SERVICE LOCKED - The city trolly bus service is likely to remain off-road due to failure of the management to implement the understanding they had with the Nepal Transport Corporation employees. Seen above is the locked trolly bus service centre, New Baneshwore.

Essential Service Act clamped on hotel employees

By Shree Ram Subedi

KATHMANDU, March 15- In an attempt to avert present crisis in hotel industry arising from service charge row between the hoteliers and hotel employees, the government has banned all forms of strike in the industry effective from today.

In an abrupt decision, which comes as a shock to the striking hotel workers, the government has included hotel industry into Essential Service Sector. Notification to this effect has appeared in today’s Gazette. According to the Essential Service Operation Act, no employees working in Essential Service Sector can go on strike. If the Act is breached, the employer can immediately fire the employees, without any legal consequences in future.

The other services under the Essential Service Sector included postal service, telex, telephone, road, air and sea transportation of passengers and cargo, airport and related services, print and government press, arms and military related products, telecommunications, electricity and drinking water distribution.

The workers, who were in a jubilant mood Wednesday with the Patan Appellate Court rejecting the hoteliers’ plea to issue a restraining order against strike, gathered today evening to take stock of the new development that dashed their hope to buckle down the hoteliers through strike. A member participating in the hurriedly called meeting told The Kathmandu Post that the workers are contemplating the option to challenge the government decision in the Supreme Court. " In all probability, we will challenge the decision," said Prabhu Thapa, Assistant Secretary of Nepal Independent Hotel Workers Union (NIHWU).

Achyut Pandey, member of the Central Action Committee(CAC), formed by the two major unions, signalled that they would withdraw their strike but added that the demand of TSC would remain .

"We are busy making new strategy and protest programme will continue," said Pandey before the conclusion of the meeting late to night.

The hoteliers, who were fighting tooth and nail to keep workers’ strike at bay, have lauded the government’s decision. "We welcome the decision," said Executive member of HAN, Shyam Kachhyapati. "This shows the importance attached by the government to the tourism industry...it also shows the realization of the government towards the need to protect and safeguard the industry," he said.

In the first day of the strike today, the situation was tense in some of the hotels and tourists were found confused. Police were deployed in the Capital’s five star Soaltee Hotel, where the police arrested over 80 hotel workers. Hotel workers claim that similar arrests took place in Nanglo Restaurant, Tansen Restaurant and Shankar Hotel too.

With the strike and the resulting tension, some of the tourists cut short their stay and returned home today. Anil Dhodi and S. K. Dhir from Delhi had initially planed to stay in Kathmandu for four days. But they changed their mind and flew back to Delhi.

Bewildered by the Hotel notice that said the Hotel may be unable to provide service from Friday evening, Dhodi said, "At least we should have been informed in advance but it was so sudden that made us upset."

RNAC, Lauda to renegotiate contract

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 15 – At a time when the infamous Lauda Air jet lease controversy has rocked the parliament, Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) and Lauda Air are about to renegotiate the contract resulting in further losses to the Corporation.

The first phase of the meeting was held today at 3 p.m. at the RNAC building and is slated to resume tomorrow.

The eight-member Lauda Air team has come with proposals, which, if clinched, will make RNAC fork out extra sum of Rs 18,482,265, said reliable sources. This amount will be used to buy container for the aircraft (costing 77,930 pound sterling) from Tel Air International, UK and catering equipment worth Rs 10, 186,617 from Driessen Aircraft Interior Systems, Holland.

However, according to clause 10.6 of the RNAC-Lauda Air agreement it is Lauda Air, and not the RNAC, that has to bear all costs of operations. The clause reads: "Lessor will fully equip the aircraft for airline operations at all times during the lease."

Rajesh Raj Dali, Executive Chairman of RNAC, could not be reached for his comments on the latest developments.

Speaker’s intention questioned by Amicus Curiae
Bill comes under more pounding

By Utpal Raj Misra

KATHMANDU, March 15 - Speaker of the House of Representatives Taranath Ranabhat’s role and intention while passing the controversial Bill to Amend Citizenship Act - 2020 came under fire in the Supreme Court today on the second and final day of the crucial hearings on the bill.

Many members of the Amicus Curiae and senior advocates questioned Ranabhat’s intention to stamp the contested bill as a "Finance Bill," with one of his predecessors even claiming that the Speaker had tried to slip an unlawful bill through a legislative hoodwinking action.

The Bill’s ultimate fate rests in the hands of His Majesty King Birendra who has to decide whether or not to put the royal stamp of approval. But practically, it is the justices of the Supreme Court, who are to render their opinion over the constitutionality of the Bill, who will now decide whether the legislation passes constitutional muster.

If there were any hopes on the government side that more members of the learned members of the Amicus Curiae would defend the bill, especially after the heavy pounding it got on the first day, then they were clearly mistaken.

Of the half a dozen top notch legal eagles who presented their case on Thursday, only one defended the Bill. The lone exception in today’s hearing was senior advocate Bipulendra Chakrabarty who argued that the Supreme Court does not have constitutional right to give any suggestion, as the Bill does not fall under any Act.

"All the argument against the Bill may be valid but only after it has become a law," he said. "Will the court keep on giving suggestions if this kind of suggestion is sought on every other bill that’s controversial?" he questioned.

He also argued that the punishment for foreigners trying to obtain the citizenship had been increased, therefore the Bill if turned into a law, will not open the feared flood gate of citizenship certificates to migrants.

On the other hand, all the other members of the Amicus Curiae and senior advocate Ganesh Raj Sharma, who is known to be highly critical of the Bill, lambasted the legislation, citing it as ‘conflicting with the Constitution’ and not in the interest of the Nepali people.

Editor Krishna Sen released

By Rabindra Upreti

JALESHWOR, MAHOTTARI, March 15 - Krishna Sen, the Editor of the pro-Maoist Janadesh weekly who had been detained at Jaleshwor Jail following his dramatic disappearance since Saturday, was released Thursday evening.

He was released and handed over to a group of journalists at 4:16 p.m.

Sen was arrested on charges of possessing illegal weapons two years ago and was kept in custody in Rajbiraj Jail. He was released on Saturday following a habeas corpus issued by the Supreme Court. However, he was reported missing even after his release from Rajbiraj Jail.

He was re-arrested on Sunday night under the Public Security Act.

After receiving a directive from the Mahottari District Administration office, Jailer of Jaleswor Jail, Basudev Dahal handed over the detained editor Sen to a group of journalists and a human rights activist.

"I’m still feeling insecure," Sen said after the release. "I doubt if the government is really sincere." The journalists are said to have kept editor Sen in a secluded place in view of psychological state.

Sen’s release came days after journalists across the country vehemently protested against the government’s move to re-arrest him. Sen, today, said he is still not sure whether he is free or not. "The government could do anything to me on my way to Kathmandu," he said.

The journalists and human rights activists are discussing ways to send him safely to Kathmandu.

Earlier today, members and councillors of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists, the umbrella organisation of journalists, pondered over whether or not to seek international opinion or pressure on the deteriorating security of Sen.

Senior journalists, prominent human rights activists, professional lawyers and Members of Parliament were present at the programme.

Private sector-run mobile phone likely by August 

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, March 15 - The Khetan Group, which won the contract for operating cellular mobile phones through competitive bidding on November 1 last year, submitted its joint venture and share holder agreements to the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) today.

After submitting the agreements, Rajendra Kumar Khetan, Executive Director of the Khetan Group, said, "We have already signed joint venture agreement and share holders’ agreement and have also submitted the papers to NTA."

The Group will also submit the agreements to the Department of Industry tomorrow.

With these agreements at hand, now the Group is expected to expedite its plan to distribute the much-awaited mobile phone services from the second week of August.

"If everything goes right people will be able to obtain the private sector run mobile service by the second week of August," Khetan said.

A major snag on the way of Khetan Group operating the service in the near future is the pending court case in the Supreme Court. Telecommunications Employees Association of Nepal (TEAN), the authorised trade union of the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), filed a case at the Supreme Court against the decision of the NTA on December 28, 2000.

The NTA on November 1 last year had awarded a contract to operate the service to the Khetan Group through competitive bidding. The next hearing of the case in the Supreme Court has been fixed for tomorrow.

The trade union filed the case making the Council of Ministers, the Khetan Group, the NTA and the NTC as its defendant arguing that the NTA had opened the service to the private party in contravention to the Telecommunications Act 2053, which does not allow the Authority to issue any licence before the lapse five years once it has issued similar licence to one party.

The NTA granted licence to the NTC to operate cellular mobile phone on May 12, 1999.

Once the private operator comes into the scene, the price of the mobile phone is expected to plummet drastically. "The price will be affordable and charge will be minimum," Khetan said. Moreover, there will be no entry barrier and we will offer various packages targeting all types of customers, he added.

Tax officials eyeing film artistes’ thick wallets

By Bhaskar Sharma

KATHMANDU, March 15 - Nepali moviemakers have presented tax-evaders as villains of society in many of their films. Now it is time for the movie people to undergo acid test for themselves. With the income tax officials dragging them to the court for tax evasion, many reel heroes might seem like villains in real life.

Income Tax Office (ITO) has initiated investigations into the financial matters of the Nepali cine heartthrobs for the first time. Huge capital flow into the film sector and substantial increase in the income of artistes has attracted tax authorities’ attention. Income Tax Department has directed all its offices to probe into film artistes’ accounts following massive expansion of Nepali film market in recent years.

Tax offices have already initiated actions by asking the artistes to submit their income statements. "In the first phase of our investigation, we have obtained income statements of film making and producing companies and assessed the income level of different artistes," said Ishwor Kumar Shrestha, Chief of ITO-2, Kathmandu.

"The present thrust is to bring the potential taxpayers from the film industry into the tax net. Since we could not contact many artistes, we had to send the letters through film-making companies," he said.

The Tax Department plans to bring all artistes within the tax net on the basis of income statements submitted by film making and producing companies. In case income statements presented by the artistes are misleading, the tax offices have the right to levy tax on the basis of the contracts signed by them with producers. The ITO even has the authority to carry out raids, if necessary.

Taxes for artistes will be assessed on the basis of the remuneration that artistes take for each film and the number of films they take. As per the budget for the current fiscal year, annual income up to Rs 55 thousand for individuals and Rs 75 thousand for married couple is exempted from tax.

As such, artistes would be entitled to tax exemption of 10 per cent. The non-taxable limit would then stand at Rs 50 thousand for individuals and Rs 60,000 for married couple.

Presently, ITO-2 is looking into the financial statements of Kajol Films Pvt Ltd, managed by actor Bhuwan KC and Rajani KC. The currently disclosed account shows an exceptional low level of income of artistes, informed a source at the tax office.

According to the income statement submitted by Kajol Films for fiscal year 1999/2000, actors Dinesh Sharma, Sunil Thapa and cameraman Chandra Prakesh Ghimere received a meager five thousand, 15 thousand and 20 thousand rupees respectively. Similarly, heroin Jal Shah, fight master Rajendra Khadgi and dance director Basanta Shrestha were paid 10 thousand rupees each. The statement is silent whether the amounts were paid for one film or for the services provided by the artistes for the whole year.

However, sources close to film industry claim that each of these actors’ earnings range from rupees one hundred thousand to rupees two hundred thousand per film, while actresses earn from 35 thousand to two hundred thousand rupees.

Director of Nepal Film Development Corporation Yadav Kharel , himself a director and producer of many films, says that the government’s move to include cine artistes into the income tax net should be taken positively. "Citizens must pay taxes. I hope the artistes would not go against it," he said.

Likewise, Income Tax Assessment Committee (ITAC) is also investigating into cine artistes’ accounts. Chairman of the Committee Madhav Bahadur Bista said that ITAC has asked KK films to present the income-expenditure statement of film Dhugdhuki.

Fifty Nepali movies were produced last year. Some of the films have generated good revenue, like Tan ta sarai nai bigris Badri, which has so far done a business of over Rs 7 million in the capital alone.

PM witnesses sloganeering

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 15 – For a change, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala himself witnessed the slogan-shouting opposition members demanding his resignation in the House of Representatives today.

The Prime Minister was all smiles during the slogan-shouting that lasted a little over five minutes. Once again PM Koirala could not make his statement in the House on the infamous RNAC-Lauda Air deal for which the opposition parties are demanding his resignation. The Speaker adjourned the House until Tuesday.

Later at a meeting, the five opposition parties, which have been disrupting the House, decided to continue their agitation against the PM in a more effective and powerful manner. The modalities of the agitation will be discussed by the five parties on Monday at the parliamentary party office of Nepal Communist Party (Unified Marxist Leninist).