Non-government MPs restricted from submitting monetary bills

The parliament has passed an amendement to its regulations designed to restrict non-government lawmakers from submitting monetary bills. 

Up until the previous administration of President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, monetary bills could only be submitted by the government, however, President Yameen's government proposed an amendment so that monetary bills could be submitted by any MP.

The parliament regulations committee decided on changing regulations to the previous setting so that such monetary bills can only be submitted by the government to the parliament.

The amendments were included in its report passed by the Parliament during its sitting on Tuesday.

The report stated so that the parliament regulation 71 article (b) regarding monetary bills to be amended so that taxes and other payments from the citizens to the state or payments by the state to any other party can only be submitted to the parliament by the executive body.

There are also other amendments included in the report such as amendments to parliamentary sessions which will still be conducted in three terms throughout the year. The first term will be from February 1 to the end of April. The second term will be from June 1 to the end of August and the third term will be from October 1 till the end of November.

The previous terms were so that the second term of the parliament would start from June 1 and end on August 16. 

Regulations regarding monetary bills are amended after two bills by opposition party MPs had been submitted and rejected by the parliament. These bills include the proposed amendment to increase elderly allowances to MVR 10,000 by Kaashidhoo MP Abdulla Jabir and bill to increase the disability allowance to MVR 7000 by Dhangethi MP Mohamed Nazim. However, both of these bills were rejected by the parliament.

Ruling MDP MP's had then stated that these bills were a waste of time as they were not adequately researched and was an antic by the opposition MP's to waste the time of the parliament.