Negotiation fails to break NFEA strike

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 10 - The ongoing unofficial negotiation between the government and Nepal Financial Employees' Association (NFEA), a sister organization of ruling Nepali Congress, failed to break the deadlock.

However, the two sides agreed to sit again for negotiation tomorrow.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post, Amrit Mani Poudyal, president of NFEA, said, "Some progress has been made, differences have been narrowed and negotiation would continue tomorrow." He further added that the association is very serious and it has shown enough flexibility to sort out the problem as soon as possible.

"Out of the two main demands, we are now urging the government to resolve only basic scale issue. On the second demand, we have proposed to solve the confrontation on allowances by discussing with the management ," he added.

However, the government suspects that employees will be able take excess allowances by pressurizing the management, thereby adding finanacial burden upon the state-owned enterprises.

NFEA last Friday announced nation-wide agitation demanding, among others, to increase their basic pay scale at par with government employees' scale.

The Association resorted to agitation after the government decided to adjust their take-home pay at par with governemnet employees' salary. Since the employees in many govt owned enterprises currently enjoy higer take-home pay, the government's decision in effect means their slary wouls be cut down. 

The agitation programs launched at the central and district level included stringent measures like pen down and ghaerao. As per the scheduled program, the association from today freezed all the activities of public financial enterprises, which they have warned to continue unless their demands are met.

Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya in his budget speech for the current fiscal year had announced to hike the salary of civil servants ranging from 50 to over 90 percent, but was silent on the salary structure of employees of public enterprises. Similarly, the budget also scrapped all allowances except remote area allowance.

Act to be constituted for poverty alleviation

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 10 - With a view to institutionalize Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF), which has remained largely defunct so far, National Planning Commission (NPC) and Ministry of Law and Justice are drafting PAF Act.

The draft will be presented in the upcoming winter session of the parliament for approval.

The government had announced to set up PAF as an autonomous institution about two years ago in order to bring all poverty alleviation programs under one umbrella. However, lack of institutional arrangements and legal frameworks rendered PAF ineffective so far. 

"The draft is still in the preparatory stage, and it would take some more time for completion. Only after legal framework is prepared and infrastructure is set up, would PAF be able to operate smoothly," says Prithvi Raj Ligal, vice-chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC).

Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya in his budget speech for 1999/2000 had allocated Rs 100 million for PAF. However, only Rs 10 million was spent that year. Although an equal amount has been allocated this year, no program has been initiated so far.

High level officials claim that once the Act is passed, the autonomy of PAF would be ensured, thereby insulating it from political intervention. Also the Act would clear the structural confusions and lay modality on the basis of which PAF would work. This would pave way for increased program implementation and hence increased expenditure on poverty alleviation programs.

"Though institutional set up and finalization of modus operandi might take some time, the Fund will carry out various programs spending the allocated funds for the current fiscal year," says Ligal.

Critics, however, allege that the concept of PAF is only a political stunt and a begging bowl for the government.   "It is a strategy of the government to allure donors," says Dilli Raj Khanal, Lawmaker from the opposition Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninis (CPN-UML).

Despite being positive about the impact of the Fund in poverty alleviation, some experts are skeptic about the its effectiveness. They also doubt upon the government's commitment to make PAF an independent and transparent identity. However, the policymakers claim that they are committed to insulate PAF from politics. " In this regard, the government is planning representation of donor communities, local representatives and academicians, including others, in the PAF's Steering Committee," says Ligal.

Dr Mohan Man Sainju, former Vice Chairman of NPC also emphasizes on the independence of the Fund and says, " If PAF's objective is to be achieved, it should have enough authority to be able to ward off unnecessary political interventions." The government aims to initiate poverty alleviation programs in 1500 Village Development Committees (VDCs) of the kingdom in the next five years.

However, only those VDCs would be selected where no Participative District Development Program (PDDP) and Local Governance Program (LGP) have been initiated.

PAF would not implement any poverty alleviation programs by itself but would merely act to bring more order in the implementation of such programs. It would coordinate all poverty alleviation programs at the central level to do away with duplication. The implementation would be left either to the non-governmental organizations, both national and international, or to the local bodies like VDCs and DDCs.

FNCCI asks govt to resolve VAT issues

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Aug 10 - Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the apex body of business organizations, today demanded with the governmet to resolve all VAT-related issues. The federation alleged that inspite of repeated requests, the government has turned a deaf ear to look into the flaws that exist in the implementation aspects of VAT, thereby creating problems to registered businessmen.

According to a press release issued here today, the government is not only causing administrative and bureaucratic obstacles but is also troubling businessmen in the name of sudden monitoring, bills, stock and bank guarantee. "The government must help to sort out the problems faced by businessmen. If not, the very goal of VAT will be affected," the release says.