Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (May 9, 2019).
Mired in politics, there’s little likelihood Budhi Gandaki will take off
In September last year, the KP Sharma Oli administration decided to rope in China Gezhouba Group Corporation to develop Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project, disowning the erstwhile Sher Bahadur Deuba government’s decision to develop the 1,200MW project with internal resources.
A Cabinet meeting on September 22 last year directed the Energy Ministry to initiate the process to award the project to the Chinese developer. As per the Cabinet decision, the ministry was asked to hold talks with Gezhouba, prepare a proposal and strike a deal to execute the $2.5 billion reservoir project in Gorkha and Dhading.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Energy sought opinions from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law and Justice so that it could take the project forward.
But there was a strong reservation from the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Energy stalled further negotiations with Gezhouba. The project is in a state of limbo now.
In an interview with the Post, Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun confirmed that project negotiations with China Gezhouba Group have stalled for long. “We held two rounds of negotiations with the Chinese firm in initial days. Since then, there is hardly any progress,” he said. “We are just distributing compensation to the affected people. The project is in a standstill.”
Media Council Bill moves quietly to Parliament after remaining shrouded in secrecy for months
The government, on Wednesday, presented the Media Council bill to Parliament, bypassing a critical consultation phase with stakeholders and the public.
The consultation phase, in practice for a long time now, is considered a critical element of the democratic exercise of lawmaking.
Drafting of the Media Council bill, which aims to replace the existing Press Council Act, started last year, but information rights activists said that the government has attempted to prevent them from accessing the bill and its contents.
“No bill in Nepal has been shrouded in such secrecy in our recent history. There was not a single consultation since the drafting of the bill began,” said Taranath Dahal of Freedom Forum, a civil liberties organisation. “The participatory phase in the lawmaking process is effectively over now.”
Dahal and his team had been relentlessly pursuing the government to get a look at the bill, in hopes of starting a dialogue about its content. But they were constantly denied access, said Dahal. Officials have been dodging requests, claiming that the bill was still being drafted, until this afternoon when they were told that getting a look at the bill wouldn’t be possible “without Information Minister Gokul Baskota’s orders”, he said.
No changes in liabilities of Tootle and Pathao in final tax assessments
The tax authorities have determined final tax liabilities for Tootle and Pathao, two ride-sharing companies, without making any changes in the liabilities in the initial tax assessments.
“Tootle received the final assessment of its tax liability last week and there has been no changes,” said Lal Bahadur Khatri, chief of Inland Tax Office, Lalitpur.
Meanwhile, Nara Bahadur Thapa, chief of Inland Revenue Office, Putalisadak, said they provided the final tax assessment to Pathao this week.
Officials said that they found no reason to revise the amount after both companies submitted their explanation on initial tax assessments.
While the total tax liability of Tootle includes both income tax and Value Added Tax (VAT), only VAT liability has been created in the case of Pathao, as it has been just a few months since the company made its foray into the country, according to concerned tax offices.
Patients deprived of essential drugs at state-run health facilities across the country
Deepak Shrestha, on Wednesday, took his grandmother, Santa Maya Nagarkoti, to Aalapot Health Post in Kageshwori Manohara Municipality of Kathmandu for a check-up.
After the examination, health workers told Shrestha to buy medicines for his 73-year-old grandmother, a patient of asthma, from a private pharmacy because the health post was out of stock.“We were told that the municipality had not supplied essential drugs to the health post for almost a year,” Shrestha told the Post. “I would not have taken my grandma to the health post if I knew they were not giving medicines,” said Shrestha.
Drugs for asthma are among the 70 essential drugs that the government distributes for free to needy patients through state-run health facilities throughout the country. Along with the asthma drugs, the health post lacks medicines even for common illnesses.
Ganga Nepali who had visited the same health post after her seven-year-old daughter, Khushi, started running a temperature, was also given a list of medicines by health workers, which she had to buy from pharmacies.
Like Nagarkoti and Nepali, many people seeking basic health services at state-run health facilities across the country have been deprived of free essential medicines.
Parties in negotiations to get ‘their’ people in transitional justice bodies
The two transitional justice mechanisms’ failure to achieve anything substantial in the last four years has largely been attributed to politics and political bickering. Conflict victims have long said that since officials in the two bodies were selected under political quota, there was a lack of independence.
Now, the government has formed a committee to appoint new officials in the two transitional justice bodies after bidding adieu to old office-bearers on April 13.
But multiple sources the Post spoke with say the delay in appointment has been caused by ongoing negotiations among political parties, or senior leaders KP Oli, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba for that matter.
This comes amid demands from conflict victims and human rights defenders that the stakeholders refrain from repeating past mistakes and ensure the new leaderships of the two transitional justice bodies are selected purely on merit basis.
Sources said the parties are yet again trying to induct their confidantes in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons.
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