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The CPN (Unified Socialist) has decided to vote in favor of the budget brought by the government. The party has decided to help in endorsing the budget after the discussion between Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Finance Minister Prakash Saran Mahat and CPN (US) Chairman Madhav Nepal, party leader Rajendra Pandey said. He said that the decision was made to vote in favor of the budget after the party received the commitment to address the party’s agreement on the budget through the budget system. The budget for the fiscal year 2023/24 is going to be endorsed by the Parliament today.    

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 600 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs 110, 000 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 110, 600 per tola on Tuesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 109, 500 per tola. It was traded at Rs 110, 050. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,375 per tola today.

What truly reflects the priorities of a government worth its name? High-sounding speeches of its ministers and bureaucrats that pledge all good things to all good people? Or a budget with policies and programs for a fiscal year outlined more or less clearly, along with capital allocations to implement them? The budget, of course. If the budget for the fiscal 2023/24 is any guide, the government of Nepal appears to have thought that tobacco is more essential for the Nepali public than food itself. Let the facts speak for themselves. The budget in question has slapped a whopping 13 percent value-added tax on essentials like potatoes, leave alone onions, for it is a very sensitive commodity whose price hike even pulled down a state government in India some years ago. As for tobacco tax, the government has increased excise duty on tobacco by a paltry 3 percent, raising the total tobacco tax to 41 percent whereas the World Health Organization’s recommended ceiling is 75 percent. Notably, Nepal has the lowest tobacco tax in South Asia compared to Bangladesh (71 percent), the Maldives (68 percent), Sri Lanka (66 percent), Pakistan (56 percent) and India (53 percent). What does a minimal hike on tobacco tax indicate if not pressure from some powerful interests? Together, a fledgling public health delivery system and lax tobacco laws spell a serious disaster for the gullible public while they bring no good tiding for a government as it has to foot mounting health bills. Through a series of reports on these issues, this daily has tried to open the eyes and the ears of powers that be, and will continue to do so in coming days. A prohibitive tax on tobacco is necessary in Nepal, with previous reports published in this daily as part of its No Tobacco Drive showing that an increasing number of Nepali youths are addicted to tobacco products like hookah. Indeed, there can be no smoke without fire. Findings of a recent research by the Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI) show that smoking has emerged as a bigger killer in Nepal than in any other South Asian country. The findings paint an alarming picture of tobacco consumption and death in Nepal. The rate of death from tobacco has increased more in Nepal in the last 30 years than in any other country in the world, per the report. Furthermore, it shows that over 37,000 Nepalis died from smoking in 2019–that’s nearly one in five (19.4 percent) of all deaths, twice the rate in 1990 and well ahead of India’s 13.1 percent deaths due to tobacco consumption. At current rates, around 1.34m Nepalis will die from smoking in the next 30 years, goes the report. A concerted  fight against tobacco is long overdue. And the fight must start with the imposition of a prohibitive tax on tobacco products through suitable amendments in the budget itself.

Nine people from different places in Panchthar district were taken ill after consuming wild mushrooms. Four persons- Lila Thapa, Hemanta Thapa, Indramaya Nepali and Harka Bahadur Darji of Kummayak Rural Municipality-1 were taken ill after consuming wild mushrooms on Tuesday. They have been referred to Birta City Hospital, Jhapa, for further treatment from District Hospital, according to the District Police Office. Similarly, five members of a family of Phidim Municipality-11 were taken ill after consuming wild mushrooms on Monday. They are receiving treatment at the District Hospital.

Mahesh Bikram Shah is a Nepali writer and a retired policeman who has authored several short story collections. Some of his notable works are ‘Sataha’, ‘Kathmandu ma Camrade’, ‘African Amigo’, ‘Bhuinkhat’ and ‘Sipahiki Swasni’. Among them, his short stories collection called ‘Chhapamar ko Chhoro’ was awarded the ‘Madan Puraskar’ in 2007. Anushka Nepal from ApEx talked to Shah about his dedication to continuing writing despite having a full-time job. From being a police officer to an award-winning author, what was the journey like? I worked as a police officer for 30 years and I carried my career in writing. I have been interested in literature since I was a child, and have previously published a few of my works in Nepali newspapers too. I stopped writing while I was in high school since studying science didn’t give me a lot of time to focus on it. But deep down I knew I would definitely become a writer someday. I think it’s that dream that made me get back to writing again. I loved writing so much that I didn’t mind doing two things at the same time. My attachment to writing and literature never waned. How did you manage to juggle writing with a full-time job? I was lucky enough to get posted at Bharatpur Police Training Center in Chitwan where I was surrounded by an academic environment. And the job wasn’t as hectic as it would be if I were posted somewhere else, like in a department where I would have to be on site a lot. That gave me some leisure time to start writing again. I wrote stories and poems that reflected on the lives of the people from Tikapur, Kailali, my hometown in the western part of Nepal. That’s how it started. And I never discontinued writing after that. How did you feel when your writing first got published?  It was a poem I wrote that got published in one of the newspapers. I was quite young at that time. The amount of joy I had cannot be described in words. I was proud of myself and every time I saw my name in print, I would have a smile on my face. When I published my first book, I realized that I had finally achieved the dream of becoming a published author. Not just that, I knew I could do so much more and write many other books with the recognition I had received. It was a surreal experience. What’s the inspiration behind the books you write? It’s the things I have seen, experienced, read, and heard about that inspire me to continue my work. I also like to listen to other’s experiences and understand their pain, and suffering, as well as their happiness, which can be incorporated into my writings. So, in short, it’s the small things that happen in our society that inspire me. I’m someone who can never come up with a storyline if I sit down and start thinking. It’s the things that I see, hear, or experience that gives me the idea of what I can write about next. How do you come up with the plots and characters? Whenever I get an idea for a story, I already have an outline in my head of how I can start and conclude my story. I’m also aware of the behavior and personality traits I would like my characters to have. So basically, I just write down whatever I have on my mind. Yes, there will be some changes in between and I might come up with some new ideas. But the framework remains the same. I think the most important thing about planning your story is to know exactly what the moral of your writing is going to be. A writer must be clear on what he wants to say through his stories. Only then can you frame it well. Any authors/books that have inspired you? I grew up reading the works of BP Koirala, Parijat, Govinda Bahadur Malla, Ramesh Bikal, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Rabindranath Tagore. and Premchand. So I would have to say these are the writers who have inspired me to become a writer myself, especially when it comes to writing stories and poems. Shah’s picks Madhabi by Madan Mani Dixit ‘Madhabi’ by Madan Mani Dixit is a Nepali mythological novel published in 1983 by Sajha Prakashan. The book won the Madan Puraskar in the same year. Sumnima by BP Koirala ‘Sumnima’ is a novel written by BP Koirala. The book was published in 1969 by Sajha Prakashan and it tells the story of a Kirat woman and a Brahmin boy. Koirala wrote the book in eight days during his imprisonment at the Sundarijal jail. Shakuntala by Laxmi Prasad Devkota This is one of the greatest works of Laxmi Prasad Devkota, published in 1945.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 56.94 points to close at 2,186.36 points on Tuesday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 13.40 points to close at 412. 51 points. A total of 13,107,080-unit shares of 275 companies were traded for Rs 5. 47 billion. Meanwhile, Nirdhan Utthan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited, Deprosc Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited, Himalayan Life Insurance Limited, Nerude Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited and Grameen Bikas Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Ltd were the top gainers today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Similarly, Sikles Hydropower Limited was the top loser as its price fell by 3.88 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 20 trillion.

Seven persons including Bhatbhateni Supermarket Chairman Min Bahadur Gurung have been arrested in the Lalita Niwas land grab case. A team of Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police nabbed Sudhar Kumar Sah, Dharma Prasad Gautam, Kaladhar Deuja, Gopal Karki, Surendra Kapali and Bhupendra Man Shrestha from various places today. Sah is also a former election commissioner. Nepal Police spokesperson Kuber Kathayat informed that they were arrested in connection with the Lalita Niwas land grab case. It has been learnt that they will be presented before the government attorney office today itself to extend the remand. Spokesperson Kathayat said that the necessary investigation will be started after the extension of the remand. Bhatbhateni Supermarket Chairman Gurung was released after posting a bail of Rs 20 million set by the Special Court on February 3, 2021. Earlier on January 6, the CIB had submitted a report of investigation to the government attorney office making 300 people defendants in the Lalita Niwas case.    

The acute shortage of liquidity, rising interest rates, and the slowdown in demand have hit the industries in Koshi Province badly in the first half of the current fiscal year. As industries grapple with multiple issues, their capacity utilization dropped by 8.3 percentage points in the first half of the fiscal year (FY) 2022/23. The average capacity utilization of industries in Koshi Province stood at 40.6 percent in the first half of FY 2022/23 compared to 48.9 percent during the same period of the last fiscal, states a new report of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). The decline in the capacity utilization of bricks, vegetable ghee, animal feed, cement, raw leather, synthetic fabrics, plastics goods, and iron rod production industries led to a decline in the average capacity utilization of the industries in Koshi Province. According to the NRB report titled “Provincial Economic Activities Report-Koshi Province,” industries producing bricks, vegetable ghee, soybean oil, and raw leather have experienced a decline in their capacity utilization in this fiscal. The NRB report says capacity utilization of the processed tea industry was highest at 85.4 percent while that of the bricks and vegetable ghee industries was the lowest at zero percent and 5.1 percent respectively. The capacity utilization of noodles increased by 80.7 percent, mustard oil by 79.9 percent, jute products by 74.5 percent, yarns by 65.7 percent, biscuits by 58.9 percent, and synthetic fibers by 58.1 percent. The central bank report shows the production of the sugar industry in Koshi Province surged by a whopping 190.7 percent and the rice industry by 68.4 percent. The production of the paper industry grew by 64.4 percent, the readymade garment industry by 26.5 percent, the GI wire industry by 20.2 percent, and the yarn industry by 11.6 percent. However, the production of the brick industry and soybean oil industry plunged by 100 percent and 89 percent respectively during the first half of FY 2022/23. Similarly, the animal feed industry and cement industry saw their production going down by 43.7  percent and 36.7 percent respectively. “The production of bricks has decreased mainly due to a delay in the supply of coal and a slowdown in market demand,” says the report. On the other hand, soybean industries’ capacity utilization suffered this year as soybean export to India slumped massively. With industries operating below capacity, the bank and financial institutions’ (BFIs) loan disbursement to them grew marginally in the first half of FY 2022/23. The BFIs’ loan disbursement to industries surged by 5.5 percent to Rs 127bn. The BFIs’ loan to the industrial sector had stood at Rs 121bn during the first half of FY 2021/22. The BFIs’ loans to the electricity and gas sector surged by 226.6 percent, the metal sector by 7.2 percent, and the agriculture sector by five percent. Of the total loans disbursed by the BFIs in Koshi Province, the share of the non-food-producing sector is the highest. The BFIs disbursed Rs 63.36bn (49.6 percent of total industrial loans) to the non-food-producing sector. The agriculture sector was the second highest recipient of industrial loans with the BFIs disbursing Rs 39.87bn in loans.