Herbs And Peanuts

CONSTANT reference by officials to Nepal being a rich repository of herbs notwithstanding, the country is losing every year tens of millions of rupees worth of this invaluable part of fauna through rampant, unchecked smuggling. The scale of this loss of natural resources and leakage of revenue are estimated to be massive. Legal exports figures show that some 180 million rupees worth of herbs are exported from Nepal every year. Behind these figures too stand the stark fact that Nepal is hardly getting what is due from these known exports. Out of the 180 million rupees, 130 million rupees comes from exports of raw herbs, and only about 50 million rupees is earned through exports of processed herbs. The implication is obvious. Nepal basically gets little from selling raw materials while the importers, the biggest being India, stand to benefit much more from these imports by processing them for its own industry or re-exporting the processed herbs.

From what little attention Nepal has paid to herbs processing, it is plain we don’t care. We neither care about the fact that a colossal amount of prized herbs is going out illegally through the unregulated border, nor do we care about making efforts to get the maximum out of the sports through legitimate channels. More and more banned herbal species are now endangered because they are being harvested beyond replenishment level. Other species, though on the exportable list, are fetching only a meagre price compared to what they could if they were processed and refined. The government, sadly, does not seem to see that the money that herbal exports can bring to the national exchequer could easily be many times more if Nepal could process them first before exporting. We do have an agency called Herbs Production and Processing Company Limited. But guess what is its biggest worry right now at this moment? Expanding its processing facilities? No. This over-staffed company is presently concerned over how to arrange enough money to meet the salary cost of its 600 employees following the general salary raise announced. No further elucidation is needed on this government undertaking’s status of financial health. To expect it to build further capabilities in herbal processing would be a joke. Could the concerned ministry officials think over it and see whether private companies could be encouraged to set up or expand the existing processing plants? Otherwise, we will continue to get only peanuts for our herbal resources.

Resolve The Debate

TOURISM, being the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner currently, is now considered to be the mainstay of Nepal’s economic development. Even before this sector became the largest contributor of foreign exchange, the government has been always giving top priority to the development of tourism industry and infrastructure. It could be for this reason that this sector, over the years, could register a remarkable growth. And, in the bargain, contribute its share to the growth and development of the national economy. In this regard, it is heartening to note that both the government and private sector are collaborating to further develop the tourism industry in Nepal. In fact, the tourism sector is one of the success stories of private sector’s involvement in the tourism sector. Yet, despite the success story, the tourism sector is still beset with problems. Amongst them, the lack of infrastructure and facilities to attract more tourists and induce them to stay for a longer period are just but two. Since the government alone cannot come up with the necessary resources to fulfill the felt needs, resources have to be mobilised through private sector’s participation. In order to further boost the tourism industry in the country, the government, realising this fact has, in collaboration with the private sector, initiated plans to build and develop more infrastructure for the tourism industry as well as to provide more incentives to tourists wanting to stay for a longer period in Nepal. Similarly, to facilitate tourism entrepreneurs, the Tourism Development Board (TDB) has been established. With Nepal, over these decades, managing to become one of the major destinations for tourists, it is but natural for the government, which has invested substantial amount of its meagre resources in the tourism sector, to pin much hope on the tourism industry to contribute its share to further develop Nepal’s tourism sector. Towards this end, a provision has been made to levy tourist service tax on tourism related enterprises to fund the TDB which is specifically charged with carrying out tourism development activities. However, according to a news story in this daily, a vexing debate—who should pay the tourist service tax, the tourists or entrepreneurs?—seems to be bandied around in the portals of officialdom and tourism-related organisations. Although this provision was made two years ago, this debate has yet to be amicably resolved. But to allow it to fester on for long could, in the long run, hamper the future development of the nation’s foremost foreign exchange earning sector. Hence, in the larger interest of the nation, both the government and the tourism entrepreneurs must initial immediate moves to amicably resolve this issue.