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The government has asked for the closure of the Kath­mandu office of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA) as the office was deemed to have completed its mission. The DPA was established in 2011 after the wind-up of the UNMIN, the UN body responsible for supervising the demobilization and disarmament of the then Maoist combatants. With the UNMIN gone, a mediatory body like the DPA, it was felt, was needed in order to oversee the completion of the ‘peace and constitution’ process that had started with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agree­ment (CPA) in 2006. The new federal government thinks that the peace and constitution process has been completed with the holding of all three constitutionally-mandated elections and subsequent formation of three tiers of government. In other words, now that most of the outstanding political issues have been settled and the new constitution has become fully functional, there is no need for an outside observer like the DPA whose chief mandate is to help ‘resolve conflict’.

One could argue that the peace and constitution process will not be completed so long as the two transitional justice bodies—related to truth and reconciliation, and enforced disappearances, respectively—don’t satisfactorily complete their work. If the conflict victims feel they have been denied justice, there will always be a possibility of the country’s relapse into conflict, and hence the continued need for something like the DPA.

But it was also hard to see the DPA play any meaningful role in transitional justice after the formation of the strong left government intent on stamping its authority. Prime Minister KP Oli seems to believe Nepalis are now mature enough to deal with their own issues. He also reckons that he has the mandate to regulate the functioning of foreign NGOs and agencies in line with national interest.

The government asking the DPA to wind down, however, is not tantamount to saying that Nepal is now self-sufficient and needs no outside help whatsoever. Or it should not be. Such an approach would be suicidal in this increasingly interconnected world. But it is also well within this govern­ment’s powers to ensure that international organizations working here follow due process at all times. And if certain organizations like the DPA and the Indian Embassy’s field office in Biratnagar have outlived their utility, or if they have somehow breached their code of conduct, it is only right that they be closed down.

The government has made some right noises when it comes to busting the various cartels and syndicates that undermine free competition, limit consumer choices and artificially inflate prices. It announced the cancellation of permits of all transport syndicates. It then cracked down on the middlemen who were artificially increasing the prices of fruits and vegetables. This was followed by the cancellation of the licenses of the companies that were extorting Malaysia-bound workers. While all these initiatives are laudable, it is also important to keep in mind their end result.

“The government is advertising that the syndicates in different sectors have been broken. But the reality is that most consumers are yet to see any tangible change in their daily lives,” says Jyoti Baniya, a consumer rights activist. The syndicates in transport have been removed but there are not enough new bus companies to meet the high demand. And why just stop with the cancellation of the license of the companies sending Nepali workers to Malaysia? Will the government now do the same in the case of other labor destinations?

The crackdown on the middlemen in the fruits and vegetables markets has also not resulted in cheaper apples and onions for the end consumers. This raises two questions. One is of intent. What does the government hope to achieve? Is it really working in public interest or does it want to reward those close to it on the pretext of cartel-busting? The second is of end result. Are its actions having a tangible impact on people’s daily lives? The government needs to be honest on both.

Weekly Editorial Cartoon

The play Kora brings sev­eral stories together to portray the lives of Tibetan refugees living in exile in Nepal and India. The emotional hour-long drama depicts the struggles of the refugees and their hopes to return to Tibet someday. In one scene, the happiness of a refugee’s family with the birth of a son suddenly turns into gloom upon the realiza­tion that the newborn was yet another person the world would label as a refugee.

Kora is based on four poems—Horizon, Refugee, The Tibetan in Mumbai and Exile House—in an anthology of short stories and poems by Tibetan author Tenzin Tsundue. Tsundue is a poet, writer and activist, who won the Outlook-Picador Award in 2001.

The four poems were translated into Nepali by Che Shankar. Loonibha Tuladhar directs the play while Shreeti Pradhan and Rubin Kumar Shrestha give the background music. In 2008, Tuladhar had directed a version of the play which featured, among other actors, Dayahang Rai and Aashant Sharma.

The current version has Bipin KC, Suraj KC, Anish Thakuri, Bipul Thapa, Sami Rai, Sharmila Shres­tha and Sudharshan Khatri in leading roles.

The play is being staged at Shilpee Theatre in Battisputali every day at 5:30 pm except on Tuesday. The last show is on June 14.

Café Soma’s Baluwatar branch is probably the best breakfast destination this side of the Bag­mati, the other being at its Lalitpur branch. Come Saturday and the café opposite the Russian Embassy in Baluwatar is filled with early morning birds in search of the best bites to break their fasts. The smell of coffee blended with fresh eggs, sau­sages, bacons, hash browns and all give the place an enigmatic aroma in the mornings, enough to create hunger pangs in anyone.With options for both indoor and outdoor seating, Café Soma serves breakfast, lunch and early dinner to its guests who comprise of expats and locals alike. A little bit on the higher side in terms of prices, the eatery reimburses every penny to its guests through its scrumptious food. Worth a try if you’re looking for a non-conventional cuisine in a calm and peace­ful setting, and on being served with gratitude.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:-

Crispy Chicken Burger

Soma Burger

Full Soma Breakfast

Opening hours : 8 am-8 pm

Location: Baluwatar

Cards : Accepted

Meal for two:  Rs 3,000

Reservation: 4415792

EOL Pvt. Ltd. an enterprise of Chaudhary Group Nepal is the sole distributor of TCL brand in Nepal. For the last 5 years, TCL has been rapidly gaining pop­ularity in the Nepali market and has been successfully positioned among preferred brands like LG, Samsung in segments like LED TVs, washing machines and chest freezers as well. Therefore to build trust among customers in its products, EOL Pvt. Ltd in joint coop­eration with TCL has launched a 3-year warranty on LED TV’s in Nepal. The warranty includes 2 years full warranty and 1 year service warranty (Excludes Curved and UHD TVs category).

The government is planning to bring the service sector within the purview of Value Added Tax (VAT). It intends to expand the tax net from the upcoming fiscal year. Shishir Kumar Dhungana, a Secretary at the Finance Ministry, said that the new measure is being introduced because turnover taxa­tion (TOT) did not produce expected results in the last three years. The ministry has concluded that TOT has resulted not only in low tax collection but also in tax evasion. The threshold for VAT registration was raised with the expectation that TOT would function properly, but that expectation wasn’t met. (Earlier, businesses with annual transactions worth Rs 2 million and more had to be registered for VAT, but that threshold was recently increased to Rs 5 million.)

“Similar to the Goods and Ser­vice Tax (GST) levied in India, VAT will incorporate all goods and ser­vice transactions in Nepal. There is no alternative to this measure also because VAT’s contribution to reve­nue has been going up,” said Dhun­gana. VAT worth Rs 143 billion was collected in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. This is 28.2 percent more than the amount collected in the same period in the last fiscal. Authorities suspected tax evasion when VAT collection in the first six months of the current fiscal sank below target.

In the white paper issued on March 30 by Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada, he had stated raising VAT’s threshold to Rs 5 mil­lion had encouraged businesses to divide their units so as to dodge the threshold. Some thought his statement implied that a lower VAT threshold was in the cards. But in the budget he presented on May 29, it has been revealed that all service industries would be brought under the purview of VAT, irrespective of the scale of their transactions.

The Inland Revenue Department has issued an instruction to that effect. Among the industries that are going to be brought under the pur­view of VAT are catering, education consultancy, night and health clubs, massage therapy, boutique, etc.

The government had introduced VAT on 16 November 1997 with a view to include all indirect taxa­tion. The imposition of a 10 percent VAT had replaced taxation on sales, hotels, construction contracts and entertainment. The last two decades have seen the highest revenue col­lection through VAT, which con­tributes 27 percent of the national revenue. The number of taxpayers with VAT registration has gone up to around 200,000.

BY SHREEDHAR KHANAL | KATHMANDU

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