Parliament breaks for recess without bag amendment review
According to the rules of procedure, the last session of the first term of each year will be held on the last Thursday of April.
Parliament went into recess on Thursday without sending the government's amendment to the Waste Management Act to committee review despite public concerns over hefty charges on plastic bag bundles.
According to the rules of procedure:
-
The last session of the first term of each year will be held on the last Thursday of April
-
The last session of the first term was held on Thursday
Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, who presided over the session, said that the debate on the bills currently in the preliminary debate stage, including the bag fee amendment, is almost over. The amendment concerning bag bungles can also be sent to the committee on Thursday, he said.
However, when voting took place at 1pm, the debate on the bill remained incomplete.
The parliament voted on two matters:
-
Government's amendment to the Sports Act to be accepted; it was sent for committee review with the vote of 42 members
-
Opposition resolution to resolve the constitutional issue that President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih re-assumed the duties of presidency despite Vice President Faisal Naseem taking the oath of office as president temporarily; the resolution was rejected with the vote of 40 members
Following the two votes, deputy speaker Eva Abdulla announced the conclusion of the last session of the first term.
The Waste Management Bill, which was passed by parliament in November, became a law and the state has now started levying a tax of MVR 2 per plastic bag from April 15.
With this change, there is now a tax on polythene bags, both in buying bags and for the bags involved during shopping. With this, the price of bags sold by wholesale shops has gone up manifold and people are worried about the increase in the cost of dumping waste.
