'Government shutdown' as budget fails to get through

 The government employees may not be able to get salary, let alone Dashain bonus, due to government shut down from Wednesday mid-night.

The government will not be able to spend budget from tomorrow mid-night due to prolonged tug of war in the parliament between the government alliance and main opposition, confirmed the Parliament Secretariat.

Though, the government needs to pass the substitution budget bill within tomorrow, the meeting of the House of Representatives has been adjourned for a week, until September 20, after the main opposition CPN-UML lawmakers disturbed the House proceding.

"The government may not be able to spend the budget for a while," confirmed the finance minister Janardan Sharma, who had registered the bill on Friday despite the obstruction from the opposition.

The main opposition CPN-UML has vowed not to let the House move forward accusing speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota of not acknowledging the party’s August 17 decision to expel 14 lawmakers, including Madhav Kumar Nepal. Nepal split from the UML and formed his party, CPN (Unified Socialist), on August 26.

The CPN-UML has alleged that Speaker Sapkota played a complicit role in splitting their party.

As the ordinance budget brought by former government led by KP Sharma Oli gets invalidated from Wednesday night, the government will not be able to spend from the state coffer until the replacement budget gets endorsed from the house. The Oli-led government dissolved the House a week earlier the budget date. Then finance minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel had brought an ordinance budget of Rs 1.64 trillion for the current fiscal year 2021-22, on May 29. The incumbent government brought a substitution budget bill of nearly Rs 15 billion less to Rs 1.63 trillion last Friday.

"Though, the government is not allowed to spend, there will be no legal problem in tax collection,” Sharma said, after the House meeting, adding that the budget will be endorsed from the regular process, of possible. "Otherwise, the government will find a way out."

The incumbent government led by NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba had tabled the budget ordinance in the Parliament on July 18. Hence, a substitution bill had to be passed through the House by Wednesday mid-night, as 60 days would complete from the date the ordinance was presented. If the ordinance is not passed by the House within 60 days after the House starts, it will automatically null and void. But since the substitution bill has already tabled in the House and is in the process.

According to the Parliament Secretariat, the lawmakers will be allowed 72 hours to register their amendment proposals on the substitution bill. "The 72 hours end on September 20."

NATTA flays CAAN's decision to distribute bonus

Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) – the umbrella association of Nepali travel agents and tour operators – has opposed the decision of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to distribute bonus to its staffers.
Issuing a statement, NATTA has said that the decision taken by former tourism minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi was against CAAN Act 1996, Bonus Act 1973 and Bonus Rules 1982.
The decision has thrown cold water on our hope that CAAN would spend the money collected from air passengers to expand existing airports and develop infrastructure of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), NATTA said in its press note.
The CAAN currently collects taxes in two separate baskets. The government has authorised the CAAN to raise Rs 1,000 per passenger in airport development tax, which comes to Rs 1.70 billion annually.
In April 2013, the CAAN board authorised collection of development tax from the travellers departing from TIA to raise funds to repay its loans and finance ongoing improvement projects for a period of five years. The CAAN is authorised to spend this amount solely on development of airport infrastructure.
In addition, the CAAN collects another Rs 1,130 as passenger service charge from each international traveler, which amounts to Rs 1.80 billion a year.
However, CAAN is in the process of being split into two separate entities – service provider and regulator – which will require additional funding. It has also been upgrading Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) by acquiring a loan of $70 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), despite collecting millions of rupees from passengers to develop airport infrastructure.
How can the regulator that is also under debt distribute bonus is not only legal but ethical issue, the tourism sector said. "CAAN's regulation also forbids bonus distribution, if safety is compromised."
The decision to extend bonus comes at a time when the efficiency of Nepal’s aviation sector, including its human resources, has been widely questioned at national and international forums for lack of investment and training facilities. Nepal has been put in the bad books for the worst record of air safety oversight since 2009 by the UN aviation watchdog. The European Commission has also included Nepal in its air safety list for poor safety record in 2013.
NATTA has also reminded that the European Union (EU) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have kept Nepali Airlines in blacklist as CAAN has not upgraded infrastructure of TIA and improved safety standards at Nepal's only international airport.
The decision has paved way for CAAN to distribute Rs 159 million to its 800 staffers. Each staff will get an average of Rs 199,062.
Meanwhile, the anti-graft body has started begin investigation on the matter.
Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has formally launched an investigation into the decision of CAAN to distribute bonus to its employees from money collected from passengers to develop airport infrastructure.
"We have seized necessary documents from the Tourism Ministry today over the decision to distribute bonus to CAAN employees,” said spokesperson of the CIAA Jib Raj Koirala
Though, the tourism ministry officials had recommended that distribution of bonus from money collected from taxpayers for development of airport infrastructure was not appropriate, the outgoing tourism minister Shahi had approved the decision to dole out bonuses. The tourism minister chairs the CAAN board.
The CAAN had decided to distribute Rs 530 million as bonus to its employees from profits earned during fiscal years 2011-12 to 2014-15.
Although the Bonus Act 1974 paves the way for organisations like the CAAN to distribute bonus from their profit, the Bonus Regulation 1983 forbids not-for-profit government-owned entities established to promote administrative, industrial, agriculture and other sectors from extending bonuses. The CAAN – as a regulator of the country's aviation sector – has been set up with the objective of ensuring safety, security and efficiency in the aviation sector.