NepaliPolitics.com

Nepali Times writes:

Nepali Times writes:

After he became finance minister last month, Baburam Bhattarai asked the visiting Afghan economist Ashraf Ghani: "How can I keep my party happy while at the same time maintain economic stability?"

Ghani gave Bhattarai a written list of things to watch out for. As he prepares to present the budget to parliament on Friday afternoon, Bhattarai will follow the advice of donors to balance the need to push some populist measures with keeping the economy on track.

Bhattarai has said he wants the economy "to leap like a frog and not slither like a snake," and he is satisfied with letting a few large highway and hydropower projects to drive growth for now.

"There isn't enough time to completely overhaul economic policy, the budget will just put some dressing on the old policies," says Bhattarai's budgetary aide, Dipendra Chhetri.

Costly programs like 'revolutionary' land reform, increased urban property tax, pension to women and farmers are to be dropped. Even the allowance for the elderly, widows and handicapped is expected to be limited to the Karnali, and debt forgiveness for small farmers will only apply to the landless.

An ambitious plan to ensure 100 per cent literacy by 2011, is unlikely to happen, and not because of lack of money. "It is just not possible when 11 per cent of the children don't go to school and see no need to," says TU educationist Tirtha Khaniya, "children aren't going to go to school just because you build schools."

However, the Rs 225 billion budget is expected to announce major investment in expanding the network of rural roads in the hope of creating 100,000 jobs in the coming year and providing farmers with access to markets.

Bhattarai has put his sights on revenue generation by controlling smuggling. A recent study showed that only 59 per cent of goods imported from India come through official channels. Just reducing smuggling by 10 per cent is expected to yield up to Rs 20 billion. This won't be easy: the Kodari customs was closed last week by traders after the government tried to stop smuggling.

The biggest challenge will be to ensure industrial security so that foreign investors will come to Nepal. The record so far is not good.

The Himalayan Times writes:

The 11-bigha plot in Mirchaiya has been at the centre of a bitter political power struggle over the past few years.
The matter came to a head after the Maoists started settling their voters on this contentious plot. The Maoists had confiscated the land that originally belonged to Mohan Bahadur Shahi, brother-in-law of former King Gyanendra, in mid-2006.
Birendra Sah along with 74 others had bought the land about the one and half years ago. Minister Matrika Yadav’s son-in-law, Dileep Shah, who now happens to be the district in-charge, had approved the deal.
Initially, Sah was a Maoist sympathiser, having allegedly lined up the party coffers to the tune
of Rs 3 million. He had also paid money to Abinash, the then district secretary of the
party, who has since fallen from grace. The Maoists have initiated disciplinary action against Abinash. Later, Sah switched allegiance. He started siding with the Madhesi
Janadhikar Forum (MJF) and refused to donate to the Maoist party fund and also part with
a portion of the plot.
The Maoists were using this land to hold their Kangaroo courts during the People’s War. In early 2006, hundreds of party cadres would camp on this prized plot, apparently to “conserve their energy”. However, the tables were turned during the Madhes Andolan. Residents evicted the Maoists, much to their dismay. Poor and oppressed Maoist supporters started settling on this plot after August 30, 2008. The resettlement is in keeping with the Maoists pre-Constituent Assembly polls sop.
Siraha residents were optimistic that the Moaists’ encroachment would end after UML leader Bam Dev Gautam was appointed the Home Minister. The recent incident underlines the tussle between the coalition partners — the MJF and Maoists. Enraged by the imbroglio, the MJF may even pull out of the government.

The Himalayan Times writes:

The 50-member taskforce formed to prepare Legislative-Parliament Regulation of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Thursday finalised the regulation, which would be officially endorsed on Sunday.
The Legislative-Parliament Regulation is a procedural law that gives guideline to the functioning of the Legislative-Parliament under the CA.
The taskforce led by CA member Narayanman Bijuckchhe was formed to prepare regulations for the functioning of the legislative session of the CA.
Agni Prasad Kharel, one of the taskforce members, said the regulation was almost complete. "We were able to sort our some of the key contentious issues in on Thursday's meeting," Kharel added. According to him, the taskforce members were undecided on women CA members' demand that they be allowed to form a caucus within the Legislative-Parliament.
However, the taskforce sorted out the issue by reaching an understanding that there would be a separate Women, Social Welfare and Children Committee in the Legislative-Parliament. This committee would look into the matters concerned with Ministry of Women, Social Welfare and Children and the Ministry of Health and Population.
The taskforce also agreed that the House retained rights to approve or reject any international convention or treaty the government reaches as a State party.
The taskforce, however, failed to reach an understanding on CA Regulations due to the parties' row over their respective representation in the Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC). Fringe parties are insisting on their representation in the CDC and in all ten proposed subject committees.
CA Regulations give procedural guideline to drafting new constitution for which 10 subject committees have been proposed to facilitate the CDC.
Kharel said they would discuss it after the Legislative-Parliament Regulation is officially endorsed by the full House on Sunday.

eKantipur writes:

A budget of approximately Rs 238 billion that the Maoist-led government is unveiling on Friday will allocate more resources to the social sector and increase the perks for civil servants. It has also set ambitious expenditure and revenue targets.

"In short, the budget will be more distributive with increased funds for rural development, but the almost impossible expenditure and resource mobilization targets have given it a populist tone," said a source preferring to be unnamed. The proposed expenditure for the current fiscal year is 47 percent higher than the actual expenditure of last year.

A knowledgeable source told the Post that the government is doubling the existing level of fiscal grant to village development committees (VDCs) to Rs 2 million. As a continuation of past arrangements, all 3,915 VDCs will automatically qualify for the Rs 1 million grant. However, their eligibility for another Rs 1 million will depend on how well they spend the first installment.

He added that the extra money would enhance their financial clout, enabling them to implement additional programs. This gift will mean an additional liability of

Rs 4 billion for state coffers.

The first full-fledged budget of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal also includes an ambitious debt relief plan for small farmers, for which the government is earmarking Rs 9 billion for a period of five years. In the first year, the government will allocate roughly Rs 2 billion to allow small farmers to pay off loans and get the lands they offered as collateral released by lending agencies.

Scrapping an earlier plan to raise perks for the country's 400,000 civil servants by a flat 18 percent, the government is proposing to raise their monthly salaries by a fixed average amount of Rs 2,500, which will create an addition budgetary burden of Rs 12 billion. As per the Civil Service Act, the government has to provide a yearly dearness allowance equal to 75 percent of the annual rate of inflation.

The budget, which aims to achieve 6.5 percent economic growth rate and keep inflation below 8 percent, is announcing a nearly three-fold increment in allowances for elderly citizens and widows that currently stands at Rs 175 per month. The budget also includes a Rs 2 billion relief package for Koshi flood victims and Rs 1 billion for conflict victims. 

Of the total earmarked expenditure, over Rs 126 billion will be spent on financing recurrent expenditures while around Rs 96 billion will be set aside for funding capital expenditure, which mainly means development activities. The remaining Rs 17 billion will be used for repayment of principal of domestic and foreign loans.

Regarding sources of financing, the budget has set a challenging revenue target of over Rs 140 billion, almost 31 percent higher than the actual mobilization achieved last year. Apart from additional resources that the government is expecting to generate by implementing a vigorous plan to plug existing revenue leakages, it also expects to collect around Rs 5 billion by offloading Nepal Telecom shares. The budget will use last year's surplus of around Rs 4 billion.  The remaining revenue requirement is expected to come from duty refund procedures, a duty refund mechanism from the Indian government, and administrative reform.

Similarly, the budget will also aim to mobilize Rs 25 billion in domestic borrowing, up from around Rs 20 billion last year. In order to meet the remaining deficit, the budget intends to mobilize around Rs 70 billion in foreign loans and grants.

eKantipur writes:

Nepal Bar Association (NBA) decided to duck the hearing at courts throughout the nation on Friday to resist the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend NBA President Bishwakanta Mainali’s license.

Charging the chief of the bar with ‘contempt of court’, a full meeting of the Supreme Court judges yesterday decided to prevent Mainali from advocating at courts for six months for his recent remarks. Mainali recently had commented that the judgeship has been taken for a licence for corruption. The NBA, the umbrella organisation of the lawyers, retaliated against the SC decision in what appears to be an unremitting brawl between the bar and the bench. According to NBA General Secretary Raman Kumar Shrestha, an emergency meeting of the office bearers at the NBA, Supreme Court Bar, District Bar Associations of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur and Kavre, Lalitpur Appellate Bar Association took the decision to boycott the bench work as part of legal practitioners’ preliminary reaction to the SC decision. A meeting of the advisory and the central committee of the NBA which is due to be held later today is expected to publicise further decision.