National
ICYMI: Here are our top stories from Wednesday, April 17
Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (April 17, 2019).Post Report
Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (April 17, 2019).
Tax authorities give Ncell seven days to pay Rs39 billion in dues
The Large Taxpayers Office on Tuesday set the capital gains tax for Ncell and Axiata at Rs62.63 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 because Ncell had already paid Rs23.57 billion in total—Rs21.54 billion as capital gains tax and Rs2.02 billion as fine—the company should now pay the remaining Rs39.06 billion.
Early breakthrough in Bheri Babai tunnel sets a milestone—and a lesson for other lagging national projects
The Rs33.18 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 breakthrough one 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.
In a first, the 12-km tunnel was dug using a tunnel boring machine built and installed by a US-based manufacturer. The civil contractor for the project is China Overseas Engineering Group.
Schools lack money to buy textbooks as local governments fail to disburse budget
The federal government on Monday announced a nationwide enrolment campaign to bring thousands children to the school system and provide the full set of textbooks to them on the first day of classes. However, local governments have not disbursed the budget to schools, forcing them to start the enrolment campaign without textbooks.
The Centre for Education and Human Resource Development under the Ministry of Education had already released the budget to the local governments for buying textbooks for students.
Even schools from the Capital haven’t received the budget and are yet to get a clear answer when they will get the money for the textbooks.
The government has been providing the budget for free distribution of textbooks to all the students of public schools. Some five million students study in around 29,000 state-run schools across the country.
Supreme Court upholds Home Ministry’s decision to grant citizenship by descent
The Supreme Court has paved the way for individuals, whose parents are Nepali citizens by birth, to acquire citizenship by descent.
Justices Hari Krishna Karki and Bam Kumar Shrestha on Tuesday upheld the Home Ministry’s circular to chief district officers across the country to issue citizenship by descent to the children whose parents are citizens by birth. Last week, the Supreme Court had issued an interim order in response to a writ petition filed by advocate Balkrishna Neupane to not implement the ministry’s decision on citizenship.
Amid uncertainty surrounding the amendment to the Citizenship Act 2006, the Home Ministry on April 2 had issued a circular to all 77 chief district officers across the country, telling them to grant citizenship by descent to those individuals whose parents are citizens by birth.
Local governments purchase essential drugs without quality checks and assurances
Badimalika Municipality of Bajura district purchased 35 essential medicines worth Rs1.2 million to distribute through health facilities to patients free of cost.
The Ministry of Social Development of Sudurpaschim Province had provided Rs800,000 in the current fiscal year to purchase the medicines.
Tek Bahadur Khadka, health coordinator of the municipality, said that his office would purchase additional medicines with the remaining budget so that patients would not have to return empty handed from the health facilities in the municipality.
According to Khadka, the municipality purchased medicines from private pharmacies. However, the municipality did not take the quality of the drugs into consideration during procurement.