Environment In Focus
The cover story on the environment (“Synergies For Progress” SPOTLIGHT September 14) has rightly pointed out the need for conserving the fragile environment of Nepal. However, people of Nepal not only require clean environment but also all-round development to pull them out of poverty and misery. Therefore, environment protection and development must go hand in hand. One cannot be emphasized by leaving out the other.
Jeevan Sitaula
Sallaghari
Ignored Facts
In the interesting article by Shree Prakash Jung Rana he, however, totally ignores the fact that prices are higher because of : (1) the graft and corruption practices in donor aid management; (c) gross over staffing; (3) excessive purchase of equipments to meet imagined 'peak' demands (4) and chronic delays in project completion. I hypothesize that it can be cut by 50% if the private sector takes up these projects bearing private risks through soft loans rather than grants. The other reason why prices are high is the faulty pricing decisions where, instead of pricing using Long-Run Marginal Costs (LRMC), the NEC includes all manner of historical, sunk and hidden costs into the price which makes it "unfair' to the consumers. It would be interesting if he could show us what the comparative components of costs are viz short run marginal cost, average fixed cost (AFC) and average variable cost (AVC). And what would be the resultant price if say the AFC was left out from the price computation? Perhaps, he could enlighten on this point with appropriate facts and figures ? Pray let him also enlighten us on what is the (hidden) charge for "government's policy for power development" and the so-called "fair rate of return on investment" as per the Tariff Act, particularly when depositors are getting 2-3 % only on their personal savings and having to bear the costs of black outs? Only when the draft Competition Act, lying somewhere in parliament for nearly 18 months, sees the light of day that we will actually know what they are supposed to mean when matters will have to be more transparent and monopolies have to bear with public accountability. Finally, it is high time that we negotiated with each donor country/organization for complete debt relief at least to the extent of the padding up of investment costs and cost of delays in project start ups up to the time of its handover to NEC. Can the 'loktantra' government dare be so engaged in its quest for a 'new' Nepal? We need formal benchmarks for infrastructure investments to make our national economy globally competitive which, sadly, is not the case where, with 84, 000 MW of potential power, we have the highest electricity tariffs in planet earth. No wonder then that only 13% of the people have access to electricity, a basic human right.
Madhukar SJB Rana
Via email
Maoists’ Pressure
The Maoists are pressuring other parties to meet their demands. They have threatened to walk out of the government as if they are doing all of us a big favor by staying in the government. This peace process was brought about by the joint initiative of all the parties. Therefore, Maoists have no right to want to call the shots all the time. They must be flexible. When every major party has agreed to go for republic through the elected Constituent Assembly, the Maoists are saying that they want the republic just now. This is childish obstinacy. Perhaps, the Maoists are pressuring the government because their past pressure tactics had been rewarded.
Sugam Shrestha
Lagankhel
