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March, 2004 |
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Biznews |
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NTC Revises 10th Plan Targets Nepal Telecommunication Corporation (NTC)
has announced a revised target to add 800,000 fixed telephone lines by
the end of the 10th plan to the existing capacity of 450,000 lines.
Earlier, the corporation’s Tenth Plan target was to add 450,000
telephone lines. This
project will be carried out with a total budget of 25 billion rupees,
according to reports. After the expansion, the telephone density in the
country would go up to 4 percent from existing 1.7 percent and people
will be able to get telephone lines on demand. As of now, the
corporation claims to be able to provide telephone connection on demand
from two exchanges in Kathmandu - Babar Mahal and Anamnagar. Loan Recovery Tribunal Settles 1st Case As the example of first case settled by it
the Loan Recovery Tribunal, set up by the government in mid-July, has
brokered an agreement between Nepal Bank Ltd. and Durbar Hotel (P) Ltd. As per the
agreement, the bank has waived Rs. 7.6 million in interests and the
hotel company has paid back Rs. 14 million as principal. Briefs # Nepali commercial
banks will be allowed to open accounts in the Khasa branch of Bank of
China situated across the Tatopani border post, according to reports
quoting the understanding between the authorities of the two countries
reached at a meeting held early February at Khasa. With this
arrangement, the payment for trade between Tibet and Nepal can be made
through banking channels. Till now, a large part of Nepal-Tibet trade is
under barter or through cash payment. #
The government has set up “one-window-system” for facilitating
exports by reducing the time needed for the exporters to obtain various
permits and other documents from different agencies. The “Export
Services House” set up within the Department of Commerce premises
houses offices of various agencies from which an exporter may need
different types of permits or documents. The management of the
“House” is to be done by a seven-member committee representing the
private sector business associations. #
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has started collecting
suggestions for drafting a new policy governing tourism. #
February 2004 recorded three important cases of businessmen cartels
triumphing over the government. The associations of construction
contractors, petroleum dealers and airline operators forced the
government to change the government’s three controversial decisions.
Reports however say, the controversial decisions were made by the lower
level staff without the notice of the higher up authorities. #
Nepal and India authorities have signed a controversial agreement to
allow direct cross-border passenger bus service between a number of
cities in the two countries. The agreement’s arrangement is not to be
applicable in cargo transport. The Nepali transport operators have
flayed the treaty as against the interest of the country. #
The Karnali Development Bank (KDB) commenced its operation late February
with its head office at Nepalganj. The authorized capital of the bank is
Rs. 50 million of which Rs. 20 million is issued and Rs. 10.02 million
is paid up. # Everest Bank Ltd.
has signed an agreement with Small Choice Technologies (SCT) for the
expansion of the bank's ATM and debit card services. # Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Nepal has issued two auditing standards to be
effective from mid-July 2004. The new standards are NSA 09 (Audit
Sampling and Other Selective Testing Procedures) and NSA 10 (Going
Concern). How Improved is Birgunj Customs? Based
on the performance indicators prepared by the Department of Customs (DOCus),
Birgunj Customs Office had been judged the best among all customs
offices in the consecutive two months between mid-October and
mid-December. This has pulled the attention of everyone towards the
internal management of this customs office. In order to
improve the notorious image of the customs offices, there have been some
initiatives taken from within the department. As it is difficult to put
a full stop to the prevailing practice among the customs officials to
take bribes, the department has come up with a three-year plan to reform
the customs administration. Performance evaluation standards have been
set and implemented starting from the previous fiscal year, informs
Krishna Hari Baskota, the Director General (DG) of the department.
Revenue collection as per the targets, checking illegal transactions,
clearance of arrears in accounts, buying of undervalued goods, seizing
illegal goods etc. are the tasks that the employees at these offices
have to execute and the standards set for the evaluation of the
work-efficiency of the customs offices are based on these jobs. Based on
the performance on these tasks, marks are assigned to find out the
relative positions of merit of the different customs offices. With
effect from the beginning of this fiscal year, i.e. mid-July 2003, every
month the results on the performance of these offices are made public.
Actions are initiated against those offices which can’t score at least
66% of the marks. It may be
recalled that as many as 18 officials of this department were
charge-sheeted by the CIAA last year. Looking at this fact, this reforms
plan is indeed the need of the time and it is very necessary to closely
watch the impact and achievements of this plan at the customs offices. The Chairman
of the Federation of the Customs Agents, Kashiraj Upadhyaya says,” We
can’t conclude that bribery has been checked only because there is
increase in revenue collection.” He further adds,” For years there
are the same old faces working in the Birgunj Customs and this has made
them strongly rooted there making it easy for them to spread their
illegal links.” However, he
also accepts the fact that the work is getting executed promptly at
Birganj customs as a result of the improved administration at this
office. This view is shared also by Om Prakash Rungta, the President of
Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BjCCI), who says there have
been improvements lately. But he still sees the need for the customs
office to be more practical while making valuation of the goods,
imposing customs duty and VAT, and adding up insurance cost to the
invoice value. “The
officers should be able to understand the practical realities of the
business,” he adds. In an office
that collects more than 50% of the total customs revenue of the country,
it is not fair that there is utter lack of proper infrastructure such as
sheds and processing yard, says Umesh Chandra Thakur, the vice-president
of BjCCI. He suggests that improvement in physical infrastructure should
be equally emphasized with the improvements taking place in the
administrate procedures. Bodhraj
Niraula, the head of the Birgunj Customs, says, “We had already taken
steps for reforms in the internal affairs of the office even before the
three-year reforms plan of the department was brought out. For example,
we had already been following the two hours norm for completing any
work. If there is delay in the execution of the work, complaints are
made that the customs people are bargaining for bribe. This was the
reason why we first opted for this step.” He adds,
“Birgunj Customs holds interaction programmes with the clearing agents
every Sunday at 2 pm and decides on the complaints that come forward.”
However, he also opines that still there is need for more reforms to be
implemented. “But it is difficult to control such activities like the
clients offering ‘tea expenses’ to the customs staff when their work
is executed promptly,” says he. While
complaining that bribery is still rife in the customs clearing, the
business people and agents both say that they will not hesitate to pay
some money when their work is done on time. The workload
here being heavy and it being the most important border pass of the
country, reforms will naturally take quite some time to be fully
implemented at Birgunj Customs. When asked about the current situation,
the practice of political, administrative, social and media sector
people to take gifts from the customs, Niraula strongly puts that during
his tenure as the head, he has totally checked such practices. Chandra Kishor from Birganj |
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