Setopati Briefing
Nepali and Indian Prime Ministers (PM)
on Friday jointly started construction of Arun III Hydropower Project.
This project will bring in the largest amount of foreign investment in Nepal till date with government-owned Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited of India set to invest over Rs 100 billion for the project.
Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun was conspicuously absent in such a big event. Pun was not even invited for the event. He has already put his dissatisfaction about the issue before CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
Pun’s displeasure is not just about the snub for that event, according to our sources. He is not happy since the Investment Board, and not the Energy Ministry, issued generation license for the project. A meeting of the Investment Board chaired by PM KP Sharma Oli two weeks ago had decided to issue the generation license.
Following opposition by the ministry in the attempt to issue generation license by the Investment Board, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Maha Prasad Adhiakri had taken the issue to the meeting. PM chairs the Investment Board and energy minister is just a permanent invited member, according to the Investment Board Act.
Minister Pun was not present during the meeting. PM Oli asked Energy Secretary Anup Upadhyay about the ministry’s opinion after CEO Adhikari raised the issue of license for Arun III.
Secretary Upadhyay stated that the Electricity Development Act authorizes the ministry to issue generation license for projects bigger than 100 MW and pointed that the Investment Board cannot issue it.
CEO Adhikari then showed the Investment Board Act, that states that the Investment Board will issue generation license for projects bigger than 500 MW, to PM Oli.
“Who is the person who wants to deny the Investment Board’s rights mentioned in the Act. The person should come to me. I will talk,” PM Oli said in his own inimitable style after listening to CEO Adhikari.
Secretary Upadhyay did not respond. Minister Pun was not present.
The Investment Board was formed when Baburam Bhattarai was PM with a mandate for projects with foreign investment of over Rs 10 billion and hydropower projects bigger than 500 MW. The Investment Board, however, does not oversee the projects developed with agreement between the governments.
Energy Ministry has been arguing that while the Investment Board can negotiate about conditions of foreign investment and implementation of such projects, it should oversee the implementation aspect of the projects. Janardan Sharma had also opined that the Investment Board should coordinate with the ministry when he headed the ministry.
Energy Minister Pun and PM Oli seem to differ even on the issue of 1200 MW Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project.
The government had taken a decision to hand over the project to a Chinese company without competition when Sharma headed the ministry and Dahal was PM.
But the Sher Bahadur Deuba government revoked that decision, and decided that Nepal will develop the project on its own according to recommendation of a committee formed under vice chairman of the National Planning Commission.
Pun now wants the Energy Ministry to develop the project but Oli does not agree.
The disagreement of the Maoist minister with PM Oli is escalating at a time when the unification process of UML and Maoist Center has lost pace. The two parties have started to bicker on everything from operation of government to budget preparation as a result.
"Only the secretaries used to defy us earlier but even joint secretaries have started to do so now," Pun complained with a UML leader at the canteen of parliament just two days back.
Maoist ministers have already met Dahal and expressed dissatisfaction over transfer of secretaries which they claim was done without even informing them. They have complained that the secretaries are now directly responsible toward the PM and have started to ignore the ministers.
There is intense dissatisfaction in the Maoist party even about preparation of budget. "There used to be inter-party discussion about the budget even during the coalition with Nepali Congress (NC). UML is doing it unilaterally now," a Maoist minister told Setopati.
Maoist ministers are also not happy about transfer of budget.
There is practice of finishing the budget by even transferring that for one head to another toward the end of fiscal year. The reports of the Auditor General have been repeatedly pointing that there is usually corruption in spending of such transferred budget.
The Maoist minister accused that the ministries headed by UML ministers have been allowed to make such transfers, but those led by the Maoist ones have been restricted. "Good governance applies only for us," the Maoist minister lamented.
Dahal is also unhappy with PM Oli for not discussing the budget at the party level with Maoist Center.
Maoist lawmakers had complained with Dahal that UML was preparing the budget unilaterally even during the parliamentary party meeting on May 8. Dahal had assured the lawmakers that he will raise the issue with PM Oli.
The differences between the UML and Maoist ministers have started to escalate as the unification process has been stymied. These differences will make unification further uncertain.
The parties had signed a seven-point agreement on
February 19 and announced they will soon unify but there has been no solid progress in unification since.
The unification was earlier scheduled for April 22 to mark the centenary of formation of the first communist party in Nepal, but that was postponed in the eleventh hour.
The parties had then said the date will be announced on May 5 on the occasion of 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx but that did not happen.
But why was the date for unification not announced?
Many UML and Maoist leaders alike do not have an answer for that.
Oli and Dahal have been holding one-on-one meetings for unification for a few weeks.
"Chairman Oli only talks with Madhav Nepal about the progress in talks. But even he does not know much in recent days," a UML leader said.
Nepal during a program attended also by Dahal recently had asked where the unification process has been stuck.
The unification process has not just been delayed but even differences between the two parties have escalated after Dahal sought guarantee for chairmanship after the general convention for unification now.
It has not yet been fully revealed whether the differences have escalated to put pressure for unification or the unification process has come under process due to the escalating differences.
Leaders of both the parties agree that the roadblock for unification cannot be overcome anytime soon.
"The road ahead has not yet been paved while there is no way to move back," a UML leader confided. "I, therefore, see that both the problems in unification and the differences will escalate for some more time."
"Oli and Dahal themselves are not talking in a way to end the issue soon. I feel they both are trying to tire each other out," the leader added.
