Kathmandu, August 24, 2006

The national salary index has increased by 5.7 percent as of mid-July 2006, says a report of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) prepared for the first eleven months of the fiscal year 2005-06.

The increase in salary index is attributed mainly to the rise in the wage rate of labourers and the rise in the salary of employees in the bank and financial institutions, including public corporations, says NRB.

In the first eleven months of 2005-06, the total non-debt resources of the government grew by 10.8 per cent compared to a growth of 12.4 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Extremely low growth rate of revenue contributed to such a low growth of non debt resources.

In the first eleven months of 2005-06, of the total revenue mobilisation, tax revenue increased by 7.2 per cent whereas non tax revenue declined by 24.9 per cent.

In the corresponding period of the previous year, tax revenue had increased by 1.2 per cent whereas non-tax revenue had declined by 5.3 per cent.

A remarkable increase in VAT revenue contributed to such an increase in tax revenue in the review period.

A decline in customs duties and some other non tax revenues including dividends and principal repayments accounted for low growth of revenue mobilisation, says NRB.

Of the sources of deficit financing, government mobilised additional domestic borrowing of Rs 9.1 billion by issuing treasury bills worth Rs 8.1 billion and development bonds and citizen saving certificates amounting to Rs 1.0 billion in the first eleven months of 2005-06.

Arcane laws can wait for a while

Here’s a cogent example of how arcane laws and regulations, which could sometime throw problem for common man, fall short from stalling any undertaking under the sun when it is the civil servants who are involved.

No regulation can militate against their interests. Not even the arcane indeed. Here’s how.

The context is the hectic efforts on the part of the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) to conduct a quinquennial labour survey — second after 1998 — and the Financial Regulation- 1992, which does not allow payment of lodging expenses to civil servants if they happen to be on field work for over a week.

“Yes we are facing a crisis. The regulation does not allow payment of lodging expenses to civil servant on field duty for a period more than a week at a stretch.

But chances are the higher up authority may let us have our way on the issue” said Central Bureau of Statistics Deputy Director Rabi Prasad Kayastha, while confirming the anomaly involved and the need to relax the provision.

The extended field work seems to be a foregone conclusion since the task of data collection for the purpose will demand some over 100 CBS enumerators going around the country and compiling the information from over 800 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs).