Following the public demonstration last week, the Parliament decided to consider the President-initiated bill on the Procedure of the Parliamentary Plenary Session, which allows dismissal of Parliament Speaker if more than half of MPs submit a petition. The bill was passed to the Standing Committee on State Structure for final discussion yesterday. The draft legislation contains two articles. The first article states that the Parliament would discuss a proposal to dismiss the Parliament Speaker in an urgent manner when it is submitted by a majority of the Parliamentarians. The second article specifies the time when the legislation will take effect. If the bill is approved, the Speaker might be ousted next week.

Afterward, the Parliament discussed two key items, namely the establishment of a temporary committee on investigating Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Development Fund (SMEDF) and minerals law.

MINISTER OF MINING RETRACTS BILL ON MINERALS

Due to the lack of quorum for the last two months, the Bill on Minerals that was expected to extend 2.5 percent gold royalty for another three years was left undiscussed by the Parliament, resulting in 5-9 percent royalty starting from January 1. After finally forming a quorum, the Minister of Mining and Heavy Industry Sumiybazar Dolgorsuren requested to retract the bill to revise certain articles yesterday. The request was approved by 74.5 percent of MP. Since the bill is now postponed for an indefinite time, the gold tax will be set at the pre-revision level of 5-9 percent.

Initiated by nine MPs, the bill on establishing a temporary committee responsible for investigating, monitoring and transparently disclosing information of SMEDF was rejected. The Parliament deemed it unnecessary as a temporary committee has the authority as a permanent committee and rejected the bill with 64.3 percent of votes from MPs.