Message from corona virus pandemic

Nepali Economics

Message from corona virus pandemic

By Prajwal Shrestha

Again, we are facing the very situation like Nepal bandh or Indian blockade. We are stuck in our own house. The market is closed. There is scarcity of daily consumable goods in the market. Even if we get them, the price has skyrocketed.

The government abruptly announced a lockdown. Yes, it was obvious to stop movement of people to avoid coronavirus outbreak. The government, we believe, took its action very late. Anyway, better late than never! And now, the government has extended the lockdown period from one to two weeks. If COVID-19 cases will not be controlled in two weeks’ period, more likely, the government is in a mood to extend it further for one more week.

Until now, five cases have been reported with corona irus infected patients. The first case was reported two months ago on a student who had returned from Wuhan, epicenter of corona virus epidemic in China. He has already been cured. The remaining cases are not from China but from the Gulf countries and Europe.

One case is from a France returned student, another case is from a lady returned from Belgium and two other cases are from Nepali workers returning from the Gulf countries. The cases reported are dated from 17 March. If the government had suspended international flights two months ago, we would not have to suffer like we are suffering today.

In February, the COVID-19 created havoc in China. Nepal, immediate neighbor of China, shut down the Nepal-China borders immediately. However, Nepal failed to do necessary homework. The government had enough time to equip our hospitals with necessary medicines and equipment. The government wasted time but didn’t manage imports of equipment and medicines. At the last hours, the government, creating emergency crisis, procured medicines and equipment even by paying seven times more price. Surely, the government officials are guided from corruption mentality. It is very sad to state that those corrupt people in the government are not ashamed to practice corruption even during the crisis period!

Earlier to announcing the lockdown, the government had to prepare grounds for home delivery service of daily essential commodities. We have different outlets supplying cooked food and also food items. The government had to ask them to prepare and continue supply during the lockdown period as well. As such outlets were not informed about the lockdown, they suspended their services. The government has also failed to keep intact the mechanism to import necessary goods from India and China. Already, there is scarcity of medicines in the market. People suffering from chronic and serious diseases are not getting regular medicines they were consuming.

More seriously, the government has not been able to think about those people who were managing their two-time meals by doing labour works. Their situation is very serious. Neither they have been able to return to their home nor are they getting works to manage their food.

We don’t know how long the present situation is going to be prolonged. Our industries have remained closed, exports and imports have discontinued. Tourism industry has been seriously hit. More importantly, our remittance revenue has been virtually stopped as those countries providing employment are also suffering from the corona virus outbreak. In other words, all economic indicators of the country have become defunct. The government is yet to announce any relief package for the private sector so that the economy could be kept alive.

Surely, the government revenue is going to decline, on the other hand, the government is compelled to pay salary to the people’s representatives working in three level governments – federal government, province governments and local governments. Nepal adopted such an expensive mechanism that in normal situation also, we needed to take loans to meet the general sector expenditure. In such a crisis situation, how the government will manage general sector expenditure, God knows!

Baburam Bhattarai, the main architect of the present mechanism, is found crying demanding relief support for those labour class people. Why he was unable to think about the situation created from extra load of expenditure on the government from this federalism?

If the leaders in the government have guts, they should be ready to scrap the present political mechanism of providing salary to the people’s representatives. Moreover, the present expensive political system cannot function in Nepal, this is the conclusion.