Thirteen Months of Nepali Congress

During the first thirteen months, Nepali Congress Party’s majority government has failed to satisfy the country’s business community

After Nepali Congress (NC) won an absolute majority in the general election last year, the business community had hoped for better days ahead. Unfortunately, the performance of the government has not been up to expectations, according to business sector leaders who participated in an opinion poll conducted by Business Age rating the government’s performance against a number of indicators.

One of the major points of the agenda that NC government claims itself to be pursuing is ‘reforms’ and it was also among the expectations of the business community. Assessing the government’s speed in introducing the reforms, about 79% respondents of the poll viewed it to be slow. Only a mere 14% rated it ‘just right’.

In the very beginning of it assuming power, NC government changed the working hours and days in the government offices in Kathmandu valley on an experimental basis. The hope was that it would save government expenditure and also help to improve environment. The environmental agenda was pursued very vigorously also in other respects at least on the surface. First it removed the diesel operated ‘Vikram tempos’ from the capital’s streets and later brought out the Nepal Vehicle Emission Standards, 2056. In an earlier opinion poll on the ‘emission standards’ (Business Age Vol. 2 No. 6), the businesspersons had pointed out that the standards were not enforced in earnest. Now, asked to rate the government’s seriousness regarding ‘pollution control’, about 64% of the business persons contacted have described it as ‘lacking’ as compared to only 14% rating it ‘just right’. In response to another question, 58% of respondents said that the reforms introduced in environment sector were ‘just right’, while 42% rated it ‘retrograde’. It means, though the reform measures were alright, the enforcement is lax. One respondent said that all reform measures are ‘halfhearted’. Another respondent said. "Attention may be high, but action is lacking". Devising measures alone cannot indicate that the government is working efficiently. Such measures are framed mostly in consultation with consultants or donors and finalized after repeated interactions. Efficiency of the government is tested mainly in implementation of the reforms.

Similar is the case in terms of other reforms (financial and taxation), according to the findings of the poll. Most hopeless of the reforms measures seem to be on matters related to labour and agriculture. About 75% of the respondents said that reforms introduced in the field of labour were ‘retrograde’ against 25% who called these measures ‘just right’. Among the measures that the government took during this period about labour were bringing out the labour policy, fixation of minimum wage for agricultural labour, revising upward the minimum wage for industrial and tea garden workers and finally, the abolition of Kamaiya system. The last one is also the latest and being widely acclaimed for being a very progressive decision. But it is also being heavily criticized for it was taken in a hurry, without enough homework. The result is more misery for the Kamaiyas, the very people the measure was targeted to help.

‘Decision in a hurry’ characterizes these 13 months also in other respects as shown by the respondents in reply to another question. About 36% of them said that the decisions of the government during the period were ‘mostly haphazard’, though about 29% said that these decisions were ‘mostly logical’. Another 29% said that these decisions were ‘overall logical’.

Another area of very high concern for the business sector has been security. About 93% of the respondents said that the government’s attention on this problem was either ‘lacking’ or ‘extremely lacking’. And this concern is most obvious when one considers the fact that a vast geographical area

2. How positive do you find the reform measures that the present government has been introducing in the following areas?

3. How business-friendly do you find the present NC government under GP Koirala as compared to the earlier one under KP Bhattarai?

4. Viewing them collectively, how logical have been the various decisions of the present government (e.g. antipollution law, downsizing the council of ministers, abolishing Kamaiya system, spreading the tax net, raising salary of government employee etc.)?

5. How sufficient and lacking do you find the government's attention on the following areas?

has already gone out of reach for companies, because they cannot sell their goods in those places. Thus, the already small Nepali market has become smaller.

These thirteen months were in fact a period of political instability, though it should have been the opposite, given that a single party has absolute majority in the parliament. But the country has already got its second Prime Minister of this period, and if the latest round of bickering within the ruling party are any indication, the country is likely to have a third Prime Minister very soon.

However, the business leaders have found no difference in business friendliness of the first and second NC governments of these 13 months. A sizeable majority of 72% respondents said that they do not find any difference between the governments headed by former Prime Minister KP Bhattarai or the present Prime Minister GP Koirala in being business-friendly. Only about 14% of them rated the present government better. Almost equal percentage of them said the present government is worse than the previous one in terms of being business-friendly.