transpareny and financial discipline, key challenges to federalism

Kathmandu, Feb. 21: Deputy Auditor General Damodar Prasad Regmi Wednesday said that the federal structure of the country has challenges in maintaining economic transparency, fiscal accountability and financial discipline.

As many legal provisions are yet to be formulated and implemented and the public administration is facing a shortage of human resources, coordination is lacking among the three levels of government, which might create problems in the local governments in the budget formulation process.

Furthermore, the local bodies’ capacity needed to be enhanced, but there has been no effort in that direction, said Regmi at an interaction organised by the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) and Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal. Regmi is also the coordinator of PEFA in Nepal.

“All 761 governments – federal, provincial and local – will have the same authority in their respective jurisdiction as per the constitutional provisions. It is crucial to forge coordination and collaborations among these governments for common governance and good governance,” he said.

Governments at all levels are in the process of formulating the budget for the coming fiscal year 2018/19.

PEFA member secretary Murari Niraula said the availability of resources, financial expenditure, gap between income and expenditure and reports are the fundamental requirements of decentralisation.

According to him, although the local governments are autonomous in their fiscal management, the federal government will facilitate them through the Treasury Controller Offices (TCOs) in implementing the accounting system and budget until their capacity for it is strengthened. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on February 22, 2018. 

BSMC to honour four writers

Kathmandu, 21 Feb: Bashu Shashi Memorial Council has decided to award writers Krishna Joshi and Rama Sharma the Bashu Shashi Literature Facilitation Award 2073, and 2075 respectively.

Joshi and Sharma are active in Nepali literature sector for the last five decades. Joshi has more than 30 publications to his credit including novels Mrityu Dohorinchha Ma Banche Bhane, Asammat Sammat and Kathmandu Woripari, poetry Bisangat Swarharu, Jyami Patniko Ghoshana, Aago Samundra: Pani Samundra, Evening Duty, and Pokhari Bhitrako Shatabdi.

Likewise, Sharma has written books like Mahendra Mala – Part 2, Kehi Chintan, Bhawanaka Thungaharu, and Motiram Parikrama.

Similarly, the Council has decided to give Bashu Shashi Literature Prize 2073 to Govinda Giri Prerana and Literature Prize 2074 to Dr. Shailendu Prakash Nepal, said Pradhumna Joshi, Secretary of the council.

Prerana has written Suteko Samundra, Antaraal, Utkhanan, Swapna Katha, Fero, Antim Khadal, Achanak Ek Din, Matra Ek Raat and many more.

Similarly, Nepal has Prempooja, Namita-Sunita, Kalpana Kusum, Bindeshwari, Kamana, Bedana Bolchha, Junu, Digbodh, Anamika and other books to his credit.

 According to Joshi, all the awards and felicitations include a plaque and a purse of Rs. 15,000.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on February 22, 2018. 

Govt assesses the lapses in AML efforts

Kathmandu, Feb. 20: The government is reviewing the overall status of money laundering in different sub-sectors of the Nepali economy to find out the lapses in the anti-money laundering (AML) efforts and trace the areas that need reform.

Currently 16 sectoral committees are assessing the situation of the economic sub-sectors, and they will submit their reports to the government by mid-April this year.

“This is a self-evaluation process, which will show the lapses that we have in our AML efforts – in institutions, policies, actions and laws,”said Ramsharan Pudasaini, Joint-Secretary at the Ministry of Finance and chief of Anti-Money Laundering Unit at the ministry.

“It will guide us towards future actions that we need to take before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) begins its mutual evaluation on Nepal.”

The FATF is an inter-governmental ‘policy-making’ body which sets standards and promotes effective implementation of legal regulatory and operational measure to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financing system.

According to Pudasaini, the FATF could be satisfied by Nepal’s self-evaluation report or it may begin a mutual assessment of the country’s effort in combating the flow of dirty money. Either way, the self-evaluation report can be a base for an international review.

The FATF is likely to begin its assessment in 2020/21.

The 16 sub-committees had a mandate of a year to conduct a study of their respective sectors. The report will be submitted to the National Coordination Committee, led by the finance secretary, and will then be moved to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Deputy Director of the AML Unit, Hari Nepal said that the sub-sector includes banks and financial institutions and other organisations involving economic actors, and private sector companies will also be assessed.

Earlier review of the FATF had concluded that although Nepal enacted some fundamental policies, their implementation was very poor.

In order to meet the FATF recommendation and to create a better AML regime in the country, Nepal must amend or formulate about fourdozen laws.

Should Nepal be unable to amend the existing laws and create new laws as per the requirement, the FATF will put Nepal on the black list, which will have severe repercussion on the country’s economy as it will discourage genuine Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Official Development Assistance (ODA), reduce the credibility of the Letter-of-Credit (LC), and the cost of remittance will also go up.

If the cost of remittance goes up, the illegal money-transfer system, the ‘hundi’, would be promoted.

The FATF had removed Nepal from its ‘Watch List’ in 2014 after the latter satisfied the international community with laws and standards for fighting financial crimes, but according to sources, the country has to fulfil many obligatory terms of creating a better legal regime.

Nepal said that the self-assessment would show us the future path, and the government would formulate better strategies to make reforms.

He said that more legal instruments, such as anti-terrorism laws, are the immediate needs.

“A better AML regime will increase economic transparency and revenue, bring stability in the financial sector, and help curb financial crimes,” he said.

According to the Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DMLI), tax-evasion, human trafficking and corruption are the major sources of black money that needed cleaning.

The DMLI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with more than 10 organisations, such as the Crime Investigation Bureau, Office of the Company Registrar, Department of Industry and Department of Revenue, said Binod Lamichhane, spokesperson of the DMLI.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 21 February 2018.  

Nepal reluctant to gradate to a 'Developing' country

Kathmandu, Feb. 18: Nepal has submitted its country report to the UN with a note that it doesn’t want to graduate from the status of the Least Developed Country (LDC) this year as per its earlier plan. 

Questioning the criteria set by the United Nations (UN) for graduating a Least Development Country (LDC) to the developing status, Nepal said that although there were unparalleled achievements in the first generation reforms such as school enrolment, reducing child and maternal mortality, and access to drinking water, the achievement lacked sustained quality in those sectors. 

“The economic vulnerability index was prepared on the basis of vulnerability of the African nations in the 1960s and 70s. It doesn’t fit to Nepal as it’s more prone to natural disasters rather than the external shocks,” said Swarnim Wagle, Vice-President of the National Planning Commission (NPC), at a programme at his office. 

According to him, the country performed well in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but there was a challenge to sustain the quality of the achievements made at education, health, sanitation and environmental sectors. 

Government and the UN expert committee were prepared to graduate Nepal to the developing status in 2018. 

As per some experts, once graduated, Nepal will lose the international development finance, and the climate finance might be reduced. Similarly, it will be deprived of the preferential market access of about 4.5 billion US Dollars, which has been offered to it because of its LDC status.

 

LDCs in the world. Map Source: Wikipedia

However, the graduating country will get three-year grace period to maintain itself and get ready for the sustained ‘developing’ status. 

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Nepal is eligible to graduate only in two criteria, Human Asset Index (combination of health, nutrition and education indices) and Economic Vulnerable Index, but will be unable to meet the Per-capita Income Index. 

An LDC must have the Gross National Income (GNI) PCI of US $1242 in 2018 for the graduation while Nepal's current per capita is only $862. 

“Although Nepal has technically passed the two criteria, we don’t want to graduate this year, but target to graduate the nation by 2022,” said Wagle. 

The NPC had announced the graduation of Nepal by 2022 in its 12^th periodic plan and reinforced it in the 13^th plan. 

The draft strategy of the apex planning body in the country says that the country should register an annual economic growth rate of 9.2 per cent to meet the three criteria and needs to invest Rs. 17 trillion from 2013-2022. 

Meanwhile, NPC Vice-Chair Wagle announced his resignation from the post. 

He said that he would tender his resignation to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli  today  (Sunday).

“I will brief the PM about the activities of the NPC in the past six months and will submit my resignation,” he said at an interaction with journalists. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 19 February 2018. 

FNCCI demands performance assessment of contractors

Kathmandu, Feb. 18: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) demanded that the government should conduct performance assessment of the contractors involved in the construction of infrastructure projects.

The FNCCI also asked the government that it should warn the contractors to conclude the work within the given deadline. 

Most of the infrastructure projects such as hydroelectricity, roads, bridges and irrigation in the country are facing the cost related problems and time overrun which has added burden on the part of the government and frustration among the people and business community. 

“Critical infrastructure projects should be completed in time and should have good quality,” said Bhawani Rana, president of the FNCCI. 

The business body demanded that the government should bring about ‘white paper’ on the national pride projects at the earliest and ensure that all projects complete in time. 

“We urge the government to announce 2018-2028 as the ‘Nation Building Decade’ and develop plans and strategies as well as ensure policy stability and investment security in order to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI),” said Rana. 

According to her, while developing the FDI policy, special attention should be given to the investors from the two neighbouring countries – India and China. If the investment from the neighbouring countries can be attracted, investors of other countries will be attracted to Nepal. 

The FNCCI also said that the government must ensure that there wouldn’t be double taxation with the implementation of the federal system. It also urged the government to bring down the doing business cost in the country.

“The Nepali business community and the government should learn from the young Indian states such as Telangana while implementing the taxation and other policies that have their direct impact on the business,” said Umesh Lal Shrestha, vice president of the FNCCI. 

Senior vice president of the organisation Shekhar Golchha said that the private sector was ready to collaborate with the governmentsin reemployment generation and other pertinent economic agenda. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 19 February 2018. 

Conference on on Asian Primates kicks off in Lalitpur

Lalitpur, Feb. 17: To share ideas on 'Human-nonhuman primates' coexistence' on a global scale, and update the world about the distinct nature of Nepali monkeys, a 4-day Satellite International Symposium on Asian Primates has begun here. 

Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Pun inaugurated the conference at Hotel Himalaya on Saturday.

The biological structure and behavioural characteristics of Nepali monkeys varies according to the ecological differences which is a great matter of interest for the scientist and researchers around the world, said Scientist and Chair of the Local Organising Committee Dr. Mukesh Kumar Chalise. 

"This is the first of its kind conference in Nepal although such seminars had been organised in other countries. We aim at sharing the knowledge about the primates generated in Nepal and around the globe," he said. 

About 58 scientists and researchers working on monkeys and mountain areas in Nepal, Japan, Indonesia, the United States of America, China, Thailand, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India are participating in the symposium that will deliberate on about three dozen research efforts.

Dr. Chalise said that the scientists are curious to know the reasons behind the differences seen in Nepali monkeys. Even the Langur and rhesus differ from the east to the west of Nepal and scientists are conducting studies to test the hypothesis whether the differences in the same species of monkeys are because of the three large river basins: Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali. 

Similarly, a young researcher, Pooja Upadhyaya is studying mother-child relations in Assamese and Rhesus monkeys.  

Dr. Chalise said that Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and Ministry of Forest are receiving complaints of crop loss by monkey from different districts of Nepal, including the Kathmandu Valley. 

"For the human-monkey coexistence, it is urgently needed to find out the causes of conflicts and potential management methods," he said. 

Director General of DNPWC Man Bahadur Khadka said that the symposium on Asian Primates was very unique and significant as it focused on updating researches on the primates of Asian countries and initiating the findings to policy making for wildlife conservation. 

"The pivotal concern of the symposium is to intensify the exchange of research information in regards to primates' conservation among biologists, academics, governmental and non-governmental organisations, individuals and other stakeholders," he said. 

According to him, the Nepali wildlife was facing challenges in management and rescue of injured, orphan and solitary animal and invasion from invasive species.

He also pointed towards the need of wildlife hospital, rescue centre, political will for conservation and balance between conservation and development.  

The conference will run till February 20. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 18 February 2018. 

Brick makers of SAARC nations inspect Zigzag kilns in Nepal

Kathmandu, Feb. 16: More than 20 brick manufacturers from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan visited brick kilns in Bhaktapur, Dhading and Biratnagar this week to inspect the zigzag kilns and gain first-hand experience from current operators. 

The event was organised jointly by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Federation of Nepal Brick Industries (FNBI) to observe the zigzag kilns – a new configuration that produces high quality bricks at lower costs and with fewer harmful emissions.

According to ICIMOD, the major aim of the visit was the exchange of ideas and practices about the design and construction of zigzag kilns. 

As brick kilns are notorious for the pollution in South Asia, emitting thick black smoke filled with carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and matters such as black carbon, the industry wants to shift to a better technology to lessen the adverse impact on the people and nature. 

Currently, the Fixed Chimney Bull’s Trench Kiln (FCBTK) is the most common design of the brick kiln and contributes significantly to poor air quality that adversely impacts human health and vegetation. 

For the last three days, the participants discussed means to convert the existing FCBTKs to zigzag kilns, which are more resistant to earthquakes, too. 

“We are encouraged to learn that progressive brick entrepreneurs in Nepal have converted their FCBTKs to zigzag kilns. As we want to see more and more brick entrepreneurs in South Asia follow suit, we've been working hard to spread the word about improved zigzag kiln designs and facilitating exposure visits for interested brick entrepreneurs from the region and beyond," said Bidya Banmali Pradhan, coordinator of the Brick Kiln Initiative. 

FNBI President Mahendra Bahadur Chitrakar said that the zigzag was the way forward that gave them the best shot at clean, low cost kilns.