NC to seek all-party support for endorsing emergency

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KATHMANDU ,Feb 12: The Nepali Congress Central Working Committee meeting, which concluded Tuesday evening amid intense debate among the party members, has decided to make an appeal to all the political parties in the country to help muster the two-thirds’ majority in Parliament for the ratification of emergency.

The meeting also decided to send a report on emergency prepared by party General Secretary Sushil Koirala to the government for necessary action. The decision was arrived at after a sharp debate on the report which questions government efficiency and blames it for the deteriorating law and order situation in the country.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, a member of the 36-strong CWC, Laxman Ghimire, said that some members also called for the resignation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba citing that he had failed to take the peace talks to a positive mode. "The members also criticised the PM saying that he was bypassing the party by registering the proposal for ratification of the emergency in the parliament without consulting the party," said Ghimire.

However, Minister for Physical Planning and Works, Chiranjibi Wagle, said that the previous meetings of the party had endorsed the government move, and it was the government’s prerogative to register the proposal. "The government has not bypassed the party and did register the proposal with the party before it was registered at the parliament," he claimed.

When party President Girija Prasad Koirala was about to go out of the meeting hall, the pro-Deuba members stopped Koirala, saying that he could not go out without giving a concrete decision on the emergency. Following this, the decision to seek the support of all political parties for the ratification of emergency, was made.

When asked about the members’ call for the PM’s resignation, a serious bone of contention at the meeting, Wagle made it clear that the matter ought to be taken up at the proper platform and not at the CWC meet.

Minister for Home and Local Development, Khum Bahadur Khadka, also said that the call for resignation at the CWC meet, did not deserve any attention.

On the matter of the General Secretary’s report, the government has been asked to implement it if it is found credible, said Pradip Giri, a CWC member loyal to PM Deuba.

Party President Koirala asked the members to be united in this grim hour for the country, and said that his concept of a broader democratic alliance was the only way out of the present problems dogging the country.

But as expected, the party did not take any decision on Koirala’s much-touted concept.

Koirala also urged the government to withdraw the emergency at the earliest, saying that it was a regressive step in a democratic system.

Sailaja Acharya, a detractor of PM Deuba, after the meeting, told that she had sought the withdrawal of emergency, and had also made it clear that there was no need for declaring emergency to mobilize the army.

Revenue Dept to get cracking on tax evaders

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: With the extended deadline for Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) coming to an end today, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is all set to take action against tax defaulters even as it mobilised revenue worth Rs 605 million under the scheme.

According to officials at the IRD, total property worth Rs 6.05 billion has been added up in the tax net since the declaration of VDIS. "About 3000 new names have been added on the list of income taxpayers," they said here today.

Avanindra Kumar Shrestha, Deputy Director General (DDG) of the IRD, talking to The Kathmandu Post, said that on the closing day alone, property worth Rs 100 million was disclosed generating a revenue of Rs 10 million. The IRD had mobilised revenue worth Rs 60 million on Monday.

The government was able to collect an additional Rs 155 million in revenue during the extended period of a month. With the expiry of the first deadline on January 14, the government had amassed Rs 440 million, with property disclosure of Rs 4.4 billion.

The earlier deadline was extended for a month on the request of the business community. "The deadline for the VDIS was extended to give one more chance to the defaulters to submit their record to the tax authority of the country. As it has ended today, the IRD will take strict action against the tax evaders from tomorrow," said Vidhyadhar Mallik, Director General of the IRD.

He stated that the Income Fixing Committee (IFC) constituted under the coordinatorship of DDG Shrestha, has already thrashed out the strategies to deal with the defaulters. The IFC has the term of reference to gather details of the property of potential taxpayers, and confiscate it if the property has not been disclosed.

"We have already decided on a starting point for action against the tax evaders," said Shrestha. He informed that the meeting of the IFC would be held early tomorrow which would appoint the investigation officers and formally dispense them the authority to execute action against the tax evaders.

The investigation officers will have the authority to raid business premises, houses and warehouses, among others, and taxpayers will be accountable to their queries on details of property, said Shrestha.

This will be the first time the income tax officers put into practice the authority granted to them by the Income Tax Act.

Apart from digging out information on income and its sources, the investigation officers will be establishing cases against the defaulters after determining whether the income sources have been disclosed or not.

Officials of the IRD also said that the IFC would initially take actions against the defaulters enlisted by the department. The IRD has chalked out a list of 1000 potential defaulters.

The individuals in the list, officials say, include professionals such as doctors, engineers, auditors, lawyers, and also bureaucrats, non-government employees, social workers, teachers, businessmen, industrialists and leaders of the political parties.

"These potential tax evaders will be handed over a warning letter, asking them to disclose their property or will be summoned for explanations and asked for the details of their property; or will be raided directly, based on the priority, and information gathered by the IRD," said Shrestha.

The undisclosed property will be taxed at the rate stipulated by the Financial Act of the year when it was acquired, and fines also might be slapped or property confiscated, he added.

Meanwhile, speaking at a programme today Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, reiterated the warning that the government would confiscate the properties that have not been disclosed by the taxpayers.

The government had announced the VDIS to win over the potential taxpayers into the tax net, and to curtail the endemic tax evasion tendency that has impeded the government’s drive to raise revenue.

The scheme was floated as per the announcement by the Finance Minister Mahat during the annual budget presentation for the current fiscal year last July.

He had promise immunity to those who voluntarily disclosed their property and cleared their taxes by January 13, which was then extended by one day.

Those clearing their taxes during the VDIS period were taxed at the rate of 10 per cent on the accumulated undisclosed wealth.

Ethnic groups to form new political party

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: Leaders belonging to different ethnic groups today constituted a draft preparation committee to set up a separate political party. They lambasted all the leading political parties of the country for not resolving their problems even after the restoration of democracy.

The committee headed by former minister Parshu Narayan Chaudhari will soon discuss with the politicians and experts to establish a strong political party, which will aim at raising the living standard of ethnic groups. The concept of establishing a political party came to light couple of months ago.

"Not a single political party is keen on solving the problems related with ethnic groups. The demands put forward by the ethnic groups have always been brushed aside after the restoration of democracy. This necessitated the formation of draft preparation committee," said Chaudhari while talking to The Kathmandu Post.

Chaudhari also added that the committee is looking forward to the suggestions from different organizations related with ethnic groups. "We will conduct several rounds of talk with various political parties and experts before the party is officially established," said Chaudhari.

Even the Nepali Congress(NC) lawmaker, Narayan Singh Pun has been a member of the committee. "If the party seriously addresses the problems of the ethnic groups then I will be part of it," said Pun.

Balaram Gharti Magar Rastriya Prajatantra Party(RPP) lawmaker is also learnt to be the member of the committee. Noted experts like Dr. Harka Gurung and Dr. Krishna Bhattachan are also involved in the committee. However, they only assured to contribute the committee intellectually.

"It is really high time to establish a political party which will work for the welfare of the ethnic groups. We will contribute the committee intellectually," said Bhattachan.

Bhattachan also said that party should aim at uplifting the socio-economic status of ethnic groups. "The party should be strong enough to address the problems of the ethnic groups across the country unlike the People’s Liberation Party which is currently being headed by Gore Bahadur Khapangi," said Bhattachan.

Town committees to be scrapped

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Kathmandu, Feb 12: The Ministry of Local Development is preparing to dismiss 170 town development committees, saying that their duties are overlapping with those of the municipalities and the village development committees (VDCs).

The town committees which works in accordance with the Town Development Act, and the municipalities and the VDCs which follow the Local Self-Governance Act, are doing much the same work, says an official at the Ministry.

"We are taking such a step as there is no difference in the duties and responsibilities of the town committees and the municipalities and the VDCs," said Ganga Dutta Awasthi, Joint Secretary at the Local Development Ministry.

The government has not allocated funds for the town development committees this fiscal year. In the previous years, these committees used to receive 30-50,00 rupees annually.

Budget format to undergo big changes

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: With an aim to make the budget compatible to international standards and to abolish the confusion that exists on its structure, the government is all set to introduce a new format for the annual budgets.

According to a source at the Ministry of Finance, necessary preparation has already begun to change the decades’ old budget structure, and the new changes would be introduced in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2002/03.

"We have started all necessary homework to change the existing format of the budget and it would be visible in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year," said the news source.

One of the major changes in the format would be in the categorisation of expenditures. Unlike the past trend of dividing the total budgetary expenditure into regular and development sections, the new format would classify total expenditure into recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure.

The changes are also aimed at erasing the long-standing erroneous perception regarding the source of financing the regular and development expenditures, said the source. "There is a general perception that the regular expenditure should be financed solely by internal resources," said the source. "The new format would end such wrong perceptions by making space for necessary adjustments. The traditional demarcation line drawn between the regular and development expenditures is wrong and practically difficult to follow and the new changes are aimed at correcting such shortcomings."

There have been serious problems in effective budget allocation mainly due to the long-existing confusion in the allocation of government expenditure. "We have examples in which parts of the development projects are financed through the development expenditure while the rest are met through the regular expenditure. This complicates long-term financing," said the source.

The aim of the change is also to bring the format of the budget at par with the internationally-accepted practice. "The proposed system would also aid the international community to understand the Nepali budget structure and the donors have also been asking us to do so," he added.

The changes will also simplify monitoring and evaluation process of the budget, and would help to extract actual figures of expenditure in each group.

The changes are also a part of the proposed Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which aims to establish a long-term and sustainable link between the annual budget and long-term government expenditure on development projects.

NSP leaders jockey for position

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: The newly appointed Acting President of Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) Badri Prasad Mandal has indicated that he may not stand for election for the post of party president when the NSP holds its internal elections.

Speaking to The Kathmandu Post on Tuesday, Mandal, who was the Vice President of the party earlier, said that he would not stand for any "intra-party election as far as possible." But when asked whether he would agree to be the president if selected through a consensus, Mandal declined to comment specifically, saying only that "it was up to other party leaders to decide on the issue."

The NSP, which had been led since its inception by the late Gajendra Narayan Singh who passed away on January 23, is slated to hold its party convention sometime in April-May this year. The party will also hold internal elections to its executive committee at that time.

The NSP, which mainly represents the Terai-based madhesi community, is the nation’s fourth largest party in terms of its strength in the House of Representatives. Mandal’s selection early this week as its acting president, party leaders say, was expected as it was according to the party statute.

A few months ago, the National Working Committee of the party decided to hold the fourth national convention in Bhairahawa. The earlier three were held also in the Terai towns: Janakpur, Birgunj and Biratnagar. Although the dates will be decided by the NWC soon, said the spokesperson, the tentative schedule is May this year, say party leaders.

Although Vice-President Mandal is now ensconced as the Acting President, his taking over as the undisputed leader of the party, something which late Singh could boast of, might not be a smooth sailing.

The NSP has a history of choosing the president unanimously without going into the rigours of the party election. Even this time, some leaders say, there will be an attempt to reach consensus on a candidate. But the all-important question is who that candidate would be.

Another potential candidate for the top post, lawmaker Hridyesh Tripathi, told The Kathmandu Post that he "might contest for the post" if need be but insisted that the first priority would be on a consensus candidate. "Even during the last National Working Committee meeting, I ensured that (Badri Prasad) Mandal got unanimously nominated as Acting President."

But things might be different when the national convention takes place, said Tripathi. "It is still too early for me to say anything on my candidacy. At present we are all occupied with the preparation for the national convention."

Indeed, the last NWP meeting extended the deadline of the registration and renewal of general and active membership until the end of the Nepali month of Falgun (March 13) this year.

At the last convention, the party, claimed an NSP leader, had 15, 000 active members but said "the number has definitely increased".

The onus of overseeing the elections in the party rests on the nine-member parliamentary committee in each of the country’s 205 parliamentary constituencies.

Every 20 active members, one convention representative is chosen for the maximum nine-member parliamentary committee. And besides that, for every 100 active members, two convention representatives will be chosen. It is these convention representatives which will face the ultimate task of choosing the next party president if there is an election for the coveted post.

Probe into certificate scam gathers pace

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: The Fake Certificate Investigation Sub-Committee, under the parliamentary State Affairs Committee, today summoned the officials of the Hetauda Cement Factory and the Department of Printing to furnish details regarding the certificates of their employees that were issued by different Indian universities.

Parliamentarian Mahendra Bahadur Pande, the Coordinator of the Sub-Committee told The Kathmandu Post Tuesday evening that the officials of the Hetauda Cement Factory were ordered to submit their internal investigation report within a month at Tuesday’s meeting.

"We have asked them to either send the 125 dubious certificates of their staffers to the concerned Indian universities on their own or get it verified through the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA)," he said. Of them, 15 certificates have already been sent to Indian universities for verification.

The General Manager of the factory, the Secretary of the Ministry of Industries and an official of the factory’s internal investigation committee, were summoned at the meeting.

The parliamentary Sub-Committee has also directed the factory officials to submit within a month a report regarding the restructuring of the factory. According to Pande, 200 positions are lying vacant there, though there are positions for 1,074 staffers.

Also, the Sub-Committee suspects that at least 15 of the 171 certificates of the Department of Printing employees that it is currently investigating could be "fake ones", according to Pande. The CIAA, he said, has already initiated legal actions against one official of the Department, who had submitted a "fake certificate".

"What is more intriguing is the fact that two staffers of the Department have produced certificates from India whereas they were actually present at the office when the examinations were held," he said. "We have come to know that they managed to tear apart the pages of the attendance register that showed they were present at the office during the examination days."

The Sub-Committee has directed the Department to initiate stringent actions against them, according to Pande.

Meanwhile, the State Affairs Committee has summoned Home Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka to furnish replies as to why the government feels necessary to register new Bills relating to controlling corruption and empowering the CIAA, the constitutional anti-corruption body.

"Totally ignoring the old Bills that were tabled in the 18th and 20th session dealing with the same, the government is preparing to table the new bills in the on-going 21st session, which is quite unnecessary," said a source.

Heyday for lovers and flower sellers

Tashi Dolma Thinley

KATHMANDU, Feb 12: This Thursday’s Valentine’s Day will see the flowers do all the talking. But for Kathmandu’s lovers, the flower shops in town don’t offer much in terms of variety. But lack of variety or not, for the flower sellers, it’s going to be a heyday.

Almost all the shops are selling much the same stuff: roses (just pink and red), tulips, gladiola and the like. And of course, it’s roses that are the current favourite by a long way.

Shovnath Shrestha, a proprietor of a flower shop, says that on last year’s Valentine’s Day, his shop sold as many as 35-40,000 roses. He is now looking excitedly towards Thursday as business has not been brisk in the last few months. "The sales haven’t been up to the mark as many marriages got cancelled and festivals were not celebrated with the usual zest".

The florists of the capital—wholesalers, retaliers—and the gift shops are all stocking up for the big day. Balaram Thapa Magar, a salesman at a flower shop in Pulchowk says that because of the hefty demand, they have to import flowers from India. He says, "We have nurseries at Bhainsepati, Chapagaon and in Simara, but that cannot meet the demand, so we have to import roses and other kinds of flowers from India."

Several florists also say that Indian flowers are of better quality although importing them is "risky business" because of the danger of withering. The sellers also have to place the orders individually, since there are no local wholesale suppliers doing the importing.

The flowers are also going to cost more for the Lover’s Day. On last year’s Valentine’s, proprietor Shrestha says he sold "one stick of rose for as much as 35 rupees, while on a normal day it would cost Rs 10 –12".

Owners like Shrestha says the hike in the price is due to the high demand in the short span of a single day. For the D-Day, wholesalers sell one rose for eight rupees which on an ordinary day would cost five rupees.

Sharad Dahal, 27, who has come to place an order at Shrestha’s shop for a bouquet of roses for his girlfriend, says, "If it keeps on inflating, one day a bunch of roses might get more expensive than a meal for two".

But that won’t stop the lovers from buying. Love, after all, is worth all sacrifices.

Trade talks next week

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: In an effort to finalize the renewal of the Nepal-India Trade Treaty, a secretary-level meeting between the two countries is scheduled to take place on February 18-19 in the capital.

According to a highly placed source at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Nepal has recently sent an invitation to the Indian secretary of commerce to hold talks on renewing the Trade Treaty.

"Nepal wants to make it the final talks on the issue," said the source.

Nagma M Mallick, First Secretary (Commerce) at the Indian Embassy in Nepal, said that Indian Commerce Secretary Dipak Chatterji is arriving in Kathmandu on February 17.

She said that the Indian side is hopeful of finalizing the talks on renewing the Trade Treaty that was to expire on December 5, 2001. The Treaty was extended by three months, as both the parties could not reach an amicable solution due to some problems.

"There are good chances of resolving the problems during the two-day talks. And we have already given our draft to the Nepalese side," she added.

Earlier India had invited Nepal to hold talks at the joint secretary-level, and Nepal took a stance of holding the talks at the secretary-level.

The previous rounds of talks between the two countries could not arrive at an agreement as India raised the issue of export surge of five items: copper wire, steel pipe, zinc oxide, vegetable ghee and acrylic yarn.

However, the two sides have agreed to settle the issues of contention by imposing a certain value addition slab on material and labour content on goods exported from Nepal to India.

2 rebels shot dead in Lamjung

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KATHMANDU, Feb 12: Security forces shot dead two Maoist rebels in an encounter at Kotpahara area of Lamjung district on Monday, the Defence Ministry said here today. The soldiers of the Royal Nepal Army also confiscated a large cache of arms in different parts of the country.

The security forces also arrested two Maoists along with 88 socket bombs, 35 GI pipes, 25 kilograms of explosives and detonators from Siuja area of Dang district. In another incident, the army men arrested a man skilled in making guns from Banga Bagar area of the north-western border district of Darchula on Monday.

The Ministry said that the security forces also arrested 10 suspects for necessary investigation from various parts of the country.

Meanwhile, our reporter from Kavre district said the local administration for the first time after the declaration of the state of emergency clamped down a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the district headquarters of Dhulikhel and other business centres such as Banepa and Panauti on Tuesday.

It is speculated that the administration imposed the night-hour curfew in anticipation of Maoist violence before the 7th anniversary of their "People’s War."

All the security wings of the government have been put on high alert in the district after the rebels attacked the Bhakundebesi-based police outpost on February 4, leaving 16 policemen dead. A strength of over 100 police personnel were stationed at the post to provide security to the Japanese and Nepali labourers working in the Japanese-funded Banepa-Sindhuli-Bardibas Highway.

Tales of woe echo in RNA hall

By Seema A Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Feb 12: It was an unusual and moving scene at the crammed hall of the Royal Nepal Academy (RNA) today when a group of six "poor" women tearfully narrated their tales of woes before the country’s prominent leaders and experts.

What follows are their version in a nutshell on the kind of hardships they faced:

*Marani Devi of Mahottari district who hit the headlines last year for the wrong reasons. She would much rather have remained obscure as before the fateful day — when she nearly lost her life after being accused of practicing witchcraft.

*Sabina Maharjan (changed name), 17, a college student in Kathmandu. Her foreigner father left her mother and went back to his own country. After that, she has been fighting to get a citizenship certificate, but has not yet succeeded although she has even approached the Supreme Court which denied her the certificate saying that she cannot avail citizenship by descent.

*Pralhad Bhattarai of Sunsari district whose wife died last year after going through abortion by a doctor not qualified to perform the operation. The doctor still lives in his village, and continues to indulge in quackery.

*Reena Pradhan (changed name), 18, from Kathmandu. When her father died, her mother married again. She started doing a daily-wage job. But one fine day she was sold to a brothel in Pune, India, for 80,000 rupees.

*Sushma Moriha, from Mahottari, who was cheated by her husband by getting her to sign the divorce paper instead of the citizenship certificate. Now her husband is married to another women and is happy with the dowry he got.

*Basanti Jha of Mahottari where women do not have voting rights. But she is an exception as in the last elections, she went to the booth to exercise the fundamental right accompanied by her husband and son. But the village elite is not happy with her action.

These are sample stories of exploitation, oppression and discrimination. And even as you read this, one more Nepali is getting the rough end of the stick.

After the six narrations, it was time for the activists to react. Advocate Sapana Pradhan Malla, coordinator of Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD), said, "In Nepal women and children are increasingly falling prey to a number of dis-empowering and debilitating situations and conditions. Human trafficking is one of the most appalling conditions. It is indeed a matter of great shame that even after half a century since the adaptation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the global community, trafficking in women and children continues to thrive as a lucrative industry."

The two-day national gathering was called by various women organisations in order to draw attention of the government and the lawmakers for the passage of the 11th amendment of the Country Code, which is popularly known as the Property Right. The Lower House had passed the Bill on Property Right during the 2oth session of the parliament but the National Assembly sent back the Bill to the Lower House for reconsideration.

The occasion was the first day of a two-day seminar on "Solidarity for Gender Equality", which was attended by hundreds of women from different walks of life, as well as ministers, MPs, advocates, women rights activists, government officials, INGO and NGO representatives.

Ranabhat does it again!

The women participants at the seminar on gender equality forced the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Taranath Ranabhat, to cut short his speech after he passed derogatory remarks against womanhood. In his speech, the Speaker said that women should first "correct themselves" before they bring their issues to the government.

"A woman gets married with a person in spite of being aware that the person is already married," the Speaker said.

Soon after this comment was made, almost all the women present created a furore. Stunned by the mass protest, the Speaker abruptly finished the speech, and took his seat visibly embarrassed.