HAUL

HUGE HASH HAUL

Kathmandu, 2 Aug.: Police seized 140 kilograms of hashish from the jungle in Jyamire of Hetauda on Thursday, RSS reports from Hetauda.

An Armed Police Force team and Katlekhola’s emergency response team led by ASI Purusottam Pandey seized the contraband, which the smugglers were taking to Hetauda. Likewise, a police team seized 30 kg of dust hashish from the same place on Thursday.

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GOVT., FRONT TALKS INCONCLUSIVE,

Kathmandu, 2 Aug.: Government and the Federal Republican National

Front of eight political parties held consultations Thursday evening on demands for elections.

There was no breakthrough although government tspokesman

Comminications Madhav Prasad Poudel said the talks ended positive.

Talks will co0ntoinue.

Coordinator of the Front is Kishore Biswas.

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FINAL OF FIRST NATIONAL WOMEN’S FOOTBALL SPONSORED BY ARMY FRIDAY.

Kathmandu, 2 Aug: Tribhuvan Army Club will play Nepal Police Club in

final Friday of the first Chief of Army Staff National Women’s Fooball.

Sajana Rana Magar scored xix goals Thursday when Nepal APF Club

took the bronze beating far-West region 11-0 in the tournament to encourage women in national soccer

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ELECTION COMMISSION ANNOUNCES FINAL ELECTION SCHEDULE

Kathmandu, 2 Aug:: A day after the United Democratic Madhesi Front demanded 30 more days to register the left out voters, the Election Commission made public its election programme hinting that the front’s demand will be difficult to
Meet, The Himalayan Times reports..

According to EC’s election schedule, the political parties who wish to contest Constituent Assembly elections slated for November 19 under proportional representation system can file their nominations beginning September 23 and the candidates for the first-past-the-post election system can do so from September 26. Final lists of candidates under PR and FPTP system will be made public on November 9 and October 3, respectively.

Rameshwar Ray Yadav, Vice Chair of MJF-D, a key constituent of the UDMF, said if the EC gave one more month for voters’ registration as sought by the front, it would not hamper the EC’s election schedule. “We’ll take it up with HLPC.”

Poll time table

For PR system

• Sept 23: Nomination for political parties for PR begins

• Sept 24: List of parties contesting PR election to be made public

• Sept 25: Parties can withdraw their nominations

• Sept 26: Final list of parties contesting under PR system to be made public

• Sept 27: Parties can submit the closed lists of their candidates

• Sept 28: Notice to political parties to make amendments to their closed lists

• Oct 5: Parties can submit amended closed lists

• Oct 17: Closed lists of the candidates to be made public

• Oct 18: Date for challenging eligibility of candidates

• Oct 25: Decision on eligibility of the candidates

• Nov 1: Notice confirming removal of candidates from closed list to be made public

• Nov 2: Candidates can withdraw their names from the closed lists

• Nov 9: Parties to be notified about withdrawal of their candidates from the closed lists

• Nov 9: Final closed lists to be made public

For FPTP system

• Sept 26: Candidates can file their nomination

• Sept 27: Nominees’ list to be made public

• Sept 28: Date for challenging eligibility of candidates

• Sept 29: Decision on eligibility challenge

• Sept 30: List of candidates to be made public

• Oct 1: Candidates can withdraw their nominations

• Oct 3: Final lists of candidates to be made public

• Oct 4: Candidates to be allotted election symbols

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NON-TARIFF BARRIERS CATEGORIZED

Kathmandu, 2 Aug.: The special meeting of the Committee of Experts (CoE) of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) concluded today along with the categorisation of non-tariff barriers, The Himalayan Times reports..

The meeting categorised non-tariff barriers into four categories that are infrastructure, procedural, para-tariff and standard.

“The meeting concluded that each country will identify the major non-tariff barrier affecting it and notify about the problem during the SAFTA meeting which is scheduled for mid-August in Sri Lanka,” said joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Jib Raj Koirala.

The next SAFTA CoE joint secretarial meeting is scheduled to be held on August 21-22 in Sri Lanka, where member states will notify about their major non-tariff barrier and ways to simplify them. However, the final decision regarding non-tariff barriers will be made during the regular meeting of SAFTA in March 2014.

“Today’s meeting also discussed ways to resolve disputes in SAFTA and hiring of an expert on non-tariff barriers for the SAARC level,” Koirala said. The special meeting discussed measures to dismantle all barriers to trade under the South Asian Free Trade Area Agreement. Office bearers of the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry were also present at the meeting.

The three-day long meeting of SAFTA was organised from July 30-August 1. SAFTA members at the meeting also discussed about the reduction of the sensitive list. However, there were disagreements regarding the number of items and ways to further reduce the sensitive list.

Sensitive lists are lists of products of special interest to individual member countries that are exempted from low SAFTA tariffs. The use of sensitive lists allows countries to protect growing domestic industries or important sources of customs revenue.

However, overuse of sensitive lists can make goods more expensive for consumers and reduce trade between countries.

Meanwhile, non-tariff barriers to trade are those barriers that restrict imports but are not in the usual form of a tariff. Some common examples of non-tariff barriers are anti-dumping measures and countervailing duties, which, although called non-tariff barriers, have the effect of tariffs once they are enacted. Their use has risen sharply after World Trade Organisation rules led to a very significant reduction in tariff use.

Some non-tariff trade barriers are expressly permitted in very limited circumstances, when they are deemed necessary to protect health, safety, sanitation or natural resources

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