Farewell to YSR and The New York Times Archive

This post is not intended to be a detailed one. Just a small post out to bid goodbye to Dr. YSR.

First the sad news, The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. Y.S Rajashekhara Reddy’s untimely demise on helicopter crash yesterday has brought this State of Andhra Pradesh in a state of shock, despair and grimming situation. The man was popular as the recent landslide victory of his in State Assembly Election and Lok Sabha Election has brought him again in power after being his victory in 2004 Election. He has just surpassed his 100 days in office. Despite numerous allegation of corruption against him, and allegation of factional politics in his native place Cuddapah, he was the man of masses. He promised a lot to the poor and the reports says that he promised most of them. That was the reason that he was elected again to serve the people of State of Andhra Pradesh. But, the God was very unkind to him and God wanted something otherwise.

Dr. Reddy was travelling to some remote village in Andhra Pradesh in a small helicopter and there were only five people. The climate and the nature’s fury, as the reports says, compelled the pilots to change the route. The plane left on wednesday morning around 9 and the helicopter went contactless with ATC immediately after some 15 minutes and nothing was heard. All machneries of state and Central Government was pressed in action and he was found along with 4 others, almost after 24 hours of his departure from Hyderabad, but when he was found, he alongwith other 4 were already with God. How merciless the God can be !

All the national Indian media have widely covered this incident and human sea on Hyderabad are there on the streets to pay their last respect. My office has also been closed for two days, yesterday and today, to pay respect to him. Eventhough I know him little and his political career, I had lots of respect for his hardwork and feel utterly sad for his untimely demise.

What we can do, when god has some other ideas! My farewell to Dr. YSR, and I am sure State of Andhra Pradesh will miss him for years.

Goodbye Dr. YSR, and May you rest in peace! Wish the God bestow courage to  family members to bear this hard truth.

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Sometime back, I was browsing The New York Times, one of the best newspapers in the world with wide range of information for any readers. The Economic and technology related columns are the things that are most read by me(by me!, I do not know about others.) While browsing the website, I stumbled on a great service of this NYT. About this, I wanted to write sometime back. This was the archive service.

The archive section gives you all the news from 1851 AD. You can read the free preview and to read the full article, you have to buy/subscribe. For all those reachers, I think it is a very great service though for normal common man like me, It may not be of that much value, or may be I can not afford.

But, I feel it is a revolutionary service.It helps greatly for the researchers and specially for the students of economics, political science and history, it should be of great help.

You can access NYT’s archive section from here:http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=a&query=nepal&srchst=p&submit.x=30&submit.y=11&submit=sub&hdlquery=&bylquery=&daterange=period&mon1=01&day1=01&year1=1981&mon2=09&day2=04&year2=2009

There you can see that I had searched the term Nepal and some of the news were of 1960-70 when there was Panchayat era in Nepal under the leadership of King Mahendra and there are archived news about B.P. Koirala, the first elected Prime Minister of Nepal.

You can see another link where it reports that King took the direct control of Government.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30814F73A541A7A93C4A81789D95F448685F9

Okay all, read this news and make the full use of them.

Have a good day.

Nepal and Foreign Currency Issues

I had written a post here sometimes back. The post was titled as “India and Foreign Currency Conversion”. There, in that post, I had promised at the bottom of the post that I would write something about Foreign Currency issues and conversion related matters on coming days.

Therefore, here it goes-something about Nepal and Nepal’s foreign currency related laws. First of all, to be frank with you, I do not know anything about foreign currency law of Nepal. So, what I am going to write is my experience of almost six years back. This issue is being talked here in the light of difficulties that we face in India to convert your Indian money to foreign currency from Nationalised or Private Banks. If you have already read my earlier post about India, You will know by this time that it is very very easy to get your Indian currency converted to US Dollar or other recognised foreign currency in private open market albeit the rate might be different from what Reserve Bank of India would prescribe.

In this background note, I am talking experience from Nepal. The story is of 2003 June. First time, I was on a foreign tour/trip. For the first time, I was stepping out of my country and was heading to foreign territory. The Country of destination was India , the foreign land where I was venturing to.

I knew that Nepalese Currency is of no use in India. I required either Indian currency or USD or something like that. At that time, I did not know much about forex law of Nepal and how to get foreign currency. First of all, I was not sure which currency to get or some kind of cards.

Problem in Nepal is that Rs. 500, and Rs. 1000 currency notes of India are not legally recognized. So, if I wanted those notes, I had to contact some businessmen of Terai and I did not have much time to do so. Another problem was that I did not want to do something illegal which may put me in some kind of trouble in the Airport-Tribhuwan International Airport. Now, legally, the problem was that I could get only Rs. 100 Indian currency and at that time, I was carrying something around 50,000 INR. First time, I was travelling to India and I did not know how much money I need and to get 100 Rs. currency note for that amount would make me to carry a big bunch of papers. I was little irritated with this idea.

My brother had suggested me to make Traveller’s Cheque, which he himself did not know what was that and neither I had any damn idea of what’s that. I thought I should contact with Bank people itself. Then, I visited to Everest Bank, in New Baneshwor where I had maintained my Savings Accounts at that time. I went to Bank told them that I am going to India and asked them to suggest what is the best method to carry some money.

They had only one suggestion-get Indian currency from us and go. I inquired about Traveller’s Cheque, Debit and Credit Card. They had low opinion about India and said me it’s not worth of doing any such things. They asked me about the city where I am heading to, and I said Hyderabad. From their facial expression that they had very low opinion about Hyderabad and in a manner of contempt to this place, said there it will be difficult for you if you do not have hard cash. I myself, did not know much about this place, and did what they suggested. I gave my Nepalese Currency and they gave Indian Currency-bunch of INR 100. The conversion rate was same as it is today as Nepalese currency is pegged with Indian Currency. N I headed to India with inner pockets of pants and shirts filled with Indian currency bunch.

In Nepal’s International Airport, while frisking my body, a policeman asked what’s there? I said-money, Indian Currency. He further said that he does not think that I have 500 INR currency note and I affirmed his thoughts. He said me to move and I moved. That’s all about my experience.

Now, let me add little more of my story before I conclude this. That day, the trip was in many ways a new for me. First foreign trip as already said, first time, I went to any International Airport and first time, I was traveling by Plane, among others. My sister Minu and Brother Rewati Raman Pokhrel came to Airport to see me off. We used to stay in Babarmahal Area and we took bus. There was no need of taking taxi. My sister had recently passed Nepal Telecommunication’s Exam and she had training in Kathmandu at that time. She skipped the half’s day training and came to see me off.

I will write more on this later. Keep on reading !!!

Nepal, India and Trade

I found this excellent Article in Telegraph Nepal of which link is provided below, while researching on India-Bangladesh Trade. I will have some comments on this as per my experience in Indian Customs Laws. The Copyright of the Article vests with Author/Publisher.

http://telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=6067&PHPSESSID=b5a1f280b3a7b036693e0927fe7b1267

Enhancement of Nepal-India bilateral Trade & Commerce Ties

Rajesh Agrawal National Council Member, Confederation of Nepalese Industries

The bilateral framework for trade and transit is provided by the India-Nepal treaties of Trade, of Transit, and Agreement for cooperation to control unauthorized trade 1991. The trade treaty valid for five years was renewed through an exchange of letters on December 3, 1996 and March 5, 2002 and automatically renewed for another five years in March 2007.

Under the Treaty of Trade, India provides, on a non-reciprocal basis, duty free access, to the India market for all Nepalese-manufactured articles barring a short negative list (cigarettes, alcohol and cosmetics), subject to the conditions, since march 2002, that the exports meet the domestic value addition requirement of 30% and change in its classification at four-digit level in the course of manufacture or processing in Nepal.

After the March 2002 revision, annual quotas have been prescribed for duty free exports to India for four sensitive items-vegetable fats (100,000 tons), acrylic yarn (10,000 tons), copper products (10,000 tons) and zinc oxide (2,500tons).

Bilateral trade takes place generally in Indian rupees, but Nepal’s Central Bank maintains a list of items that can be imported from India in us dollars.

The India–Nepal Treaty of Transit, renewed every seven years, provides for port facilities to Nepal at Kolkata and specifies 15 transit routes between Kolkata and the India-Nepal border for bilateral trade, 22 entry/exit points are provided along the Indo-Nepal border. The transit treaty was last renewed in March 2006. The agreement for cooperation between India and Nepal to control unauthorized trade was automatically renewed for five years in March 2007.

The two governments are negotiating a bilateral investment protection and promotion agreement.

India and Nepal signed a rail service agreement in May 2004, to extend cargo train service to the inland container depot (ICD) at Birgunj in Nepal. ICD has been constructed with World Bank assistance of US$ 17 million, while India has constructed the rail tracks which link the ICD with the Raxaul railway station in India. The ICD became operational on 16th July 2004. A container corporation of India-led joint venture Himalayan Terminals Private LTD. is operating the ICD.

A motor vehicle agreement for passenger vehicles, initialed on 23rd February 2004 awaits formal signature. The agreement envisages bus services between India and Nepal on 14 routes through 5 borders on reciprocal basis.53 buses will operate under this agreement everyday. Individuals traveling to either country in their personal vehicles would also be able to cross over into the other country without payment of any charge for the first five days.

Now I would like to high light some of the issues related to trade:

The trade treaty between India and Nepal has made specific provision which allows access of Nepalese manufactured goods to the Indian market without payment of any customs duty.

But in the past, through national budgets additional duties to the extent of 4% has been imposed on Nepalese exports, later on at the request of Nepalese’s exporters as well as Nepal government these duties were called off.

Eventually when the 4% additional duty was waived by other notification, it was made applicable only to those items, which were being exported by the date of the notification as per the list approved by the finance ministry on the basis of H.S. Code classification.

Many items which could have been exported or are exported from Nepal are still subject to this 4% additional duty.

By this the exports under Nepal India trade treaty has virtually frozen to the items enlisted prior to the notification and for the new items, the treaty is virtually extinct.

As a result of such discretionary levy of the additional duty, Nepalese exports have been badly impacted.

Agro based industries are facing problem of quarantine and lab testing and borders.

The garment industries are facing problems of levy of CVD in India on the basis of MRP.

Quota and canalization on vegetable fat, acrylic yarn copper products, zinc oxide

On specific items like steel pipes it is required to take ISI mark from BIS before they can be exported though they have already taken ns mark from Nepal bureau of standards.

Pharmaceutical industries are unable to export their products to India, because the registration of their pharmaceutical products in India is almost impossible.

The indo Nepal trade treaty allows for sending any machinery for repair & maintenance only within 3 years of importation from India to Nepal. Whereas in normal cases, it is after 3-4 years of installation that a machinery requires repair and maintenance.

By products not being allowed to be exported in India;

These are products where main finished products are allowed to be exported in India, but by –products generated during the course of manufacture of the finished products are not allowed for export to India due to some prohibitions either due to the Exim policy of India or some other notification.

Heavy congestion at Kolkata port resulting in delay and cost increase of import cargos.

Road and customs infrastructure not sufficient, very weak at the borders.

Recommendations

It should be specifically provided in the treaty that neither the central government of India nor the state governments will levy any form of additional duty on goods imported into India from Nepal as per the provision of the India Nepal trade treaty. And whatever products it is being levied currently should be waived immediately.

Regarding quarantine testing Nepalese labs should be accredited for the testing.

Third party pre-shipment inspection and their certification is the norm for the exports all over the world, the same can be made applicable for India-Nepal trade on agro products.

Initiations had started for negotiating a bilateral cooperation agreement on standards between bureau of Indian standards and Nepal bureau of standards and meteorology. It should be finalized with both recognizing quality standard marks provided by each other.

Nepal allows the import of Indian products with the minimum of non-tariff barriers and the Nepali exporters also expect the same treatment from the counterpart.

Provision for allowing the sending of machinery for repair and maintenance within 3 years of import only to be amended to remove the 3 years boundation.

The motor vehicle agreement for passenger vehicles should be formalized to allow Nepalese vehicles into Indian Territory which at present require a permit.

Removal of quota and canalization; when the quota was prescribed in 2002 on vegetable ghee, acrylic yarn, copper products, zinc oxide, the import duties in India on these products were very high, but now they have been significantly reduced and in some cases it is even 0%, so there is no logic in continuing with the quota.

Nepali manufactured goods out of Indian and or Nepali raw materials should have a separate procedure for export to India. They should be given national treatment as given by the central government of India to the states like Assam, Meghalaya, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in terms of tariff and non-tariff issues.

The DRP system (duty refund procedure) was introduced for goods exported from India to Nepal in Indian currency with a view to increase trade with Nepal as well to reduce the landed cost of goods to the consumers of Nepal. Under this system the amount of excise duty paid on Indian goods is given as rebate in the customs duty levied by Nepal and that amount is refunded to the Nepal government by the Indian government. During that time import duties were about 25% in Nepal so the full excise amount would be exempted but now the duties have fallen to the range of 5-10% resulting in the full excise not being exempted hence Indian goods becoming expensive.

So for all exports from India to Nepal in Indian currency excise duty should not be charged as in the case of dollar exports.

For the congestion being faced in Kolkata additional sea ports with railway connection for Nepal as JNPT, Kandla, Vishakhapatnam and ICD Tuglakabad for import and export of goods from Nepal should be provided.

ICD Birgunj should be connected with major ICD of India for bilateral and overseas cargo.

The facilities of concur should be extended to carry export material from Nepal to major cities of India and vice versa

Goods imported from third country into India are not allowed to be re-exported to Nepal. This provision should be removed and goods imported into India from third country should be allowed to be re exported to Nepal.

Improvement of cross border trade related infrastructure such as upgrading major customs check points at Birgunj-Raxaul, Biratnagar-Jogbani, Bhairawaha-Sunauli and Nepalgunj-Rupediya to international standards, upgrading approach highways to the border on the Indian side and the Nepalese side; and broad gauging and extending rail links to Nepal.

Lastly rivers flowing from Nepal into India constitute an important part of the Ganges river system. Nepal’s enormous hydropower potential estimated at 83,000 mw, of which 44,000 mw is considered economically feasible, could transform Nepal’s economy.

There is considerable scope for mutually beneficial cooperation between India and Nepal in developing small and medium sized hydropower projects in Nepal for internal use in Nepal or exports to India. Nepal’s hydropower development policy permits private and foreign investment in generation of hydropower, including for exports.

Service tax and Judiciary and Valuation

The taxes can be imposed on selective services. The government can identify the certain services like tour operator services, travel agents services, air travel serves, content and web-designing services etc. and can impose service tax. It is true that in matters of taxation, the Legislature possesses large freedom and wide discretion can be exercised and the legislation cannot be attacked for the reason that while taxes are levied on some persons/categories of services while leaving out others. Therefore, any legal hardship that can be met in court can be easily tackled.

It is a policy decision for the executives/legislatures to decide whether to tax or not and on which sector to tax and which sector to leave. Courts can not tell government to tax any particular sector and not to tax another service sector. It is a policy decision and generally will not be challengeable in the courts of law. It is for the Legislature to determine the question of need and to select the goods or services for taxation. Courts cannot review the wisdom or advisability or expediency of a tax as the Court has no concern with the policy of legislation, so long as they do not violate the constitutional provision. Taxes may be and often are oppressive, unjust and even unnecessary but this can constitute no reason for judicial interference. Every tax must discriminate and only the authority that imposes it can determine how or in what directions.

Valuation of service rendered

The value of service normally refers to the gross amount charged for the service provided, upon which tax is to be calculated. In the event of mix up of goods and services, the value of goods has to be deducted to arrive at value of service.

It will be in the interests of nation if services are exported more and more amount of foreign reserves are earned. To benefit from it, it should be noted that service tax should not be imposed where the services are exported outside the territory of the country as it increases the international competitiveness.

Where a single service provider provides multiplicity of services and when all the services are not taxable, payment of tax and assessment will be difficult and fraught with complications. A single contract may cover both goods and services and tax may be levied both under VAT and Service Tax Act upon the consideration. But, on the portion of consideration on which service tax is levied, VAT can not be levied.

New Education Tax in Nepal: An Open Letter to Nepalese Finance Minister

This letter is written as comment to an article published by Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in his Facebook Profile. Dr. Baburam Bhattrai is Finance Minister of Nepal. The article that has been published in Dr. Bhattrai’s Facebook profile is of one of the Editorials published in THE KATHMANDU POST.

My Dear Bhattarai,

I am not sure if you are the same who we presume you to be, the Finance Minister of Nepal. I hope that you are the same Dr. Baburam Bhattarai maintaining your facebook profile by yourself. I will be delighted to know even if your close well-wisher is maintaining your profile on your behalf and of course, on your supervision.

Dear Hon’ble FM, I am after this news of educational tax/educational cess/educational service tax, whatever name is more appropriate, to know more about it and to understand its modalities. My efforts to know more has become very futile and am not able to get any satisfactory answer how this tax will be administered. I have a clear answer why this tax has been imposed but how it will be administered is far from clear, at least to me. The above Post editorial also throws light of Rambhakti only to a babu (referred to government in India) like you but is not clear what negative impact can it make to people of this country.

I have some doubts and opinion about this tax which I am going to raise in this comment and I hope that you will respond at least to some comments. I do not be waiting your direct reply to me as that is probably not possible but hope that you take your own time to address some of the issues.

Now, let me talk about the impacts of this tax. As I read some online news sites sometimes back, one of the eminently respectable Minister in the field of education of your cabinet said that it is the tax that shall be paid by private School organizations whereas the some learned Inland Revenue Department’s officers opined that parents of school going kids need to pay this extra tax out of their pockets. I have not understood if the tax is direct in nature or indirect where the liability is shifted to the customers (school going kids’ parents).

Assume that before the tax is imposed, A School is charging Rs 1000 per admission and Rs. 100 per month as tuition fees for 12 months. Now, does your law prohibits these schools to charge Rs. 1000 as admission cost and Rs. 50 as Education Cess (hereinafter referred as ‘EC’) and Rs. 1200 as tuition fees and Rs 60 as EC for a year? I do not think so. And if they charge in that way, the government hopefully gets Rs. 50+ Rs. 60= Rs. 110 as Education Cess per student and that also when these School administrations do not play fraud and create forge documents bribing notoriously corrupt administration. Assume that your kitty swells by Rs. 110 per student per year, but who has to face the burden finally?

Has the per capita income of people grown up in the last 6-7 months after you formed government? Can they bear this increased cost? If yes, what are the supporting data/statistics in addition to Mao and Marx says so, if their ideology says anything of this nature.

Assume that these school administrators do not raise separate invoices but raise a single amount without bifurcating the basic costs and tax amount and give parents a single invoice of Rs. 2310/- in our above example, what remedy and alternatives these parents have except to sell out more money from their pockets?

Your 5% Education Cess is surely going to burn the customers’ pockets only and the end results is that may be some parents have to drop their kids from the school? is this what you want?????

Any way out?

I think here You and I agree on one point. Yes, the EC should be imposed to education sector and on private organizations but modalities need to be clearly worked out before imposing this tax.

The first and foremost but fundamentally flawed presumption here is that all private schools earn profits and all are there for selfish motive of making surplus profits.

We need to stop seeing private sector as evil organ of state. We need to appreciate the contributions they have made in this country when you revolutionists were busy demolishing state infrastructures without making any distinctions for what communists are known for. Anyway, my point is that there are private schools today even in country side imparting good education. These schools can not be compared with those heavy weight business institutions which are educational in nature.

So, we need to make a distinction between who are liable not to pay tax and who are liable? How?

1. The Amount of Revenue earned: We can make a flat exemption limit something like an institution earning less than Rs. 10,00,000 per year is exempted from this additional tax. This ten or nine or may be five, should be decided from the committee of experts which are naturally endowed with more wisdom than me. Here, when I say ten, it is not profit but the total income received by that private school without any deductions.

2. We can designate areas in various levels and can provide exemptions to schools straightway even if their total turnover is more than that threshold limit. For example, a private school opened in a VDC in Karnali Zone can be exempted from this tax even if their turnover is more than threshold limit. Or we can provide incentives to private schools exempting from this tax if they are opened in less developed areas and where the backward classes reside. Say, exemption from this tax if cost per student per year is less than Rs. 1000, and exemption continues for 10 straight years. If we really need education to all, we need to provide incentives to private sectors to go to villages. There is no point just to encourage YCL to go to villages and continue their unholy violence.

3. On what turnover, you are going to impose that 5% EC? This is one of the fundamental factor to decide how progressive you are. If you are saying that School A which earns 1000 as profit and School B which earns 20 as profit should pay tax at uniform rate of 5% i.e.; Rs. 50 and Re. 1, that is just proportional to their income and School B is in fact, paying more in terms of money value as determined as per basic principles of economics. The principle of diminishing marginal utility makes Re. 1 for School B more valuable than Rs. 50 for School A. This is a good incentive to hide incomes, not to get registered, to forge documents, to bribe public servants and to do many more illegal things than to pay tax.

Then, what should be done???

First of all, it should be decided that in which income, the tax is to be levied. It comes to my mind that most naturally, it should be levied on profits before tax after all the deductions and exemptions if any as per other fiscal legislations.

Suppose as said by above editorial, the rate of income tax for Educational body is 25% as per company law or under any law as it has been administered today.

Suppose School A earns 1000 Rs. profit and School B earns Rs. 20 as Profit. Then, their tax liability till today will be Rs. 250 and Rs. 5. Now, the 5% EC should come here. It should be 5% of Rs. 250 for School A, and 5% of Rs. 5 for School B. That means total accumulated tax that School A and School B shall pay will be Rs. 262.50 and 5.25 respectively.

This makes their EC liability proportional to Educational tax liability. This is little more scientific than other ways and more progressive.

There can be another way to tax educational bodies which is more progressive based on certain slabs. Therefore, the more they earn, the higher percentage of tax they have to pay. The higher percentage of tax they have to pay, the higher amounts of tax they need to pay. Therefore, instead of imposing anything extra 5% tax uniformly, we need to work out systematic tax levy mechanism where these 5% will be automatically couched and tax be levied progressively.

That’s all for now. Hope I be back to comment more on other matters.

Dashain and journey back to India

It feels good when I write. That’s why I am writing here, after a short break. It feels great writing something after a grand celebration of Dashain. If you have read my earlier post, you may be knowing that I was in Nepal this year during Dashain and was supposed to be back on 14th Morning. Now, I am back in Hyderabad, India but I reached here on 15th Morning instead of 14th because of delay in train. 

I am not going to tell you that story in detail what happened and how I missed my second connecting train because of late movement of first train but entire journey was horrible. The rush in HOWRAH Railway Station (Kolkata/Calcutta) was horrible to say the least. It is the most disorganized Indian City I have ever seen and getting train from this station is really a hard job. The immense Platforms and then, multiple old and new buildings of Railway Station does not help either to locate from where to get a train. 

I had a confirmed train ticket from Kolkatta to Hyderabad but when I missed my train, then, I had no ticket for the second train. It took almost four hours for me to get idea about another train and measures to get ticket. Finally after gap of 6 hours in railway Station, I got on extremely crowded Chennai Mail and somehow, reached Hyderabad. This story is all for now. I have taken some photos by using my Nokia 6300 Mobile’s 2 Megapixel Camera. You can have a look here to know how Indian Train looks like. Since Mobile camera does not have that great resolution, you can excuse me for these blurred images.

 

 

 

Can you see the head of my train? I mean on which I was travelling, is travelling on curvy track.

 

 

Now, back to my life in Nepal, Dashain was good. I was in home during Dashain after 5 years and felt great to receive Tika, Jamara and Aashivaad (blessings) from my grandmother, father and mother.

When I went Nepal from India, I had a plan to go to my maternal grandparents’ home in Chandragadhi, Jhapa but these old folks disappointed me and us, all the family members. They decided that they will not offer Tika because of some of their relatives died some 9 months back. I know who had died and I knew that the relationship was some distant brother but I really did not understand why they refused to offer Tika. It would be even greater feeling to receive Tika from my maternal grandparents after years of muglan. But, that was not going to happen. It disappointed us but we did not let it destroy our festive mood. 

In home, we were three brothers- mahilo, sahilo and Kanchho. My Kanchho Bhai came from Kathmandu and crossed Saptakoshi from Chatara, Nepal by using boat propelled by machine. He told that the journey was not that difficult but people in Kathmandu did not know that the facility was such an easy one. It was great to see him in home.

Another great aspect of Dashain is Mar Hanne (Khashi Katne-it is Nepalese tradition to eat meat of goat, buffalo, pig etc. during Dashain depending on our own choice and caste and people generally cut animal in their own home and consume lots of non-veg food depending on their reach.). We also cut a goat in home. I was the one there to catch rope from head side. My Bhanij Bhai, Binod, caught legs and Maldaju cut that goat’s head. Of Course, it was not that great sight to see and explain in the blog but what I did was the first time. After that, we kept on eating non veg food many many days till I left Nepal. 

This time in Dashain, after being disappointed with my maternal grandparents, we went to my dad’s mama’s home (my dad’s mom’s brother’s home), there we received a nice treatment-Tika and Jamara and Asshirvad and some money. This we received on Vijaya Dashami’s day. Next day, on Ekkadashi, we went to my uncle’s house (my dad’s younger brother’s home) and received Tika. That’s all about My Dashain Celebration. Some years back, I had written a blog post saying, “Dashain aayo ani gayo pani”. This year I shall write, Dashain aayo ani ramrari nai gayo” 

I am waiting for another big celebration- Dipawali/Diwali/ Subha Tihar.

See you all soon in another blog post.

 

Once again-Another Dashain

I am updating this Blog after a Long Time. It has been very tumultuous months for me in the recent past. Nothing wrong and nothing bad at all but the enthusiasm factor has gone down. This is not a good sign. After a long time, I am gathering some energy to update this Page. First of all, I would like to extend my Good Blessings to you all on auspicious occasion of Bada Dashain and Happy Vijaya Dashami. May Lord Durga bless you all!!!

We can term this Blog entry as a kind of Dashain Blog. I am concentrating all my thoughts on Dashain and some nostalgia.

 

I just today watched my blog statistics and found that total 4 people visited me today. I remember there used to be one occasion where around 200 people used to visit my blog daily. I could not give continuity and the slide of Blog started. I am here to blame myself for my erratic behaviour and Today, this erratic behaviour costed me some of my valuable readers and some of the people who used to appreciate my writings. Today, my blog looks like a desert and no one bothers to visit. Some people, I can see still here roaming over my blog. Those people must like a thirsty deer that runs towards a desert by seeing a mirage-that is lake full of water. I do not know, If this blog is just a mirage for someone but my sincere thanks to all who are offering their little time to visit this Blog. Thank you all of you!!!!

 

While going through statistics of my blog, I saw that somebody has visited my blog after being referred by Google. I just clicked the link to know what had been searched in Google that directed the viewer to my Blog. The referral link is like this:

http://www.googlee.com/search?hl=en&q=dashain%20theme

That means, someone searched Dashain Theme and my blog entry appeared at number 4. The blog post referred there was my entry that I posted last year in 2006 on occasion of Dashain(See here for last year’s entry: http://talkingforum.wordpress.com/2006/09/23/dashain-aayo/ ). Oh My God! How fast time passes and we are just at the door of another Dashain.

 

Dashain Aayo, Khaula Piula, Kaha Paula—- like these, used to be the songs that we used to sing in our childhood. Staying together with brothers, sisters, parents and celebrating Dashain used to give us that pleasure for what we always waited for another Dashain. But, it has been a long gap of 5 years and I am not in my home in Dashain and neither in Tihar to mention here. I hope to break this continuity from next year onwards but who knows what happens next year.

 

Khana ani launa ta paiye kai chha in these last five years but napaiyekai euta kura chahi ho Dashain Manauna.

 

Though I will not be enjoying much in this Dashain, I once again, wish happy Dashain to all of you who can celebrate this.

 

Dashain Aayo!!! Happy Dashain!!!

  

 

 

Fiscal Policy of Federal Nepal-Part I

 

Revenue Sharing Policy of Federal Nepal- Part I

By Chamatkaribaba (who is also busy making his brand new photo blog http://travelindiaphoto.blogspot.com )

Nepal has since long plunged into a state of anarchy because of the failures of democratic institutions. These failures were because of mainly two reasons:

1) Because political leaders invested little time to save democratic institutions and;

2) There were targeted actions from autocratic and regressive forces, more particularly to blame is King and his coterie.

The second cause was lately realised by these political leaders and by that time, already, state of state was statelessness.
A lot of things happened after that mainly, People’s Uprising in 2006, April and have put Democratic institutions back on track, if not democratic virtues. There are a lot of things those have to be done. The debate on political aspects of democracy; and state has received a lot of ink from various people from different walk of life. But, it seems that economic aspect of functioning of state has been completely shadowed.

This blog tries to provide a glimpse of what should happen on the economic aspects of New Nepal.
The recent news buzz is all about Federal State of Nepal. A lot of gangs and groups are fighting for that. People who belong to Terai Region, people from Janajatis, Dalits, Adivashis, Limbuwan people, Khumbuwan and people from Chure Bhawar area are fighting for federal democracy.
All seem to be agreeing on the need of federal state except its modalities how to form it. Some are voicing for Fully Proportional Election system and some are against it. Most of the Nepal’s political debate is revolving around Constituent Assembly Election, its success.
Very few are debating on the issues of Fiscal Policy once Nepal becomes Federal State. This is very important for the sustenance of democracy, for the sustenance of state, for the sustenance of each federal province/county (by whatever name it is called) and for their progress.
This issue assumes significance because of Nepal’s Geographical Location. All parts in Nepal do not earn same amount of revenue. The Terai, plain Region is more accessible by Roads and Transports. It is easier to do any kind of national and international business from that region. The Terai Region shares its boundary with India, with which Nepal has a maximum third country business. The goods made in Nepal are exported through Terai Region and goods imported in Nepal mostly come from this Terai Region.

Kakarbhitta, Biratnagar, Birgunj, Janakpur, Siraha, Bhairahawa, Butawal, and Mahendranagar are some of the towns in Nepal which has good Road Transport system with Indian Boarder Cities.

The Cereal, Paddy, Wheat, Oil and Gases, Salt, Clothes, Heavy Machinery, Transport related Gadgets, Clothes, and other stable food grains are mostly imported through this route and a little like Vanaspati Ghee, Noodles, Copper Wire are exported to India and via India to Bangladesh, Bhutan etc.
Because of these enormous economic activities, a lot of revenue will be collected in this region which substantially helps in development of the country.

Nepal’s other parts are Himalayan Region and Hilly areas. They lack good Roads and Transport Systems. Very little economic Activity happens there. Some Hydroelectric Power plant located here and there, local textiles, local papers, and some food stuffs like Alainchi, Amriso are the major products of this area. Even those goods produced here are either marketed in Terai Region like in Nepalgunj, Birgunj, and Birtamod or through Terai Region; these products are sent to outside the country. So, because of lack of systematic markets in hilly and Mountainous areas, all trading activities happen in Terai and most of the revenues from these goods are received by Terai Region.

The Himalayan Region shares Border with China in Northern part but very little activity happens there because of lack of any good Transport Systems except in Tatopani Customs Office.
In this Scenario, we need to think what happens when Nepal is divided into a Federal State? How Economic Resources are collected and how they are distributed?
Who, either Center or Provincial Government, will have power, by Constitution, to collect and distribute such revenue and by what proportion?

This is a question that needs to be meticulously analysed and answers have to be found out. We need such answers that do not bring unequal distribution of wealth among regions. We emphasise that distribution of revenue should be made in such a way that does not hamper regional progress.

This author is trying to search some of the best possible answers in coming days, analysing the issues from Constitutional, Economical, and from Fiscal Policy view point.

Be with us!

Originally Published in Bhup’s Blog in Vision Developed Nepal

 

जोखिमपूर्ण जातीय विभाजन/Risky ethnic Devides.

(In the series of Consolidating Debates on Constituent Assembly Election and prospects of Federalism, these two articles in Nepali and translation in English have been published here. I agree most of the points presented in this Article.) 

जोखिमपूर्ण जातीय विभाजन
डा. आलोक बोहरा
कसरी युगौंदेखिका नेपाली समस्याको समाधान नेपाललाई जातीय धारमा विभाजन गरेर सम्पन्न गर्न सकिन्छ ? जातीय तथा लैंगिक विभेद, आर्थिक अभाव, पश्चिमी पहाडका भोकमरी तथा खाद्य सुरक्षाका समस्या, कमजोर प्रशासन संयन्त्र, स्वास्थ्य सेवाको अभाव, पर्यावरणीय असन्तुलन, सहरी अपराधहरू, बढ्दो जनसंख्याको चाप, बेरोजगारी, शैक्षिक भिन्नता, प्राकृतिक प्रकोपहरू जस्तै- तराईको बाढी सामना गर्ने असमर्थता, बालश्रम, चेलीबेटी बेचबिखन, सामन्ती प्रथा र कतिपय अकर्मण्यता इत्यादि सबै नेपाली समस्या हुन्, न कि मधेसी, लिम्बुवान, बाह्मण । 

Constituent Assembly Election and Federal System

[Though I disagree with the learned Authors on some of the minor points in this Article, I hope that this Article will make an interesting and educative reading. I will make some of my "notes of dissent" clear after some days, in a separate Article.]

 

By Surendra R Devkota and Shiva Gautam

 

Nepal, since its existence, never had a citizen-centered governance structure. All state machineries during the Rana and earlier regimes were focused on only tax collection from the citizens and power consolidation at the center.

 

Come One, Come All To Vote Your Destiny: Election Commission

[ My few Words: This article is a copy-paste Article written by Dinesh Wagle in United We Blog. I have copied this article from UWB's website as it helps to spread information about Constituent Assembly Election in Nepal. For further information about its original publication, see the bottom of this Article. All Copyrights over the Article and images belong to Original Authors.]

By Dinesh Wagle

As part of its unprecedented campaign, Election Commission will send 8 thousand volunteers in each and every house of all villages of Nepal to deliver invitation cards: You and your family members [who are registered at the Commission] are heartily invited to the nearby voting both for the Constituent Assembly election on November 22.

An invitation to your family to vote. Sketch by Dewen via Kantipur

Something politically motivated!!!!

I have not written anything in my blog so many days. So, feeling like I have missed out something.
I am somewhere far from my temporary-but-usual place. People call it Hi-Tech City. Yes, Hi-Tech City of Hyderabad. Flooded with fancy buildings, fancy offices with fancy names. It has given job to many, status to many, and of course, quick bucks to many. Hi-Tech City in Hyderabad is a part of changing Hyderabad to Cyberabad.

NEPAL in a New Height

It is a great pleasure for this blogger to share this News with its Readers. The date for Constituent Election (Sambidhan Sabha) has been declared in Nepal and It is going to be Mansir 6, according to Nepali Calender, i,e; November 22, 2007.

This is an election that decides the fate of ill fated monarchy in Nepal. That means, the oppressive royal regime and its coterie in Nepal can not impose their criminal, anti-social and undemocratic actions on 27 million freedom loving people.

A Nepali Gazal-Just a try.

If you are reading my blog for quite a long time, You know that how happy I could be if I write or read Gazal in Nepali. I love my language, literature and specially Gazals written in Nepali Language. It’s not my first attempt to write Post in Nepali.