NEA to push for 20 pc hike in power tariff

By Surendra Phuyal

KATHMANDU, March 29 - Hundreds of thousands of electricity consumers will have a New Year shock if the Cabinet approves a proposal for electricity price hike, which is currently being readied by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

Officials at NEA, the state-owned power monopoly responsible for operation and distribution of electricity, are currently working out a new price of electricity so as to meet the April 15 deadline set by Asian Development Bank (ADB). The multilateral lending agency has promised to fund a number of power projects, should the government follow its guidelines and conditionalities.

Highly placed sources Thursday said, NEA is recommending "up to 20 per cent or more" hike in the price of electricity. NEA is all set to forward the tariff hike proposal to the Electricity Tariff Fixation Commission. The hike comes into effect after the Cabinet endorses the proposal forwarded by the Commission.

"We did not, and do not, actually want to hike the price ," a highly placed NEA official who did not want to be named told The Kathmandu Post Thursday. "But as we are not going to get the loan unless we follow their (ADB’s) loan conditionalities, we are compelled to hike the price. We are recommending about 20 per cent increment in the electricity price."

If ADB’s "new deadline— April 15, which is Baishakh 2, the second day of Nepali New Year - 2058 BS—is anything to go by, the government is required to hike the electricity price before the deadline.

And if the tariff is hiked by 20 per cent, per unit price of electricity will climb to Rs 7.57 from the present rate of Rs 6.27.

The reason why the electricity price is being raised is that the government is badly in need of loans to fund its rural electrification and power sector reform programs under the government’s Eighth Power Project (2000-2003), officials say.

And money was required to turn that dream into a reality.

In June 2000, the government reached a US $ 50 million (Rs 3.5 billion) soft loan agreement with ADB. Consequently, the lending agency put forth its loan conditionalities. According to which, the government was required to hike the price of electricity by 60 per cent within July 2000, and maintain its Self Financing Ratio (SFR) at 23 per cent and Rate of Return (ROR) at 6 per cent, and take other reform measures.

NEA has already hiked the price by up to 30 per cent (25 per cent for industrial purpose and 30 per cent for general consumers) one-and-half-years ago. Attempts to hike the price by another 30 per cent were made in June last year, but were postponed for a later date following uproars in parliament after newspapers broke the news.

NEA’s Self Financing Ratio and Rate of Return currently stands at 10.5 and 4.38 per cent respectively.

In the last ten years’ period, the price of electricity has gone up by 270 per cent. Officials admit that Nepal’s electricity price is costliest in South Asia and amongst the costliest in the world.

Other loan conditionalities put forth by ADB requires NEA to review electricity price in every six months, adjust the price "semi-automatically" based on Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)’s consumer price index. NEA officials say ADB is insisting that the government make the 15 per cent of the population (that has access to electricity) contribute for the electrification of the remaining 85 per cent population.

Besides rural electrification, the loan amount will be spent on the expansion of transmission line, improvement of the distribution system and construction of a computerised building in the Capital.

The government plans to make electricity accessible to 25 per cent of the population by the end of the Eighth Power Project in 2003.

Defense Minister Acharya resigns Vows to stay with PM

By Ameet Dhakal

KATHMANDU, March 29 – In a surprise move today, a day after Supreme Court’s verdict to reinstate Dr Tilak Rawal as the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Defense Minister Mahesh Achrya resigned on moral ground once again leaving a vacuum in the defense management.

Acharya, a close aide of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, met the Prime Minister this morning and tendered his resignation. The resignation is expected to be forwarded to the Royal Place for approval tomorrow.

The government had unceremoniously sacked Dr Tilak Rawal from the post of NRB Governor last August during Mahesh Acharya’s tenure as the Finance Minister.

Talking to The Kathmandu Post this evening, Acharya said that his resignation was based on moral ground. " As the then departmental minister I take the responsibility behind Dr Rawal’s sacking… and since the Supreme Copurt has reinstated him I am quitting the government on the principle of morality," Acharya said.

"However, I have no doubts behind the legitimacy of Dr Rawal’s sacking and I fully stand by the government’s decision of last August," said Achayra.

Acharya also said that he has high respects for the Supreme Court. "As a minister or otherwise it is my basic duty to uphold the court’s decision and I am doing the same," Acharya said.

This is the second time that Acharya is resigning in connection to Dr Rawal’s entry to the central bank. As the Finance Minister, Acharya had vehemently opposed Dr Rawal’s nomination to the coveted post of NRB Governor.

He had argued that Dr Rawal was "too political a figure and intellectually below the par to lead the independent and professional institution like NRB."

Minister Acharya had resigned in protest last January when then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai decided to appoint Dr Rawal at Acharya’s expense.

Acharya’s exit from the government could once again strain the sensitive defense coordination and that too at a critical time of Maoist uprising. Acharya was given an additional defense portfolio, after the Dunai episode. Maoist rebels had killed over 14 policemen in Dunai incident and had smashed the district administration establishments. The role of the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) had come under controversy after the incident during which the army allegedly did not show any cooperation despite local administration’s call for help.

The controversy surrounding army’s alleged non-cooperation cost the job of then Home Minister, Govinda Raj Joshi and Inspector General of Police Achute Krishna Kharel. It was after Acharya’s appointment as the Defense Minister that army has been mobilized in more than 16 Maoist affected district headquarters.

Acharya’s exit also comes at a difficult time for the embattled Prime Minister Koirala, who is facing tough resistance from the opposition. All the opposition parties are up in arms against Koirala and have vowed to fight till he resigns. And the house remains stalled for last one and half months due to the opposition’s demand that the Prime Minister resign.

Asked why he decided to desert his political mentor at a time when he needs help most, Acharya said "My resignation has nothing to do with the Prime Minister…since I am tendering it on moral grounds."

Moreover, I fully stand by the Prime Minister’s side and will continue to remain with him, Acharya said.

Jaya Prakas Gupta, former agriculture minister and a confidant of Koirala had resigned only few weeks ago citing policy differences with the Prime Minister.

NTC likely to lose Rs 500m in revenue

By Ram Sharan Sedhai

KATHMANDU, March 29 - Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC), the state-owned monopoly, is expected to lose about Rs 500 million in revenue from international calls in the current fiscal year mainly due to the opening up of VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) to the private sector.

According to figures provided by NTC, in December 1999, the corporation recorded international incoming calls of 3,664,202 minutes. But in December 2000, the volume plunged to just 1,495,711 minutes, inflicting losses of hundreds of millions of rupees. The outgoing calls in December 1999 was 2,098,347 minutes, which rose to just 2,192,268 minutes in December 2000. The NTC realises larger chunk of its revenue from incoming international calls than the outgoing ones.

Raghubar Lal Shrestha, General Manager of NTC, says that after the private sector was allowed access to VSAT, there has been a considerable decline in the Corporation’s revenue.

"The revenue we get from international calls has plunged drastically. It is estimated that the NTC will lose a revenue of Rs 500 million in the current fiscal year," said GM Shrestha.

Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), a regulatory body of the telecom services, opened VSAT to the private sector in 1999. The NTC’s downward trend in international revenue began soon after. The NTA has issued license to 7 VSAT network providers and 23 VSAT users, mainly internet service providers (ISPs).

ISPs, the major clients of the NTC, and other customers have almost stopped using the NTC’s lease line, pushing down the revenue it used to get from leasing out international circuits to the ISPs. With VSAT, ISPs can connect to the Internet backbone directly bypassing NTC, and can provide many new services such as web-based voice telephony, which is actually helping to kill NTC revenues.

It has been alleged that VSAT network providers and users, who are allowed to carry only data, are transmitting voice, which is possible using Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX), resulting in massive revenue losses to NTC.

Telecommunications Employees Association of Nepal (TEAN) allege that VSAT users, licensed for data communication only, are transmitting voice over internet protocol (VOIP). The unlawful use of e-phone for international calls has hit hard the NTC, complains the union.

But the NTA officials refute the charges. "We have initiated monitoring the activities of the VSAT licensees, but have not found any of them carrying voice till today. If we find them involved in such an activity, we will take strong action against them", says Kailash Prasad Neupane, spokesman at the NTA.

The NTC is trying to arrest the declining trend in international calls through rebalancing its existing tariff rates. It has submitted a proposal to the NTA which aims to massively slash its international call tariffs and raise the domestic call tariffs. The NTA is studying the proposal.

Another factor is NTC’s policy of keeping international call tariffs high at a time when similar tariffs in other countries are plunging. Due to high competition in the US market, calls to Nepal can be made at 18 cents a minute. But according to agreements between NTC and American operators, the latter has to fork up 84 cents per minute to NTC for calls made to Nepal. As a result, foreign operators opt for routing their traffic through VSATs bypassing the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

There’s more to NTC’s woes, however. In outgoing calls (calls which originate in Nepal), NTC charges 1.62 dollars a minute to make a call to America. But thanks to the internet, the same call can now be made for just six cents a minute through internet telephony. Cyber cafes and even public call offices (PCOs) are offering such internet telephony. Besides, a new technology called Info-Talk which costs just Rs 15,000 to install completely bypasses NTC, allowing operators to make international calls at astonishingly low prices. This technology is also gaining popularity among users here.

Refugees fear reprisal on return

By Chintamani Dahal

BHADRAPUR, March 29 – As the Nepal-Bhutan Joint Verification Team (JVT) has finally begun the verification of the nearly 100,000 Lhotsampa refugees, there is some sort of fear amongst the refugees that the Druk government might take a revenge after they’re taken back home.

"I told the JVT officials that I saw at least five people die right in front of my eyes when Bhutanese Army opened fire upon a peaceful rally taken out by the refugees on October 3, 1990. The firing came after the rally was stalled for two hours after it reached Chamarchi River from Chengmari," says thirty-year-old Shiva Raj Pradhan.

Pradhan was one of the survivors of the rally who then became a refugee fearing further action from the Bhutanese government. He was one of the refugees from Khudunabari camp to be verified by the officials, last Tuesday.

Like Pradhan, Ain Singh Magar, who became the first refugee to be verified when the process was launched on March 26, says he also doubts that the Bhutanese will allow them to return and live in their homes peacefully.

Coincidentally, Magar recalls, Dr. Sonam Tenzin was the Bhutanese official who threw him out of Bhutan. Dr. Tenzin heads the 5-member Bhutanese team in the JVT. Other five members in the JVT include Nepalese officials headed by Usha Nepal, Joint Secretary at the Home Ministry.

Some even fear that not all refugees might not be able to tell their survival tales how they landed up in refugee camps of eastern Nepal.

"I wonder how my father could have answered every question properly to the officials as he was inquired for around one and a half hour. He looked so scared," said 18-year-old Chandrakala Gautam.

Moreover, refugees have become more tensed after Sonam Dorje, a Bhutanese official in the JVT, tore up a sample of the verification form placed in the notice board after he saw a refugee copying it. "He wrapped up the entire form and threw it asking very angrily why the refugee was coping it," refugees accused.

Many refugees here in the camps have suddenly turned very inquisitive these days, asking what sorts of questions were placed by Bhutanese officials upon the ones who were verified.

Meanwhile, JVT has rearranged its verification process since Wednesday to make it more compatible to the refugees, who had been complaining of having to go hungry the whole day when they are called to the JVT office. Under the new system, five families are brought in the morning shift for verification while the remaining groups of five are brought in the afternoon after lunch. JVT plans to verify at least 10 refugee families per day.

NTV soon to ask: Who wants to be a mini-millionaire?

By Satish Jung Shahi

KATHMANDU, March 29 - The British invented it, Regis Philbin popularized it and Amitabh Bachhan set the entire Indian subcontinent on fire with it. Now popular comedian and actor Madan Krishna Shrestha aims to repeat the same success at home with a TV quiz show titled - yes, you guessed it - Nagad 5 Lakh (N5L).

The show, which is expected to be aired once a week from late April on Nepal Television, is modeled after Bachhan’s hit Star TV program "Kaun Banega Crorepati" which is an exact copy of US television network ABC’s "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" hosted by Philbin, which again is a duplicate of a show of the same name first produced and aired in the United Kingdom.

But the convoluted history hasn’t discouraged the local producers of N5L. Heavy preparations are already underway to launch the 50-minute quiz show on Nepal Television (NTV), every Sunday at 6:50 p.m, starting next month. Media Co-operative Ltd, the producer of the show, say that participants will try their luck at winning Rs. 500,000 in the show.

But if you’re already dreaming of Amitabh Bachhan stealing all the quiz show popularity on screen, hold on. Organizers say that actor Madan Krishna Shrestha, as a compere and quizmaster of the new NTV show, might as well act as a catalyst to suddenly shoot up NTV’s viewership.

"We’ve already got response from 10,000 aspiring participants for the first three shows we invited through mail," claims Pratap Thapa, of National Advertising and Marketing, and the man behind the NTV show. "We have plans to air our promos by April 5 and then shoot at least 6-7 shows before we’re on air," he adds.

The producers say, they have plans to distribute specially designed postcards to be filled up by aspiring participants. These cards will be available at major departmental and stationery stores after the first few episodes go on air.

A new state-of-the-art studio is being prepared at Manbhawan, Lalitpur just for the show. According to the producers, the buzzer system and the hot seat (where the quizmaster and the participant sit) are being imported from New Delhi, India.

A traditional Nepali stage set is in its final stage of preparation. "We want the stage to be one of the best that has ever appeared on NTV and grab more audience through that too," says Nita Thapa, Pratap’s wife, who is also in the production team.

But unlike KBC, 10 participants have to first undergo a buzzer round in N5L before they qualify for the hot seat. Then, the person on the hot seat has to answer 12 questions correctly, each that comes with four optional answers, before he walks home with Rs. 500,000. The minimum amount one can win is Rs. 1,000, while the "least risk" barriers have been fixed at Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 50,000.

So far, out of three options provided to the participants, the producers have already decided that 50-50 (eliminating two wrong answers from the total four) will remain. They are yet to decide on the other two.

"The questions are going to be simple just like in KBC, which can be easily answered by most of the audience sitting in front of the TV sets," says Prakash Thapa, question co-ordinator of N5L. He has been hosting numerous quiz shows on NTV since the last five years.

All this is fine, except for the economics of the whole undertaking. While the Bachhan hosted KBC could pluck a cool Rs 250,000 (in Indian rupees) for each 10 seconds of ad time on its show, N5L producers will be lucky if they can get a fraction of that amount.

"We can raise only about Rs. 350,000 to 400,000 by airing one show. We are actually risking ourselves by hosting the show only once a week," says Pratap Thapa. "As it is, our ad rates come to only Rs. 8,000 for 10 seconds."

PAC grills ex-RNAC boss on CSWA deal

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 29 – The confusion and lack of forthrightness displayed by former RNAC Executive Chairman B K Man Singh today at Public Accounts Committee (PAC) left many questions unanswered vis-à-vis alleged 300 US dollars per hour kickback in the China South West Airlines (CSWA) jet lease deal.

While asserting that fax letter in question was indeed fake, he, however, denied that he had instructed T P Chapagain, the then Director, Corporate Department to use the word "fake" while denouncing a letter allegedly addressed to Chairman Singh by CSWA on March 2, 1999 and published by a Kathmandu weekly on April 14, 1999. However, Chapagain reiterated today in the presence of Singh that the then Chairman had changed the draft of the letter sent to CSWA, which contains the word "fake", which, "was added by Singh".

A part of the letter states: "Any price on which you would like to sign the contract above US $2800 will be your personal commission." An earlier section of the same letter states that the Chinese company was willing to supply its aircraft, B-757-200 at 2800 dollars per hour.

Singh, alongwith top brass of the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, was summoned by the parliamentary committee today to clear the air about RNAC’s correspondence with CSWA over the pocketing kickback of 300 US dollars each hour the CSWA jet flies. The B-757 jet has been guaranteed a minimum of 275 flight hours per month.

This has given rise to the suspicion that every month that kickback amounting to 82,500 US dollars is being pocketed at the expense of RNAC.

RNAC had issued a denial the very next day in a public notice and had also written to CSWA to "clarify your position and denounce this matter".

The notice had condemned the weekly for forging the letter by using a procured latter-pad and stealing a signature, character assassination of the Chairman, displaying yellow journalism and trying to jeopardize the cordial relations between the two countries.

Singh, who was repeatedly asked on what basis RNAC concluded the letter (offering commission) was fake and what action was taken, could not satisfy the members of the PAC. He also revealed that no action was taken on a matter, which, according to the Corporation’s assessment, was very serious.

PAC member N P Saud charged that RNAC had attempted to create the impression that the Fax No. 225348, to which the fax letter of CSWA was sent, did not belong to RNAC by harping the fact that the fax did not belong to the Executive Chairman. However, RNAC sent a fax to CSWA through the same fax machine, which is the common fax for the RNAC.

Hridyesh Tripathi accused that the alleged letter sent by CSWA upon RNAC’s asking was fake and the one published by the weekly appeared to be authentic one. Ramesh Lekhak, another member demanded to know under which right RNAC had termed the letter fake.

When asked about the matter, Barun Shrestha, Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, expressed his ignorance about the whole affair. He said that since the Commission of Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) had deferred its probe into the CSWA deal, the Ministry has not contemplated any action.

Lekhak and Tripathi suggested summoning the former CPN-UML Minister for Civil Aviation Bhim Rawal for interrogation. Rawal had cleared RNAC’s proposal for the foreign exchange necessary for the deal. Chairman Subhas Nemwang suggested that PAC first study all the financial details of the CSWA deal and then call Rawal.

The parliamentary committee asked RNAC to provide all the documents regarding the CSWA deal, including foreign exchange clearance and bank accounts.

Nepalese Embassy sends women home

Post Report

BHAIRAHAWA, March 29 - Five Nepali women who crossed the Nepal-India border town of Sunauli for overseas employment in Kuwait a week ago have returned here on Wednesday.

The women staying in a hotel in Delhi were sent back home by the Delhi-based Nepalese Embassy suspecting that they might be sold in Indian brothels. They had their passports without the Kuwaiti visa stamp.

Prabha Khanal, chief of the branch office of Maiti Nepal in Bhairahawa, an NGO campaigning against woman trafficking, said that a representative from the Embassy handed them over to the local administration.

Khanal, who declined to disclose their names, said two of them were from Kaski and others from Jhapa. She also said that the people who trafficked them to Delhi were yet to be traced out.

She said the women were first lodged in a Nepali lodge in Gorakhpur before they were finally led to Delhi by their own husbands and guardians. But the husbands and guardians returned to Nepal after handing over the women to another woman from Butwal.

The women were lodged in Sapana Deluxe Hotel in Pahadgunj, Delhi. They were rescued after the proprietor of the hotel informed the Embassy of their stop over the hotel under suspicious circumstances.

Phidim-Taplejung road behind schedule

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 29 - The cost and construction period of Phidim-Taplejung Road Project, a part of Mechi Highway, is running out of limit but, the future of the eighteen-year-old road is still uncertain, locals said.

When the project was begun, the construction cost of the 86.7 kilometre road was estimated to be around Rs 324 million but till now, Rs 450 million has been spent 8 kilometre of the road is yet to be constructed.

The last report of the Auditor General’s Office has named the project as ‘an example of delay’.

Officials of Department of Road (DoR) said that the road has remained incomplete because the government allocates insufficient budget every year.

According to a DoR official, the cost and period exceeded because the designing of Kaveli, Khahare and Khokse bridge as well as the approach road were faulty.

Taplejung District Development Committee Chairman Bijaya Raj Theve urgently demanded the completion of the road project.

Project engineer Madan Kumar Shrestha, said that he was demanding for a sum of Rs. 80 million to complete the project.

The road, which is to join the north-south of the far east Nepal, annually gets Rs. 30 million from the government to continue construction.

Keshav Pokharel, the planning division chief of Roads Department, said that from the running fiscal year, the road would get 10 percent additional budget.

Oli against national government

KATHMANDU, March 29 (RSS) - Deputy leader of the CPN-UML parliamentary party KP Sharma Oli has said that although the country is at present in a complex situation, a national government could not be the alternative and it was also not appropriate from the constitutional and legal point of view.

Talk of a national government might have been floated by some people who have lost the people’s faith in order to fulfill the vested interests of a certain faction, he said adding, "We are in favour of the Congress (Nepali Congress party) leading the government since it holds a clear majority."

The people are fed up with the Maoists and are looking for an escape route, he said and stressed that there can never be cohabitation between the CPN-UML and the Maoists. Nepal, who was addressing a face-to-face programme organised by the Reporters’ Club Nepal here today, said as the resignation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala alone will not resolve all the existing problems, it is necessary, first of all, that the politics in the country should become clean in order to pave the way for a complete reform in the nation’s economic, social and administrative infrastructure.

The CPN-UML is never afraid of a mid-term election, the party’s only belief is that mid-term elections should not be called when there are other alternatives.

Stating that it is his wish that the current street movement culminate with the Prime Minister’s resignation and lead to an agreement, the CPN-UML parliamentary party deputy leader warned that protests in the street and in parliament will continue side by side unless the Prime Minister resigns. General Secretary of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) Pashupati Shumsher JB Rana explained that his party has decided to keep away from the street level struggle.