Govt pays Rs 231.7m in bird flu compensation

KATHMANDU, JAN 08

The government has provided a total of Rs 231.7 million in compensation to poultry farmers hit by bird flu this year. 

The avian flu outbreak during mid-July to mid September period affected farmers from 12 districts. Besides three districts in the Kathmandu valley, the districts that were hit hard were Sindhuli, Makwanpur, Chitwan, Kaski, Kavrepalanchok and Rupandehi.

According to Regional Directorate of Livestock Services (RDLS), Kathmandu, 538 farmers in Bhaktapur received Rs 134.3 million, 237 poultry producers in

Govt still receives over 100 applications a day for politically motivated programs

KATHMANDU, July 6, 2012

Though the Ministry of Finance has already closed budget negotiations with different ministries, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) and the Department of Roads (DoR) are still receiving at least a hundred applications every day from political leaders and locals demanding budget for roads and bridges to be implemented at the local level.

“We have received at least 15,000 applications since December last year demanding budget mainly for roads and bridges in the coming fiscal. More than 14,000 of those applications are for local roads,” Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at MoPPWTM, told Republica on Thursday.

According to Sitaula, for the past couple of weeks MoPPWTM has been dealing with at least 100 applications a day demanding that their programs be forwarded to the National Planning Commission (NPC) -- the apex policy-making body of the government -- for implementation through district development committees (DDCs). Normally, DDCs formulate budget and prioritize the programs, including roads and bridges, at the local level.

Though the applications for budget for local programs started arriving in December last year, the number has been increasing as the budget announcement draws closer.

“As most of the people coming to us want to avoid the DDC´s process of implementing programs, they are frequenting MoPPWTM directly to put their programs under NPC,” said Sitaula. He said more than 80 percent of the applications are registered by people with political affiliations who are putting pressure on the government to implement the programs that serve their political interests rather than the people´s needs.

Last year also, 15,000 applications were registered at the ministry. Of them, 4,000 applications for construction of roads and bridges were approved and allocated Rs 500 million. However, only 2,500 programs had achieved their targeted implementation. “As implementation of the programs is not satisfactory, we are not recommending any such programs for the coming fiscal year,” said Sitaula.

Source: Republica

Govt to sponsor health insurance for all

KATHMANDU, May 17, 2012

The government is launching subsidized health insurance scheme for all citizens as it aims to raise people´s access to medical services and widen social safety net.

Once the program is rolled out, all insured can claim for expenses like doctor fees and medical bills.

However, it is still not clear what portion of the annual premium will be chipped in by the government and how much each individual has to contribute to purchase these insurance policies. Other details such as estimated government funding that is required, insurance coverage amount, claim settlement mechanism and issuer of these policies are also not available at the moment.

“To clarify these issues and give a concrete shape to the plan, we recently formed a steering committee under Praveen Mishra, secretary of the Ministry of Health and Population,” Kavi Raj Khanal, under secretary at the health ministry, told Republica.

The committee, which will hold its first meeting this Friday, will coordinate with other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, National Planning Commission and the Insurance Board to prepare the program.

In the initial phase, the government plans to launch the program in “few districts” as pilot projects. During this phase, it plans to rope in people living below the line of poverty.

“After these projects take off we will be able to assess the situation on the ground and gather experience based on which certain amendments can be made to the program,” Khanal said. “We then plan to take the program to people living below the poverty line.”

Government estimates put the number of households living below the line of poverty at 1.3 million. This means members of these families earn less than US$1.25 a day.

“We hope the scheme that we are launching will raise access of the poor to medical services,” Khanal said.

Once the government covers the poor population, it intends to expand its coverage to low-income group. “We aim to increase the coverage gradually in this manner until all the people get health insurance coverage,” Khanal said.

Source: Republica

Reserved Optimism

KATHMANDU, MAR 4, 2012

Reserved The realty is expecting some boom with significant growth in interest of the buyers and investment in the sector. With Nepal Rastra Bank easing up and some relief provided by the budget earlier this year, transactions have soared in the recent months. In addition to this, Department of Land Reform and Management is hopeful about achieving its goals regarding revenue collection in the current financial year, restoring the sector to its previous glory.

“However, it is too early to assume the realty will redeem itself from ongoing recession,” says Kamal Prasad Timalsina, undersecretary of Department of Land Reform and Management. According to him, the winter season is the peak season for the transactions related to land, raising the revenue collection.

As Nepali months of Poush and Magh are off-season for usual agricultural activity, they are most preferred time for purchasing and selling of the lands and real estate. Hence, Timalsina considers it to be too early to determine that the rises are due to the actual recovery of the realty. “Nevertheless, we not just met but exceeded our target of Rs 405.58 millions by collecting Rs 416.56 millions, making the total collection surpass the estimation by additional two per cent,” he shares.

The Department of Land Reform and Management has already achieved 73.81 per cent of its target set forward in revenue collection for this financial year. He adds, “Our target is that of Rs 4.40 billion and if the current trend continues, we are almost sure to meet the remaining 26 per cent easily by the end of this fiscal year.”

Last year’s collection on land revenues compared to the same time this year was just Rs 273.31 million, which is less by Rs 140 million. Moreover, the changes in the policies regarding disclosure of income source for transaction above Rs 10 million from previous Rs 5 million ceiling and facility for investors and Non Resident Nepalis, recovery of A-grade banks from their investments in the real estate, et cetera can be seen as the contributing factor for revival of the sector in recent months.

Dilip Neupane, vice president of the Realtors, says, “The transactions have indeed risen in last two months, but the reforms regarding house loan interest still needs to be brought forward as the investments done so far are on the small plots rather than bigger one. In addition to this, if someone had bought a piece of land at the rate of Rs 1.50 million per aana through bank loan, his cost has now been added by the bank interest and gone up to around Rs 1.80 million. Thus, this has resulted in the holding of the land by many such property owners, restricting the smooth flow of transactions.”

According to him, until the bank loan eases from its current 13 to 14 per cent and relieves such investors, the authentic appraisal of the sector is still unrealistic.

“People do not have confidence while investing in the realty as they are worried that their cash will be frozen once invested in these immobile assets. Thus, to continue this ongoing acceleration, it is very essential to revise these flaws.”

While the experts admit to the current acceleration in the realty sector, they are still sceptic about the longevity of the gained momentum. Nevertheless, if the trend continues, the realty — especially the land — could be a safe landing for the sector.

Source: THT

Govt laxity on buyback facility renewal hits RMG exports

KATHMANDU, Feb 23: 2012

Country´s ailing readymade garment industry has received a new jolt, as the government´s laxity to extend buyback facility, including tax and other incentives pledged to exporters operating with raw materials provided by importers, left a huge volume of raw materials stranded at major import points.

“The expiry of the facility has left a consignment of raw materials (supplied by the importers) worth $100,000 stranded at Tribhuvan International Airport,” Indra Chitrakar, senior staff of Sherpa Adventure Gear.

Sherpa Adventure Gear has been exporting ´Sherpa´ brand of garment under the facility by importing raw materials free of cost from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and China.

“If the government did not act promptly, we will lose business worth around $1 million,” Chitrakar told Republica on Wednesday.

Four other apparels manufacturers, including Ami Apparels and Kathmandu Star Fashion, too have lodged similar concerns at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS).

The government had introduced buyback guarantee facility four years ago and it was subject to renewal every two years. Though the latest tenure of the facility expired two months ago, exporters said MoCS has yet to take initiative to extend the facility.

About half a dozen RMG exporters are enjoying the buyback facility, exporting apparels worth around Rs 500 million to overseas markets every year.

“We had requested the government for extension of the buyback guarantee facility long before it expired. Sadly, our requests fell on deaf ears,” said Uday Raj Pandey, president of Garment Association of Nepal (GAN).

The ministry´s inaction, meanwhile, has put the fate of garment orders worth millions of rupees and jobs of hundreds of workers into uncertainty.

Ami Apparel that operates with 300 workers said lack of timely decision on buyback arrangement has exposed it to a risk of losing exports worth around Rs 80 million. The company has been exporting readymade garments to leading branded stores in India.

“We have shut down our factory temporarily. If the government did not extend the facility, we will be forced to shut it down permanently,” Rajesh Udas, proprietor of Ami Apparel, said.

Ashok Shakya, chairman of Kathmandu Star Fashion, too said the government´s indecisiveness is set to cost his industry business worth Rs 180 million. “We are facing shortage of raw materials. We´ve already informed buyers about the problem here,” he stated.

Kathmandu Star Fashion that employs over 500 people has been exporting garment to Europe and the US.

Shakya further said that Nepali apparels industry will face over 30 percent rise in production cost if the government did not renew the facility.

Under the buyback system, no importer of raw materials was required to keep deposits on imports supplied by the buyer and exporters were provided with bonded warehouse facility even without letter of credit. They were also exempted from paying bank guarantee charge.

Readymade garment was once the country´s largest exports commodity with annual exports crossing over Rs 12 billion in 1999/2000. However, its export has presently dropped to Rs 4.08 billion per annum.

Meanwhile, Lal Mani Joshi, secretary at the MoCS, said that ministry has received complaints over the issue and added that the government would take appropriate decisions within few days.

Source: Republica