NEPAL ASKS ISRAEL TO RESUME HIRING CAREGIVERS Kathmandu,, 5 Sept : The government is mulling various options to make the recruitment process of Nepali caregivers in Israel transparent after Israel stopped issuing visas to aspirant caregivers three years ago objecting to exorbitant commissions charged by Nepali manpower agencies, Prabhakar .Ghimerewritess in Republica. Talking to Republica on Monday, a top government source said senior officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MoLE) are discussing four options - involving the government in the recruitment process as practiced under the Employment Permit System (EPS) by South Korea, increasing the existing recruitment charge by manpower agents, verifying the recruitment documents through coordination between the embassies of both the countries, or interviewing the job aspirants before the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) gives employment permission to Israel - to ensure that the workers have not been overcharged by their manpower agents. Though the government has fixed the charge at Rs 75,000 per job-seeker (excluding air ticket), manpower agents have been found charging up to Rs 500,000. Minister for Labor and Employment Kumar Belbase invited Israeli ambassador to Nepal Hanan Goder-Goldberger to the ministry on Monday to seek Israel´s cooperation for restarting the recruitment of caregivers. "We urged Israeli envoy to resume issue of visas for Nepali caregivers. We will monitor the Nepali recruitment agencies and we are ready to establish a transparent system for selecting workers. We have also expected Israel´s cooperation in controlling exorbitant commissions being charged by Israeli local brokers," Minister Belbase told Republica after the meeting. Nepali recruitment agencies say the charge for sending Nepali workers increases due to high charges levied by the Israeli brokers. A total of 151 Nepali agencies are involved in sending workers to Israel. During the meeting Israeli ambassador Goldberger asked Nepal government to end the practice of ´under the table´ dealings between jobs seekers and manpower agencies. "Israeli envoy has expressed serious concerns over the practice of under the table agreement between recruitment agencies and job aspirants, which is the main reason for higher cost. He also said the Israel government would work to prevent Israeli recruitment agents from levying higher charges on Nepali recruitment agents," said Belbase. On the occasion Minister Belbase had stressed the need for establishing strong mechanism to end irregularities by ensuring transparency in the recruitment process. Currently, some 8,000 Nepalis are working as caregivers or farm workers in Israel, the most lucrative job market for Nepali women workers. At the meeting, the Israeli envoy had informed to Nepali officials that around 100 Nepali caregivers reached Israel during the fiscal year 2011/12. However, DoFE´s data shows that only eight Nepalis flew to Israel to work as caregivers during the year. nnnn ________________________________________ NOC SEEKS ANOTHER RS. 3B FROM GOVT. ONE DAY AFTER HIKE IN PRICE OF POL PRODUCRS Kathmandu, 5 5ept: A day after raising the petroleum prices, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has asked the government to either arrange Rs 3 billion or it might not be able to continue smooth supplies for long, Republica reports. The corporation asked for the money in a letter to the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies on Monday. It has also requested the Ministry of Finance to release Rs 1.54 billion in VAT refund - something which it owes from the government. NOC officials said they need the fund to settle its outstanding bills to the Indian supplier and also to regularize import, which has gone down of late due to its failure to pay enough to the Indian supplier, for the next three months. “The fund is crucial to ensure smooth supply during the festive season of Dashain, Tihar and Chhath,” stated NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel. According to the NOC, it has dues of around Rs 660 million to settle to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). “Beside, the Indian Oil Corporation has curtailed the supplies by half since last two weeks because we could not pay it enough to finance normal import,” said Dhungel. Amid meager payment, NOC says it is receiving just about 1,400 KL of petroleum products a day from Raxaul depot of the IOC, the largest import point. The volume is almost half of what it used to collect on any normal day. That is not all, the IOC has curtailed supply by similar extent from all other supply depots and refineries. “Consumers are not feeling the heat of the cut because we are maintaining supplies through stock. But this has depleted our reserve to about 36,000 kiloliters from more than 39,000 KL,” said Dhungel. As the demand for fuel rises during the festive season, officials said the NOC can neither afford to continue relying on stock to maintain supplies, nor it has enough fund to resume normal import. “It is true the hike decision has raised cost for consumers, but as it has not reuced import-sales price gap, we still suffer Rs 739.40 million a month at the new rates,” said Dhungel. Given the situation, NOC officials stated that their knocking of government´s door was only an obvious move. “We have a cumulative loss of about Rs 28 billion, our fund flow is in a complete mess and net worth stands negative at Rs 12 billion. Who will give us loans, if not the government?” commented other NOC officials. The corporation, which suffered a loss of around Rs 10 billion in 2011/12, also has outstanding debt of Rs 27.52 billion to repay to the government and different bank and financial institutions. Such soggy picture of the finances of the corporation exists because the governments over the last seven years turned deaf ears to experts call for gradual adjustment of local retail rates in line with the international trend and enforcement of automatic pricing mechanism (APM). However, as leaders refrained from taking such decisions, perceiving them as potential political risks, the governments of late have been forced to effect sharp rise in prices, landing sudden burden on consumers and sparking furor among student unions. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai refused to meet with the 19 agitating student unions that had announced of submitting a memorandum to the PM to protest Sunday´s price hike decision. He also paid no heed to their 24-hour ultimatum for the rollback. “The PM did not pledge us time to submit our memorandum. Hence, we have decided to hold dialogue from the street,” said Madhav Dhungel, president of All Nepal National Free Student Union affiliated with CPN UML. The student unions said they are starting their protests from Wednesday. Nnnn