Nepal-India Trade Treaty renewed

By Bijaya Ghimire

NEW DELHI, March 2 : The long-running contention over the renewal of the 1996 Nepal-India Trade Treaty is finally over. Nepali and Indian commerce officials today signed a protocol and renewed the Treaty, which comes into effect from March 6.

Four days of inter-governmental secretarial level talks held here concluded today with the two sides coming to an understanding on the disputed value addition norms and the export of four items that India claimed to have fallen under the ‘surge net’.

Officials agreed to impose a mandatory 25 per cent value addition slab on material and labour content on Nepali goods to gain duty free market access to India in the first year, and 30 per cent from the second year onwards. The percentage of value addition would be calculated taking the export price as the base.

Similarly, the two sides also agreed to include provisions relating to safeguard measures in case surge in export from any of the countries take place. Likewise, four Nepali items that India claims to have surged will now be allowed to enter free of basic customs duty into the Indian market on a fixed quota basis.

The four items are vegetable ghee, acrylic yarn, copper products and zinc oxide, whose exports comprise almost 20 per cent of the total Nepali exports to India. While one hundred thousand tons of vegetable ghee would be allowed to enter India each year free of basic customs duty from now on, ten thousand tons of acrylic yarn, 7500 tons of copper products and 2500 tons of zinc oxide would also be allowed.

Officials talking to The Kathmandu Post expressed satisfaction over the renewal of the Treaty and said that the renewed Treaty, though not as flexible would not kill the spirit of the 1996 Treaty.

"The manner in which the Treaty has been renewed is satisfactory. Though the four items facing the fixed quota system from now on will see tough days ahead, the export of other products from Nepal to India will remain largely unaffected," said a high level Nepal delegate to the latest talks.

"The additions made in the Treaty are as a result of the tough stand taken by the Indian side that proposed to include provisions on safeguarding the domestic industries of both Nepal and India respectively," said the source.

The source also informed that the provision on safe guard could be reviewed at the inter-governmental secretarial level meeting if the two sides so desire. However, Nepali officials are downbeat that the provisions on safe guard and export surge may again give rise to dispute as in the recent past. The latest testimony to the Indian seriousness to safeguarding their domestic industries is the imposition of 4 per cent Special Addition Duty on Nepali produce as announced in the Indian budget for the fiscal year 2002/03 ending March 31st.

The confusion over the Treaty’s renewal for the past six months had created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the Nepali business circle. The Treaty was due to expire last December 5 but was extended by three months as a state of emergency was declared in Nepal.

India had formally asked Nepal to review the 1996 Treaty last August arguing that the export of some Nepali products rose unprecedented in the past few years thereby edging their domestic products from their own markets.

Several earlier rounds of secretarial and joint secretarial negotiations held both in the Indian and the Nepali capitals had failed to resolve the impasse over the Treaty renewal.

The 1996 Trade Treaty has yielded positive results for both Nepal and India through a tremendous expansion in bilateral trade. Exports from Nepal to India in the fiscal year 2000/01 stood at Rs 27 billion, up from below Rs 4 billion in 1995/96. Similarly, imports grew from Rs 24 billion to Rs 46 billion in the corresponding period.

New Indian budget brings mixed impact

By TKP Business Team

KATHMANDU, March 2 : The new Indian budget, presented Thursday by Yashwant Sinha, the Indian Finance Minister, is expected to impart mixed impacts upon the Nepalese economy.

The broadened tax base, revision of tax structure with special focus on customs tariff and excise duty is likely to ensue both threat and opportunities for Nepali industries and economy as a whole.

The effect of budget overtly seen is on the export of vegetable ghee, acrylic yarn, copper wire and zinc oxide, which cover around 20 per cent of the total exports to India. They have come to a standstill immediately after the Indian side imposed Additional Special Tax (AST) on them.

The budget introduces various measures to make Indian agriculture more competitive by enhancing productivity and lowering the cost of production. It has come as a major blow to the Nepali farmers, who have been badly hit by the inflow of cheap Indian agro products. It has left a large chunk of Nepali products unsold even in the domestic market.

The new agriculture friendly policies have put the Nepalese government under pressure as to enable the Nepalese farmers to compete with the Indian products.

Similarly, the budget also announces to scrap Administered Pricing Mechanism (AMP) on the petroleum products. This measure will bring down the prices of diesel and petrol in India with no impact on domestic prices.

Schools fear renewed Maoist terror 

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 2 : School authorities and parents are scared to death as Maoists rebel students are making their renewed attacks on educational institutions in a bid to cash in on the state of emergency that has left the schools a potentially easy target than the military encampment and the police.

Less than a day after a deadly attack came on two private educational institutes in the Capital, Maoists students have demanded closure of all schools in the valley on Monday and Tuesday.

Rumours got sparked off like a wildfire in most schools in the Valley that Maoists are all set to close schools on Monday and Tuesday. "Written notification and telephonic messages demanding the closure of Valley schools keep pouring in," said a principal of a privately run school scared to disclose her name.

Though no written warnings from the Maoists students could be obtained immediately, school authorities trembling and unwilling to disclose their names said, "we will probably close schools for two days than face the consequence."

"We will sit for a discussion tomorrow and take stock of the situation after which we will decide whether or not to close them down," said Umesh Shrestha, Vice President of Private and Boarding School Organisations Nepal (PABSON).

Rajesh Khadka, PABSON’s President however, denied having received any written notification or telephonic communication from the rebels seeking the closure of the schools. "We have been hearing that posters are being put on display at several places but we have received no written threat or telephonic message," he said. He, however, added that the rumours have left the parents worried about sending off their wards to schools.

However, PABSON officials did not rule out the possibility of renewed attacks from the Maoists students given the Friday’s grisly attack on the two private schools in the capital that came unprecedented and without any warning.

Maoists students on Friday morning vandalised two private educational institutions in the capital -Lord Buddha Educational Foundation College for Professional at Maitidevi, and Thames Business School at Gaushala and beat up severely Tara Bahadur Thapa, secretary of the Nepali Congress affiliated Nepal Students’ Union at the Mahendra Ratna Multiple Campus.

Meanwhile, Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) on Saturday issued a press statement vehemently condemning the Maoists –affiliated students for their Friday’s ruthless attack on the two educational institutes in the capital. The release appeals the Maoists students to immediately drop their acts of vandalising the educational institutes and opt for a peaceful solution to their grievances.

3 policemen, 8 rebels dead

Post Report

DHANGADHI, March 2 : Three police personnel including two officers and two Maoist rebels died in an encounter in a jungle between Shankarpur VDC and Dekhalbhuli VDC of Kanchanpur district, Friday evening, police said.

Among the policemen died in the shoot-out are Sub-Inspector (SI) Nain Singh Bista (Baitadi), Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Raghubir Bohara (Bajhang) and Constable Madan Singh Dhami (Darchula). Area Police Office, Belouri, said the fallen Maoists were taken along with them by their comrades.

A group of the Maoist rebels numbering almost 100 had suddenly attacked the patrolling team of about 16 policemen that was in command of late SI Bista in Chandeu area of the jungle at about 4:00 p.m.

The Maoists suddenly stormed into the police team when late Bista was interrogating four unidentified persons. The Area Police Office said there are two groups of Maoists operating their activities in the Belouri area.

"The unidentified persons, identifying themselves as Maoists, suddenly opened fires at the police team when Bista was interrogating at them," said a police officer at the Area Police Office.

The shoot-out continued for nearly one hour and the policemen had died on the spot, while Head Constable Ananta Ram Pant has been seriously injured and he has been airlifted to the capital for treatment.

Joint teams of the police and the Royal Nepal Army have started massive search operations in the area of incident.

Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry, issuing a press release, said that the security forces gunned down four rebels in Dhakeri area of Bardiya district, one each in Todke area of Rukum and Rampur area of Udaypur. Large caches of explosives, arms and ammunitions have been recovered from the sites of incident, the release said.

2 cops killed in accidental blast

Post Report

DANG, March 2 : Two policemen, who were patrolling the Civil Armed Police Battalion Training Centre, Tulsipur, today died on the spot after the bombs they were carrying suddenly went off, police said.

According sources at the Training Centre, the deceased are police constables Tak Bahadur Shahi (Humla) and Jaya Bahadur Bhandari (Jumla). The post-mortem of the deceased has been conducted in the Mahendra Hospital, Dang.

Chief District Officer, Madhav Sharma, said the bodies have been sent to Nepalgunj, on the way to their families.

Come home soon from Gujarat, say Nepali families

By Bedraj Poudel

BHOJPUR, March 2 : More and more family members and relatives of the Nepalis working in Gujarat are flocking the headquarters of this eastern hill district, as religious riots continue to fan across the western Indian state.

As the violence—India’s worst in a decade—entered its fourth straight day on Saturday, claiming lives of at least 400 people, hordes of people from different villages could be seen gathering outside the Public Call Offices (PCOs) here.

Deepak Shrestha, who runs a PCO here estimates the number of Nepalis currently working and living in different cities of Gujarat from the western parts of Bhojpur alone at over 2,000.

Having no knowledge whatsoever about their relatives in the faraway land, few of them were wailing, while others were making frantic efforts to make a telephone call.

The crowd seemed to be growing as the telecommunication network in most of the villages outside the district headquarters has been cut off for the last few weeks.

Maya Devi Shrestha, of Kot Village Development Committee (VDC) in western Bhojpur, covered a distance of about 18 kilometers to come to the district headquarters in order to call her husband who since last three years works in Gujarat.

"We became restless and could not sleep properly after hearing the news on radio that hundreds of people were killed in religious riots, and people burnt alive, in Gujarat," Maya Devi said, her eyes staring into oblivion.

She was one of the dozens of relatives of the Nepalis in Gujarat waiting for her turn to make a telephone call outside a Bhojpur PCO, Saturday afternoon.

Parbata Shrestha, of the same village, too, has come here to hear from her husband, Suresh Shrestha. He works at the Hanuman Filament Pvt Ltd, in Gujarat.

Ambika Shrestha, whose son has been working in the violence-torn Indian state for the last two and half years, was accompanying the two young ladies.

Looking at the crowd of the worried relatives outside his shop Dinesh Shrestha, the proprietor of Arson Communication Centre, recounted the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that flattened parts of Gujarat last year, killing thousands of people.

According to him, the telephones in 21 villages of Bhojpur are not functioning for the last two weeks or so.

Though their near and dear ones in Gujarat were telling their families not to worry during the course of the telephonic conversations, the family members were urging their loved ones to "come home soon".

Knowledgeable authorities here say thousands of people from Kot, Gogane, Lekharka, Dalgaun, Khawa, Siddheshwor and Gupteshwor villages have migrated to Gujrat for employment.

Over 50,000 people, most of them youth have migrated to India and abroad for foreign employment, according to Kumar Pradhan, the President of Bhojpur District Development Committee.