Nepal’s tax authorities’ serving a seven-day deadline to NCell to pay up outstanding capital gainst tax it owes to the government has been featured on all major national dailies along with news of the Supreme Court giving the government the go-ahead for issuing citizenship by descent to the offspring of those who were given citizenship under jus soli. Nepali Congress’ launching of a nationwide campaign has also been featured on most newspapers.
Here is a summary of important, ignored and interesting stories from the front pages of national broadsheets:
Important
Tax authorities give Ncell seven days to pay up
Naya Patrika, Kantipur, Nagarik, Annapurna Post, The Himalayan Times, Republica and The Kathmandu Post report that Large Taxpayers Office on Tuesday set the capital gains tax for Ncell and Axiata at Rs 62.63 billion and gave the company seven days to clear the dues.
The order from the tax office comes a week after the Supreme Court released the full text of its February verdict that Ncell and Axiata, the parent company of the private sector mobile firm, should pay capital gains tax.
In a press statement released on Tuesday, the tax authority said that the company should now pay the remaining Rs 39.06 billion as Ncell had already paid Rs 23.57 billion in total—Rs 21.54 billion as capital gains tax and Rs 2.02 billion as fine.
SC gives go ahead for citizenship distribution
Nagarik, Gorkhapatra, The Himalayan Times and Republica report that the Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated its interim order that stayed the implementation of the Ministry of Home Affair’s circular issued a few days ago to district administration offices ordering them to issue citizenship by descent to children of citizens by birth. This means the DAOs can now issue citizenship by descent to children of citizens by birth.
A division bench of Justice Hari Krishna Karki and Bam Kumar Shrestha vacated the interim order issued by Justice Purushottam Bhandari on April 8. The SC is yet to prepare the full text of the order. A single bench of Justice Bhandari had passed a temporary stay order acting on a writ petition filed by Senior Advocate Bal Krishna Neupane. On April 8, the SC had asked both sides to present their arguments.
Ignored
Mastermind behind Nakkhu bomb blast arrested
Nepal Samacharpatra reports that the mastermind behind the bomb blast at Ncell head office in Nakkhu, Bir Bahadur Kathayat has been arrested by the police on Tuesday. He was arrested in Sundhara by the Metropolitan Crime Division. Police have informed that Kathyat is a senior leader of Netra Bikram Chand led NCP party. With this police have arrested six out of the eight people involved in the bomb blast which killed one and injured two.
Traffic Police have no equipment to read smart licenses
Naya Patrika reports that traffic police doesn’t have equipment to read smart licenses. The government started handing out smart license over 40 months ago and since then has printed over 900,000 licenses. Department of Transport says that they have around 100 equipment to read the smart cards but they aren’t in use as they do not have software. However, many argue that traffic police can’t even differentiate between an original and a fake.
110 million spent on outer ring road before work starts
Rajdhani reports that Rs 110 million has already been spent on the outer ring road project. The report published by the Office of the Auditor General states that Rs 108.2 had already been spent on the project before the detailed project report, and the environmental impact assessment report was prepared. The project was envisioned in 2004.
Interesting
Breakthrough in Bheri Babai hydropower project
Annapurna Post and The Kathmandu Post report that the Rs 33.18 billion Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project in Surkhet has crossed a major milestone with the completion of a tunnelled connection, allowing diversion of water from Bheri River to Babai River for irrigation and power generation.
Four years after the national pride project was inaugurated by the late Sushil Koirala in April 2015, the Bheri Babai project marked the tunnel breakthroughone year before the original deadline–thanks to a number of factors, including the use of technology, topography and well-coordinated efforts.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli turned on the switch on Tuesday to mark the final breakthrough of the tunnel.
SC to hear tax settlement corruption cases on May 5
Republica reports that after several deferrals, the Special Court has said it will conduct the final hearings on the multi-billion rupee corruption cases involving former Inland Revenue Department (IRD) chief Chudamani Sharma on May 5.
Sharma is facing two corruption cases at the Special Court. One case accuses him of possessing property disproportionate to his known sources of income and the other charges that he committed corruption amounting to Rs 10.96 billion. The latter is the biggest corruption case in Nepal’s history.
NC announces nationwide campaign
Gorkhapatra, Nagarik and Rajdhani report that the Nepali Congress on Tuesday announced its nationwide awareness campaign to educate people about the government’s wrongdoings and to strengthen the party organisation.
Speaking at a press conference, NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma said the campaign would inform NC members and well-wishers about the amended party statute, re-energize all NC members and units, inform the people about achievements under NC leadership and make people aware of corruption scandals and wrong policies of the government.
Named the ‘Himal Pahad Tarai Madhes Nepali Congress Rastriya Jagaran Abhiyaan’, the campaign will be run in three phases, starting April 24.
The first phase will run for a month from April 24 to May 25 in all 77 districts. Each member of the NC Central Working Committee will spend a month in an assigned district and run various programmes.
In the second phase (from August 31 to September 24) CWC members will visit all 330 provincial electoral constituencies and spend 15 days conducting planned programmes.
Finally, in the third phase (December 23 to January 1, 2020), the CWC members will visit all 753 local levels for 10 days.
