New Delhi, August 8, 2006 India today revoked the additional four per cent duty, levied since last March, on a majority of Nepalese goods exported to India. The Union Finance Ministry in a public notice this evening said the additional four per cent tax on Nepalese goods has been revoked. Nepalese exports to India were affected for the past five months due to the supplementary four per cent tax. During Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s visit to India during the first week of June, it was agreed that India would cancel the additional four per cent tax on the goods imported from Nepal, which are manufactured in Nepal using raw materials from Nepal itself. Immediately after the agreement, India had revoked the supplementary four per cent tax on 12 primary agri-products. “The decision to revoke the additional tax today is positive,” industrialist Diwakar Golchha said, adding that it is in the spirit of the Indo-Nepal trade treaty. Golchha is currently in New Delhi. “The additional duty on most of the goods on the list provided to the Indian government has been revoked,” Economic Minister of Nepalese Embassy in Delhi, Lalmani Joshi, told The Himalayan Times, adding that many goods are indicated under code name and those should be tallied with the list provided by Nepal. PM urged to implement 8-point pact Demanding an early implementation of the eight-point parties-Maoist agreement, especially the dissolution of the House and management of arms, representatives of different professional organisations staged a sit-in in front of the residence of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at Baluwatar this evening. Braving rain, human right activists, language and ethnic right activists, teachers, singers, artists and journalists took part in the sit-in. Though the appointment with the Prime Minister was fixed at 5pm, the delegates had to wait for 25 minutes for a meeting with the PM. Handing over the memorandum, the delegates told the Prime Minister that the civil society was not happy with the political development. They also accused the government of being regressive in nature and going against the spirit of the Jana Aandolan-II. “We reminded the PM that the civil society had also played a crucial role in making the Jana Aandolan successful. We urged him to listen to our voices,” said Dr Devendra Raj Panday, coordinator of the Citizens’ Movement for Democracy and Peace, the organiser of the sit-in, after meeting the PM. He quoted PM Koirala as saying that “visible progress” will take place in the government-Maoist talks in two to three days. We reminded the PM that we want the eight-point agreement, especially the clauses on the dissolution of the House and arms management, immediately implemented so as to clear the way for holding the elections to a Constituent Assembly, he said.