Nepal can't pay ministers as Maoists block its new budget
The Nepalese government has run out of money for essential services including hospitals and schools after the Maoist party blocked its new budget, the finance minister said yesterday.
Surendra Pandey said the impoverished nation faced a "financial crisis" if parliament failed to pass the budget in the next two weeks, and had already been forced to stop paying ministers' salaries.
Maoist demonstrators have repeatedly prevented Nepal's parliament from sitting since the party's government fell in May, blocking the new administration's attempts to pass this year's budget.
"We are at a very critical stage," Pandey told AFP. "If the budget is not passed in the next two weeks, there will be a financial crisis in the country.
"We are in discussions with the Maoists to open parliament to pass the budget and we hope they will allow the resumption of house business."
Pandey said the crisis would affect thousands of patients in government-run hospitals as well as school pupils and prison inmates.
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