Government has decided two days of public holiday a week

The government has decided two days of public holiday a week—on Saturday and Sunday, beginning from upcoming May 15, 2022.

A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday took the decision to this effect with a view to controlling consumption of fuel, which is straining the national coffers.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on April 26 took a decision to this effect and government Spokesperson and Communications and Information Technology Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki shared information about this today 27 April.

As the Minister said, the meeting agreed to fix 9:30 am to 5:30pm as office hours a day and grant holidays for two days in a week.

The two-day public holiday decision comes amid the government's move of banning at least 10 types of items, which it considers luxury goods, including vehicles, mobile phones, television sets, playing cards and Lay’s potato chips.

This is not the first time Nepal is opting a two-day public holiday in a week. Two decades ago also the government had implemented the two-day weekly holiday rule. At that time, the goal, according to the then government, was to increase efficiency and productivity of employees. However, the decision was scrapped within a few months after the new rule failed to achieve the goal of increasing employee’s efficiency and productivity.

This time, the sole purpose of declaring a two-day public holiday is to cut costs, especially petroleum products.

By Asian Hiking Team