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CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Vice-Chairman and former Speaker Subash Chandra Nembang held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a new power sharing. Nembang reached Khumaltar this morning and formally proposed Dahal to become the prime minister. During the meeting, the duo discussed a new power sharing, government formation and contemporary political issues. Vice-Chairman Nembang stressed that the left parties should come to the same place. He was of the opinion that the UML-Maoist Center government should be formed by splitting the ruling coalition. “Let the Maoist Center be ready to leave the alliance and cooperate with the UML. The UML is ready to accept you as the prime minister,” a leader said, quoting the dialogue of the two leaders. “Other posts will be shared in consensus among the senior leaders of the UML-Maoist Center.” “Leave the alliance now, UML is ready to hold discussion and cooperate with the Maoist Center. Let’s take politics ahead through a new course to take the country towards the path of stability,” the leader said. Nembang proposed a new power sharing deal with Dahal and not to include the CPN (Unified Socialist) in the government for now. “The UML is not ready to bring the CPN (Unified Socialist) in the new government. Let’s make a coalition without the CPN (US),” he said. The UML intensified meetings with senior leaders after President Bidya Devi Bhandari called on the political parties to form a new government within December 25. Earlier, CPN (Maoist Center) General Secretary Dev Prasad Gurung had held a meeting with UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli at the latter’s residence in Baluwatar. Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Dahal have been staking claim for the post of prime minister within the ruling coalition. Though Deuba had promised Dahal before the elections that he will make him the prime minister of a new government, no formal discussions have been made about the power sharing and future prime minister yet. Utilizing this opportunity, the UML has been trying to break the coalition and form its new alliance. UML leader Bishal Bhattarai had announced that the UML would move ahead if the ruling coalition failed to garner a majority. The Maoist Center has been bargaining power with the UML and the Nepali Congress parallelly. Earlier, the ruling coalition parties had decided to give continuity to the incumbent alliance. The Maoist Center, a key partner of the alliance, however, has been holding intensive talks with the UML in recent times. Second rung leaders of the UML and the Maoist Center have been mounting pressure on the Chairman duo Oli and Dahal to move forward together.    

Solar power project developers have called the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to return to the old power purchase agreement (PPA) rate of Rs 7.30 per unit for electricity generated from solar projects. They have argued that PPA less than this rate is unfeasible for them to produce electricity. NEA had been concluding PPAs with developers at a predetermined price of Rs 7.30 per unit as per the 'Working Procedure on Grid Connected Alternative Electric Energy Development-2017'. However, in March this year, the state-owned power utility decided to set a maximum fee of Rs 5.96 per unit to be paid to solar power producers. NEA solicited proposals from developers on November 28 to build grid-connected solar installations. The authority intends to purchase a maximum of 100MW of electricity from such solar power plants that the private investors are looking to build at 16 different places across the country. Solar power project developers have however been against the price cap set by the NEA arguing that it is not scientific. “Our executive committee meeting reached a conclusion after the calculation that less than Rs 7.30 per unit is not feasible to recover the cost in 10 years,” said Prakash Bikram Basnet, President of Solar Electric Manufacturers’ Association of Nepal. “We have also decided that our member companies won’t participate in the bid invited by the NEA until our demand is addressed.” According to Basnet, 123 solar energy companies are members of the association currently. “As many as 15 of them are involved in large-scale commercial projects,” he informed. He said that implementation of the maximum price cap imposed by NEA would mean the developers have to wait 12-15 years to recover the investment. “As the solar plants should be returned to the government including the lands covered by it after 25 years, there will be little time left to make profits from the investment,” said Basnet. NEA decided to abolish the three-year fixed pricing system and only accept bids for solar energy earlier in January. It took the step to introduce a competitive pricing mechanism in light of the declining cost of solar energy globally. Under open bidding, solar energy costs in India reached a record low of INR 2 per unit in November 2020. However, proponents of solar energy say prices of solar modules, which account for about 40 percent of costs, increased by 20 cents per watt in foreign markets like Singapore and China. According to Basnet, prices of iron and steel, cables, and shipping expenses have increased. International reports also suggest that solar and wind energy prices have risen due to supply chain constraints. However, NEA is not in favor of revising the rate as sought by the private developers. According to NEA Spokesperson Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai, the authority has set the PPA rate based on global market trends. "Those who want to participate in the bid are welcome. We have not forced them to join the bid," he said. As per NEA’s tender notice, only the companies that offer prices less than Rs 5.94 per unit will be eligible to sell electricity to NEA after developing the plant. This is for the first time that the state-owned power utility sought to buy solar power through a competitive bidding process. The bid notice states that Requests for Proposals (RfPs) must be submitted by February 26. The solar project must be finished within 18 months of the day the NEA and developer signed the PPA, according to the bid notification. The bidders cannot offer to deliver less than 1MW at the delivery point. Depending on the location, they can provide a maximum capacity set for particular places ranging from 10MW to 30MW. The bidders can propose any solar photovoltaic power-producing technologies. The developer will also be responsible for evacuating power from the plant to the nearby NEA substation, reads the RFP notice. Solar energy currently makes up a very small portion of the nation's energy mix. As of the previous fiscal year, which concluded in mid-July, up to 44 megawatts of solar energy had been connected to the national grid, according to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation. This accounts for only 1.94 percent of Nepal's total installed capacity of power projects. According to the energy ministry, Nepal generated 2268MW of electricity overall in the middle of July. As part of implementing the government policy to raise the percentage of alternative renewable sources like solar and wind to 10 percent of the total installed capacity, the power monopoly made a drive to buy solar energy in large quantities.

Rajendra KC is the founder of Southwestern State College and one of the founding members of Nepal PhD Association. He has previously served as the chief advisor to HISSAN central committee, chairperson of Rural Environment and Development Association (REDA-Nepal) and board member of Kathmandu Capital Ltd as well. A notable person in the education fraternity, KC now has developed a concept of University of Three Generation (U-3G). Pratik Ghimire ApEx talks to him in this context. How did the concept of the U-3G come about and what does it actually mean? If we look around the world, we see different institutions teaching students a variety of courses in the name of universities. But they are essentially operating only to provide academic certificates. This makes it difficult for the students in the future, because certificates alone can’t help them compete in the global market. What we need to do is connect formal and informal education. In this method of education system, a senior professor, for example, can share his or her career story, of all the ups and downs. And as formal education, students are taught the academic curriculum. U-3G means three generations coming together and sharing their understanding, experience and knowledge. It brings all three generations: youths, working men and women, and retired citizens together to empower and involve the students, so that they could lead and transform society. Why do you think we need such a university? A large number of Nepali youths are abroad. Young energy, be it physical, mental or psychological, is extremely important for a country. But our youngsters have been migrating overseas for jobs and higher studies. To stop this, what we thought would come into use was the experience of adult citizens. The citizens mostly of the 50-59 age bracket who are experienced in different areas could  motivate the youths. Their network or finance could also be helpful. This exchange of experience between adult citizens and those below 40 years will act as an informal education to enhance the overall personality of our students. And since this university aims to promote, foster, and encourage all stakeholders for collaboration, partnership, alliances, and development based on 4Ps modalities (public-private-people partnerships), this concept is the need of the hour. Are the works going well with the establishment of university? Yes. We are in our initial phase and all the legal work has been completed. We have a team of experienced individuals like former government secretaries, retired Nepal Army officers, bank CEOs, academicians, and social workers, among others. How could we utilize human capital? In Nepal, especially for political leaders, capital basically means property, house and vehicle. What we have failed to realize is that the first capital for any nation is its citizens. This human capital is what eventually makes what we know as financial capital. Human capital includes the ideologies of the youth and their enthusiasm and the experience of adult citizens. As a university, we can provide the best education and experience to our students with which the trend of moving abroad could be reduced. Of course, we cannot and should not stop anyone if they wish to go abroad, but we can limit the trend of Nepali citizens migrating overseas permanently. What should our educational system look like?  In the name of globalization, we are adapting a combined curriculum from different countries. We should plan our own curriculum depending on our needs and resources. So, it is clear that our educational system has many loopholes. They should be revised as soon as possible.

Tobacco Emergency is one of the most serious preventable public health hazards the world is facing, something that’s killing more than 8 million people per year, including nearly 1 million from exposure to second-hand smoke. Tobacco consumption and addiction lead to poverty by diverting household savings on tobacco rather than on basic needs such as food, shelter, and health. Over 80 percent of the 1.3bn tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illnesses and deaths is the heaviest. The economic costs of tobacco use are substantial and include significant healthcare costs for treating the diseases caused by tobacco use as well as the lost human capital that results from tobacco-attributable morbidity and mortality. The scale of the human and economic tragedy that tobacco imposes is shocking, but it’s also preventable. In 2007, WHO introduced a practical, cost-effective way to scale up the implementation of the main demand reduction provisions of the WHO FCTC on the ground. Called 6 MPOWER, it involves the following steps: 1. Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies 2. Protect people from tobacco use 3. Offer help to quit tobacco use 4. Warn about the dangers of tobacco 5. Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship 6. Raise taxes on tobacco Many countries have ratified and implemented this measure to control tobacco consumption. Continuous monitoring and evaluation of this measure are essential for determining its effectiveness. Consumption of E-Cigarette, Vape, Hookah is also a rising trend among the youths. Sadly, there are no strong policies to control it. Second major cause of death in Nepal According to the Nepal Development Research Institute's recent report titled “Health Impact of Tobacco in Nepal”, around 1.34m Nepalis will die from tobacco consumption in the next 30 years at current rates. Nepal became a Party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on 5 Feb 2007. The Tobacco Product (Control and Regulation) Act, of 2010 is the primary law governing tobacco control in Nepal and regulates, among other things, smoking in public places, workplaces, and public transport; tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship; and tobacco packaging and labeling. One regulation and three directives have been issued under the Act to implement its provisions: 1) The Tobacco Products (Control and Regulation) Regulation – 2068 (2011); 2) the Directive for Printing and Labeling of Warning Message and Graphics in the Boxes, Packets, Wrappers, Cartons, Parcels and Packaging of Tobacco Products; (3) Tobacco Product Control and Regulatory Directive, 2014; and (4) Directive on Printing Warning Messages and Pictures on Tobacco Product Boxes, Packets, Cartons, Parcels and Packaging Materials, 2014. The last directive listed increased the size of the graphic health warnings from 75 percent to 90 percent of the front and back of all tobacco products packaging starting from 2015. Reports suggest that enforcement of these provisions has not been comprehensive and widespread. Balen Shah, Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and Chiribabu Maharjan, Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, have led a policy of “Banning Smoking in Public Areas” of Kathmandu and Lalitpur Metropolitan Cities recently but the consumers do not strictly follow it. Finance Minister’s solemn pledge NDRI is one of the think tanks of Nepal that is working on tobacco control by researching, analyzing, and recommending the required response strategy to deal with the Tobacco Emergency.  It initiated a campaign seeking written commitments from election candidates to work on reducing tobacco consumption in Nepal. At least 36 influential leaders of major political parties signed on the pledge. They were from the Nepali Congress, UML, CPN (Maoist Center), RSP, RPP, CPN (United Socialist), and others. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma, signing on the pledge, expressed solidarity with the campaign on Dec 15, 2022 (29 Mansir, 2079). Chief Minister of Karnali Province, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, also expressed his solidarity. Former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and general secretary of Nepali Congress, Gagan Thapa also signed the pledge ahead of federal elections, 2022. The pledge includes the following four points: 1. Match the levels of tobacco taxation in India by 2025 2. Ban the sale of cigarettes as single sticks 3. Stop reopening of government cigarette factories 4. End tobacco sale within 100 meters of schools and hospitals The NDRI team plans to follow up on implementation of tobacco control commitments during their tenure. Box Disturbing findings Annapurna Media Network conducted a survey to examine public perceptions regarding tobacco use in Nepal. The major objectives of the study were to know what people think about tobacco use and how the government can take action to control it. The findings of the study, among other things, point that adolescents seem to be highly involved in addictive activities. Among the users surveyed, the study found that some teenagers consume tobacco to show off and influence others. It found that 95 percent of the respondents want to see the new government take the Tobacco Epidemic seriously.

The government's internal revenue collection has taken a beating this fiscal year as economic activities in the country go through a sharp slowdown. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) which is responsible for the administration of value-added tax (VAT), income tax, excise duties, health service tax, and education service fees in the country, has missed the revenue collection target in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The department missed the target by 14 percent as it collected revenue worth Rs 150 billion till mid-December against the target of Rs 155 billion. IRD's revenue collection in the first five months of this fiscal is lower than that of the same period of the last fiscal; in FY 2021/22, the department collected Rs 155 billion in revenue in the first five months. Revenue administration officials attribute multiple factors to the decline in the collection of revenues. According to them, import restrictions, and slackness in the financial market, weaker demands in the market have affected economic activities. The import cost has also gone up due to the new provision on the letter of credit (LC) margin. High revenue-generating sectors such as real estate, construction and automobile are going through a phase of recession while capital market business has declined notably as well as retail and wholesale trade.   Similarly, a surge in illicit trade in areas bordering Nepal and India has also affected IRD's revenue collection. As law enforcement agencies were busy with election duties, the smuggling of goods from the southern neighbor increased, say the department's officials. The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI), which has been tasked to control the leakage of revenues, also failed to work assertively during this period as there was frequent change in its director general position. The IRD Director General Dirgha Raj Mainali said revenue collection will gradually improve in the coming months as the department is now working on controlling the loopholes in order to increase revenue collection. "Of late, the authorities including IRD, DRI have increased their vigilance," said Mainali, "The overall revenue will move in an upward trajectory." According to Mainali, compared to earlier months, there have been some improvements in the fifth month. The IRD's overall revenue target has been affected as it failed to collect income tax and value-added tax (VAT) as equal to last year. The department collected Rs 46.48 billion in income tax, which is 80 percent of the target of Rs 57.66 billion. Corporate profit tax, remuneration tax, and investment tax are the major sub-headings of income tax that the department collects as direct tax. Income tax collection during the first five months of the last fiscal year was Rs 56.96 billion.  Likewise, the IRD also fell short of the VAT target. The department collected Rs 42.3 billion in VAT which is 82.98 percent of the target. This year's VAT collection is also lower than last year's when the department collected Rs 44.53 billion. However, excise duty collection is better than that of the last year, it still fell short of the target by 7 percent. IRD received Rs 42.45 billion in excise duty against the target of Rs 43.64 billion during this period.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 3. 83 points to close at 1,858. 89 points on Monday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 1. 15 points to close at 363. 97 points. Meanwhile, a total of 2,699,331 unit shares of 251 companies were traded for Rs 88 billion. Meanwhile, Dhaulagiri Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Similarly, Eastern Hydropower Limited was the top loser as its price fell by 7. 79 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 68 trillion.

Newly elected lawmakers will be administered the oath of office and secrecy on Thursday. Federal Parliamentary Secretariat Secretary Gopalnath Yogi said that preparations are underway to administer the oath of office secrecy to the lawmakers at 1 pm on December 22. The federal parliamentary secretary has to issue a notice three days before the swearing-in ceremony. The Article 88 of the Constitution requires that every member of the Federal Parliament has to take the oath of office and secrecy as provided in the law before taking part in the meeting of the Parliament or its committees for the first time. According to a provision, the senior-most (by age) member should take an oath from the President before administering oath to other members. This should be done before the House elects the Speaker. The Secretariat has urged all the elected members to be present in the oath-taking ceremony with the certificates of the election, a photocopy of the Nepali citizenship and two recent passport size photos.  The members are requested to wear the national uniform and their cultural attires during the ceremony. For any member wishing to take oath in mother tongue, the translated version of the oath details shall be presented to the Secretariat beforehand.

The Nepali Congress has decided to hold the election to choose the party’s Parliamentary Party leader on December 21. A meeting of the Election Committee held on Monday made the decision to this effect. Earlier on Sunday, the NC had formed a three-member committee under the headship of Bhishmaraj Angdembe to hold the election for the parliamentary party leader. Pushpa Bhusal and Prakash Snehi are the other members of the committee. The Congress has 89 lawmakers. Party President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel, Shekhar Koirala and General Secretary Gagan Thapa have staked claim for the post of prime minister.