Kathmandu, June 14

A meeting between officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Airport Authority of India (AAI) has begun here today to outline the possibility of adding new air routes between the two countries.

The two-day meeting between technical officials of the two countries will figure out the feasible new air routes, according to Ghanashyam Upadhya, joint secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA).

The meeting is the outcome of the decisions made by the executive heads of both nations in May during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal to forge a technical study on opening new air entry routes via different points in Nepal.

Dipak Baral, director of Air Traffic Management at CAAN, informed that Nepal has proposed AAI to open up air entry routes from Nepalgunj and Janakpur in the ongoing meeting and discussions are under way regarding the feasibility of these air routes.

Prior to this meeting, Indian authorities, including AAI, had been saying that the air entry route via Nepalgunj may not be feasible as the Indian army has its air defence base camp on the Indian side close to Nepalgunj.

Though Indian authorities are backing the Janakpur air route, CAAN is urging the Indian government to open up both the air routes. CAAN is also requesting for both entry and exit facility through the aforementioned proposed air routes.

Kathmandu, June 14

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) – the electricity sector regulator – today warned that power supply to industries flouting the legal provision that requires them to instal ‘capacitor bank’ will be cut.

The warning has come after it was revealed that a number of domestic industries are operating without installing capacitor bank, which is causing voltage fluctuations and disrupting regular supply of electricity.

A capacitor bank is an electric component that stores electric charge functions to maintain flow of electricity.

The Electricity Distribution Regulation, 2011 states that any industry or customer using electric motor and welding equipment of above five hertz capacity should compulsorily instal capacitor bank. However, a recent inspection by NEA in 140 industries based in Tarai had found that only 43 of them had installed the capacitor bank. Moreover, even the industries that had installed the device did not meet the basic standards.

As per NEA, lack of such capacitor banks in industries not only causes voltage fluctuations and affects electricity supply at industries, power supply to common customers are also affected.

In this backdrop, the electricity regulator has also directed all its distribution centres to collect and send the names of industries that have not installed the capacitor bank.

NEA has installed capacitors throughout its electricity sub-stations to minimise voltage fluctuations.

“Reluctance shown by industries to instal capacitors directly affects electricity supply situation. We have asked them to comply with this legal provision without delay,” said Kul Man Ghising, managing director of NEA, adding that NEA will soon start cutting electricity supply to industries that continue to disregard NEA’s warning.

Owing to rising temperature in Tarai belt of Nepal and India, the country has been receiving low voltage electricity in recent times. According to NEA, the ‘voltage drop’ situation will increase if the capacitor banks are not installed by consumers consuming more electricity, thereby affecting the supply.

Amid increasing use of air-conditioners and electric fans in Tarai areas following rising mercury, NEA said that ‘voltage drop’ problem is frequent in cities like Biratnagar, Butwal, Nepalgunj, Dhangadi and Mahendranagar..

“Low use of capacitor banks in Tarai amid increasing consumption has resulted in fluctuations in voltage,” added Ghising.

Kathmandu, June 14

Mining of sand and boulders could be affected as there is confusion in fixing the tax rates of the construction materials because the Financial Bill of next fiscal has downsized the authority of provincial governments to fix the tax rate of sand and aggregates.

Earlier, the guidelines developed by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) had extended the authority to award the contract of mining sand, boulders and setting up crusher industry to the local governments. However, the provincial governments were authorised to fix the tax rate of the aforementioned construction materials.

Now there is confusion among the sub-national governments in fixing the tax rates of these construction materials, as the Financial Bill 2018-19 no longer provides the authority to the provincial governments to fix tax rates.

Due to this confusion, mining of sand and boulders could be stopped any time, as the local governments have reportedly demanded the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration to issue the new guideline as early as possible, according to Suresh Adhikari, spokesperson for the MoFAGA.

“In our correspondence with Ministry of Finance (MoF), they have assured us to bring the guidelines to fix the tax rates and the responsible body for tax collection soon.”

It is reported that the local bodies that are providing the authority of mining and setting up crusher industry could stop these activities as they are unaware about the revenue they could generate from this after the MoF took over the authority of provincial governments.

Authorities of the MoF have said that the ministry is developing guidelines for a reasonable and transparent taxation system for essential construction materials and will submit it to the Cabinet for approval as soon as it has been drafted.