Insecurity forces Surya Nepal to start new plant in hilly west

Surya Nepal Pvt Ltd -- one of the largest tax payers in the country -- is in expansion mode as it is planning a new manufacturing plant in Kharenitar VDC-7 of Tanahun district.

After continued strikes and bandhs in Simara -- the Terai region -- where Surya Nepal's another manufacturing plant has been established some 22 years, the factory decided to start another plant in the hilly west.

The new manufacturing plant -- at Rs 240 million investment -- has a production capacity of three million stick cigarette per annum and will start its production within a year.

Though, it will create employment at a time when the economy is sailing through rough waters due to over-politicisation, it is also an indication that the Southern plains is growing more insecure for the industries.

"The industries in Terai are facing security problems due to mushrooming armed outfits after the end of a decade-long insurgency that has bleed the industries with extortion, abduction and violence blue," said Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Kush Kumar Joshi.

One of the country's largest private sector enterprise with a turnover of over $100 million started its operations in 1986 with a single tobacco manufacturing factory in Simara of Bara district on the Nepal-India border as the Terai was the most preferred region for industries then.

To tackle the insecurity, the entrepreneurs have urged the government to set up Industrial Security Force. "The government had earlier agreed to set up Industrial Security Force, but it brought the new policy through the budget," he added.

However, the growing insecurity has forced the government to provide security to the industries, though Joshi claimed that the government's move is inadequate.

The government has in its budget for the current fiscal year announced to arrange a police post of five police personnel equipped with weapons to any manufacturing industry that offers employment for more than 500 Nepalis.

"However, Ministry of Industry is still working out on the draft of modality on providing security in line with budget," said the captain of the umbrella organisation of the private sector.

Surya Nepal that produces five brands of cigarettes was the second largest tax payer to the government in the last fiscal year.

Initially established as Surya Tobacco, the company has transformed itself as Surya Nepal in 2004 to diversify into garments manufacturing with its state-of-the-art plant in Biratnagar that produces John Player brand of clothing.

Top ten tax payers in the fiscal year 2009-10

1. Nepal Telecom -- Rs 9.66 billion

2. Surya Nepal -- Rs 5.93 billion

3. Gorkha Brewery -- Rs 3.09 billion

4. Spice Nepal -- Rs 2.07 billion

5. Nepal Investment Bank Ltd -- Rs 778.00 million

6. Nabil Bank Ltd -- Rs 747.44 million

7. Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd -- Rs 655.67 million

8. Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd -- Rs 611.95 million

9. Rastriya Beema Sansthan -- Rs 542.33 million

10. Everest Bank Ltd -- Rs 535.00 million

Top ten tax payers

Top ten tax payers for the fiscal year 2009-10

1. Nepal Telecom -- Rs 9.66 billion
2. Surya Nepal -- Rs 5.93 billion
3. Gorkha Brewery -- Rs 3.09 billion
4. Spice Nepal -- Rs 2.07 billion
5. Nepal Investment Bank Ltd -- Rs 778.00 million
6. Nabil Bank Ltd -- Rs 747.44 million
7. Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd -- Rs 655.67 million
8. Rastriya Banijya Bank Ltd -- Rs 611.95 million
9. Rastriya Beema Sansthan -- Rs 542.33 million
10. Everest Bank Ltd -- Rs 535.00 million

Hello Nepal starts ringing

Nepal Satellite Telecom (NST) Pvt Ltd soft-launched its GSM service today.
Launching the Hello Nepal brand, former prime ministers Girija Prasad Koirala and Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' made a conference call from Kathmandu and Rolpa. CPN-UML general secretary Ishwor Pokharel also made a conference call from Dang.
The new telecom service provider has promised to provide voice and data services. According to NST executive director Ajeya Raj Sumargi, NST will start its operation in the rural areas and will launch its GSM service within a year in Kathmandu Valley.
NST, whose number starts with 963, will start its services in 273 village development committees (VDCs).
Mukti Shree Telecom (Nepal), Sewa Telecom Pvt Ltd (Bangladesh), Pakistan Mobile Communication (Pakistan) and Air Bell Company (Cyprus) are the major investors in NST.It has Basic Telecommunication Service license under which it also has license for limited mobility service -- only for landlines.
NST got its license on February 17, 2008 and according to the licence it has to start its services from the Mid-western region, followed by Far-western Region, Western region and only after that it can bring its service to Kathmandu Valley. It is also planning to bring international gateway, CDMA and landline PSTN services in the near future
Meanwhile, there are already three players in the market -- Nepal Telecom (NT), Spice Nepal and United Telecom Ltd (UTL). Among them, NT plans to distribute 2.2 million GSM mobile SIM cards in the fiscal year 2009-10, increase the number of CDMA customers to 0.4 million and add 50,000 more land line services.
According to NTA data of last May, Spice Nepal has service penetration of one in 100 population. Spice has market share of 40.27 per cent and NT 59.73 per cent.
Nepal's fixed line base reached 812,615 in August and the number of mobile users topped 5.59 million.Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has published its latest 'Management Information System' report for the period ended 14 August 2009, showing the country was home to a total of 812,615 fixed line users. Of the total, 563,127 lines were PSTN connections for incumbent operator Nepal Doorsanchar Company Ltd (Nepal Telecom) while the remainder were wireless in the local loop (WiLL) connections for Nepal Telecom (177,265), United Telecom Ltd (68,163) and STM Telecom (4,060
Fixed teledensity stood at 2.95 per cent at the end of the period, the regulator said.
In the mobile segment, Nepal Telecom again led the way with more than 3.169 million GSM users, ahead of Spice Nepal's base of 1.873 million while CDMA (Sky Phone) services rendered Nepal Telecom a further 555,338 connections and helped pushed cellular penetration to 20.35 per cent by 14 August. NTA also reported a smattering of 'other' mobile users, including limited mobility (85,577), GMPCS (1,517) and W-CDMA (683
Meanwhile, in the data services market, Nepal, or more specifically Nepal Telecom, had 15,561 ADSL connections at the end of the review period as well as 50,400 registered GPRS customers and 3,283 CDMA 1x subscribers, while United Telecom and Spice Nepal counted 24,823 and 332,428 CDMA 1x users respectively.

NT balance transfer service resumes
KATHMANDU: Nepal Telecom (NT) has resumed its balance transfer service that had halted due to technical glitches. Due to technical problem, NT halted balance transfer facility in GSM prepaid mobile service halted since July 7. NT users were suffering due to the message delivery system also. Users were faced with the problems like the same message delivering a number of times and some messages not getting delivered or stored.

Nepal Telecom Authority gets serious over call-bypass

Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) has yesterday formed a committee to investigate on illegal call-bypass that has become a serious problem recently.
The six-member committee formed under Santosh Poudel, deputy director of the NTA will prepare a report within two months. "The NTA will take action on the basis of the report produced by the committee," said Ananda Raj Khanal, director at the Nepal Telecom Authority -- the regulatory authority of the telecom service providers.
The committee has the representatives of four telecom service providers -- Nepal Telecom (NT), Spice Nepal (Mero Mobile), United Telecom Ltd (UTL) and STM and an Internet Service Provider (ISP) Association.
Telecom providers are losing billions in fraudulent international calls. "NT alone is losing around Rs 1 billion because of international calls made to bypass the official gateway," said the NT. Other telecom service providers -- Spice Nepal, UTL and STM -- are also losing out.
Call bypassers use V-SAT to divert international calls from the official gateway to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP is a general term for a family of transmission technologies for delivery of voice communications over IP networks such as the Internet or other packet-switched networks. The call is then transferred to the telecom client through a landline or mobile. Such international calls show local numbers on the receiver's set.
If a local number appears on one's caller ID while receiving an international call, it is a by-passed call. International call-bypass has become a serious problem to the NTA as it is not only creating misunderstanding between the telecom service providers but also bleeding the national coffer white.
"Callers are also being cheated because the reception is unclear and it is hard to connect," Khanal said. "Getting an internet connection and a phone line is not difficult now. If one has an internet connection, one can easily bypass a call from anywhere with a VoIP device that is small enough to fit in a back-pack and is easily available."
"Because there is no need to pay the service charge or the tax, these calls are cheaper for the end-user," he said adding that sim cards of all the telecom operators are used for bypass purposes.
The telecom operators have been blocking sim cards, when they suspect or get complaints of their sim cards being used for call bypass but NTA needs a teeth to take strong action against those involved in the fraudulent act.
"We will prepare Act or do whatever needed -- after the report comes -- to control this," Khanal assured.

Operators at by guess and by gosh on telecom service quality

The telecom service providers today blamed the power outage, poor infrastructure and remote geographical conditions for the low quality of telecom services.
"The long hours of power outage has hit Nepal Telecom's battery backup design that was capable of supplying power for only four to five hours," said Bishwanath Goel, managing director of Nepal Telecom that provides GSM and CDMA services in all 75 districts of the country.
"Most of the complaints are related to Radio Frequency Optimisation (RFO) but 16-hour power oputage has hit its rapid expansion," he said adding that NT received 77 complaints related to RFO from January to June this year. "NT is installing generators in 10 BTS towers, 12-hour back-up capacity will be installed in 10 BTS towers and solar equipment in another 10 BTS towers," he repeated the plans of NT to counter complaints.
However, Goel did not explain why NT had not improved the quality of its services even though the load-shedding hours have come down to 10 hours a week from 16 hours a day.
Chandi Shrestha of Spice Telecom -- the telecom service provider under the brand name Mero Mobile -- also described his company's plans to sell 25,00,000 SIM cards by the end of this year. "Most of the problems arise due to consumers' habits," he said adding that consumer education is also key to better telecom services. He, however accepted that the telecom service providers have failed to educate consumers.
He urged the telecom regulator to play the role of facilitator, whereas chairman of the regulator -- Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) -- Bhesraj Kandel advised the operators to upgrade service quality alongwith the service expansion. "Regulator should also interfere, the operators do not abide by regulations," he said citing the example of NTA forcing them to reduce interconnection charges.
"NTA as regulator has also fixed parameters for quality of service," Kandel added. NTA has licensed three operators for basic telephony service, two for cellular mobile service, eight for network service, 38 for Internet service, 90 for VSAT and three for GMPCS.
"The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are lagging behind in comparison to telecom operators," said Pawan Shakya, president of Association of ISPs.

NTA to bring service providers in line

Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA) -- the regulatory authority of telecom service providers -- is slowly applying pressure to make them comply with its directives reducing interconnection charge.
"We are slowly putting pressure on service providers," said a high level source at NTA that had on January 8 issued directives to the telecom service providers to operate under Section 15 of the Telecommunication Act-2053 BS.
NTA has informed all its service providers -- Nepal Telecom (NT), United Telecom Ltd (UTL), Spice Nepal Pvt Ltd and STM Telecom Communication Pvt Ltd -- to reduce Interconnection Usage Charge (IUC) in order benefit consumers.
NTA had urged them to reduce the interconnection charge from February 12, but till date not a single service provider has complied.
According to the NTA directive, the charge for calling from one mobile service provider to another mobile service provider should be reduced to 54 paisa per minute. The mobile service providers are currently charging Rs 1 to Rs 2.25 per minute.
"We are not against providing cheaper services to our consumers," Amarnath Singh, managing director of NT said adding that it was ready to reduce the interconnection charge.
"However, at present we are studying the probability of the interconnection charge reduction," he said. Currently, NT is also charged with poor quality of its mobile service. Singh blamed irregular power supply for the worsening quality of the NT mobile service. The batteries of the BTS towers could not be charged due to prolonged powercut.
According to technocrats, they have planned the BTS towers keeping in mind only six to eight hours of power disruption. "Naturally, the BTS towers cannot work properly because of the present over 16-hour powercut," Singh said adding that NT is planning to install solar power panels or generators for back-up for the BTS towers. "The upgradation of BTS is also on the cards," the managing director of NT -- that is planning to hold its annual general meeting sometime in the first week of April after it became a company -- spelled out.
However, according to experts power plays only a 40 per cent role in the mobile service quality. "The planning and networking, designing, quality of equipment, radio frequency optimisation and topography play vital role in the overall quality of mobile phone service," said Ananda Raj Khanal, director at the regulatory authority of the telecom service providers.