DFTQC sues 15 companies

By Milan Mani Sharma

KATHMANDU, Feb 25 : Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) has filed cases against 15 food industries including high profile fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) producers for supplying sub-standard and adulterated products during the first half of the current fiscal year.

The companies against which the department filed the case include three mineral water companies, two noodle manufacturers, two biscuit producers, two dairies, one chocolate producer, one tea industry and two powdered spices companies, among others.

"The cases were filed after the lab testing of the samples collected by the food inspectors from the market found the manufacturers defying the quality standards specified in the Food Quality Act," said a highly placed source at the department.

However, the number of food manufacturers deceiving the consumers not abiding by the quality standards is still higher. "The department is preparing charge sheets against them as well," the source stated, adding cases against them could not be filed earlier as the department had to go through a lengthy process.

Bisleri, Yes and Aqua Smile are three major mineral water companies against which the department has filed cases. Products of these companies were found to contain mesophilic bacteria count higher than the stipulated standard.

"Mesophilic count in these products ranged from 1,500 to 3,500 per milliliter, but as per the set standard it should not exceed 25 per milliliter," the source informed.

Although experts state that presence of mesophilic bacteria does not affect the health, concerned officials argue that its presence in the processed water reveals those industries’ negligence and cheating the consumers. They even said that more mineral water companies have been found to be deceiving consumers. "Cases against them are being prepared now," they added.

The department has filed cases against Himalayan Dairy and Kathmandu Dairy for supplying milks containing Coliform bacteria. Inspection revealed that the processing system of these companies was poor and the bacterial contamination was realized in post pasteurization packaging process, the source noted. The presence of Coliform bacteria in the milk causes diarrhea and other stomach problems.

Likewise, Nepal Biscuits Company (Nebico) and Deurali Biscuits have been charged for using stale raw materials as the laboratory test of their marketed products found containing acidity extract of fats. "Laboratory test also showed these products containing higher moisture content," the source stated.

The companies against which cases have been filed for supplying sub-standard products also include Himalayan Snax and Noodles and New Mayur Noodles. These companies have been charged of supplying noodles having moisture content higher than set standard. This is not hazardous to health though, added officials of the DFTQC.

A brand of chocolate of Quality Sweets were tested positive to inedible colour, while various products of Tulasi Spices Company were found containing lower volatile oil than the standard, said the officials. Cases against these companies too have been filed on the grounds of the FQA, they said.

Likewise, cases against Suddha Powdered Spices Factory, New Mayur Noodles Company and Sakun Tea Industry have been filed for not following the label specifications as stipulated by the Consumers Protection Act (CPA).

The CPA provisions the producers to clearly mention the information regarding the product and its status to which the consumers have the rights. "However, products of these companies failed to meet the specifications," said officials at the department.

Also cases against two traders have been filed for supplying locally produced inferior quality edible items including powdered spices.

Nepal to host South Asian Commission meet of WTO

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25 : The forthcoming meeting of South Asian Commission of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) being held in Kathmandu from April 1st to 3rd also comprises a one-day South East Seminar on crisis management, tourism ministry informed today.

According to the tourism ministry officials, the participants of more than two dozen countries would be coming to Nepal during the period. "We have already approached 106 participants from 25 different countries," said Binod Jnawali, spokesperson of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

The Commission for South Asia (CSA) meeting is being held for the second time in Nepal, after 1996. The meeting provides a forum for south Asian members – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – to meet and discuss contemporary issues on and interests in tourism business.

The agenda of the meeting would include an in-depth presentation, analysis of tourism trends in South Asia during the last year along with the discussion of global and regional tourism scenario relating to the activities conducted by the WTO.

Currently, Bangladesh is the chairman of the CSA and the Maldives and Nepal are the joint vice-chairmen of the commission. The CSE is one of the six subsidiary organs of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organisation. Generally, the CSE countries meet once a year.

The 42nd meeting of the WTO Commission for South Asian held in Madrid, Spain on May 2002 had decided to conduct the 43rd meeting in Nepal. Nepal had then made a special request for organising the event, stating that it would support the Destination Nepal Promotional Campaign.

Meanwhile, the seminar, one of the largest international tourism gatherings in recent year is aimed at analysing the types of crisis on tourism sector and several methods of crisis management.

The seminar would focus on the causes and types of crisis, pre-crisis preparedness (planning, operation and management), rapid reaction and response along with the crisis communication and their principles.

It will also focus on post-crisis actions, plans for recovery, branding and cross-sectoral relations, inter-government co-ordinations and respective rules of public and private sectors and tourism and security officials.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the participating countries other than South Asian Nations are Colombia, China, North Korea, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macao, Australia and New Zealand among others.

Inept coordination may affect WTO negotiations

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25 : Although the final preparations are on for the country’s accession into the World Trade Organisation (WTO), officials today conceded that there is a serious lacking in coordination among different domestic stakeholders, especially inter- and intra-governmental departments and ministries.

Lack of such coordination can put Nepal’s ongoing negotiation process on the back-foot thereby preventing the country from not just reaping the maximum benefits that the WTO can offer, but also making it more vulnerable to the negative impacts that the WTO-membership can invite.

Officials also said that proper coordination among government agencies and other stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations, civil society and general consumers is also a must to ensure that rights of all sections are carefully looked into before Nepal gives a green signal for WTO membership.

"Coordination, in the context of WTO, is an operational challenge," said Prachanda Man Shrestha, Chief at the WTO Cell, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies. He made such a statement while making a presentation at a discussion programme on Nepal’s accession to WTO, organised jointly by the UNDP-funded ‘Nepal Accession to WTO Project’ and the ministry here today.

"Until and unless all stakeholders are made aware of the opportunities and the adverse impacts of the WTO, the negative implications and the potential benefits accruing out of the membership of the global trading regime cannot be effectively thwarted," he said.

He added that all concerned stakeholders must make important inputs for the purpose of bilateral negotiations. The inputs should come not just in legal and legislative matters, but also in the areas of tariff binding, service sector opening and the protection and promotion of domestic industries and stakeholders’ rights.

It may be mentioned that Nepal has already held two rounds of bilateral negotiations and Working Party meets, and is presently in the final stages of accession. The country is ready to accede into the WTO as and when it feels so, but is deferring it in order to further understand the implications it can have on Nepal.

Officials said that Nepal is preparing for an early third round of bilateral negotiations and third Working Party Meet. However, they added that prior to that, effective coordination is paramount to Nepal in order to be assertive and proactive in the immediate and longer-term perspective in the post-membership period.

"The issue is that of capacity building and removing supply constraints to take advantage of the WTO membership by identifying areas of competitive and comparative advantages through consultations," said Dr Posh Raj Pandey, Programme Manager of Nepal Accession to WTO Project.

Stating that the WTO member countries are asking Nepal to make commitments that were not initially expected of least developed countries, member of the WTO Cell Suresh Shrestha said that mutual discussions are needed to give proper feedback to the Nepali negotiating team.

Countries that Nepal is negotiating with have demanded to further open up the services sector, accede to Information Technology Agreement, abide by textiles and chemical harmonization codes, and concede to arrangements relating to government procurements. These demands are more than actually the LDCs are expected to abide by for WTO membership.

However, despite the adversities that Nepal would be subjected to in the WTO regime, experts conceded that potential benefits arising from it are also equally important. The membership will insulate Nepal considerably from external shocks and create a more predictable trading environment, among others.

Internet subscribers grow by 34 per cent

By Bijaya Babu Khatri

KATHMANDU, Feb 25 : Despite the continued gloom in the insurgency-wrecked economy, the non-stop double-digit growth of Internet subscribers has thrown a positive light on the country’s booming Information Technology (IT) business.

According to the Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal (ISPAN), around 25,000 internet users (people & institutions) had entered the IT market during the last fiscal year and the number of subscribers has increased to 33,000 by mid-February, which is a growth of 34 per cent.

Of the total, the number of subscribers of both limited and unlimited Internet access accounts, are almost equal in number. Nearly sixty per cent of the users mostly the institutional users have subscribed limited services, while most of the individual users were found subscribing limited access. Not only the day, even the night surfing, which is far cheaper than the day surfing, has lately become popular, particularly among the younger generation and IT students.

Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) believes since each account is used by average five users, the total regular users is estimated to be around 160,000. Institutional customers have provided Internet facilities to another significant number of people through local networking. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have started making the Internet service operable in not more than two phone lines to ensure easy access. Experts claim that this has caused a slight reduction in the number of domestic users.

Those without access to private user accounts visit numerous cyber cafes operating throughout the city. If these users are also taken into account, the total number of Internet users will also substantially increase. Each cyber cafe generally uses one phone line and operates internet in around 7 to 8 computers, so they provide their services at a relatively lower charge than it costs the individual users.

Bimal Chapagain, international consultant at the United Nation’s Development Project, points out the costly telephone charge as a headache for private users. "I go to cyber cafes whenever I have to surf for 4/5 hours," he said. While surfing at home, the telephone charge alone comes to be around Rs.40 per hour whereas cyber cafes generally charge Rs. 25 for an hour.

Muni Bahadur Shakya, President of ISPAN, blames the high telephone charges for the less-than-expected increase in Internet users. He says that the increase despite the high telephone rates is mainly due to the perpetual cuts in rates by ISPs owing to the stiff competition.

Dipesh Acharya of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) shares the similar views and says the increment was mainly attributed to the heavy cut in the rates of ISPs. According to Acharya, 18 companies have been licensed so far of which Network Technology, Nepal Gateway and Squarenet are yet to operate. Presently all five development zones have Internet access.

Statistics compiled by NTA shows that World Link Communications has 6,800 subscribers, Info-Com 5,000, Mercantile Office Systems (MOS) 4,000, Everest Net (enet) 2,500, NTC 2000, Capital On-Line (COL) 800, CCSL 800, Via Net 500, Himalayan Online 500, High Tech Pioneer (HTP) 500, Unlimited Numedia (UL) 350 and Bajra Net 50 subscribers as of mid October.

Speculative traders store paddy

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BHAIRAHAWA, Feb 25 : Speculative agro-traders of this township have stored large quantity of paddy hoping that its price would rally further following the declined domestic paddy production this year and they could make good profit.

The traders were encouraged to store food grains following the recent rise in the prices of paddy. While the price per quintal of coarse Mansuli and Sawa Mansuli was Rs 1,250 and Rs 1,500 last year respectively, their prices at present are Rs 1,350 and Rs 1,700 per quintal respectively.

Traders are hoping for a better price of paddy in future as the production of the staple food grains has gone down this year due to drought in most parts of the western region.

According to the reports compiled by Ministry of Agriculture and Co- Operative, the domestic paddy production plunged by two per cent this year as against the production of last year.

Most agro-traders have also started importing cheap Indian paddy and stored with a view to selling them at higher prices later. According to Bhairahawa Customs office, over 18,557 tons of Indian paddy has already been imported through this customs in the first half of the current fiscal year.

Even agro traders concede that they are storing as much paddy as they can with the expectation of selling it at higher price in future. "As chances exist of further rise in the price of paddy, most of us are storing more rice, both domestic and Indian hoping to earn more profit," said Chandra Man Shrestha of Siddartha Rice Mills.

‘Poverty reduction not possible without effective land mgmt’

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25 : Unless the government distributes land equally among the landless poor, poverty reduction is well nigh impossible, said various speakers at an interaction today.

The participants in "Conflict Resolution through Effective Land Management and Proper Wage Payment to Agro-labourers" organised by Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), stressed that the government should prioritise agriculture sector, which has been largely ignored until now.

"The government should adopt an effective land management that could help to transform the highly non-organised agriculture sector of the country into organised one," they said.

The participants outlined that unequal land distribution has been the major cause for the slow progress of the country. According to the latest report distributed in the programme, 6 per cent high income earning Nepalis capture over 33 per cent of total cultivable land, 40 per cent low income class people holding only 6 per cent of arable land.

"Ineffective land distribution among the people is undoubtedly a chronic problem, which has capped the potential development of agriculture sector of the country. The government should realise this and soon adopt rather realistic approach for the effective land distribution," said the participants.

Sushil Pyakurel, member of National Human Rights Commission, on the occasion said that besides the ineffective land distribution, the poor performance of the agriculture sector is caused by the exploitation of farm labourers by the elite.

"Agricultural labourers in most parts of the country have failed to acquire minimum wage fixed by the government. This has further widened the gap between the rich and the poor, which is already alarming," he added.

The government has fixed the minimum daily wage of farm labourers at Rs 60 a day and the working hours at eight. "But the irony is that despite the government’s decision, about 22 per cent of our labourers get only Rs 31to Rs 59 for whole day work," said Pyakurel. According to the report, out of 4,800 labourers surveyed, only 10 per cent were aware of the minimum wage fixed by the government.

"This shows the exploitation of the labourers by the high class people. It is the high time that the government and non-government organisations acted immediately for making the farm labourers aware of their rights," Pyakurel said.

Bhanu Sigdel of Nepal Peasants Association said that Nepali farm labourers are hit hardest by the poor performance of agriculture sector. "Lower wage is the secondary problem of our farm labourers as they are facing rising unemployment," said Sigdel.

"The government should effectively implement the minimum wage provision so that the farm labourers are motivated to work more on farm," he added.

Umesh Upadhyaya of General Federation of Nepalese Trade Union (GFONT), Indira Phuyal and Dr. Shiva Sharma of INSEC presented three different working papers in the programme.

Mountain Dew launched

KATHMANDU, Feb 25 (PR)- Mountain Dew, America’s third largest soft drink brand, has now been launched in Nepal by Varun Beverages (Nepal) Pvt. Ltd. According to a press release issued by the company, the citrus flavored soft drink is positioned in the lime-lemon carbonated drink segment of the market. The brand will be initially available in 500ml pet bottles at Rs. 25 per bottle and 200ml bottles at Rs. 9.

Carlsberg in 330ml bottles

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KATHMANDU, Feb 25 : Gorkha Brewery Pvt Ltd has launched Carlsberg beer in international 330-ml small bottles. Carlsberg has been in the Nepali market since 1995 available in 330-ml cans and 650-ml bottles.

The 330ml International Small Bottle will be available at Rs 48 per bottle and also in 12 bottle packs at Rs 576.

The new scheme has been launched targeting the trendy consumers with the slogan of ‘Drink the Way the World Does’.