MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE BEGINS DETAILED DISCUSSION ON PRACHANDA REPORT

MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE BEGINS DISCUSSIONS IN CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON PRACHANDA PAPER

Kathmandu, 18 July: Detailed discussions on a policy paper presented by Chairman Prachanda to the long delayed central committee Sunday begins Monday.
The central committee is discussing a new Maoist team in government after demands in party for women, ethnic and regional representation.
The committee met only briefly Sunday.
The Maoist chief is under heavy pressure from factions led by Vice-chairmen Mohan Baidya and Dr.Baburam Bhattarai to share responsibilities.
Prachanda is resisting pressure to replace him as leader of the parliamentary party.
The in-fighting in the ruling party has delayed concluding the peace process and constitution drafting.
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STANDARD CHARTERED BANK LIMITED NEPAL HAS NEW CEO

Kathmandu, 18 July: Joseph Silvanaus has been appointed new CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Limited Nepal
In a career spanning 19-yearm he has worked as CEO of Chartered Bank in Afghanistan and Regional Head, Development Organizations, Southern Asia.
Silvanus succeeds Sujit Mundal who retired May 2011.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“The parties’ decision to delay the budget speech at the eleventh hour led to the leakage [of budget].The budget document was delayed by a day not because of the finance minister.”

(Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari, The Kathmandu Post, 18 July)
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MAOIST CHIEF PRESENTSCRISIS PLAN
Kathmandu, 18 July:: Amid simmering tension within the party, Unified CPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal presented his three-page political document at the Central Committee meeting today [Sunday], Tika R.Pradhan writes in The Himalayan Times..

The proposal, titled ‘On party’s immediate work plan’ focuses on peace and constitution with special emphasis on government and internal struggle within the party.

Following mounting pressure from top leaders of the party, including Vice-chairmen Mohan Baidhya, Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha, and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa, Chairman Dahal agreed for a proper work division within the party.

Dahal proposed to conclude at least the regrouping of combatants within the extended timeframe of the Constituent Assembly. The integration process should go ahead taking into consideration 10 different issues, he said.

They include leadership of the directorate under which PLAs are to be integrated, determination of their number, rank and integration on the basis of certain units. He added that combatants should be organised as a military force, ensuring effective responsibilities, democratisation and inclusiveness of security mechanism and formulation of national security policy, He advocated special provision for disabled combatants and appropriate rehabilitation package.

Productive dialogue with other political parties should be initiated immediately to forge an agreement on the number and modality of army integration in order to initiate the process or re-classification of the PLA.

All anti-peace activities, including reviving the war-time cases must be scrapped.

On constitution, Dahal proposed to prepare the first draft of the constitution by August 31. He stressed on issues to be included in the draft — federal republic constitution with restructuring of the state to end discrimination based on class, ethnicity, region and gender. He stressed on directly elected President, education, health, job and food security and called for ending all forms of feudalism and monopoly of foreign capitalism.

On government, Dahal claimed that appropriate steps on army integration could ensure a national consensus government under party’s leadership and only the Maoist-led government can ensure effective and respectable army integration.

“Party should begin preparations to form the national consensus government under the party’s leadership and if not, the incumbent government should be stren-gthened,” he said.

According to him, government should come up with a strategy to tackle the plot of reactionary forces to dissolve the CA. If they try to dissolve the government, the party should seek stern action, Chairman Dahal said.

On internal struggle within the party, Dahal proposed collective self criticism by top leaders for failing to implement the deal passed by the Central Committee. He is for conducting collective discussion forums after August 31 and a national convention following the district-level and state-level conventions. Dahal claimed that responsibilities for leaders should be allocated as per necessity of the movement and party unity.

On the immediate action plan, Dahal said a state committee level meeting should be organised by third week of August to achieve uniformity about party’s work plan. Central Committee member Kumar Poudel claimed that the five-member taskforce has been scrapped and handed over its responsibilities to the central office bearers.

Commenting on the proposal, pro-Baidhya politburo member Dharmendra Bastola said the document was brought through agreement, so there would not be a problem to endorse it.

Pro-Baburam Bhattarai politburo member Ram Karki said if the work division was done as per plan that would be good for the country.

Prachandapath

• Decide on leadership of directorate under which PLAs will be integrated.

• Conclude the regrouping of combatants

• Seek special provision for disabled combatants and appropriate rehabilitation package

• Talk to other parties
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KHETAN GROUP SELLS STAKE IN BOTTLERS NEPAL
Kathmandu, 18 July: In the largest-ever inter-company share trading, the Khetan Group sold out its entire stake in Bottlers Nepal Ltd (Balaju), the maker of Coca Cola carbonated drinks in Nepal, to Gorkha Brewery, a company whose 90 percent stake is owned by Dennish multinational brewer giant, Carlsberg Breweries, Prabhakar Ghimere writes in Republica.

The Khetan Group had a 22 percent stake in Bottlers Nepal Ltd (Balaju).

The leading business houses sold 428,805 units of shares worth Rs 725.1 million on Sunday, first day of the new fiscal year when reduced Capital Gain Tax (CGT) came into effect.

Gorkha Brewer is the largest beer maker in Nepal. In the new budget for the fiscal year 2011/12, the government has lowered the CGT on corporate share transactions to 10 percent from 15 percent. The group had bought the 22-percent stake at around Rs 300 million from Coca Cola Company last year.

The huge transaction jacked up the yawning Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index by a whopping 19.18 points, highest gain in recent weeks, to 378.41 points on Sunday. Gorkha Brewery has paid Rs 1,691 per unit of the shares with a face value of Rs 100. Following the transaction, Bottlers Nepal (Balaju) now owns 75 percent stake in the company while 22 percent is owned by Gorkha Brewery and other stakeholders own the remaining 3 percent stake of the US multinational company.

The Khetan Group, which is a privately-owned business conglomerate, said the purpose for offloading the stake is to shift its investments to the financial sector from the manufacturing sector.

"Since we are planning to go for acquisitions of banks with Laxmi Bank, we sold the shares of Bottlers Nepal (Balaju) to mobilize at least Rs 5 billion we need for the purpose," Rajendra Kumar Khetan, chairman of Khetan Group told Republica.

The group also has sizable stakes in two leading commercial banks — Laxmi Bank and Himalayan Bank — besides stakes in Everest Insurance and Prime Life Insurance.

The group last year sold its 40 percent stake in Gorkha Brewery to Carlsberg Singapore for around Rs 3 billion that trimmed its equity in the company to 10 percent while remaining 90 percent is owned by Carlsberg Singapore.

Gorkha Brewery, a dominant brand in the beer market in Nepal, is the producer of Carlsberg Beer, Tuborg Beer, San Miguel Beer, and Gorkha Beer.
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