Nepal

Former Finance Minister Khatiwada appointed Chief Economic Advisor to PM Oli

Khatiwada to enjoy minister-level facility

KathmanduPati September 15, 2020

KATHMANDU : The government has appointed former Minister for Finance Yuba Raj Khatiwada as the Special Economic Advisor to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.

The cabinet meeting held on Monday decided to appoint former Finance Minister Khatiwada with the minister-level ranking and facility.

Khatiwada had resigned as Finance Minister on September 4, a day before his tenure expired due to a constitutional provision that bars a non-parliamentarian from becoming a minister for more than six months.

After his two-year tenure as a member of the National Assembly expired, he was reappointed as a minister by Prime Minister Oli based on the constitutional provision.

Although Prime Minister Oli was willing to nominate Khatiwada again as the National Assembly member to retain him in the cabinet, he could not take him to the upper house due to intra-party disputes within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).
The government has already decided to recommend NCP vice chairman Bam Dev Gautam to the President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to nominate him as a member of the National Assembly.