RACE WIDE OPEN FOR PRIME MINISTER

RACE WIDE OPEN FOR PM

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 7 Aug.: Even as NC President Sushil Koirala revealed Saturday the main opposition would support a Maoist-led government if the peace process is concluded, second Maoist Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai said Maoists should lead a national unity government,
Bhattarai Saturday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal and said as the biggest party, UCPN (Maoist) should lead the successor government.
“As the largest party, UCPN (Maoist) should lead the government,” the second party vice-chairman said in Gorkha and claimed the party had selected his candidacy.
“I will be candidate for prime ministerial post as the party’s central committee unanimous decision,” Bhattarai said.
But First Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya told Radio Nepal Sunday Chairman Prachanda was ‘number one candidate and Bahuram Bhattarai number two”.
Three-time former Prime Minister and NC senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba also declared his candidacy in Gorkha Saturday as a supporters started a signature campaign to replace Ram Chandra Paudel as the party’s parliamentary party (PP) leader.
The PP leader is the party’s prime minister in waiting.
“Our party should lead the next government. There is no such restriction in the party to prevent me from being the prime minister. I can be the next PM,” Deuba said.
Deuba supporters have launched a party campaign to replace
Ram Chandra Paudel as parliamentary party (PP) leader
The PP leader is prime minister-in-waiting.
“I will myself propose Dahal as prime minister if the peace process
concludes on time and there is guarantee of a democratic constitution,” Koirala said Saturday demanding the resignation of prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal.
“I don’t understand why he has not stepped down,”
But in the same breath, Koirala said NC should lead
a successor national government.
“You will come to know about it after the prime minister resigns,” Koirala told reporters when asked who in the party would lead such a government.
PM Khanal has said he’ll resign this week if the peace process isn’t concluded.
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GONG OF HISTORIC BASANTAPUR TEMPLE BELL FALLS’ UNDER REPAIR
POST REPORT-
Kathmandu, 7 Aug.: The gong of the 200-year-old big bell smack in front of the temple of Taleju Bhawani at Basantapur Durbar Square collapsed on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. It fell off while morning puja was underway at the temple, The Kathmandu Post reports..

According to Basantapur local Rajan Maharjan, who is also the successor of ancient Newar authorities involved in the protection of Hanumandhoka Palace, the gong got detached while it was being pulled after the regular puja. The bell is rung regularly by the priest of Taleju Bhawani temple 108 times after the completion of daily puja. However, it fell on the sixth pull on Saturday.

The bell, built by King Rana Bahadur Shah in 1797, is rung only when worship is offered to Taleju Bhawani. The temple of Taleju, however, was built in the Malla period during the reign of King Mahendra Malla in 1564. The temple opens for public visit only on the day of Ashwin Shukla Nawami.

The big bell is supported by two stone pillars and has a tiled roof. Locals attribute the collapse of the gong to the lack of maintenance. According to Maharjan, stakeholders including the Department of Archaeology (DoA) and Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) seldom conduct any repair work to preserve the centuries old big bell.

Director General at the Department of Archaeology (DoA) Bishnu Raj Karki admitted that the bell is very important from the historical point of view but refused to take responsibility for its maintenance claiming that it is the job of the preservation committees set up at Basantapur under various stakeholders including KMC and the Ministry of Culture (MoC).

Hari Kumar Shrestha, Manager of Basantapur Durbar Square Conservation Programme under KMC, said the gong fell off despite regular maintenance.

“The accident is not a big issue,” he said. “We will repair the bell soon. We just need a couple of days to fix the gong back.”
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MORE PEOPLE IN TAX NET
Kathmandu, 7 Aug.: The Finance Ministry may not have achieved its revenue collection target last fiscal year, but its target of bringing more businesses and individuals under the tax net was attained.

Inland Revenue Department (IRD), the agency that looks after the inland revenue administration, added a total of 177,579 new taxpayers in 2010-11. The target, according to IRD, was of adding 150,000 new taxpayers.

“The number of new taxpayers surpassed the target set for the last fiscal year,” said Rajan Khanal, director general of IRD. The department that had targeted to bring 50,000 additional institutional taxpayers under the income tax net succeeded in adding 55,478 firms/institutions. Last year, the number of individuals registered under the income tax also surged by a whopping 115.59 percent. A total of 122,101 individuals were registered against the target of 100,000.

The last fiscal year also saw 14,785 existing taxpayers being upgraded to the Value Added Tax (VAT) payers’ list. A majority of those registered in the VAT were small and medium enterprises.

Top IRD officials attribute this success in adding more taxpayers to a number of factors including the probe against Value Added Tax (VAT) evaders, expansion of IRD service and the impact of tax compliance year (fiscal year 2009-10).

One of the key measures taken by IRD last year was the action against tax evaders by using fake VAT receipts. The government has already slapped tax and fines of Rs 2.7 billion to 216 firms that were involved in tax evasion using fake VAT receipts. “This measure might have forced many tax evaders to come into the tax net,” said Khanal.

According to IRD officials, the impact of the tax compliance year 2009-10 was also seen last year. The department had announced FY 2009-10 as tax compliance year. “The huge rise in the new taxpayers’ number is the result of the tax compliance year,” said Laxman Aryal, deputy director general of IRD.

Top IRD officials say the department last year reached to numerous potential taxpayers including teachers, civil servants, army personnel and lawyers, among others, encouraging them to get the permanent account number (PAN). As a result, the income tax collection surpassed the target.

However, delayed budget presentation and slowdown in the import growth hit the department’s VAT and excise duty target. Although the IRD almost met the VAT target, it failed to meet the excise duty goal.





Online tax filing system a success



With the government introducing the online tax details filing system, a majority of taxpayers have started to submit their tax details online. According to the Finance Ministry’s annual report, 85 percent of income taxpayers, 90 percent of value added taxpayers and 60 percent of taxpayers, who pay before the schedule, used the online system. The ministry said it has been working on revising, upgrading and integrating the software being used to collect VAT, income tax and excise duty to make its use more simplified. “The ministry is also developing infrastructure for online tax payment,” said the ministry in its annual report.
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INTERVIEW

AIRCRAFT BEING ACQUIRED FOR NAC


Kathmandu 7 Aug.: Tourism Minister KHADGA BAHADUR BISHWAKARMA says a’cocrete process’ has started to acquire aircraft for Nepal Airlines Corporation [NAC)].
“Our airline is in pitiable condition,” Bishwakarma told The Rising Nepal.
Excerpts:
How have you taken the achievements of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY 2011) given some analysis that expected success is far away?
First of all, marking of NTY 2011 is a step toward the overall development of tourism sector in the country. The complete or partial success of the Year is interconnected with the government’s vision, national plan and programmes and mass mobilization method. There is nothing to worry much about the success of the Year given the achievement made so far.
However, from the standpoint of overall goal, we have had to do greater hard-work. Now, while talking about the overall goal, we have to see it from the angle whether it is fixed by the state’s vision and national planning for development of tourism sector. In this respect, I have found out that our country lacked such a vision and planning in the past. And you can calculate the extent of success of any goal made without the base, that is, vision and planning, and the challenges to meet the target. Despite this, we have already initiated the process at war-footing level to meet the goal of this national tourism campaign. Hence, I am hopeful that we will meet the goal or reach close to it.
You raised the issue of national vision and planning for the development of tourism sector and its lacking in the country. Have taken any steps to fill the void?
Of course, if there is anything I have tried hard and employed most of my time since I assumed the responsibility, it is for the vision and the plan. Now, we have concluded that there is no country in the world which has as abundant potentials for tourism as ours does. We have also identified the characters of Nepal’s tourism sector, which was lacking in the past, and concluded them as natural, religious and cultural and historical (or war) characters. Focusing on this specialty, which is incomparable and unprecedented, we have made a vision to make Nepal a model tourism destination in 15 years. This is the first thing.
Secondly, we thought about the planning to materialize the vision or meet the goal. We reviewed the past and found out that tourism sector had been developed in a spontaneous manner and only the capital city Kathmandu, Pokhara and Chitwan were focused. But if you see our country, it has many places from east to west with profuse tourism potentials, for example, the Arun Valley in the east, Rara Lake and Khaptad area in the west. However, these places have not been developed for tourism as such due to lack of national plan. Keeping all this in view, we have prepared a national plan and included it in the government’s policies and programmes as well as the annual budget. Depending on these possibilities and basing on the aforementioned characters, we have forwarded a concept of 17 tourism zones (TZs) in the country.
Thirdly, we have made plans to set up an integrated tourist service centre (ITSC) in all these TZs. Sanitary of the tourist point, service, security and healthcare of the tourists are the focal points of such ITSCs. We are about to operate six of such ITCs in TZs like Khapdat-Dhamerasung, Rara, Rolpa-Jaljala-Dhorpatan, Ruru Resunga, Arun Valley and Mithila. The healthcare facilities in the ITSCs will also serve the common people.
We are focusing on development of infrastructures across the country centralising development of these TZs and there have been some allocation of budget for it, for example, eight million rupees have been allotted for building a special government resort in Rara Lake in the budget of current fiscal year.
Now, we have redefined the NTY-2011 as the first step of our campaign to develop Nepal as a model tourism country in 15 years. As a campaign, we will have NTY-2012, NTY-2013 and so on for fifteen years and meet our final goal building on the achievement made on yearly basis.
Air connectivity and services are no less important for the development of tourism sector. However, our national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), has very few planes to bring in the tourists from abroad. Have you any plans to help NAC buy new planes?
Yes, a concrete process has already been started to this end. We understand that tourism sector could have been more developed if we had better and expanded international air services of our own. Although there are other airlines services, our national flag carrier, NAC, is in a pitiful condition. Concerned with this fact, I devoted a large chunk of my time and found out that the NAC was neck dip in corruption and commission and then I concluded that it was my duty to save it by pulling it up catching its hair-tip.
As my first and bold step, I dissolved the NAC board, in which there was much tussle, and set up a new one. Now, I suppose the step has circulated a new life in the NAC, a new hope has been infused in the staff there. Keeping aside for the time being the development of policy, structures, manpower and planning of the NAC, we are focused on purchasing new planes for it so that we can expand and advance the air services. I hope a concrete decision of the process initiated will come out within a few days. I have made a study of the barriers in the plane-purchasing process of the past and the related problems. I hope NAC will have new planes before very soon, the end of NTY-2011.
Seen from the point of economic and infrastructure development, Karnali region is backward. As you also represent this region in the government, have you initiated any plans for developing tourism sector there?
This is a very significant question for me. Above I only talked about overall development of tourism in the country. When we consider Karnali from its past and present, its economic, social, cultural and mass psychology make-up, the region cannot be limited to five districts rather it incorporates other district like Jajarkot, Dailekh and Surkhet. Hence, a new definition of Karnali is needed for its real development.
Even the Karnali as we understand today has incomparable potentials for tourism. Keeping this in mind, we have made plans to make the Rara Lake the centre of tourism development in the region linking it with Surkhet via Julmla and Dailekh, Mansarowar via Humla and Khapdat via Resunga of Achham. We are also stressing on infrastructure development, for this we have forwarded a plan to develop an international airport in Surkhet, immediately upgrade the Talcha airport of Rara and construct a trekking route from Talcha to Rara Lake.
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