98.7 PERCENT OF TARGETED REVENUE COLLECTRF IN 10 MONTHS, BALANCE WILL BE COLLECTED IN TWO MORE MONTHS Kathmandu, 3 June: Government has collected Rs.190.8 billion or 98.7 percent of the targeted revenue in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, finance ministry said. Government hopes to collect the balance in the remaining two months. nnnn ANTIBIOTICS POLICY DOCUMENT IN LIMBO Kathmandu, 3 June: Even after at least four years of effort, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has not been able to prepare guidelines for the distribution of antibiotic medicine. Four years ago, the ministry prepared a draft of the guidelines and it has been gathering dust ever since, The Himalayan Times reports.. The draft aims to regulate the distribution of antibiotic medicine and prevent drug stores from selling prohibited drugs, Bhupendra Thapa, chief of the drug/standardisation section at the MoHP, said. “The ministry has not been able to come up with the guidelines as it had to deal with other heath issues that demanded its urgent attention,” he said, adding that the ministry will finalise the guidelines soon. Although the Drug Act-1978 prohibits the sale of antibiotics without doctor’s prescription, drug stores are not playing by the act, concedes Thapa. The government has been unable to take legal action against these drug stores for want of proof against the stores, he added, calling on drug stores to follow ethical practices while selling drugs. Lack of standard guidelines for physicians, the prevailing practice — on the part of drug stores — of selling medicines without doctor’s prescription, inadequate monitoring and irrational self-administration or prescription of drugs are major factors contributing to the inappropriate use of antibiotics. “The country lacks specific guidelines on antibiotic distribution,” Thapa said. To prevent the misuse and abuse of drugs, the Drug Act-1978 has classified drugs into three categories taking into account their constituents, efficacy and use as per Drug Standard Regulations. Group ‘A’ include medicines like narcotics and potent therapeutic agents, group ‘B’ includes antibiotics, hormones and general therapeutic agents, while group ‘C’ includes other common drugs. Drugs in group A and B are prescriptive drugs. According to the Drug Act Amendment-2001, there is a provision to allocate the prescriptive drugs for physicians, integrated physicians or health workers. nnnn AIR SERVICE AGREEMENTS POSTPONED Kathmandu, 3 June: Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has postponed all its plans regarding new air service agreements (ASAs) due to the unresolved case of Air Arabia at the Supreme Court. Ministry was planning to ink new air service agreements with Vietnam, Indonesia, US and Australia, The Himalayan Times reports. “At present, the case regarding Air Arabia is at the Supreme Court and is yet to be decided. We have decided to postpone our plans related to new ASAs and review of existing ASAs until the case has been resolved,” said joint secretary at the ministry Suresh Acharya, adding that the division has already received directions to review existing ASAs and sign new ones. However, according to Acharya, the ministry is still waiting for the final decision regarding the case related to Air Arabia to start work on new plans and programmes. The ministry has already received proposals for new air service agreements from Vietnam, Indonesia, the US and Australia and had already started the preparations for the new air service agreements with those four countries. Vietnam approached for an air service agreement about eight months back during the meeting of Asia-Pacific region. Similarly, Australia’s proposal was forwarded in 2006. According to the ministry, Australia has a very open air policy which was not acceptable in the context of our country then. Along with the new air service agreements that are in the pipeline, the country is also planning to revise air service agreements with the UK, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. “A parliamentary committee earlier had approved the proposal of the ministry to revise the agreements and make new agreements,” he said. The committee had also prevented Air Arabia from flying on the Kathmandu–Kuala Lumpur route against the ASA. The revised ASAs will include aviation commercial operations, aviation security and third party code sharing provisions. Nepal had signed an air service agreement with the UAE in 1999, which was revised in 2007, and it includes the right to operate flights on the Kathmandu–Kuala Lumpur route. The ministry had permitted Air Arabia to operate six flights a week on December 16, 2010. However, the parliamentary committee had directed the ministry to withdraw its decision on December 13, 2011, calling for a revision. Nepal has entered into air service agreements with 36 countries and 90 per cent of them have the fifth freedom right that is the right to carry passengers from one’s own country to a second country and from that country to a third country. Nnnn OIL IMPORT FALLS; NOC AGAIN PUSHES FOR LOANS Kathmandu, 3 June: Import of petroleum products has gone down sharply since Friday after debt-ridden Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) failed to pay enough to the Indian supplier to secure normal volume of fuel, Republica reports. According to NOC, the state-owned petroleum import monopolist received just 700 kiloliters (KL) of petroleum products from Raxaul, the largest import point through which the country sources some three-fourth of the national oil demand. The volume was less than one-third of what NOC was receiving daily from the Raxaul depot of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) till Thursday. The import was no better on Saturday. “The import volume has plummeted yet again. IOC has slashed the supplies as we could neither send enough money to finance import in normal volume nor could clear its outstanding dues,” said NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel. The corporation had failed to secure normal imports last month as well, but managed to pull through the adversity after the government lent it Rs 500 million, which it instantly transferred to the IOC. Fresh data of the corporation show its outstanding dues to settle to the Indian supplier has touched Rs 3.2 billion (IRs 2 billion). “Of that unsettled accounts, Rs 1.55 billion had accrued from excess export over payments made in April. Rest of the dues amount were freshly created in May,” added Dhungel. The shortfall in import would not result in any adverse impact on fuel distribution for the time being said officials. However, they noted the supply would eventually hurt if the corporation did not rapidly get the loans from Citizens Investment Trust (CIT) and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as arranged by the government. The government last week had decided to provide Rs 1.6 billion in loans to the corporation, including Rs 1 billion from CIT and Rs 600 million from EPF, for financing import. While the Ministry of Finance has already released Rs 500 million, the two financial institutions have lingered pledging the loans even after two weeks of decision. “We are constantly following up. But they say their board has not taken any decision on it yet,” said Dhungel. Sources at both EPF and CIT, meanwhile, said that their institutions were not positive towards pledging further loans to the NOC, which is already submerged in debt of well over Rs 23.17 billion. EPF has already pledged loans of Rs 6.40 billion to NOC, of which Rs 1.50 billion were issued earlier this year. Likewise, CIT´s loans to NOC too stands at Rs 4.13 billion, of which Rs 3 billion was pledged this year. But despite their reluctance, EPF and CIT are expected to issue fresh loans to the corporation soon as they do not wish to face the pressure that government might exert on them. nnnn ________________________________________