This is with reference to the news story “Nepali passengers being levied excess tax illegally” (THT, December 23, Page 1). Since long Nepal Tourism Board has been collecting the ‘Tourism Service Fee’ and the accumulated fund runs to billions of rupees. The international airlines are only the ‘channels’ that NTB exclusively utilizes for TSF collection. Except for billing or counting the sum, it’s the prime responsibility of NTB to handle such channels in an effective way by ensuring that not a single Nepali passenger gets fleeced in the name of NTB-owned TSF. As NTB’s CEO Deepak Raj Joshi said, ‘TSF must be collected only from the foreign travellers leaving TIA’. But, the Int’l airlines have been levying TSF on all passengers, regardless of their nationality, when they buy air tickets online. Interestingly, a few Delhi-based air carriers such as Indigo are happily selling only the TSF-included air tickets to all. While Nepali passengers have been paying TSF for long, none can imagine that NTB has allowed the airlines to pocket a part of the sum, collected under the TSF. The question is who owns the TSF? No doubt the answer is – NTB. There must be responsibility and transparency. Passing the buck to others can’t be the solution to this cheating while officials at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation termed it as ‘the daylight robbery’. Policy revision is a must to check such malpractices. Vinay Basnyat, Chabahil For Christians Apropos of the news story “Public holiday declared for Christmas” (THT, December 25, Page 1), why would government declare a holiday for Christmas revellers? I was born in a devout Hindu family, I do not hold the obdurate views that only Hindu festivals should be recognized nationally. I am an agnostic person so it doesn’t really matter to me about which religion is most apt for the nation to be celebrated. One thing I really can’t understand even in countries like America , Canada, Australia, and Britain despite there being millions of Hindus is that these countries do not declare a holiday for Hindus in their national calendar. It would have been better had the government given holiday only to the practising Christians working in government offices and corporations, just like at Teej festival when only women are given a holiday. Christianity is a well funded religious organization on this planet, with many denominations and world-wide networks and enjoying the backing of powerful countries of the West. The poverty-stricken countries are safe heavens for Christianity to expand. Religion has to do with the soul and purely personal relationship between the believer and what we call God. But buying the loyalty of poor people by tempting them with material benefits goes against the basic spirit of any true religion. Hinduism does not believe in this outrageous and anti-religious practice. Such conversions hijack people’s independence and free choice. Shiva Neupane, Melbourne