UNCERTAINTY WITH GOVT. DECISION TO PROCLAIM BUDGET Kathmandu, 12 Nov.: Government has decided to bring a budget for the remaining eight months of the current fiscal year 1012/13 Monday amid uncertainty and differences with the opposition. In the absence of parliament, government is bringing the budget through ordinance even as President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav urged government to announce the government income and expenditure only through consensus. It’s not certain if the president will proclaim the budget even amid strong public and internal pressure. Maoists have been charging the head of state of conspiring to topple government with unidentified foreign governments assisted by security forces. Maoists and Madeshbadi ruling alliance say a ceremonial head of state must proclaim an ordinance recommended by government which is a caretaker. ‘The government move is a breach of trust. I do not know what happened. Their [Maoist] assurance was to bring a budget through consensus,: Dr, Ra Sharan Mahat of NC said “Budget can be brought only be consensus government, “ said another NC leader Ram Chandra Paudel. Opposition NC and UML Sunday boycotted a meeting Sunday evening to discuss a budget ‘This [prumulgation] is against constitution and law,”: UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokhel said. nnnn MONDAY BEING OBSRVED AS KAAG TIHAR Kathmandu, 12 Nov.: Monday is being observed Monday as jag tihar. Five-day tihar festival started Sunday. Bhai tika is on Thursday. nnnn. AMID BREWING CONFRONTATION WITH OPPOSITION, GOVT. PRESENTING RS, 460B BUDGET Kathmandu,12 Nov The Ministry of Finance has readied a full budget of around Rs 460 billion to replace the present one-third budget for 2012/13, even though it still remains uncertain whether the government will actually forward it to the president for endorsement, Milan Mani Sharma writes in Republica.. In absence of political consensus till late Sunday, officials doubted whether the president would promulgate the budget even if forwarded to him. Nonetheless, they said MoF and National Planning Commission (NPC) are ready to unveil the budget if government went ahead with its plan and President Dr Ram Baran Yadav endorsed it. "Except for tax adjustments, exercises on which we will start soon, we (MoF and NPC) have completed all the tasks on the budget," said an MoF source. "We will complete the remaining tasks by late night. Then it will be up to the political leadership to decide whether it will forward it to the president," he added. Talking to Republica, sources disclosed that the size of full budget that the government has prepared is some Rs 30 billion higher than the previously set size of just over Rs 429 billion. The size was increased after NPC on Friday revised the budget ceiling upward to just Rs 457 billion, and further gave nod on Sunday to MoF to inflate it by about another Rs 3 billion, citing better than previously anticipated growth of revenue and fresh foreign aid commitment. Facts gathered by Republica show that the proposed budget will set aside Rs 10 billion for fresh election to the Constituent Assembly. It will also allocate another Rs 10 billion for setting up a Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) to manage oil loss that might emanate due to the lack of adjustment of domestic petroleum rates in line with the international trend. "Setting up PSF will be crucial because the government, irrespective of which party leads it, will not be able to hike oil prices in the election year," said the source. Likewise, the proposed budget will also set aside more than Rs 3 billion to subsidize chemical fertilizers. "The allocations for education too have been raised significantly because the government is preparing to announce special programs for students from Dalit and other underprivileged communities," said the source. Sources disclosed that the budget has a wide array of populist programs scattered across different sectors. Good thing though is it has set aside Rs 2 billion for the development of Mid-Hills Highway, Rs 1 billion each for Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track and Bheri-Babai Irrigation Project and Rs 800 million for Sikta Irrigation Project. "There are other strong allocations for power sector development, and expansion of existing roads and construction of new roads in the Kathmandu Valley," said the source. But given that four months of the fiscal year have already passed and the government over the next six months will focus on CA election, officials doubted effective implementation of the development programs and capital spending. The budget will raise the ceiling of income tax exemption. "We are yet to finalize it, but I feel the ceiling will be raised by Rs 100, 000," said the source. The tax exemption limit presently stands at Rs 160,000 for individuals and Rs 200,000 for couples. So, the increase will largely relieve the salaried and fixed wage earning middle income groups, raising their spending capacity. In order to finance the budget, MoF has planned to collect revenue of around Rs 298 billion, domestic borrowing of around Rs 42 billion and foreign aid of Rs 120 billion in this fiscal year. Nnnn GOVT. FAILED TO GET RS. 5.5B REIMBURSEMENT FROM GOVT, Kathmandu, 12 Nov : The government has failed to secure reimbursement of expenditure worth Rs 5.5 billion from different donors as it did not mention the contribution of external assistance in the overall cost of some ongoing projects in the budget over the past few years, Republica writes. “We won´t be getting reimbursement amounting to Rs 5.5 billion from different donor agencies as the finance ministry failed to clarify the exact contribution of donors in the projects that are being implemented for the past few years,” Narayan Niroula, under secretary at the Financial Comptroller General´s Office (FCGO), said. According to Niroula, the situation emanated as the government drafted budget for projects in the fiscal plans of different years in the past without matching it with the agreements that it had inked with the donors. “Most of the projects in which the government is losing the reimbursement are in education and health sectors,” he added. The government had prepared budget for some of the projects in those sectors without matching the commitment of the donors for the fund to implement them. “It´s a cumulative figure inherited over the past few years," Niroula said. According to Niroula, the government is losing Rs 500 million as it failed to request concerned donor for reimbursement in time. Most of the donors from whom the government failed to secure reimbursement are in the ´pool fund´ of the World Bank, he said. Meanwhile, Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat under the FCGO has alleged that the government was performing poorly in management of public expenditure. "The government is losing fund from donors due to its inefficient management of income and expenditure as per the agreement with donors,” Mahesh Prasad Dahal, joint financial comptroller general, said at an interaction organized by Society of Economic Journalists-Nepal (SEJON) on Sunday. “It is high time the government work seriously toward ensuring the effective handling of external assistance." Nnnn PRESSURE TO APPOINTMENT LACKEY LAWYERS JUDGES Kathmandu, 12 Nov.: Political parties and their sister organisations are lobbying for appointment of lawyers affiliated to their respective parties as judges in district and appellate courts, Ananta Raj LUitel writes in The Himalayan Times reports.. “This is a serious attack on independence of the judiciary,” Raman Kumar Shrestha, former Secretary General, Nepal Bar Association, said. Shrestha, a lawyer close to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai added that discussions in the legal departments of political parties were attacks on the independence of judiciary. Multiple sources confirmed that the Democratic Lawyers Association, affiliated to Nepali Congress; Progressive and Professional Lawyers Association (PPLA) affiliated to UML and PLA affiliated to UCPN-M have been discussing sending their representatives to vacant positions of judges in appellate courts. “Some persons have been lobbying, but I will not accept them,” Ram Prasad Shrestha, PPLA Chairman, said. According to him, UML lawyers vying for the post are visiting him for support. Another source claimed that UML’s central legal department led by Raghujee Pant discussed the matter on November 2 and decided to ask State Affairs Department to take a decision in this regard. The JC had set October 31 deadline to file applications. It received 610 applications for 31 vacant posts while 175 judicial staff and government attorneys applied for 42 vacant district judges’ positions. “We may get three seats in Appellate Courts so we have to choose most capable persons,” a lawyer of the Legal Department of UML said. Citing the absence of law to provide chance for lawyers to fight for district court judges, JC only accepted lawyers’ applications for the court of appeal. Half of the 31 vacant seats, might be given to lawyers because there is an established tradition of appointing 50 per cent of the eligible persons from district court judges, government attorneys and officials. If this happens, UCPN-M, NC and UML may get three seats each and the remaining seats could go to fringe parties including the Madhesi Morcha. Yadunath Khanal, Chairman, DLA, however said it would be wrong to disregard capable persons just because of his or her affiliation to a party. Ekraj Bhandari of UCPN-M, said the major parties had infiltrated the judiciary. Jiwan Hari Adhikary, JC Secretary ruled out the possibility of selecting judges based on parties’ feedback. Nnnn DRUNK DRIVING WILL BE MORE DIFFICULT Kathmandu,12 Nov.: The Metropolitan Traffic Police Division has enforced new measures against drunk driving. The division said it took the fresh step in the Kathmandu Valley after a ‘fine of Rs 1,000 and mandatory attendance of offenders in a 20-minute lecture on traffic safety the next day’ did little to deter the offenders, The Kathmandu Post reports. DSP Pawan Giri, the MTPD spokesperson, said the law enforcement agency is maintaining a two-generation computer database of drunk drivers that may bar the offenders from obtaining driving licences abroad. “A Nepali citizen is required to produce the police clearance certificate before competent authorities to obtain driving licence abroad. We have started keeping a record of offenders caught driving under the influence of alcohol.” Police felt the need to maintain a two-generation database of drunk drivers to identify offenders among people with same names. “Under existing laws, any individual found driving under the influence of alcohol for the fifth time shall be deemed ineligible for the police clearance certificate,” DSP Giri said. According to the Motor Vehicle and Transport Management Act-1993, the competent authority can cancel the licence of a driver found violating traffic rules for the fifth time. The offender has to go through a fresh process to get a new licence. MTPD took the initiative after repeat offenders refused to mend ways even after paying under the existing provision a fine of Rs 1,000 for each offence. With the objectives of making the crackdown on drunk driving more effective and reducing road accidents, on-duty traffic cops have started seizing the two-wheelers and four-wheelers of drunk drivers from Friday to make them stop driving under the influence of alcohol. “In the past couple of days, we have impounded as many as 341 vehicles. Those caught in the act of driving under the influence should either walk or take taxi to reach their destination. Their vehicles will be returned the next day. We have taken it as a positive harassment to the offenders,” DSP Giri said. Earlier, traffic cops used to let drunk drivers drive home after handing them a fine slip after seizing their driving licences. The MTPD has booked around 53,000 drunk drivers after the crackdown’s launch on December 3 last year. New road regime • Traffic police maintaining two-generation database of those caught driving under influence for the fifth time • Such offenders may not get clearance certificates, barring them from getting driving licences abroad • In a bid to discourage drunk driving, traffic police have started seizing vehicles of drunk drivers. This means the offenders have to take a taxi or walk to their destination Nnnn PETRUAEUS AFFAIR REVEALED BY HARASSING EMAILS Kathmandum 12 Nov :: The scandal that brought down CIA Director David Petraeus started with harassing emails sent by his biographer and paramour, Paula Broadwell, to another woman, and eventually led the FBI to discover the affair, U.S. officials saidm AAAAp reports fromWashington.. Petraeus quit Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship. The official told The Associated Press that the FBI investigation began several months ago with a complaint against Broadwell, a 40-year-old graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and an Army Reserve officer. That probe led agents to her email account, which uncovered the relationship with the 60-year-old retired four-star general, who earned acclaim for his leadership of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The identity of the other woman and her connection with Broadwell were not immediately known. Concerned that the emails he exchanged with Broadwell raised the possibility of a security breach, the FBI brought the matter up with Petraeus directly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation. The FBI approached the CIA director because his emails in the matter were in most instances sent from a personal account, not his CIA one. Petraeus decided to quit, abruptly ending a high-profile career that might have culminated with a run for the presidency, a notion he was believed to be considering. • CIA chief Petraeus resigns over affair "Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours," Petraeus wrote his staff. Petraeus handed his resignation letter to President Barack Obama on Thursday, stunning many in the White House, the CIA and Congress. The news broke in the media before the House and Senate intelligence committees had been briefed, officials say. By Friday evening, multiple officials identified Broadwell, who spent the better part of a year reporting on Petraeus´ time in Afghanistan. Members of Congress said they want answers to questions about the affair that led to Petraeus´s resignation. House intelligence committee chairman Mike Rogers and ranking Democratic member Dutch Ruppersberger will meet Wednesday with FBI deputy director Sean Joyce and CIA acting director Michael Morell to ask questions, including how the investigation came about, according to a senior congressional staffer who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. Petraeus has been married for 38 years to Holly Petraeus, the daughter of the West Point superintendent when he was a student at the New York school. "He is truly remorseful about everything that´s happened," said Steve Boylan, a retired army officer and former Petraeus spokesman who spoke with the former general on Saturday. In a phone call with Boylan Saturday, Petraeus lamented the damage he´d done to his "wonderful family" and the hurt he´d caused his wife. "He screwed up, he knows he screwed up, now he´s got to try to get past this with his family and heal," said Boylan. Broadwell interviewed the general and his close associates intensively for more than a year to produce the best-selling biography, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," which was written with Vernon Loeb, a Washington Post editor, and published in January. Since Petraeus´s resignation on Friday, the book jumped from a ranking on Amazon of 76,792 on Friday to 111 by mid-Saturday The CIA was not commenting on the identity of the woman with whom Petraeus was involved. Broadwell, who is married with two young sons, has not responded to multiple emails and phone messages. Broadwell planned to celebrate her 40th birthday party in Washington this weekend, with many reporters invited. But her husband emailed guests to cancel the event late Friday. CIA officers long had expressed concern about Broadwell´s unprecedented access to the director. She frequently visited the spy agency´s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to meet Petraeus in his office, accompanied him on his punishing morning runs around the CIA grounds and often attended public functions as his guest, according to two former intelligence officials. As a military intelligence officer in the Army Reserve, Broadwell had a high security clearance, which she mentioned at public events as one of the reasons she was well suited to write Petraeus´s story. But her access was unsettling to members of the secretive and compartmentalized intelligence agency, where husbands and wives often work in different divisions, but share nothing with each other when they come home because they don´t "need to know." In one incident that caught CIA staff by surprise, Broadwell posted a photograph on her Facebook page of Petraeus with actress Angelina Jolie, taken in his 7th floor office where only the official CIA photographer is permitted to take photos. Petraeus had apparently given Broadwell the photo just hours after it was taken. Petraeus´ staff in Afghanistan similarly had been concerned about the time Broadwell spent with their boss on her multiple reporting visits to the war zone. Following standard military procedure with senior officers, they always had another staffer present when she met with him at his headquarters. Military officers close to him insist the affair did not begin when he was in uniform. In the preface to her book, Broadwell said she first met Petraeus in the spring of 2006. She was a graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; he was visiting the university to discuss his experiences in Iraq and a new counterinsurgency manual he was working on. She had graduated from West Point with academic, fitness, and leadership honors, according to a biography posted on her publisher´s website that lists authors available for speaking engagements. Harvard invited some students to meet with Petraeus, and Broadwell was among them because of her military background, which she wrote included being recalled to active duty three times to work on counterterrorism issues after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After Obama put Petraeus in charge in Afghanistan in 2010, Broadwell decided to expand her research into an authorized biography. Broadwell has deep ties and friendships throughout the Washington media sphere and often was sought for comment on Petraeus´ viewpoints as he proved harder and harder to reach. The CIA director had lowered his media profile, stopping his practice of emailing reporters and ending once-common background interviews by the agency. That was especially the case after Republican allegations last spring that the Obama administration was leaking sensitive material to burnish its foreign policy reputation ahead of the presidential election, after a series of stories appeared about top secret operations aimed at al-Qaida in Yemen, and Iran´s nuclear program. A White House-ordered investigation of those leaks continues. Petreaus´s resignation comes just before a crucial scheduled appearance before congressional intelligence committees next week to testify on what the CIA knew, and what it told the White House, before, during and after the attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11. Congressional officials say Petraeus´ deputy, Michael Morell, will testify instead, as acting director of the CIA. nnnn