The panel should be able to uncover what transpired between Sharma and the select business groups
Finance Minister Janardan Sharma, who is also a senior leader of the UCPN-Maoist Centre, tendered his resignation on Wednesday after the House of Representatives formed an 11-member investigation panel to probe into his alleged involvement in letting two unauthorised persons into the Finance Ministry to manipulate the tax rates on May 14, one day before the budget speech, favouring select business houses and also deliberately deleting the CCTV footage to erase the evidence. The parliamentary investigative panel comprises members of the ruling and main opposition parties, and it has been given 10 days to submit its report on Sharma's wrongdoings on two counts: allowing unauthorised persons to enter the ministry to manipulate the tax rates and deleting the CCTV footage. The main opposition, CPN-UML, civil society members, former justices of the Supreme Court, some lawmakers from the ruling coalition and six former vice-chairmen of the National Planning Commission had demanded his resignation for his alleged involvement in manipulating the tax rates, a move which, they said, benefitted some business houses. PM Sher Bahadur Deuba was also under tremendous pressure from within his party to sack Sharma, who, many believe, committed a financial crime by favouring the business houses and deleting the CCTV footage to erase the evidence of the unauthorised persons' entry into the ministry.
Sharma has been accused of allowing two unauthorised persons – former government employee Raghunath Ghimire and another chartered accountant – to enter the ministry and manipulate the tax rates to favour the business houses, deleting the CCTV footage, putting pressure on Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to release the suspicious money sent from the United States in the bank account of Prithvi Shah of Achham, taking action against NRB governor following the leakage of the news, making a policy-level decision not to seek legitimate sources of income for investments made in big industries, such as cement, steel and hydropower, giving heavy concessions on customs duty on the import of sponge and scrap iron, giving tax waiver under various heads to some hydro projects for 21 years and imposing heavy customs duty on electric vehicles.
Sharma's decision will have a far-reaching impact on the national economy as he not only indulged in policy-level corruption but also did not provide a level-playing filed to all the industries and the business community. Allowing unauthorised persons to enter the ministry to manipulate the tax rates and deleting the CCTV footage amount to criminal offence, for which Sharma should face punitive action. This is the first time in Nepal's history that an incumbent finance minister has been accused of committing a financial crime while in office. The panel should be able to uncover what transpired between him and the said business groups, which benefitted from the financial crime. Not only should the panel investigate his alleged involvement in the two counts, but it should also be able to make corrections on the tax rates that will put the national economy at risk. Sharma's resignation as the finance minister should not be meant he can get off scot-free. He must stand trial for the financial crime he has committed.
Rhino deaths
Wildlife conservation is a success story in Nepal, with its jungles teeming with such endangered species like the one-horned rhinoceros and the Royal Bengal tiger, which had been hunted and poached to near extinction by the sixties. According to the National Rhino Count 2021, there were 752 rhinos in the country, up from 645 in 2015– an overall increase of 16.6 per cent. The bulk of them, or 694 rhinos, roam the Chitwan National Park, which saw an increase of 89 pachyderms. Nepal might also be the only country among the 13 tiger-range nations to double its population to 250 tigers by 2022, as per the commitment made during the Saint Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation in 2010. However, success brings its fair share of problems.
Thirty-six rhinos are reported to have died in Chitwan during the current fiscal year, 33 the year before while upto 44 rhinos had died in a single year some time back. While poaching is definitely down, with only two incidents recorded this fiscal year, all the remaining deaths occurred from natural causes – old age or fighting with each other for the limited space.
The only solution is to relocate them internally to lessen their concentration at one place.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 8, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
