NEPAL PLAYS HONG KONG IN ACC ELITE CUP Kathmandu, 9 Oct.: Nepal plays Hong Kong in the ACC Elite Cup being GroupB being hosted by UAE Tuesday. Nepal must win in against Hong Kong to qualify for the semi-final with a win against UAE ad Saudi Arabia and a loss against Kuwait. nnnn FIVE SECRETARIES BEING SUPERANNUATED Kathmandu, 9 Oct.: CIAA Secretary Bhagwat Kumar Kafle, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Ministry and Council of Ministers Tana Gautam, Secretary at the Auditor Genera’s Office Brindha Hada and Secretary at the Women’s Affairs Ministry Balaram Paudel are being superannuated. They have completed five years service in their present positions. nnnn WITH ELECTION ON CARDS, GOVT.PLANS RAISING INCOME TAX CEILING TO DRAW VOTE Kathmandu, 9 Oct The government is preparing to increase the ceiling of income tax exemption, something which will mainly relieve the salaried and fixed wage earning middle income groups as it will immediately lower their tax liability, thereby, raise their spending capacity, Republica reports.. “High inflation over the last three years has sharply shrunk the spending capacity of the fixed income earners. Hence, we have concluded it is high time we raised income tax exemption ceiling,” said Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota. The tax exemption limit, which presently stands at Rs 160,000 for individuals and Rs 200,000 for couples, was last adjusted in 2009. However, Baskota did not disclose the extent by which the ceiling will be raised. Also, to get the actual raise in the ceiling, the people will need to wait for the announcement of full-fledged budget. And the fate of the full-fledged budget, despite bring pushed strongly by the government and the private sector, still remains uncertain as the government has not yet managed to hammer out political understanding with the opposition parties to announce it. Apart from eyeing to relieve the fixed-income groups, the government is also preparing to increase the ceiling that defines any industry and firm as a large tax payer, enabling them to acquire special services. Presently, any firm that records an annual turnover of more than Rs 250 million is defined as large tax payer. “We are raising that threshold,” said Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun. He, however, did not disclose the new threshold. Officials said the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has agreed at raising this turnover threshold mainly after the business community pushed it either to revise the ceiling or open branches of large taxpayers´ office (LTO) in major cities outside the Kathmandu Valley. “With businesses and inflation growing at rapid rate, the number of large tax payers is rising rapidly outside the Valley as well. However, for filing assessment, paying taxes and every other activity they need to come to Kathmandu. This has created inconveniences for them,” said Suraj Vaidya, president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI). Speaking at a national workshop on tax related problems, Vaidya along with presidents of different district chambers had urged the government to double the ceiling of turnover for any firm to be a large taxpayer. Pun said raising the ceiling was a good decision for now because LTO, which is based in the Valley alone, has capacity to best serve 400 taxpayers only. Data shows, the number of large taxpayers has presently touched 722. At the present rate of business expansion, MoF has estimated it to rise to 1,000 soon. Pun even indicated that the government could provide amnesty to traders that did not maintain their VAT accounts properly. Even though such cases are linked to either lack of issue of VAT receipts to customers or issue of fake VAT receipts to hide transactions, FM Pun said the MoF was ready to consider mismatch in their VAT accounts as an outcome of their unawareness to VAT rules. “However, businessmen must understand ´unawareness´ cannot be an excuse to win amnesty and they must assure us such wrongdoing will not happen in future again,” he stated. Director General of Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Tanka Mani Sharma said that the government was marking the current fiscal year 2012/13 as Tax System Reforms Year. “We have already worked out numerous programs, laying a strong emphasis on making taxpayers aware about the prevailing tax law and system,” he stated. Under the programs, he said the IRD will launch education, information exchange, communication and services related campaigns targeting the taxpayers. All Inland Revenue Offices will together organize a total of 1,000 such awareness campaigns, he said. Sharma further informed that the IRD has set a target to open tax office or taxpayers´ service center in all 75 districts of the country, so that taxpayers need not travel out of the district to file taxes and settle tax liability. Nnnn UN RELEAESES NEPAL RIGHTS REPORTS AMID GOVT. OBJECTION Kathmandu, 9 Oct.: Despite strong reservations from the government of Nepal, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Monday released a 233-page Nepal Conflict Report that chronicles some 30,000 documents and cases of the insurgency-era human rights violations, Republica reports.. The report documents and analyzes the major categories of conflict-related violations of human rights law and international humanitarian laws that took place from February 1996 to November 21, 2006. "The Report aims to assist the government of Nepal, the future transitional justice commissions, the National Human Rights Commission and civil society to advance transitional justice, combat impunity and enable the conflict´s many victims to obtain justice," said Hanny Megally, who heads the Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa Branch at the OHCHR, in a video conference from Geneva. The release of the report that implicates to some 9,000 individuals or groups comes in the wake of government registering strong reservations arguing that the move could seriously jeopardize the ongoing peace process. The government had been asking the OHCHR to put it on hold also arguing that the report prepared ´unilaterally´ and beyond the given mandate by the OHCHR was unacceptable. On Monday morning, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayankaji Shrestha held a meeting with envoys from various European Union (EU) countries and the UN Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Robert Piper to ask them to help stall the report. MoFA spokesman Arjun Bahadur Thapa confirmed the meeting, but denied divulging the details. "There has been an understanding to not publicize what transpired in the meeting," he said. Divided in a total 11 chapters, the report provides an overview and objectives of the report in the first chapter. While the second chapter deals with the historical context of the Maoist conflict, the third chapter presents information on conflict-era institutional structure and chain of command relevant to the investigation of alleged violations or abuses. It chronicles separately the human rights violations perpetrated by then Royal Nepalese Army, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [present day UCPN (Maoist)] in the fourth chapter. Likewise, the report deals with applicable international laws on the incidents of human rights violation, cases of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence and accountability, and the rights to an effective remedy in the succeeding chapters. The concluding chapter makes a range of recommendations addressed to all major stakeholders in the Nepali transitional justice process. A high-level delegation of OHCHR was in Nepal 11 days ago to formally inform the government about their preparation to release the report, which was put on hold since 2010. The delegation also asked the government to provide suggestions, if any, to incorporate in the report. Asked if the report was released to pressure Nepal against amnesty, Megally said the report does not oppose amnesty, but added cautiously that the perpetrators of the serious crimes that are similar to war crimes or crime against humanity need to be punished as per the international laws. "The cases documented, if used properly, could restore dignity and justice of the victims of the conflict," he said. While stating that they are ready to help in transitional justice mechanism, the OHCHR maintained that the chronicle of the cases of human rights violations was a tool made available to Nepal. "We are ready to assist transitional justice mechanism in moving forward. This report is a continual of our help in transitional justice in Nepal," he further said. Nnnn ________________________________________ ________________________________________ SOCIAL SERVICE CUTS Kathmandu, .9 Oct.: The social security allowance enjoyed by 2.1 million beneficiaries across the country will be reduced this Dashian, officials said, the Himalayan Times reports.. According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), Rs 8.5 billion was allocated to elderly citizens, widows, marginalised children, disappearing ethnic groups and disabled people last fiscal. The government had distributed six months allowance during last year’s Dashain festival, MoFALD spokesperson Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said. “However, we have only released four months allowance this year due to the one-third budget introduced by the government,” he said. Owing to legal and political hindrances, the government presented only one-third of the full budged this year. There are 75 districts, 3,915 VDCs and 58 municipalities across the country. At least Rs 500 (and Rs 1,000 for some disappearing ethnic groups) is given as social security per month to each of the 2.1 million beneficiaries. Meanwhile, rampant misuse of the social security fund has been reported in local bodies with funds allocated even in the names of dead people. “Keeping this in mind, we have started distributing funds through bank accounts,” said Thapaliya. “We will manage the system within the current fiscal year,” he claimed. MoFALD is planning to monitor the distribution of funds in 10 districts. Monitoring will be extended to other districts gradually, ministry sources said. According to a monitoring team from the ministry, more than Rs 300 million in social security funds was misused in Dhanusha district alone. MoFALD sought clarification from 22 officials and suspended 18 of them. It also forwarded files to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority for further investigation. Every year, government allocates about Rs 45 billion to local bodies. This budget, however, does not include the budget allocated for education and health. Nnnn MADESHIS NOT KEEN ON COMBAT DUTY Kathmandu,9 Oct.: The Nepal Army has said it is having problems recruiting Madhesi youths because of the latter's "low interest" in taking up combat duties, Pranak Kharel writes in The Kathmandu Post. In its written reply to the Supreme Court, the Army said there is very limited professional interest among Madhesis in regular military duty. However, they are more attracted to technical units and have been successful in selection examinations conducted for such posts, it said. The Army was responding to a show cause notice issued by the apex court in August over the NA's "noncompliance" in recruiting Madhesis in 15 officer seats allocated to them under the inclusive quota. In its reply on September 28, the Army said it enlisted only those who passed the selection examinations. One of the candidates, Rakesh Yadav, had filed a petition in the apex court, accusing the Army of not conducting separate examinations for aspirants under the inclusive category. The Army maintains that each of the aspiring candidates in the inclusive category should pass selection tests and medical examinations similar to those contesting in the open competition. According to the reply sent by the Legal Department of the NA, all aspiring candidates need to score a minimum of 40 percent in its examinations. It said candidates who pass the examinations in the open competition can be referred to seats allocated in the inclusive quota if the aspirants for the latter category fail to meet the minimum standards. Candidates under the inclusive quota are being recruited even if they score less than candidates in the open competition, according to the reply. "Our inability to fill such seats will affect the overall structure and command control of the Army," the reply added. On september 5, the court had issued a stay order and asked the Army not to recruit officers in the 15 seats allocated to the Madhesis. Through a notice on March 29, the Army had announced recruitment in 120 seats under various categories, including women, Dalit, Janajati, open and Madhesi. The NA published the results of the written exams on July 25. The NA told the court that there is no provision of conducting separate tests for open and inclusive categories even in exams conducted by the Public Service Commission. It said examinations for both the categories are the same, while candidates are separated only during the announcement of the final results. The Army further said the success rate of Brahmin and Chhetri candidates in the written examinations is relatively higher than that of the Madhesi/Tharu, Dalit and Janajati communities. A book "The Nepalese Army" published by the Directorate of Public Relations of the Army in 2010 quotes Private Deependra Yadav, posted in the Supply and Transport Battalion, as saying the turnout of Madhesis in the NA is low because they prefer to join the police force and other government sectors that offer more scope for postings near their hometowns. nnnn