Kathmandu, April 7: The Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday has taken a series of major decisions ranging from foreign loans to infrastructure expansion and fuel price relief measures.
Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration, Pratibha Rawal, said the government has approved a concessional loan of $85 million from the World Bank for the Greater Lumbini Area Development Project under the Ministry of Finance.
On infrastructure, the Cabinet has granted approval to acquire private land in key project zones. These include Dhunibesi Municipality in the western section of the Nagdhunga Tunnel and Uttargaya Rural Municipality along the Betrawati–Dhunche–Syafrubesi road under the Pasang Lhamu Highway.
The government has also cleared the use of 46.39 hectares of forest land across Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Makwanpur districts for the construction of the Kathmandu-Terai Madhesh Expressway. The decision includes permission to cut down 18,898 trees, because nothing says “development” like counting trees before removing them.
In an administrative reshuffle, the Water and Energy Research Centre, currently based in Pulchowk, Lalitpur, will be relocated to Godawari. The existing building will then house the Secretariat of the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat.
The Cabinet has appointed Dr Gunakar Bhatta as Vice-Chairperson of the National Planning Commission and Kiran Pandit as Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank.
Addressing the growing fuel crisis and fiscal pressure, the government has decided to provide a 50 percent waiver on customs duties and infrastructure tax on petroleum imports, including petrol, diesel and kerosene. According to the government, losses have reached around Rs 11.72 billion in just the past 15 days, which is the kind of number that tends to make policymakers suddenly discover urgency.
To reduce fuel consumption, the Cabinet is considering additional measures such as declaring Sunday a public holiday, implementing an odd-even vehicle system, and promoting electric vehicles and ethanol use.
For once, the meeting didn’t just produce paperwork. It produced consequences. Whether those consequences help or create new headaches is a story for the next Cabinet meeting.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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