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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.

Kidney failure, which is getting more and more common in Nepal, is potentially deadly. It is also an expensive ailment to treat. This is why the government heavily subsidizes dialysis (basically, getting an external machine to ‘clean the blood’ in lieu of the kidneys), as well as transplant of new kidneys. The post-transplant medicines are also subsidized. Yet there is a problem.

Even as renal failure is a matter of life and death for many sufferers, the government health bureaucracy takes six to seven months to clear the subsidies that all kidney-failure patients are entitled to. As our report this week points out, there have been cases, for instance, when a subsidy for the medicines of a patient was cleared only after six months of the transplant, by which time even the new kidney had developed complications. 

Another problem is that while there are only 410 dialysis machines in the country to provide subsidized care, the number of patients is constantly increasing. Every year, there are 3,000 new cases of kidney failures and in many of the cases the patients will need life-long dialysis. But all the available machines are occupied by old patients. Also, the dialysis and transplant services are heavily concentrated in one or two urban hubs.

There is thus an urgent need to improve the services for needy kidney failure patients. Moreover, if the symptoms of kidney failure can be spotted early, then in most cases they are completely treatable. Early detection programs could also significantly reduce the growing burden on the state that comes with heavily subsidized renal failure treatment.

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The budget unveiled on May 29 by Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada has a dual focus: expanding revenue base and creating jobs. The goal is apparently to make positive changes in the lives of low-income folks by taxing high- and middle-income individuals.

In a society with a huge informal economy, the budget tries to convey another message too: stop over-consumption. The hike in excise duties on motorbikes and cars hints at it. The auto sector is but one example; the budget has caused many other entrepreneurs to lose sleep. The private sector in general will bear the brunt of the changes in taxation. In a review session on May 30, a day after the budget, Khatiwada said, “Businesses have to pay their due to the state.” Lest someone missed the message, he added that tax evasion will be strictly punished.

Economist Madan Kumar Dahal thinks at least some proposed measures are unrealistic. For instance, the 8 percent growth target will be difficult to achieve without more capital expenditure. The government will have to spend much more than its target capital spending (23.9 percent of total allocation).

Predictably, Nepali Congress came down heavily on the budget. “In the election campaign trail, the parties heading this government claimed that the NC’s economic policies were flawed. But this budget is a strange hodgepodge of NC’s policies and communist orthodoxies,” NC central working committee concluded a day after the budget’s announcement.

It is safe to assume that we have not heard the last of the argy-bargy over the 2018-19 budget.

By Shreedhar Khanal

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The May 17 unification between the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Center) has resulted in the formation of a behemoth of a ruling party, which commands a near two-thirds majority in the federal parliament, and heads six of the seven provincial governments. Never before has a political party so completely dominated national polity. Understandably, the formation of Nepal Communist Party has generated a lot of hope. Economists blame the post-1990 political instability as a major hurdle to the country’s development and to the economic empowerment of its people. The hope now is that prosperity will follow a stable polity.

Yet there are fears. Some reckon the ruling party could curtail democratic freedoms and cow opposing voices. Political commentator Krishna Khanal says the rationale for the left merger is their leaders’ desire to “maintain a strangle-hold on power”. Nilamber Acharya, another political analyst, is more sanguine. He thinks the unity will end the unhealthy competition among the political parties to get into government.

The ‘non-inclusive’ nature of the new party hierarchy has also come under criticism. “The authoritarian tendencies it has displayed in its short existence could ultimately fuel secessionism in parts of Nepal,” Madhesi journalist Rajesh Ahiraj cautions.

The success of the new Nepal Communist Party will ultimate depend on its actions, and not on what the prime minister says he will do. One of its biggest challenges will be to convince detractors that what the left leaders are aiming for is not a monolithic ‘communist utopia’ but a flourishing society that respects diversity and protects democratic freedoms.  

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