MJFL THREAT TO QUIT GOVT. REMAINS A MERE THREAT

Kathmandu, 21 March: A parliamentary party meeting of MJFL
Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar, who is also deputy prime minister and home minister, warned major parties Tuesday of stern action if peace process and a constitution ensuring a federation aren’t completed by 12 April.
The warning followed a two-day meeting of the parliamentary party
meeting called by lawmakers dissatisfied with Gachedhar.
During heated debates at the meeting, demands were pressed for the recalled of the party team from government or even total withdrawal for failure to push implementation with Maoists implementation to mplement a 4-point agreement to puh regional demands.
None of that happened.
The party decided to conduct mobilization campaign in 22 districts
of Madhes this week to push fo a constitution with guarantees for autonomous Madhes state.
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DAY ONE OF SLC EXAMS PEACEFUL
Kathmandu, 21 March: The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination-2068 was held today across the nation in a peaceful environment, with Compulsory English exam starting at 8:00 am sharp, The Himalayan Times reports from Bhakatapur.

Ambika Prasad Regmi, deputy controller, Office of the Controller of Examinations, Sanothimi, said today’s exam was conducted peacefully and decently, except for a few incidents.

“Some superintendents, who were found to have used unfair means to help examinees, have been booked by the District Examination Coordinator Committee for legal action,” he said. However, he did not disclose the identities of the superintendents and others involved in unfair means.

A total of 528,257 students appeared on the first day of SLC exam this year.

Of the 446,166 examinees in the regular category, 229,751 are boys and 216,233 are girls, while out of 82,091 examinees in the exempted category, 36,341 are boys and 45,942 are girls.

Altogether 496,243 students, including 229,791 boys and 206,620 girls appeared in the SLC exam last year at 1,672 examination centres.

Five expatriates — two in Kathmandu, two in Lalitpur and one in Biratnagar — also attended the exam.

Kathmandu District Education Officer Baikuntha Aryal said the first day of the exam passed off peacefully in the Capital.

He said two expatriates from Pakistan today sat for the exam at Bansbari-based Bansbari Secondary School. He said there were 84 exam centres for 34,187 examinees in the district.

Lalitpur DEO Mana Kaji Shrestha said Bishal Tamang was expelled from Yashodhara Bouddha Secondary School exam centre in Lalitpur for cheating.

Samundra KC, a student of Children Garden Academy, Imadol, Lalitpur, who had exam centre at Gambhir Samundra Setu School, said questions were easier than in the send-up exam.

He said, “There was a printing mistake in Question No 2, C (b). Instead of the word ‘Stop’, there was ‘Shop’ in the question.”

The question with the mistake read: “Why did the writer have to shop his vehicle so often?”

Regmi admitted that there were a few printing mistakes and assured that the students’ marks would not be deducted for the mistake made by the OCE.

Exam for Compulsory Nepali will be held tomorrow, Mathematics on March 22, Science on 23, Social Studies on 25, Environment, Health and Population on 26, optional subject first paper on 27 and optional subject second paper on 28.
)stdenrs sit for compulsory nepali examonations wednesdaymornng0
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HOME MINISTER APPROVES DRAFT BILL ON NATIONAL ID CARD
Kathmandu, 21 March: The Ministry of Home Affairs today sent the draft bill of the National ID Card back to the Ministry of Law and Justice after Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar approved it to forward the
Process, The Himalayan Times reports.

Last week, Minister for Law and Justice Brijesh Kumar Gupta rejected the NID draft and sent it back to the National Identity Card Ma-nagement Centre saying that political consensus was a must to forward the pro-cess. According to MoHA sources, chances to pass the bill this time are high as the home minister himself has been convinced that the NID issuance is necessary.

“We hope the bill will not get stuck in the MoLJ this time as Minister Gachha-dar, co-ordinator of the all Madhes-based parties, is positive,” a highly placed source at the MoHA said.

Madhes-based parties, including that of Minister Gupta’s Tarai Madhes Democratic Party, have been objecting to the idea of issuing NID cards based on the data collected by the Election Commission.

The bill had been gathering dust in the MoLJ for nine months before Minister Gupta returned it to the NIDMC. While returning the bill draft, the card management centre submitted a nine-point clarification on why the NID card is a must.

NIDMC also urged Gupta to seek political consensus in Parliament and approve the bill to avoid unnecessary delay in issuing cards. The law minister must give the bill a go-ahead before sending it to the Cabinet.

The government has already earmarked budget for the project to start issuing the multi-purpose bio-metric NID cards to all the citizens from this fiscal.

The government had announced that it would issue 400,000 NIDs in the first phase. Around two years ago, the Cabinet had agreed in principle to issue the biometric machine readable NID to all citizens.
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PARTY UNITY IN UCPN (Maoist) ONLY IF PEACE PROPOSAL ACCEPTED BY REBELS SAYS PARTY CHIEF
Katahmandu, 21 March : Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Tuesday that the party could remain united only if the radical faction switches over to the line of peace and constitution, adding that the forthcoming meeting of the central committee (CC) would be crucial in deciding the party´s
Fate, Kiran Pun reports in Republica.

“The party line they [the party radicals led by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya] have been floating will materialize only if we reignite insurgency. But that would be suicidal. So they must stick to the line of peace and constitution and keep the party unity intact,” a participant quoted Dahal as telling a gathering of around 100 CC members close to the party establishment.

According to sources, Dahal told the leaders that he will ask the hardliners to attend the CC meeting to be held shortly and formulate the same tactical line and political programs for the sake of party unity as well as peace and constitution.

“If they do not attend the meeting, let´s hold a formal CC meeting [without the participation of the hardliners] to take decisions on the peace process,” a participant quoted Dahal as saying at the conclusion of the two-day meeting of the party establishment.

Dahal argued that the line upheld by the hardliners would have meaning only if they go to war, but added that any such move is sure to backfire.



Dahal has asked the leaders to stay prepared to attend the crucial CC meeting.

With the constitution drafting deadline approaching fast, Dahal is hard-pressed to make compromises on peace and constitution drafting process. And that has soured the relations between Dahal and Baidya, who is against surrendering to parliamentary forces at the cost of the party´s ideological goals.

The hardliners have accused Dahal of not implementing the decisions of the last CC meeting to recall Bhattarai from the government and chalk out mass mobilization programs for the sake of “people´s constitution”.

The hardliners had also held a similar three-day meeting in Kathamdnu recently. The establishment faction has been pushed to a defensive position after the radicals began mobilizing ex-combatants to consolidate their position in and outside the party and announced protest programs unilaterally to topple the government.

The party establishment is expected to push for some concrete decisions on the peace process that will have repercussions on the party unity as well as the peace process.

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IRD CHARGING VAT FROM FOREIGN AIRLINES

Kathmandu, 21 March Even though existing Valued Added Tax (VAT) Act provisions VAT exemption on air transportation services, Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has been found collecting 13 percent VAT from the international airlines over the last one year, Samiksha Koirala writes isn Republica..

Such imposition of tax not only goes against the Act, which cites zero VAT for air transport service, but also against international norms, Board of Airlines Representatives Nepal (BARN) said. It has also submitted a memorandum to Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), requesting the government for exempting VAT.

BARN is an organization of 28 different international airlines that operate flights to Nepal. It comes amid complaints by airlines that operating flights from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is more expensive than other international airports. BARN said exemption of VAT would significantly help them lower the cost of operations.

Currently, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) charges for ground handling service on the basis of size of aircraft. For ground handling of mid-size Boeing 757, NAC charges $300 per flight, and lack of compliance with the law has forced airlines operators to pay additional 13 percent to this charge. NAC is earning the income of around Rs 1.50 billion annually through this service. Interestingly, IRD was not levying VAT on air transportation services till 14 months ago.

BARN President Madan Kharel said, "We have asked MoTCA to help us in exempting tax and have requested officials from IRD and Ministry of Finance (MoF) to stop charging the VAT."

He said no where in the world it was legal to charge VAT from foreigners in airside. He argued that the issue was not simply monetary, but could also raise questions on international relations as it was completely against the international practice.

The anomaly is clear as other airlines that don´t take service from NAC for ground handling are not bound to pay any extra charges. Thai Airways and Indian Airlines have separate units for ground handling and is not controlled by NAC.

On the other side NAC which is operating flights to other countries is not bound to pay VAT in any airport

At present, NAC is operating flights to different international sector, it doesn´t have to pay VAT.

Suresh Acharya, joint-secretary at MoTCA said that neither MoU of the airlines nor the exiting act of the country could charge VAT in ground handling services. He said that they had received the complaint from BARN and were holing talks with officials from IRD and MoF to resolve the issue.

Officials at IRD however said they were not familiar on the issue. Director General of IRD Tanka Mani Sharma said that they have not received any complaints so for.
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