CBS all set to conduct happiness survey

Kathmandu, Apr. 3

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is conducting a happiness survey to measure the level of pleasure and prosperity among Nepali people as envisioned by the Fifteenth Plan (2019-2024) of the country.

The first-ever feat is being designed and executed to assess the long-term national goals of prosperity and happiness and create a baseline for the future survey on the subject.

According to Dr. Hem Raj Regmi, Deputy Director of the CBS, the survey is being conducted to measure the status of and progress to the national vision  of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali' envisioned by the government. It will be conducted in the next fiscal year 2021/22 after completing the data collection for the 12^th census and other ground works related to it.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had proposed the national aspiration as the main theme of the Fifteenth Plan and long-term vision for 2043 (2100 BS).

The plan defines the aspiration as 'a prosperous, independent, and socialism-oriented economy with happy, healthy, and educated citizens enjoying equality of opportunities, dignity, and high standards of living'.

The aspiration includes four long-term national goals for prosperity and six for happiness where the former has 23 and the latter 12 indicators. Survey will have questions on these indicators to measure their status.

Long-term national goals for prosperity

1.      Accessible modern infrastructure and intensive connectivity

2.      Development and full utilization of human capital potentials

3.      High and sustainable production and productivity

4.      High and equitable national income

Long-term national goals for happiness

1.      Well-being and decent life

2.      Safe, civilised and just society

3.      Healthy and balanced environment

4.      Good governance

5.      Comprehensive democracy

6.      National unity, security and dignity

 

7 provinces, 6,000 families

The survey would be conducted in seven provinces. Randomly selected about 6,000 families would be approached for the survey and inferences would be based on the answers they provide, said Dr. Regmi.

The CBS had planned to conduct the happiness survey in the current fiscal year 2020/21. Questionnaire was already prepared and budget was also provisioned but the COVID-19 pandemic had obstructed the national survey.

Likewise, since the pandemic had troubled every individual across the country and disturbed the social, economic and familial ties and activities, it was an uncommon period to measure things like happiness because it wouldn't have reflected the normal situation.

"As it is the first survey of its kind in the area, it will be used as a baseline for the future surveys so there might be the risk of having wrong baseline data for many upcoming years," said Dr. Regmi. Therefore, the survey was postponed to the next fiscal year.

Similarly, the preparation of census was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since census was the constitutional demand and needed to be completed within the current fiscal year, the happiness survey is postponed to allow time for the 12^th census.

Dr. Regmi said that there is an international norm that the statistics should be acquired during the normal time/year.

 

Happiest in South Asia

 In March this year, the World Happiness Report 2021 published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network placed Nepal at the 87^th position in the group of 149 countries. It was a five-rank jump from the previous year.

According to the report, Nepal is the happiest country in South Asia although Bhutan was not included in the report. However, the results were made from the 2018-19 surveys.

But the domestic happiness survey is being conducted at a time when the economy is in a bad shape and more than a million people recently lost their jobs to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Bank has projected that Nepal's economy would grow by 2.7 per cent in the current fiscal year and 3.9 in the next fiscal 2021/22 against the -1.9 per cent last year.

Before the pandemic, the country was on the high growth trajectory with higher than 6 per cent growth for the third consecutive year.

 

Long-term vision

The Fifteenth Five-Year Plan is said to be providing a basis for achieving the long-term vision of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali'.

"As the Fifteenth Plan is the first plan to implement the constitution according to the federal system, it is focused on creating a basis for the national vision of 'Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali' and a socialism-oriented economy by ensuring rapid economic growth, creation of productive employment opportunities and equitable access to benefits and opportunities of development," reads the document.

According to the United Nations, Gross National Happiness (GNH) is measured in nine different domains – psychological wellbeing, health, education, time use, cultural diversity and resilience, good governance, community vitality, ecological diversity and resilience, and living standards.

 Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 4 April 2021. 

President inaugurates Melamchi water distribution

 Melamchi water is New Year gift to people: Prez

Additional 340m water in valley in 3 years: PM

 

Kathmandu, Apr. 2

President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Friday inaugurated the water distribution from the much awaited Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) by opening a switch of a stone tap recently built at Bhrikutimandap in the capital.

The project that was conceptualised about five decades ago has completed about two decades after its commencement with multiple deadline extensions and cost overrun.

President Bhandari expressed happiness over the completion of the project and start of water distribution.

The Kathmandu Upatakya Khanepani Limited (KUKL) has already started the test distribution of water through its existing supply network.

The national pride project is distributing 85 million litres of water a day – half of the total water that is being brought to the Kathmandu Valley from the Melamchi River in Sindhupalchok district via a 26.5 kilometre tunnel.

Distribution of 170 million litres water would begin in the next couple of weeks after the completion of the testing of the second Water Treatment Plant (WTP) at Sundarijal, according to the MWSP. There are two WTPs, each with the capacity of holding 8.5 million litres.

Remembering the then Prime Minister late Krishna Prasad Bhattarai on the occasion for his vision and commitment to bring Melamchi water in to the Valley, President Bhandari stated that the water has come as a gift to the people on the eve of New Year 2078.

Late Bhattarai, about three decades ago after the restoration of democracy in 1990, had promised to bring the water of the Melamchi to the Kathmandu Valley.

The President stressed on the conservation of water sources as they are at risk due to climate change, population growth and excessive exploitation of underground water. "Melamchi water will help in restoring the underground water and decrease the pollution of watershed areas," she said.

She also said that the country should learn both the negative and positive aspects of project development from the MWSP and bear caution during the planning and implementation of large infrastructure projects.

Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli expressed confidence that another 340 million litres water would come to the valley per day in the next three years.

He directed the Ministry of Water Supply to make environment to add water from the Yangri and Larke rivers to the supply channel by 2024.

Prime Minister Oli stated that the present government had made progress in infrastructure development and stressed on expediting the development work with greater inter-ministerial coordination.

 

Japan expresses happiness

Meanwhile, the Government of Japan has expressed pleasure with the successful completion of the MWSP.

Japan has funded the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in Sundarijal. It provided loan assistance of around 5,494 million Japanese Yen (equivalent to Rs. 58 billion) for the construction of the plant, Embassy of Japan in Kathmandu said in a statement on Friday.

The loan contract with Japan was signed in March, 2001 and the construction was completed in December, 2017.

"The Plant has the capacity to purify 85 million liters per day, which make clean water for Kathmandu residents to become free from keeping water at tanks at their homes, or fetching water from the communal wells when they need," read the statement.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 3 April 2021. 

Oppo reduces price of A12

Kathmandu, Apr. 2

Smartphone company Oppo has dropped the price of Oppo A12 3GB phone to Rs. 14,990 from Rs. 16,590 on the occasion of the New Year 2078.

The phone has a 6.22-inches corning gorilla glass display with a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels. This means the pixel density of the screen is at 270 PPI. It is an IPS panel with 19:9 aspect ratio.

The screen-to-body ratio of the device is at 89 per cent.

A12 is available in 2 colours variants including blue and black. It is sports an 8.3mm thickness and weighs 165 grams. 

It has a dual rear camera setup where the primary rear camera is 13 MP and the secondary rear camera is 2 MP.

It comes with a Touch-to-focus, Phase Detection AF Autofocus technology. The rear camera is supported by a Dual LED flash. For selfies, one can make use of the 5.0MP front camera.

The OPPO A12 is powered by a MediaTekHelio P35 (MT6765V/CB) chipset, which comes with 8 Cores and clocks at 2.3 GHz.

It is accompanied by 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage capacity. It has 4230mAh battery

Published in the Rising Nepal daily on 3 April 2021. 

Govt in homework to tax real estate, transport sectors

Kathmandu, Apr. 1

The National Revenue Advisory Board has started a study to bring all economic activities in the real estate and transportation sector within the tax net.

"The real estate sector should be developed in agency model so that all the activities and transactions are transparent. Currently, the middlemen's income is unknown and it is out of tax net," said Mahesh Kumar Dahal, Chairman of the Board.

The Ministry of Finance had formed the board in 2020 to offer policy level recommendations to the government and resolve the tax-related disputes.

Likewise, another study is launched to find solutions to make transportation business well managed and keep track of the business activities in the sector.

The transportation sector has many entrepreneurs who own one or two trucks, buses or other vehicles. They are out of the taxation system as their business is not registered. Such businesses must be converted into company model and even a single vehicle should be registered if it is used in business, said Dahal.

According to him, if the base of tax could be widened, there wouldn't be a need to raise the tax rates as many businesses and economic sectors are running without the knowledge of the tax administration.

Speaking about the tax relations among the three levels of the governments, Dahal said that there is a need to review the current policies and practices of various levels of the government. "We have recently formed a consultation team to look into the issue of tax duplication. Some local units have imposed double taxation in some sectors while many of them have not implemented rightful taxes of their rights as mentioned in the constitution," he said.

Lack of skills, institutions, teams, laws and understanding regarding the taxes are the causes behind double taxation.

Currently, 7 sub-committees are reviewing the tax provisions in respective economic and business sectors.

An integrated report would be compiled following the submission of the reports by these committees. Then the report would be submitted to the government by mid-May this year so that the recommendations made in the report could be included in the budget of the coming fiscal year 2021/22.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 2 April 2021. 

Propose executable programmes: FM Paudel

Kathmandu, Apr. 1

Minister for Finance Bishnu Prasad Paudel has urged the line ministries to propose programmes that could be implemented.

In a meeting with the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Thursday at Singhadurbar, he said that many ministries could not mobilise the allocated budget and are in the position to surrender the budget. "Therefore, include the programme and propose the budget that can be implemented even in the multi-year projects," he said.

Minister Paudel stated that the ministry should limit the programmes and projects within the budget ceiling provided to them. Urging them to propose programmes according to the national and development priority, he stressed on effective inter-ministry coordination.

He said that the impacts made by the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism would be addressed by the upcoming budget and policy and programmes of the government for the next fiscal year.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said that the pandemic had severe impact on tourism sector and urged to give special attention to the sector.

Ministry’s Economic Advisor Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha said that the focus should be on the large and special programmes as per the spirit of federalism rather than small and scattered programmes.

The Finance Ministry is holding discussions with the ministries and stakeholders about the programmes and budgets and collecting suggestions for the budget of the upcoming Fiscal Year 2021/22.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 2 April 2021. 

Economy to grow by 2.7% this year

Kathmandu, Mar. 31

The World Bank has projected that Nepali economy will grow by 2.7 per cent in the current Fiscal Year 2020/21 and regain momentum in the next couple of years.

The forecast for the current fiscal year is higher than the earlier estimates, according to the South Asia Economic Focus Spring 2021, a report published by the WB on Wednesday.

In January this year, the multilateral donor had put the growth forecast for Nepal for current fiscal at 2.1 per cent. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gross Domestic Product of the country witnessed a negative growth of 1.9 per cent last year.

Likewise, the projections this time have been raised for the next fiscal years 2021/22 and 2022/23 to 3.9 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively from earlier 1.4 per cent.

The WB said that the South Asian economies would bounce back but face fragile recovery. Bangladesh will be a leader in terms of growth in the current fiscal year with 3.6 per cent partly supported by its positive growth of 2.4 per cent last year when all other economies witnessed negative growth.

This year, India will have -8.5 per cent loss to its economy but will jump by 10.1 per cent in the next fiscal against the January projections of 1.1 per cent, said the WB

"Prospects of an economic rebound in South Asia are firming up as growth is set to increase by 7.2 per cent in 2021 and 4.4 per cent in 2022, climbing from historic lows in 2020 and putting the region on a path to recovery," read the report.

But growth is uneven and economic activity well below pre-COVID-19 estimates, as many businesses need to make up for lost revenue and millions of workers, most of them in the informal sector, still reel from job losses, falling incomes, worsening inequalities, and human capital deficits, said the World Bank in its twice-a-year-regional update.

The outlook for Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan has been revised upward, supported by better than expected remittance inflows.

"The improved economic outlook reflects South Asian countries’ efforts to keep their COVID-19 caseload under control and swiftly roll out vaccine campaigns. Governments’ decisions to transition from widespread lockdowns to more targeted interventions, accommodating monetary policies and fiscal stimuli—through targeted cash transfers and employment compensation programmes—have also propped up recovery, the report notes," the WB said in a statement.

It suggested that the governments in South Asia need to ramp up investments in human capital to help new generations grow up healthy and become productive workers.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 1 April 2021.