CABINET MEET TO FORM GOVT. VIEW ON PRESIDENTIAL ACTION Kathmandu, 25 Nov.: A special meeting of the cabinet is held Sunday to form a government position on Friday’s presidential move asking parties to assemble a consensus government by Thursday afternoon. The cabinet has objected to a letter sent by Shital Niwas the secretary in Singha Durbar ‘bypassing’ the prime minister calling for a consensus government. nnnn PARTY LEADERS, FOREIGN ENVOYS HUDDLE IN KAVRE LODGE Kathmandu, 25 Nov.: Top brass leaders of some political parties and ambassadors from more than 16 countries gathered at a Dhulikhel-based resort in the district on Saturday, Manoj Basnet writes in The Kathmandu Post from Kavre. Vice-president Paramananda Jha, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel, CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Democratic Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar attended the “diplomatic gathering”. Envoys from more than 16 countries, including India, China, the UK, the USA and Germany, were present. The gathering, held a day after President Ram Baran Yadav called upon political parties to come up with a consensus candidate within a week to lead a national unity government, has been viewed as important. However, NC leader Narayan Khadka, who organised the event, said that it was a family gathering. “This is purely a family programme. It has no any specific objectives,” he told the Post. Sources said the attendants discussed the President’s call for a consensus government and concluded that it was a positive step towards creating an environment for election. The attendants also urged the Madhesi leaders to support the President’s initiative. After the event, Gachhadar said that political parties would form consensus within a week. He obliquely supported the President’s call. nnnn PRESIDENTIAL MOVE CREATES RIFT BETWEEN BOSS AND PM BHATTARAI Kathmandu, 25 Nov.: The ruling UCPN (Maoist) appears divided following the call from President Ram Baran Yadav to parties to name a candidate within a week to lead a consensus government, Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post.. The faction led by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is miffed at Dahal after the latter “downplayed” the head of state’s call stating that the party should take it positively if it was aimed at forging consensus among the political parties. A leader close to Bhattarai said that Dahal was “well informed” that the President was calling on the parties citing Article 38(1) of the Interim Constitution but he did not inform the UCPN (M) about it. After Bhattarai expressed dissatisfaction at Dahal’s ‘wavering’ over the President’s move, according to leaders, the Maoist chief agreed to call it “unconstitutional”. However, Dahal remained reluctant to direct the party’s sister organisations to protest the statement as suggested by Bhattarai. In the party’s office bearers’ meeting on Saturday morning, Dahal had agreed to issue a circular to subordinate bodies to stage symbolic protests against the president’s ‘unconstitutional’ move. “But when he [Dahal] met President Yadav, he mellowed and said the President did not have an ill intention,” said a leader close to Bhattarai. PM Bhattarai is unhappy also with the President after the latter’s office dispatched a letter to the chief secretary “bypassing him and his Cabinet”.President Yadav had called PM Bhattarai for a meeting on Saturday afternoon but the latter refused it as a mark of his dissatisfaction at the head of state’s statement. Bhattarai was of the view that the Cabinet should “censure” the President’s statement but Dahal did not agree to it. Bhattarai immediately called a meeting with legal experts close to his party to convey a message to Dahal that the President’s move was unconstitutional. PM’s personal secretariat issued a long statement saying that the legal experts had termed the President’s move unconstitutional. Meanwhile, some Maoist leaders close to Dahal were stating publicly that the President’s call was a welcome move. Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Saturday went public terming the President’s call “positive” while Maoist spokesman Agni Sapkota was downplaying the move saying that they would take it positively if it helped to forge consensus and press opposition parties to cancel their protest programmes and come to the terms of consensus. On the other hand, according to leaders privy to the development, there was no initiative from Dahal to issue a public statement against the President’s call. According to a leader close to Bhattarai, the turn of events led them to suspect that the party chairman was supporting Yadav’s move. “Since the budget row, we are suspicious that Dahal is making efforts to minus Bhattarai,” said the leader. However, spokesman Sapkota said there had been no talks between the President and Dahal before the notice. After pressure from Bhattarai and his supporters, Dahal called a meeting of the party’s Standing Committee late in the afternoon which “decided” that the party would hit the streets against the move if need be. Bhattarai, who took the stance that both the government and the party should formally censure the President’s notice, called a meeting of the Federal Democratic Republican Alliance to endorse his position against the President’s move. On Thursday, Dahal had urged Bhattarai not to address the nation believing that the prime minister had nothing new to say. But Bhattarai went ahead with his plan. ‘Bid positive if meant for accord’ KATHMANDU: UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal called on President Ram Baran Yadav on Saturday morning to voice his party’s concerns over the latter’s call for the formation of a national unity government. President Yadav on Friday issued a statement giving the political parties until Thursday to reach consensus on a common candidate to head the next government. Leaders of the ruling party are miffed at the President for citing Articles 36 (1) and 38 (1) in his notice. “I told the President that Friday’s call has raised concerns over whether he was trying to seize executive powers. He told me that the executive power rests with the government and that he had called for a unity government for consensus,” Dahal told reporters after his one-on-one exchange with the President. “If the President has only appealed for consensus, it is positive,” added the Maoist chairman. Meanwhile, a presidential aide, on condition of anonymity, claimed that the leaders’ objection to Yadav’s move was only for “public consumption”. nnnn CAAN IN NO MOOD TO EXTEND PARAGLIDING SERVICES Kathmandu, 25 Nov : Despite repeated efforts, tourism entrepreneurs have failed to expand paragliding -- an adventure sport which has been drawing a large number of tourists -- beyond Pokhara as the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has persistently refused to issue license to aspiring paragliding Operators, Santosh Pokhrel writes in Republica from Pokhara.. The entrepreneurs of Pokhara have been pushing for expanding paragliding to other places mainly after the air space in the lake city became congested due to growing number of paragliders during the tourist season. They said they were even ready to carry out the feasibility study on their own. "Sadly, however, CAAN has not been granting us permission for the test flights in new areas," said Sovit Baniya, secretary of Nepal Air Sports Association (NASA). NASA, which had prepared to launch test flights in new destinations, has withdrawn its plan following CAAN restriction. “Increasing congestion in Pokhara´s airspace poses a threat to the safety of paragliding, but CAAN has turned a deaf ear to our requests," said Baniya, urging CAAN to allow them expand paragliding services in new places. According to NASA, entrepreneurs have been allowed to operate paragliding services from Pokhara and Bandipur. Currently 19 companies operate around 300 flights on an average in Pokhara every day. Baniya said entrepreneurs were positive about expanding paragliding services to Dang, Dharan and Ilam but CAAN has cold-shouldered their request for permission. “Paragliding has helped a lot to promote tourism in Pokhara but it seems CAAN does not want to acknowledge our efforts,” he said. Tourism entrepreneurs said Bhedetar of Ilam, Kanyam of Ilam and Laxmipur of Dang were feasible destinations for paragliding. “We have been awaiting a nod from CAAN so that we can at least conduct test operation but that does not seem to be happening,” he added. Paragliding operators opine that diversification of the destination would make the service more popular. However, CAAN officials stated that they cannot issue permission right away due to complexities in the process. “We are positive about expanding the service but we need to follow due process,” said deputy director of CAAN Min Raj Upadhyaya. He said the authority would grant permission for test flights only after carrying the feasibility study. “We really cannot issue permission unless our technicians find the destinations feasible,” he said. Nnnn M NEPAL, BANGLADESH TALKS TO AVOID DOUBLE TAXATION FAILepal, B'desh talks fail to settle DTAA issues Kathmandu, 25 Nov : The bilateral talks of tax official from Nepal and Bangladesh failed to finalize the text of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) after the latter did not agree to incorporate a clause that would allow the tax authority of a country to collect revenue on behalf of the other when requested, Bhoj Raj Poudel writes I Republica.. “It is not that Bangladeshi officials differed over the principle and spirit of this provision. Still they could not go for it because Bangladesh´s policy does not allow them to collect revenue on behalf of other country,” said Tanka Mani Sharma, director general of Inland Revenue Department (IRD), who led the Nepali team. Despite the difference on the provision, Sharma said the two sides have managed to finalize most of the portion of the DTAA text. “We will sit for another meeting soon to resolve the issue,” Sharma told Republica. The next meeting, however, would be held only after Bangladesh decides on how it could address the provision that Nepal has pushed since 2001. Nepal has been pushing for the inclusion of the provision mainly as it would enable both the tax authorities to recoup the revenue at any time and from either country even if the investors and traders managed to dodge the revenue officials or shut down the operations without clearing tax dues in a country. Nepal has been looking forward to signing DTAA with Bangladesh since 1998. The two sides had held first negotiations in 1998 and then in 2001. However, two sides had maintained a complete silence on the agreement for more than a decade. “The latest consultation held in Dhaka last week has resumed the bilateral talks after a gap of more than a decade,” said Sharma, expressing the hope that the two sides would be able to settle their difference and finalize the pact at the earliest. The talks on DTAA had got a fresh start mainly after the government this year committed to celebrate 2012/13 as Nepal Investment Year and placed huge importance on singing the agreement with about half a dozen countries in a bid to convince and attract foreign investors. Officials said the government plans to sign DTAA with Bangladesh at the earliest. As the pact frees investors and traders from the need of paying taxes in both the countries, the government believes signing of the DTAA could prove instrumental in realizing substantial investment and increasing trade with the second largest trading partner of South Asia. As of 2010/11, Nepal received just Rs 520 million of investment from Bangladesh, according to statistics of Department of Industry (DoI). Presently, there are 26 Bangladeshi joint ventures operating in Nepal and they are providing jobs to 4,166 people. Moreover, Bangladesh is one of the few countries with which Nepal has trade surplus. According to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC), Nepal exported goods worth Rs 2.57 billion to Bangladesh and imported goods worth Rs 1.50 billion, posting just over 1 billion in trade surplus in 2011/12. Nnnn BHUTAN SNUBS NEPAL Kathmandu, 25 Nov.: In an apparent snub, Bhutan has not responded to a long overdue proposal of Nepal to open its mission in Thimphu, Lekhnath Pandey writes in The Himalayan Times. This is despite the fact that the then prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had himself formally proposed the offer to his Bhutanese counterpart Jigme Y Thinley during their sideline meeting at the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu on April 28-29, 2010. By forwarding a formal letter to Thinley, prime minister Nepal also assured that Nepal would be happy if Bhutan reciprocates by opening its mission in Kathmandu. “Two and a half years passed since then, but we have not received any response from the Bhutanese side,” a top official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) told The Himalayan Times. A report prepared by the MoFA early this year has proposed to open up a residential mission in Thimphu at the soonest, referring to the multiple benefits of bilateral relations and possible areas of cooperation between the two Himalayan neighbours. Diplomatic relations between the two South Asian landlocked Himalayan neighbours have been mostly lukewarm due to the Bhutanese refugee problems since late 1980s, when ethnic Nepali speaking people of Bhutan were forced to leave their motherland for Nepal seeking refuge. “Now, we have to find out new avenues to our ties, beyond the limits of the refugee problems,” Nepal told the media then in Thimphu, adding, “We can develop good relationship and better cooperation in areas of tourism, investment in infrastructure development and hydro-electricity, and share our experiences in forest conservation.” He, however, went on to say that on normal circumstances any country should have got permission from the host country to open their embassy in another country, no matter how long they are enjoying good diplomatic relations. The agreement of establishing diplomatic ties between Nepal and Bhutan was signed on June 3, 1983. Nevertheless, both countries have no residential mission in each other’s capitals. The Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi concurrently looks Bhutan as well. Similarly, the Embassy of Bhutan in New Delhi is accredited for Nepal. When THT approached for comment, Pem Seden, a senior officer of the Bhutanese Foreign Ministry, preferred not to respond to the question. In the last two and a half years, Bhutanese PM Thinley visited Nepal twice, and Nepali PM also went to Bhutan. In all these meetings, both sides had verbally agreed to resume dialogue on the issue of Bhutanese refugees and finding possible areas of cooperation. However, the assurances yet to see the light of the day. nnnn DISPUTES DELAY PROGRAMMES AT PASHUPATI Kathmandu, 25 Nov.: Disputes among officials at the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) have delayed the implementation of a regulation to manage the income of the Pashupatinath Temple and approval of the fiscal budget and programmes for the current fiscal, The Himalayan Times reports. Although a 19-member PADT governing council under Culture Minister is there for supervision and guidance, the body with Prime Minister as the patron has failed to sort out issues. Not a single meeting has taken place between the PADT council and the executive in the past seven months. PADT top officials are to blame for this scenario, say junior officials. “A meeting was held under Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bahadur Bogati today to work a way out,” said Narottam Vaidya, PADT treasurer. “The problems are related to fiscal budget and programmes, providing pension to retired caretakers and facilities to priests as per the regulation that took effect from April 8,” he added. A draft of the fiscal budget and programmes of about Rs 500 million, including temple renovation study and a sequel to the already-expired 10-year master plan, was drafted in July, according to PADT sources. Rift among PADT officials has delayed the budget, which should have been approved by mid-July, officials said requesting anonymity. Nnnn