Post Earthquake:

People are packing up from Kathmandu 

RUDRA PANGENI

KATHMANDU, May 19

Madan Baral is living with his family in Kathmandu over ten years but now has made up his mind to return his hometown Biratnagar soon. The earthquake of April 25 and subsequent aftershocks is the push factor for Baral's family, living in Kaushaltar Bhaktapur in on rent as the couple found no reason to live in Kathmandu as their two sons have already migrated to USA and Australia.  Baral had migrated to the valley for the education of his sons. "Though we were in a pilgrimage in India during the first earthquake, but we felt insecure to live in Kathmandu anymore and our sons also suggested to return to our home," Baral told Republica. Baral retired from the job of Nepal Bank Limited two years ago was employed at a consultancy until January. "We have lots of belongings in the flat, and thinking of hiring vehicles to transport to Biratnagar," added Baral. 

Baral is not alone leaving Kathmandu after the disaster that rattled fiercely and people still fear buildings will again badly sway and shake anytime. Finding an open space even in the devastating disaster of like April 25 and at least three major aftershocks is hard in the core areas of the capital city.   

Khem Acharya, a traffic police deployed at Kalanki, said that a dozen families in average leaving Kathmandu everyday with all their belongings stuffed in trucks and Mahindra pick up vans after the earthquake. Only one or two families were seen leaving Kathmandu before the earthquake. Acharya assumed, "Many must have left Kathmandu after their rental rooms damaged or could not find safe rooms to shift. It is also believed that many chose to leave Kathmandu as finding rooms on rent is difficult as statistics says over 73,000 houses damaged by the earthquake and about half of them inhabitable damaged and others can only be inhabited after repairs.

Sight of vehicles including mini trucks carrying beds, kitchen utensils, furniture, wardrobes plying on the highways are common in recent days from the capital which accommodates about 2.51 million people and majority of the population are living on rent. Rooftops of the public buses returning from the valley also have motorcycles tied besides furniture and other belongings.

Valley drew hordes of people during Maoist Insurgency from all outside valley utill 2006 due to security reasons but it did not stop and continued unabated thereafter triggered by lack of decentralization of the governance and the plan of federal structure remained in limbo amid squabbling among the political parties.

Former Finance Secretary Rameshwore Khanal says that there are some pedestrian traders, small-time traders like Pan Pasale, barbers, hawkers and skilled workers in construction industry and fruit sellers particularly who hailed from Tarai, Bihar of India and western part are seen moving out of Kathmandu following the earthquake. Khanal added that the returnees are in the mindset that they can also earn in their hometown now. In the past, economic opportunity was the one of the main reason drawing people to the capital city from outside. Khanal also posted a facebook status "Seems like Kathmandu valley might lose two to three percent migrant population permanently."

According to Census of 2011, Kathmandu district posted a highest population growth rate in a decade with 60.90 percent from 2001 to 2011 and population density of 4408 per square kilometer. Kathmandu district has the highest percentage (58.65) of households living in rented flats and houses. However, Khanal says those in service sector and jobholders have returned to their hometowns temporarily but will return as finding their jobs out of Kathmandu valley is not possible quickly.

"Many may have migrated to the nearest towns from their home districts as there are also many services now like of education and health," said sociologist Chaitanya Mishra adding, however Kathmandu won't lose its economic charm. Some also may have left Kathmandu who do not have necessarily to live in Kathmandu. Mishra thinks that many have left Kathmandu temporarily for reunion with their family members at the time devastating disaster. Besides, economic opportunity and centralized health, education among other services also attracted many to the Kathmandu in the past. Population of Kathmandu also comprises mobile population as it is also a stopover for youths heading to migrant jobs.

Tobacco Revenue 

• Excise Revenue Dips as pictorial warnings on packets hit home  
• RUDRA PANGENI

Illegal cigarette imports also blamed

KATHMANDU, April 7: Pictorial warnings on tobacco products have resulted in a decline in the consumption of tobacco and shrinking excise revenue.

Excise duty collection figures for tobacco products posted a negative growth of 5.5 percent in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Tax officials assume that the pictorial warnings on tobacco products that started appearing from last May have had an impact on the consumption of tobacco in the form of cigarettes or as chewing tobacco.

Cigarette manufacturers acknowledge that tobacco consumption has declined in recent months, compelling them to cut back production. But they also blame illegally imported cigarettes, which are rife in the market. Consumers developed a sort of hesitation to smoke or chew tobacco, leading to a slowdown in the production and import of tobacco products. Producers likewise blame price increases for tobacco poducts and the effect of this on consumers.

Data compiled by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) shows that the excise revenue posted a negative growth of 5.5 percent to Rs 4.57 billion over the first eight months (mid-July 2014 to mid-March 2015) of the current fiscal year. This bucks the trend of continuous growth in recent years. The excise duty collected on tobacco products was Rs 4.83 billion over the same period last fiscal year.

Talking to Republica, IRD spokesperson Chandra Kala Paudel said that there was continuous growth in excise duty collection from tobacco products in past years but this year's first eight-month data shows that there was a negative growth. "We estimate that the decline in production and import of tobacco products is behind the downward trend in revenue collection," added Paudel. By contrast, the excise revenue collections on liquor and beers show 7 and 26 percent growth respectively over the same period.

Officials at the Ministry of Finance blame the decline in excise revenue for the country missing its revenue target by about 2 percent during the eight months, against a past record of at least achieving the targets regularly.

According to tobacco products manufacturers, the tobacco production is worth over Rs 3 billion annually.

The government implemented mandatory pictorial warnings on cigarette packets about the hazards of tobacco consumption, for 75 percent of the products from May, and this coverage is to be extended to 90 percent from May 15, 2015.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Shant Bahadur Shrestha has described the reported decline in excise duty from tobacco products as an achievement. "Revenue is not the important thing against the health of citizens is the principle behind discouraging tobacco consumption with mandatory pictorial warnings of hazard to health," added Shreshtha.

According to figures from the Ministry of Finance, cigarette production in the country was 11,130 million sticks in 2008-2009.

- See more at: http://myrepublica.com/economy/item/18743-tobacco-revenue-dips-as-pictorial-warnings-on-packets-hit-home.html#sthash.cs5377N4.dpuf

EPF plans to be opened to private sector employees and self employed 

• RUDRA PANGENI
• Amendment to employees provident fund act

KATHMANDU, March 25: The government is making amendment to the Employees Provident Fund Act 1952 to increase participation of employees of the private sector as well as self-employed professionals in its provident fund scheme.

The amendment bill registered at the Parliament Secretariat two weeks ago after cabinet approval has also omitted existing provision which makes only the private firms having a minimum of 10 employees eligible for joining a plan. If the bill is endorsed by the parliament, even a single employee of any firm or self-employed professionals will be eligible to join EPF’s provident fund plans or other social security schemes.

As per the draft bill, private firms will have to deduct 10 percent from their staffers’ salary, add equal amount from their side and deposit the amount at EPF.

EPF, which has only around 50,000 depositors from the private sector, expects to see massive surge in the number of depositors from private sector once the bill is endorsed by the parliament. As per the statistics of mid-July last year, EPF is sitting on a cash pile of Rs 163 billion.

Rajendra Kafle, spokesperson of EPF, said registered depositors have to deposit the amount every month and they can receive accumulated deposits and an additional amount of interest and dividend earned by the fund every year while taking retirement.

The bill has also added a new category of eligible depositors called ‘self-employed’. It defines ‘self-employed’ as earners from private enterprises or self-employed people like engineers, doctors, lawyers, auditors as well as individual migrant workers, employees of permanent or contract nature with private sector companies/firms, household workers, and informal sector laborers or laborers of tea estate.  

Once the bill is endorsed by the parliament, the government needs to make amendment to EPF Rules accordingly.
“Depositors also can participate in existing plans like borrowing of up to 90 percent of their deposit amounts and benefit from educational loan and housing loan, among others,” said Kafle.

Likewise, depositors can also get medical facility of up to Rs 15,000 for minor medical treatment and Rs 35,000 for serious treatment once a year. Similarly, next of kin of depositors will get Rs 100,000 as accidental compensation scheme in the event of the death of depositors.

Kafle also said that they have proposed to the government to endorse health insurance scheme for its depositors as part of social security schemes of the government.

More than Rs 4 billion has been collected in the Social Security Fund so far. All employees, working with both public and private sector, have been contributing one percent of their income in the fund since 2009/10.

EPF CAN ALSO BE EQUITY INVESTOR

EPF, which has been lending to different development projects, can be equity investor in infrastructure projects once the bill is endorsed.

“As EPF has deposits of long-term nature, it can invest in long-term infrastructure projects,” Kafle said.

In the absence of long-term lenders, hydropower developers are finding it difficult to finance their projects by banks and financial institutions which have short-term deposits. 

The bill also allows EPF to become equity investor in housing, hydropower and any other infrastructure projects prioritized by the government.

- See more at: http://new.myrepublica.com/economy/item/17873-epf-plans-to-be-opened-to-private-sector-employees-self-employed.html#sthash.TNxn0jHk.dpuf

Govt draws flak for low capital expenditure

Rudra Pangeni 

Kathmandu, March 20

Lawmakers have criticized Chief Secretary and secretaries of the government for low progress in capital expenditure.

Only Rs 25 billion, or 21 percent, of the allocated Rs 116 billion earmarked for capital expenditure has been spend over the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

Speaking at the meeting of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday, lawmaker Usha Gurung expressed dissatisfaction at the government's failure to change the trend of making expenditure at the eleventh hour which often results to low quality works. "The government has unveiled plan to achieve 'developing country' status by 2022. But looking at the way we execute our development works, I don't think we will be able to achieve the goal," Gurung said.

Lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada also said the government has failed to live up to its commitment of discouraging the trend of making expenditure at the eleventh hour. "This also applies to expenditure of budget allocated to parliamentary constituencies," he said, adding that authorization of budget has been sent only recently.

Responding to lawmakers' complaints, Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal said he is not satisfied with the results. "I, however, am hopeful that spending will improve in the coming days. We hope to achieve 90 percent spending progress," he added.

Paudyal blamed structural problem, lengthy authorization processes, and lack of capacity of employees as the reasons behind slow spending.

Problems encountered in project development like low bidding and contractors fleeing with mobilization fee will be resolved in the new Public Procurement Act which will be tabled in the parliament soon, said Paudyal. "It, however, will not be justifiable to blame legal hurdles for low capital spending," he added.

- See more at: http://new.myrepublica.com/economy/item/17616-govt-draws-flak-for-low-capital-expenditure.html#sthash.yWhZxTP5.dpuf

Suspension bridge to connect Susta

Estimated cost put at Rs 350 million

Rudra Pangeni 

KATHMANDU, March 21: In order to connect directly with Susta Village Development Committee in Nawalparasi district, the government has finalized a plan to construct a suspension bridge over the Narayani River, similar to one over the Mahakali that connects Chandani and Dodhara on the western border.

Susta residents have to pass through Indian territory to receive any services from the government or connect with neighboring villages. Moreover, Susta VDC, which is far from any presence of the district administration, has come under recurrent encroachment by the Indian authorities, and the locals also feel insecure.

Speaking at the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee on Thursday, Lila Mani Paudyal, the government's chief secretary, said that the design for the suspension bridge has been finalized and the proposal for building it, at an estimated cost Rs 350 million, has been tabled at the National Planning Commission for final approval.

"We will start the bridge construction within this fiscal year," added Paudyal in response to lawmakers' questions why the government has delayed over the construction.

The bridge will be a combine of five suspension sets spanning a total of 1,705 meters. The bridge over the Mahakali has four sets of suspension and a length of 1,496 meters.

Jivan Shrestha, Director General of the Department of Local Infrastructure Development and Agricultural Roads (DoLIDAR), said that they are waiting for a budget allocation from the government to start the project, which will take about four years to complete.

The bridge will not only connect the population of about 2,500 in 267 households with the district administration and give them a sense of security but also connect up with other villages.

- See more at: http://new.myrepublica.com/society/item/17617-suspension-bridge-to-connect-susta.html#sthash.3yKyy1c9.dpuf
Republica

Ministry seeks beefed up security for Upper Tamakoshi -
by Rudra Pangeni and Ramesh Khatiwada 

Photo caption
KATHMANDU/DOLAKHA, March 18: Six days after protests by Nepali employees of the Chinese contractor and locals affected by the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, the Energy Ministry (MoE) on Wednesday wrote to the Home Ministry seeking additional security arrangements at the project site.

Employees of Sino-Hydro Corporation, the Chinese civil contractor, and people in the project-affected areas have been protesting against the national priority project, demanding privileges in the share allotment. But MoE officials say that the demand for shares cannot be decided immediately.
Project-affected locals have stopped vehicles carrying construction materials for the project.

Talking to Republica, Energy Secretary Rajendra Kishore Kshatri said, "The project faces uncertainty as it's not possible to decide on share allotments immediately as demanded by them." Kshatri added that they received the formal letter from UTHP on Wednesday and have sought support from the Ministry of Home Affairs for ensuring an environment for resuming work at the construction site. About 75 percent of the work on the 456 MW project has been completed so far and the project is expected to go into full-scale generation by April, 2017.

Unforeseen demands by employees and project-affected people are what developmental projects in the country often encounter, the sources told Republica, adding that local political leaders have meddled in the issue for their own vested interests. The sources claim that local leaders of the Nepali Congress and the UCPN (Maoist)are involved although the latter maintained to this daily that they are against the demands put forth by the employees. The contractor has about 850 employees, 60 percent of whom are locals.

Employees of the contractor pushed their demands in the wake of an UTHP announcement inviting applications for shares from residents of the project-affected village development committees and others in the district from March 22. Many believe that the locals have demanded assurances of 500 units of shares and the project employees argue that they are also entitled to the shares of the company they are working for, just as with employees of equity and loan investment companies.

UTHP has allotted 10 percent of shares to the locals of Dolakha district while the contractor employees who are Nepali citizens can only apply for the share allotment of 15 percent meant for the general public.

Pashupati Chaulagain, CPN-UML leader of Dolakha district and Constituent Assembly member, said that the demands of the contractor employees are illogical as no company can offer shares to its own employees. "They could have demanded more pay and perks but not stakes in the company and they are only being encouraged by some ill-intentioned groups," added Chaulagain.

Referring to the problems at the project, Minister for Finance Ram Sharan Mahat on Wednesday quipped, "There is too much democracy in the country." Mahat had just spoken about the project with donor partners at a meeting at the Ministry of Finance.

Chief Secretary Lila Mani Paudyal believes that today's disturbance by locals and contractor employees are due to the wrong ways of share allotment to the employees of companies and organizations of equity partners, investors and developers.

The project is said to be vital for minimizing significantly the rolling power outages and is also the country's only development project that is making satisfactory progress so far. With an investment of about Rs 35 billion, the project is the biggest of its kind to be developed with local funding under a public-private partnership model. It has already received an overwhelming response in share applications allotted for the staff and depositors of the Employees Provident Fund, the Citizens Investment Trust, UTHP and Nepal Electricity Authority.

Upper Tamakoshi Project chief: Share distribution to locals likely to be on hold

KATHMJANDU, March 18 : Chief of UTHP Bigyan Shrestha has said that they are likely to postpone the notice for applications for the initial public offering for the locals of Dolakha if the protest continues. However, 10 percent shares allocated for affected households and members of the general public in the district will not change.

Postponement of share distribution to the people of Dolakha will also delay the share distribution plan for the general public. A total of 15 percent of the project amount of about Rs 35 billion is allocated for the general public. However, the ongoing share distribution for employees and depisitors of the Employees Provident Fund, Nepal Electricity Authority, UTHP and the Citizens' Investment Trust (CIT) won't be affected. 


http://new.myrepublica.com/economy/item/17491-ministry-seeks-beefed-up-security-for-upper-tamakoshi.html#sthash.sSWC2PdE.dpuf

China ups grant assistance to Nepal

KATHMANDU, March 17: China has increased grant assistance to Nepal by more than two and half times.

Finance Secretary Suman Prasad Sharma and China's Ambassador to Nepal Wu Chuntai signed an agreement for grant assistance of approximately Rs 12.83 billion on Tuesday.

Nepal had received Rs 4.86 billion worth of grant assistance from the northern neighbor last year.

Issuing a statement on Tuesday, Ministry of Finance said that the amount will be spent support Nepal's economic development by implementing mutually agreed development projects covering various sectors including infrastructure development. The grant assistance is for projects to be implemented from 2015/16 onwards. Ministries themselves will be the implementing agency for projects to be run under this grant assistance, according to the statement.

China has been providing economic assistance to Nepal in different three headings. The assistance was provided by China under Economic and Technical Cooperation (ETC) to mark 60th year of cordial and friendly relationship between the two countries.

China is also providing assistance under soft loan from Export-Import Bank of China and under turnkey project categories. Nepal has also already requested China for soft loan of US$ 215.69 million (Rs 21.56 billion) to finance Pokhara Regional International Airport.

Speaking at the program, Minister for Finance Ram Sharan Mahat expressed sincere gratitude to China for increasing grant assistance to Nepal. -

China’s Ambassador to Nepal Wu Chuntai (left) and Finance Secretary Suman Prasad Sharma exchange agreement for grant 

assistance of approximately Rs 12.83 billion from China to Nepal at an event held at the Ministry of Finance in Singha Durbar, Kathmandu, on Tuesday, in the presence of Minister for Finance Ram Sharan Mahat (center). Bijay Rai/Republica - 

 See more at: http://new.myrepublica.com/economy/item/17389-china-provides-around-rs-12-83-billion-grant-assistance.html#sthash.uaOAeXFT.dpuf