FOUR FORMER FINANCE MINISTERS CRITICIZE GOVT. PLAN Kathmandu, 18 Oct.: Four former finance ministers in a joint statement blasted government’s “Economic Action Plan-2012. Ram Sharan Mahat of the Nepali Congress, Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Surendra Pandey of the CPN-UML and Prakash Chandra Lohani of the Rastriya Janashakti Party criticized the plan launched Tuesday. “When there is a dire need to hold elections, such a plan will definitely affect the poll process in the absence of political consensus.. "Billions of rupees have been distributed to cronies and fake cooperatives loyal to their parties. "This caretaker government does not have the authority to promote these bureaucrats. This is a ploy to promote people close to the government which lacks transparency," they said. Nnnn GOVT. WILL RUN OUT OF MONEY IN ONE MONTH Kathmandu, 18 Oct.: The lack of full budget has started to make its ill effects with ministries struggling to expedite development works and pay contractors. Government officials said that the situation had started to hit major development Projects, Prithviman Shrestha writes in The Kathmand Post.. The Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) has sought a permission from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to transfer budget for the road expansion plan in Kathmandu Valley from other headings. The MoPPWTM does not have adequate funds for the plan as the ministry is left with only one-third budget of last fiscal year’s expenditure in the project. Under the Article 96 of the interim consititution, the government is allowed to present a partial budget but it should exceed one-third of the previous year’s expenditure in the particular heading. The ministry has sought the MoF’s approval to transfer Rs 680 million from the budget allocated for projects such as tourism roads, regional roads and bridge construction along with postal roads. The budget allocated for those projects have remained unspent. The ministry had spent budget worth Rs 600 million in the road expansion works in Kathmandu Valley in the last fiscal year. “As per the constitutional provision, only Rs 200 million can be allocated for the expansion works which will be inadequate to complete the project,” said Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the MoPPWTM. “That’s why we sought an approval from the Ministry of Finance to transfer budget for the remaining task on road expansion.” But he said that works had been corried on the project at the moment despite shortage of budget . “We hope the Ministry of Finance will give a nod to the proposal,” said Sitaula, adding that the MoF had advised the MoPPWTM to arrange additional budget for certain projects from similar other under performing projects. Minister for Physical Planning Hridayas Tripathi had also expressed concerned over the development works being affected in the absence of full budget . Meanwhile, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) is facing a similar problem as it is struggling to pay the contractors that constructed its new building in Singha Durbar, where the ministry has since been relocated. The Singha Durbar Reconstruction Project, which constructed the new MoFALD building, has demanded the ministry to pay Rs 30 million to the contractor. But the ministry is not in a positon to pay more than Rs 10 million—the one-third of Rs 30 million that it spent last year. “We’ve asked the project for some time to arrange the funds,” said Dinesh Thapaliya, spokesperson of the MoFALD. The same ministry has been delaying payment to another contractor involved in rural road expansion under its Decentralized Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Programme (DRILP) for works carried out last year. The project, which started late last year, had spent just around Rs 320 million. That means, it can spend around Rs 110 million this year. “The amount is inadequate to pay to the contractor on last year’s expenditure let alone footing the expenses for this year,” said Thapaliya. “We have been asking the contractor to wait until second trimester for payment, while urging it to continue works.” According to him, despite being in a position to spend Rs 1 billion this year the project cannot do so at the moment due to the provision related to partial budget . The project aims to extend roads in 18 districts of the country. Likewise, another project under MoFALD, District Road Support Programme (DRSP) that aims to expand rural roads in Ramechhap, Khotang, Sindhuli and Okhaldhunga districts, is also facing a funding crisis in the absence of full budget . As a result, the government has been using the donor fund as it lacked counterpart fund. The government, supposed to allocate Rs 150 million in counterpart fund last year for the project, was forced to use up funds from the donor’s quota after it failed to arrange the amount. It means the government can now spend only Rs 50 million as per the constitutional provision. “We have asked the donor to continue funding under the government’s quota too for the time being,” said Thapaliya, lamenting that development works have been affected as there was confusion over the funding for any projects that were initiated last year. Nnnn 110 COMPANIES APPLY FOR LIQUOR FACTORIES Kathmandu, 18 Oct.: The government has received 110 applications to set up liquor factories within three months of the ban on new licenses being removed, The Kathmandu Post writes.. According to the Department of Industry (DoI), the applicants include the country’s leading business houses, and their combined proposed investment amounts to more than Rs 18 billion. The Cabinet scrapped an 11-year-old ban on setting up new liquor factories three months ago. DoI director general Dhruba Lal Rajbanshi said that the capital of the companies applying to open liquor factories ranged from Rs 50 million to Rs 2 billion. “We have submitted the applications to the Industrial Promotion Board,” said Rajbanshi, “It will give the go-ahead to the companies fulfilling the standards set by the DoI.” As per the DoI criteria, investors cannot establish liquor factories within a 500 m radius of religious or cultural sites, educational or health institutions, national parks and other sites determined by the government. Similarly, the successful applicants are required to implement their projects on a fast track basis. Bhaskar Raj Rajkarnikar, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and a member of the Industrial Promotion Board, said that the next meeting of the board would study the documents submitted by the applicants. “The names of the selected companies will be made public within two months,” he added. He said that it was high time the government relaxed restrictions on new permits and allowed existing companies to expand output. As per the Nepal Liquor Manufacturers’ Association (NELMA), the country imports liquor products worth Rs 4 billion annually while domestic output is worth Rs 11.70 billion. There are 15 large and medium-sized liquor factories registered at the DoI, 10 of which are operating. In October 2001, the Cabinet decided to halt issuing licenses to new liquor manufacturers following strong pressure from the UCPN (Maoist). Since then, the government has also forbidden existing factories to increase output. nnnn