China plans replica of Swayambhunath

By Satyendra Timilsina 

KATHMANDU, Dec 24:Almost seven months after the statue of Araniko, the first ever statue of a non-Chinese in China, was placed in the heart of the Chinese capital, Beijing, an agreement has been signed to set up a replica of the Swayambhunath Stupa in Wu Tai Mountain.

The agreement was signed between Araniko Society and Yuan Zhau Vihar in the first week of December, informed Rajendra Nakarmi, Vice President of the Society. "The replica is being set up on the request of the people of Wu Tai Mountain, where the Stupa is to be located," he added.

Wu Tai Mountain is a four-hour drive along the express highway, north-west of the Chinese capital. The mountain is the birthplace of Manjushree, a deity of knowledge and wisdom, who set up the settlement of Kathmandu in the valley centuries ago. The Wu Tai Mountain is one of the four sacred Buddhist Mountains of China.

The Yuan Zhau Vihar is currently constructing a temple for Manjushree, the idol of which would be prepared in Nepal. According to the agreement, the Swayambhunath Stupa is to be erected in front of the Manjushree temple.

According to the agreement, the construction would be completed within the next eight months and Yuan Zhau Vihar would provide most of the financing. "We will construct the gajur (ornamental tower of the Stupa) only, whose cost would be somewhere between Rs 200,000 to Rs 300,000," said Nakarmi.

The establishment of the Stupa would help to promote Nepal in the Chinese market, says Tek Bahadur Dangi, acting Chief Executive Officer of the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). While the installation of Araniko’s statute in Beijing has helped in Nepal’s destination promotion in terms of image, perception and value, this will help promoting Nepal more, he added.

The Araniko Society last May, had established the statute of Araniko in the premises of the White Pagoda Stupa, one of the more famous architectural designs of the Nepal-born artist and architect Araniko, in Beijing.

According to Chinese experts, Araniko constructed three major Stupas in China during the 12th century. One Stupa is in Beijing and the remaining two are in Wu Tai San. Araniko, who had gone to China at the age of 16, also constructed numerous statues of Buddha and Buddhist deities.

Other than in the Nepali embassy and consular offices, the statue of Araniko is the only Nepali symbol in entire China. According to experts, Nepali embassy in Beijing has an idol of Buddha and the Office of Consular General in Tibet has an idol of Bhanubhakta.

As many Buddhist monks visit the Wu Tai Shan, the construction of the replica of Swayambhunath would help promoting Nepal seriously in China, says Ma Weigung, former Chinese Cultural Attaché to Nepal. "The Araniko statue has helped a lot to publicise Nepal in China and the new temple would definitely add more to that," he expressed.

At a time when Nepal is celebrating a special tourism promotion campaign, and the government is giving high preference to the regional markets, the statue will help building Nepal’s positive image through art and culture in China, say Nepali experts.

Simplification of Income Tax Act demanded

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KATHMANDU, Dec 24:A delegation of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry led by its second Vice President Rajendra Khetan, paying a visit to the Finance Minister today, has asked for simplification of Income Tax Act and relief package for export promotion. They have also demanded implementation of the government’s decision to use domestic products in the government offices.

According to a press release issued here today, the FNCCI has said that the delegation also asked the minister to adopt the recommendations of Revenue Advisory Committee, submitted to the Minister on Monday.

During the meet, Minister Dr Badri Prasad Shrestha, assured for his full support in solving problems of Industry and Commerce sector, says the FNCCI release. The minister also said that he would take the suggestions of the FNCCI in a positive note.

Govt suggested to privatise BSF

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KATHMANDU, Dec 24:A high-level three-member committee that the government constituted recently to study the viability of Birgunj Sugar Factory (BSF) has recommended the government to privatise it immediately.

The report, which the committee submitted to the government today, citing the reason of inability of the oldest state-owned sugar mills to compete with the private producers, has further suggested the government to develop an appropriate modality for its privatisation.

The committee, which was formed under the co-ordination of Purushottam Ojha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), was tasked to study the status of the mills that is closed since mid-April, 2002.

"The MoICS will initiate consultation on the matter with Ministry of Finance within next few days and an approach to privatise the BSF will be worked out soon," said a highly placed government source.

He further said that the recommendation of the committee goes in line of the government, which had been planning of liquidating the mills owing to the financial burden it had been posing on the government.

The report further states that an investment of some Rs 100 million should be injected into the factory to bring it to normalcy and restart operation. It even asks the government to clear the dues that the factory owes to the sugarcane farmers and its employees, the source added.

According to the report, the factory is yet to clear Rs 54 million to the farmers and it needs to pay Rs 15 million to the employees as their salary and other facilities. Following the submission of the report, the MoICS, issuing a press release today has said that the government would soon decide on the issue of clearing the dues of the farmers and employees.

Few months back the cabinet had decided to provide the factory with a financial support of Rs 200 million for dues clearance and restarting operation. However, the Finance Ministry is yet to release the money. Concerned officials said that the amount could not be released due to increasing regular expenditure and declining resources.

"Although the financial condition has not changed of late, the Finance Ministry has committed to release the required amount again," said the source. The delay in payment, however, has badly affected the sugarcane producers of Parsa and Bara districts who largely depend on the return they get from its supply for their livelihood.

They have even been organising protests like chakkajam (road-strike) against the closure of the factory at a time when sugar-crushing season has begun. Lower productivity and inefficiency, among others have been disabling the factory to compete with the private sector players.

Moreover, it has been incurring losses in millions running over the years. The officials attributed low productivity and a large number of employees on payroll for the losses. The BSF had been employing over 1070 people including labourers on contract and temporary basis.

Established 37 years ago with a sugarcane crushing capacity of one thousand tons per day, the BSF capacity was later augmented to 15 thousand tons a day. But the factory was producing only 8.50 kg of sugar by crushing one quintal of sugarcane, which is said to be below standard and reflect higher degree of inefficiency.

The BSM has been producing about 15,000 tons of sugar annually. Its supply has been put at 17 per cent of the total domestic production and over 10 per cent of national demand.

Simplify export rules: FNCCI

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KATHMANDU, Dec 24:The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) has stressed upon simplification of existing rules and regulations on export to make the Export Year 2003 a success.

According to a press release issued here today, the FNCCI has said that the meeting held with the Commodity Association has asked the government to resolve the complication over export promotion.

"The meeting has asked the government to collect tax at flat rate at the export point and not to deal the exporters like wholesalers while imposing income tax," says the release.

The FNCCI has stated that the meeting has pointed out the need to revise the existing Local Self-Governance Act, because the taxing provision in the Act is not clear and is against the national policy on exports.

The Value Added Tax reform procedures has to be simplified, Duty Draw Back System has to be expanded even on the partial exports, materialisation of the Export House concept, among several others are the current necessities to promote Nepali exports, says the release.

Speaking on the occasion, Binod Bahadur Shrestha, Officiating President of FNCCI expressed his concerns over reduction in the produce of exportbased industries and stressed on combined effort of all sectors in increasing the productivity.

The participants in the programme pointed out the need to prepare white paper on exports, waive the current investment limit for the foreigners and increase the productivity of the industries.

Hetauda Cement to get Udayapur limestone

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GAIGHAT, Dec 24 : Hetauda Cement Factory has decided to procure the required limestone from Udayapur Cement Factory after Hetauda was hard hit with the scarcity of standard and quality limestone.

The Factory had taken such decision after the possibility of quality cement production with the use of limestone of Udayapur.

According to Krishna Kumar Neupane, Managing Director of Udayapur Cement Factory, a consignment of 50 trucks of limestone has already been signed between the two factories. Each metric ton of limestone would be sold at Rs 360, he informed.

Co-ordination gap affects anti-smuggling drive

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BIRGUNJ, Dec 24:Smuggling in the region, through the porous border between India and Nepal is still very high, despite the deployment of Royal Nepal Army in customs patrolling for the past one and a half years.

The failure to control smuggling, however, is said to be mainly due to the lack of much needed co-ordination among various government agencies of the region.

A highly placed source in the military blames officials of various government offices for the failure to control smuggling in the region.

"Most officials of local government offices, including Customs, Police, Revenue Investigation and Value Added Tax, are involved with the smugglers instead of co-operating with us to control illegal business," he added. Going by the absence of co-ordination among the various government offices, the source claims that the military is the only force pursuing the mission of controlling smuggling.

Apart from the absence of the much-needed co-operation by different government offices, the deployment of a small contingent of army personnel also has been a major factor in the failure to meet targets of countering smuggling. A number of mere twenty-five soldiers patrol the entire border from Parsa through Bara, extending over fifty kilometres.

However, most smugglers have ‘improved’ smuggling techniques, while not reducing the volume of business and the lack of response from government agencies has upset the government’s response of deploying the army, which has not been adequate on its own. While smugglers used to import and export goods in bulk through trucks and buses before the deployment of the army, they now use bicycles and individuals, especially women and children, to help the illegal movement of their goods.

Smugglers seem too clever to produce required VAT bills immediately after the seizure of their goods. According to sources in the army, corrupt officials at the VAT office have always been supportive to the smugglers.

"These bribed officials inform the smugglers beforehand, about possible raids on their warehouse and also prepare legal bills for them," the source added. The absence of legal provisions to raid suspicious warehouses during night has further posed to be an obstacle for the security forces.

Prakash Man Shrestha, Chief of the Revenue office though denies the allegation, saying, "If anybody comes to pay tax, it is our liability to prepare bills for them".

Stressing on the need for a separate mechanism to curb the increasing cases of smuggling around the region, he ruled out that the deployment of army would be the only solution for controlling the illegal trade.

Meanwhile, Sudip Chandra Shah, an official at local customs pointed out the need for strong co-operation among the government offices to control smuggling.