BUDGET 19 NOV.

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: The budget will be presented to parliament Friday 19 November despite Maoist objection.
The cabinet took the decision Monday morning.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who told a public meeting in east Nepal Sunday, the budget will come Friday, briefed the cabinet Monday morning.
The government is preparing for a showdown with the opposition Maoists over the budget presentation.
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VISITING SAUDI PRINCE TO BE HONOURED

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Visiting Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Tatal, nephew of King Abdullah, will be awarded with a national honour.
The cabinet took the decision Monday morning.
President Dr Ram Baran Yadav will present the Maha Ujjal Rashradip to the visitor Monday.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will hold discussions with the prince in Saudi investments and opening a Saudi embassy in Nepal.
The prince, one of 20 richest men in the world, Sunday held discussions with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala.
Koirala will lead a delegation of top foreign ministry officials to hold discussions with the prince Monday.
The prince flew in Saturday with a 30plus entourage and is staying
at Hayatt Regency Hotel.
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EC DECISION CHALLENGED

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: A writ was filed at the supreme court Sunday to overturn an earlier decision of the election commission not to issue voter IDs only by against the presentation of citizenship certificates.
Advocate Purna Chandra Paudel said the commission took an unconstitutional decision to overturn its original decision.
Following intense political pressure, especially terai-based parties, th commission decided to issue voter IDs by presenting other government documents, including recommendations of VDCs.
Janamorcha Nepal says the recommendations of VDCs in terai under pressure of rebel groups won’t be reliable.
The commission itself said five million non-citizens were registered as voters in the April 2008 constituent assembly elections.
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EXPLORER NEPAL FINED
Kathmandu, 15 Nov: Inland Revenue Office (IRO) has directed Explorer Nepal, a capital-based travel and tour consortium, to pay Rs 17.8 million for evading Income Tax and Value Added Tax (VAT) by concealing taxable transactions, Republica reports.

Explorer Nepal which operates Kantipur Hotel, Bhojan Griha, and Gaida Wild Life Camp inside Chitwan National Park, is also the General Sales Agent for Austrian Air.
Officials at IRO Area No.1 said the company had been evading taxes by not disclosing transaction details. Of the total amount, the office has asked Explorer Nepal to pay Rs 10.3 million under VAT heading and remaining Rs 7.5 under income tax, including associated penalties.

“Our investigation found that transaction details submitted by the company to our office and turnover of the company through Dollar Account don´t match each other,” said Shisir Kumar Dhungana, Chief Administrator of IRO Area No.1.

As per the existing provision, entrepreneurs are required to deposit VAT within 25 days after the end of each month. In a bid to make entrepreneurs more responsible and pay taxes on time, the government has given them an opportunity to announce income and expenditure detail themselves.

The government officials can carry out investigation on the submitted details of their transactions, if they are not satisfied with the details.

“We carried out the investigation into the transactions of the company on suspicion of evading huge amount in revenue and found that it was also involved in evading VAT that is collected from the customers,” said Dhungana. In the past also, Explorer Nepal had evaded tax by transferring its income to its sister organizations -- Victoria Cross, Victoria Rivers and Inner Nepal.

Similarly, IRO Area No. 1 has also reckoned that Beijing Duck Restaurant in New Baneshwor evaded VAT worth Rs 300,000. Source at the IRO said the restaurant which is promoted by Chandiraj Dhakal, immediate past president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has been found to have evaded tax by submitting false transaction details to the government.

IRO has seized computer and related document from the restaurant.
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ARMY, APF DEPLOYED TO FFIGHT DENGUE

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Nepal Army (NA) and Armed Police Force (APF) personnel were deployed Sunday in Chitwan to fight
a dengue epidemic in the district where it broke out four months ago.
A door-to-door has been lunched in Bharatpur and Ratnanagar towns to kill mosquitoes, which spread the disease, by spraying.
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NEPAL POLICE THANKED BY AUSTRALIA

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: The embassy if Australia in Kathmandu
has extended its thanks to Nepal Police for the latter’s
cooperation in bringing an Australian pedophile to book, The
Himalayan Times reports.
A court in Sydney has handed out 15 months imprisonment to
Geoffrey Prigge, an Australian citizen, for molesting children in
Kathmandu.
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UML WELCOMES SUU KYI’S RELEASE

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: UML, leading the current government, Sunday welcomed the release of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by Burmese military leaders.
UML hoped the release would pave the way or democracy.
Nepal Sadbhavana Party and Nepal Nagarik Samaj also welcomed the release.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“I have also heard a rumour that the Maoists imparted training to India Maoists at the cantonments The Maoists are audacious so we have doubt over them. The government has not its presence in cantonments so we can’t verify what we have heard.”

(Defnce Minister Bidya Bhandari, The Kathmandu Post, 15 Nov.)
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PRACHANDA’S DOCUMENT SPARKS SUSPICION


Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Two vice-chairmen of Unified CPN-Maoist Mohan Baidhya and Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who had presented separate political documents during the last central committee meeting of the party — are suspicious about the new political

document of Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, which is being drafted without consulting them, Tika R Pradhan reports in The Himalayan Times.

Politburo member and principal secretary of the central office Shakti Basnet claimed that Dahal had been devoting much of his time these days to draft a new political document incorporating the spirit of the last central committee meeting, besides the major issues raised by the two vice-chairmen — Baidhya and Dr Bhattarai.

Basnet said the two vice-chairmen could also present their views on the document to be presented by Dahal if they had any objection. Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha also claimed that Dahal was drafting the new political document to be presented at the extended meeting as per the decision of the last central committee meeting.

Following the disclosure of six political documents of three top leaders that were read out at lower levels — up to district committees of the party — Dahal has begun drafting a new political document to present it in the extended meeting schedule to be held at Palungtar of Gorkha district from November 21.

However, Baidhya and Dr Bhattarai have been kept in dark about the new document and they have become suspicious about Dahal’s intention. Both the leaders have said the sixth extended meeting would only dwell on the six documents —three documents and three clarifications — that were presented to the cadres.

A standing committee member close to Dr Bhattarai claimed that the central committee meeting would not discuss the secretly drafted personal document of Dahal, let alone taking it up in the extended meeting. The upcoming central committee meeting to be held prior to the extended meeting will have to endorse any document to be discussed in the extended meeting.

Talking to THT, another politburo member, Devendra Poudel, claimed that there was no decision in the party to take up the chairman’s document, ignoring the documents presented to lower committees along with their clarifications.

Party Secretary CP Gajurel said the central committee meeting never decided that chairman would present any document besides the six authentic documents that were presented to lower rungs of the party.
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COURT ORDERS REINSTATEMENT





Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: - The Supreme Court (SC) has issued an order asking Nepal Tourism Board to reinstate its three executive members who were sacked last year, RSS reports.
A joint bench of Justices Balaram KC and Mohan Prakash Sitaula today took the decision to this effect following a writ petition filed by Nimi Sherpa, Ganesh Simkhada and Agni Prasad Kandel.
The petitioners were terminated from the Board according to the ministerial-level decision on September 24, 2009.
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SPEAKER RULES OUT AUTHORITY TO ACT AGAINST SATUTE





Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Speaker Subash Nemwang said Sunday he could not take a decision against the legislature-parliament regulations and other existing laws, RSS reports.
I have not any special rights or autocratic rights to move ahead against these legal provisions, Speaker Nemwang made it clear adding, "Whatever proposal I bring in the legislature-parliament, it will not not be passed but rendered meaningless if the political parties fail to forge consensus."
Reminding that the interim constitution has stated that the constituent assembly and the legislature-parliament should be run as per the agreement among the political parties, Speaker Nemwang reiterated that there was not any laternative of reaching solution through the constitution and the regulations.
He informed that the process of election to the prime minister will be taken ahead holding discussions with all political parties and the Business Advisory Committee tomorrow.
Moreover, Speaker Nemwang said though all political parties were univocal against the present process of election, they still had different views on the alternative to this process.
However, he expressed his commitment that he would honour the Supreme Court verdict on the ongoing electoral process as it has drawn his attention and of the parliament.
He informed that he today received a formal letter of the Supreme Court which has drawn the attention of his own and the parliament regarding the ongoing election to the prime minister.

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IOC, OCA BACK ORADHAN-LED NOC

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) have slammed the Supreme Court (SC) verdict regarding Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) saying that the ruling of Nepal´s apex court is unacceptable to them, Ahya Phuyal reports in Republica from Guangzhou, China.

Pere Miro, Director of Olympic Solidarity at the IOC, and the OCA Manager and Technical Director, Husain Al-Musallam, have written a letter to the NOC backing Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan as the legitimate president of NOC despite being aware of the controversy it is embroiled in.
The SC had ruled the NOC led by Pradhan as illegitimate on October 4, and recognized the former working committee of NOC led by Rukma Shumsher Rana as authentic. The IOC and the OCA, however, have termed it unacceptable.

"The IOC and the OCA are aware of all sides of the dispute regarding the NOC.

The IOC and the OCA, therefore, want to attest that the NOC whose president is Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan and the general secretary is Jeevan Ram Shrestha is the only legitimate body because the election of NOC held on March 3, 2007 was completely lawful," states the letter signed by Miro and Al-Musallam. "Only this committee has the rights to use the five rings of Olympics and to launch the campaign of Olympics," states the letter.

Miro, who came to Guangzhou for the ongoing 16th Asian Games, said before his return that the five rings of Olympics and its name are the copyrights of IOC and no institution other than the authorized one can use them.

"IOC has its own charter and we can function only according to it. No one else can use the Olympics rings and its name in any country without our permission," said the NOC General Secretary, Shrestha, quoting Miro, with regards to the SC decision.

Anyone is free to operate sports activities of their country in their own way without using the name and the rings of Olympics. But Miro has warned, if they do so, it will break the relations with the IOC family, according to Shrestha.

Shrestha further said that the IOC and the OCA have written letter to the Nepal Rastra Bank to unblock the accounts of the NOC which was frozen on the direction of the National Sports Council following the SC verdict.

President of the erstwhile working committee of the NOC, Rukma Shumsher Rana, and other members have also arrived at Guangzhou with the SC documents to meet the officials of the IOC and the OCA.
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CASINOS OWE MONEY

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: Casinos have millions to pay in royalty to the government as well as whopping rentals to hotels where they run their business. Rental dues, according to hoteliers, are as high as Rs 630 million, The Kathmandu Post reports.

“Casinos have Rs 1 billion liability if royalty, rental, provident fund of staff and dues to suppliers are added,” said a source. There is a total of Rs 230 million royalty dues till the last fiscal year.

Hoteliers say they’ve not received rent from casino operators. Casino Tara at Hyatt Regency has the highest rent due of Rs 280 million. Casino Anna at Hotel Annapurna has dues worth Rs 5.5 million. Rent dues of Casino Nepal and Casino Royal are Rs 200 million total. Casino Fulbari at Pokhara’s Fulbari Resort hasn’t paid Rs 30 million rent.

Ten casinos are running in the country. With the operators’ reluctance to pay rent, some hotels have already asked them to vacate. Hotel Shangri-La and Hyatt Regency have issued notices to them to clear out.

Meanwhile, Patan Appellate Court annulled its earlier interim order to stay their eviction and gave Shangri-La Hotel the go-ahead to throw out Casino Shangri-La.

A decade ago, casinos used to honeypots for tourists coming here. Over 50,000 tourists visited casinos annually. The operators also held promotional activities to woo customers. As casinos expanded, instead of promotion operators allowed Nepali citizens to enter. Now, casinos hardly get 5,000 foreign customers and they rely on Nepali citizens, said a hotelier.

Due to casinos’ refusal to pay royalty, the government has told the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) to recover the royalty from casinos. DRI has already frozen bank accounts of casinos and on Friday summoned casino owners. “If casino owners defy our call, we will arrest them,” said a senior DRI official.
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CHINESE VISITORS ARRIVING

Kathmandu, 15 Nov.: In what maybe seen as a series of bilateral engagements with Kathmandu, three separate Chinese dele be seen as a series of bilateral engagements with Kathmandu, three separate Chinese delegations are arriving here within the duration of a month on different dates, The Kathmandu Post reports.

More than a dozen political and official delegations have already arrived in Kathmandu since the beginning of this year, mostly to deliberate on Nepal’s commitment to a One-China policy and focus on Nepal’s ongoing protracted deadlock.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qiang Wei, secretary to the Qinghai Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, is arriving on a four-day visit on Nov. 25.

At the invitation of three major political parties—UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML)—the six-member delegation will be meeting Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, Maoist party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, among others. This would be the second high ranking political visit from Beijing this year. It is a political visit and the delegation will discuss the political situation of Nepal with the country’s leaders, said a source in the know about the visit.

Earlier, a 21-member high level Chinese delegation led by He Yong, Secretary at the Secretariat of Central Committee of CPC, had visited Kathmandu in the third

week of Sept.

Chinese Minister of Culture Cai Wu is also visiting Kathmandu at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture. Details of the itinerary and the agenda of the visit are yet to be confirmed but sources said that culture related exchanges between Kathmandu and Beijing are on the cards.

Meanwhile, a team of Government officials from the Chinese Public Security Ministry will visit Nepal around mid-Dec. and discuss the modalities and format of recently established security related mechanisms between Kathmandu and Beijing to contain anti-China activities in Nepal. The joint secretary looking after the cross border security affairs will be leading the delegation.

Kathmandu and Beijing had agreed around July-end to set up a mechanism to deal with information sharing, curbing cross border illegal activities and anti-China activities on Nepali soil.

“The chief Chinese concern is containing the Tibetans’ activities which China thinks are targeted against its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” sources added.gations are arriving here within the duration of a month on different dates.
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More than a dozen political and official delegations have already arrived in Kathmandu since the beginning of this year, mostly to deliberate on Nepal’s commitment to a One-China policy and focus on Nepal’s ongoing protracted deadlock.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qiang Wei, secretary to the Qinghai Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, is arriving on a four-day visit on Nov. 25.

At the invitation of three major political parties—UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN (UML)—the six-member delegation will be meeting Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, Maoist party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, among others. This would be the second high ranking political visit from Beijing this year. It is a political visit and the delegation will discuss the political situation of Nepal with the country’s leaders, said a source in the know about the visit.

Earlier, a 21-member high level Chinese delegation led by He Yong, Secretary at the Secretariat of Central Committee of CPC, had visited Kathmandu in the third

week of Sept.

Chinese Minister of Culture Cai Wu is also visiting Kathmandu at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture. Details of the itinerary and the agenda of the visit are yet to be confirmed but sources said that culture related exchanges between Kathmandu and Beijing are on the cards.

Meanwhile, a team of Government officials from the Chinese Public Security Ministry will visit Nepal around mid-Dec. and discuss the modalities and format of recently established security related mechanisms between Kathmandu and Beijing to contain anti-China activities in Nepal. The joint secretary looking after the cross border security affairs will be leading the delegation.

Kathmandu and Beijing had agreed around July-end to set up a mechanism to deal with information sharing, curbing cross border illegal activities and anti-China activities on Nepali soil.

“The chief Chinese concern is containing the Tibetans’ activities which China thinks are targeted against its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” sources added.
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