra Pandey tabled the finance bill, the bill on national debt recovery and the bill on debt and collateral, which was passed unanimously by the lawmakers. The parliament had passed the Appropriations Bill by voice vote on Tuesday. Only two lawmakers from the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) – Padam Lal Biswokarma and Ek Raj Bhandari – were present during the passage of the budget. AIR Correspondent reports that the budget was passed more than four months after it was tabled in the parliament in July because of continuous disruption of parliament sessions by the opposition Unified CPN (Maoist) on the issue of civilian supremacy.<br/><br/>The Unified CPN (Maoist) had paved the way for passage of the annual budget after it decided to halt disruption of the parliament session for three days till Wednesday. In July, the Maoists had lifted their siege for a brief period to allow Finance Minister Surendra Pandey to table the budget in the parliament. However, after that, the opposition Maoists stepped up its anti-government protest both in the parliament and the on the street. The stalled budget has plunged the government in an acute financial crisis with government hospital running out of medicines and remote districts facing food shortages. The passage of the annual budget today has brought a sigh of relief to the 22-party coalition government. However, the Maoists have already announced renewed street protests from Dec 1, which will culminate in a three-day nationwide general strike from Dec 20. The Maoists began protests demanding a debate in parliament on the role of the President in reinstating the former army chief sacked by the previous Maoist government and restoration of the civilian supremacy.’<br/>