Coronavirus fear rattles Everest climbing season

Kathmandu, February 27

With the outbreak of coronavirus showing no sign of abating, expedition operators in Nepal fear that the country would bear severe economic losses in the Everest climbing season that runs from March to May.

According to operators, many Chinese climbers have already started cancelling their expedition bookings after the outbreak of COVID-19 that has killed over 2,800 persons and spread in 42 countries.

Pasang Sherpa, managing director at Pioneer Adventure Treks, informed that seven Chinese members from his company dropped their plans to scale the world’s highest peak from Nepal side this spring season.

“Now, we can hardly expect climbers from China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and a few European countries, including Italy, among others,” Damber Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators Association Nepal, said.

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No action plan

In addition, lack of government preparedness, as well as action plan, has had an adverse impact on the country’s tourism sector, Parajuli, who returned from Italy last evening without being screened at Tribhuvan International Airport, said. “Looking at the pathetic scene at the airport, I can only feel sorry about the airport authority and other agencies concerned,” he added.

Rishi Bhandari, managing director at Satori Adventure, said that Everest climbing season would certainly face a tough challenge if the government fails to introduce an immediate action plan to contain the COVID-19 threat.

“At least six Italian climbers who planned to scale Mt Everest from Tibet side have already cancelled their booking from my company,” he informed.

Sources said that China would not be opening its Tibet route in the spring season to allow Nepali operators for Mt Everest, Cho Oyu and Sishapangma expeditions.

“The country will certainly bear severe economic losses this season and it will have long term impact on the tourism businesses,” Parajuli opined.

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Climbers in dilemma

Saying that Chinese tourists are an important source of income for Nepal, Dr Nima Namgyal Sherpa who operates exclusive Chinese expeditions through his company — Kaitu Expedition  — demanded the government to prepare an action plan to facilitate the expedition operations on different mountains.

“My Chinese clients want to come for spring expedition to Mt Everest. But should they be allowed to share base camp with other country members without being quarantined in Nepal?” he asked, urging the government to clear such confusion.

With COVID-19 fear rising, Mingma Sherpa, chairman at Seven Summit Treks, said that many climbers were still in dilemma whether to join expeditions in Nepal.

“Our company, which runs the largest expedition on Mt Everest each season, has not received any cancellation till date, but many members have expressed their serious concern over the country’s plan of preparedness to tackle the threat,” he said.

Besides, the government’s failure to bring those involved in infamous high-altitude rescue fraud to book and haphazard collection of local taxes from the tourists visiting major destinations, including Khumbu, have already hit hard the country’s tourism sector.

“Mostly, European insurance firms have raised the premium while some of them have also stopped selling packages to their clients for Nepal,” entrepreneurs said, referring to the government’s inaction in the helicopter rescue scam.

The COVID-19 fear has posed another serious threat to tourism and mountaineering businesses, they added.

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Bad start for VN 2020

Nepal has already witnessed two per cent drop in tourist arrivals in the first month of Visit Nepal 2020.

Meera Acharya, director at the Department of Tourism, said that DoT will discuss with the expedition operators and other concerned agencies soon to work out on an action plan for spring climbing season.

In the last spring, DoT collected a total of Rs 495 million from expedition royalty, including Rs 442 million from Everest expeditions. Of 381 members, at least 60 Chinese nationals had obtained climbing permits for Mt Everest in 2019, Acharya informed.

The government levies $11,000 per person for foreign climbers for expeditions to Mt Everest during spring season, while Nepali climbers have to pay Rs 75,000 per person. For other mountains above 8,000 metres, the government levies $1,800 on foreigners and Rs 10,000 for Nepali climbers.

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• Nepal ill-prepared for coronavirus outbreak

 

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New coronavirus cases in mainland China fall to lowest since January

BEIJING: Mainland China had 327 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections on Thursday, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday, down from 433 cases a day earlier and the lowest since January 23.

That brings the total accumulated number of confirmed cases in mainland China so far to 78,824.

China’s central Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, had 318 new confirmed cases, down from 409 cases a day earlier and the lowest since Jan. 24.

Excluding Hubei, mainland China reported just nine new cases on Thursday, down from 24 a day earlier.

The provincial capital of Wuhan reported 313 confirmed cases, down from 383 a day earlier and the lowest since Jan. 26.

The death toll in mainland China reached 2,788 as of the end of Thursday, up by 44 from the previous day.

Hubei reported 41 new deaths on Thursday, while in Wuhan, 28 people died.

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Arsenal suffer shock exit as United and Wolves cruise into last 16

• Arsenal eliminated after 2-1 home loss to Olympiakos
• Manchester United thrash Bruges 5-0 at Old Trafford
• Wolves march on despite 3-2 defeat at Espanyol
• Portuguese trio, Ajax and Celtic all knocked out

Arsenal suffered a shock Europa League exit to Olympiakos Piraeus on away goals after a 2-1 extra-time home defeat, while Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers cruised into the last 16 with emphatic aggregate wins on Thursday.

The North London club were among several heavyweights who slumped out as the Portuguese trio of Benfica, Sporting and Porto as well as Ajax Amsterdam and Celtic were also eliminated from Europe’s second-tier competition in the Round of 32.

Arsenal had beaten Olympiakos 1-0 in the first leg and appeared to have done enough to squeeze through when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck in the 113th minute to cancel out Pape Cisse’s 53rd-minute header which levelled the tie on aggregate.

But the visitors had the last laugh as Youssef El Arabi struck seven minutes later to delight the noisy contingent of away fans, with Aubameyang missing a gilt-edged chance to force another twist with the last kick of the game.

Manchester United breezed to a 6-1 aggregate win over 10-man Bruges after a 5-0 return-leg rout of the Belgians at Old Trafford, while Wolves advanced with a 6-3 overall victory against Espanyol despite a 3-2 second-leg defeat in Spain.

New loan signing Odion Ighalo celebrated his first start for United with his maiden goal for the club after Bruno Fernandes had fired the home side ahead with a 27th-minute penalty which also produced a red card for Bruges defender Simon Deli.

The centre back was dismissed after he dived in goalkeeping fashion to handle a Daniel James shot before Fernandes sent Simon Mignolet the wrong way with the spot-kick.

Scot McTominay made it 3-0 on the night with a fine first-time shot from 18 metres just before the break and Brazilian midfielder Fred put the icing on the cake with a late brace for United, who won Europe’s second-tier competition in 2016.

Wolves took a 4-0 first-leg lead to Espanyol and never looked in danger as Adama Traore scrambled in a close-range effort and Matt Doherty also scored as they twice cancelled out goals from Jonathan Calleri who scored a hat-trick.

PORTUGUESE SUFFER

Leverkusen blew Porto away with a 3-1 win on the road, after taking a 2-1 lead in Germany last week, thanks to goals from Lucas Alario, Kerem Demirbay and Kai Havertz before Moussa Marega netted a consolation for the home side.

Sporting exited after losing 4-1 at Istanbul Basaksehir following extra time to go down 5-4 on aggregate after Edin Visca gave the hosts a lifeline with a late goal in normal time and then netted a penalty to take them through.

Shakhtar Donetsk edged Benfica 5-4 on aggregate after a thrilling 3-3 draw in Lisbon, while Ajax endured a bittersweet 2-1 home win over Getafe which meant a 3-2 aggregate defeat against the Spanish side.

Celtic could not capitalise on a 1-1 first-leg draw at FC Copenhagen as they suffered a 3-1 home defeat, while Inter Milan strolled to a 2-1 home win over Bulgarians Ludogorets Razgrad to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory.

The match at the San Siro stadium was played behind closed doors as the authorities try to contain the coronavirus that has made northern Italy the focal point of the outbreak in Europe.

AS Roma, 1-0 winners against Gent in the first leg, looked to face a struggle when Jonathan David levelled the tie on aggregate after 25 minutes but Justin Kluivert eased the Serie A side’s nerves with a quick equaliser as they progressed.

Vfl Wolfsburg beat Swedish side Malmo 3-0 away to breeze through 5-1 on aggregate and FC Basel also advanced with a 1-0 home win over APOEL Nicosia for a 4-0 aggregate success.

LASK Linz were surprise 3-1 overall winners against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar after a Marko Raguz double helped the Austrians to a 2-0 victory.

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Govt raises infra tax on fuel by Rs 5 a litre

Kathmandu, February 27

Despite its inability to spend over Rs 40 billion collected in infrastructure tax for development of the country’s infrastructure as envisaged earlier, the government has raised the tax levied on the sale of petroleum products by five rupees a litre.

Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada, who is also the spokesperson for the government, said a recent Cabinet meeting had decided to raise the infrastructure tax on fuel (petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviation turbine fuel) by five rupees per litre to Rs 10 a litre.

“The decision intends to accumulate resources for the development of infrastructure projects,” he added.

The government has been collecting five rupees per litre as infrastructure tax on fuel since May 2016. The tax was meant for developing the 1,200-megawatt hydropower project on the Budhi Gandaki River that flows between Gorkha and Dhading districts.

Since then more than Rs 40 billion has been collected as infrastructure tax from fuel, as per NOC. However, the development of Budhi Gandaki Hydropower Project has not progressed so far, as the project is yet to complete the process of compensating owners of the acquired land.

Consumer rights activists condemned the decision to raise tax on fuel saying that it would add financial burden on consumers.

“Nepal Oil Corporation will ultimately pass this financial burden to consumers who are already hit by excessive inflation on both food and non-food items,” said Prem Lal Maharjan, president of National Consumer Forum.

Meanwhile, higher fuel prices will not only hit consumers but also the economy at large, as rise in fuel prices also means rise in transportation costs.

Higher transportation costs will make goods costlier and raise inflation.

According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the consumer price inflation stood at 6.82 per cent in mid-January, surpassing the government’s target to keep inflation below six per cent in the ongoing fiscal.

However, NOC officials said the decision to raise infrastructure tax on fuel was taken with the consent of NOC and that the raised tax amount would not affect the retail price of petroleum products.

“The additional tax burden will not be transferred to consumers and will be adjusted from NOC’s profit,” said Sushil Bhattarai, deputy managing director of the oil corporation.

According to him, the corporation has been booking a profit of more than five rupees per litre on the sale of petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviation turbine fuel.

 

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Nation may face MRP scarcity

Kathmandu, 28 February: At the stock of the machine readable passport (MRP) has left 592000 copies only, the country may face passport scarcity due to the government indecision in printing passport on time.

Out of the total stock, only 160 copies of passports can be used for the commoners. The remaining 32 thousand copies are for the use of diplomatic and official passport, according to Ramkaji Khadka, director general, Passport Department.

The government, with the decision of introducing E-passport, had already called a tender but t was cancelled after Prime Minister Oli’s direct intervention.

The government plan was to install a French security printing press and print passport by itself. However, the plan to import the security press has been derailed due to the suspect of huge amount of commission deal on it.

People’s News Monitoring Service

Nepal advises PM Oli to follow party recommendation

Kathmandu, 28 February: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli held a meeting with party leader Madhav Nepal in Baluatar following the party secretariat decision to nominate Bamdev Gautam as the member to the National Assembly.

Oli, after the secretariat meeting, had remarked that he was not going to implement the party decision expressing his desire to continue finance minister Ubraj Khatiwada.

Nepal, however, has warned to PM Oli saying that such an attitude would invite anarchism in the party which would not benefit Oli.

Nepal suggested that after nominating Gautam to NA, the party could think about the fate of Khatiwada.

Khatiwada’s tenure as the NA member is going to end this week, however, he can continue as the minister for next six months.

People’s News Monitoring Service  

ARIES – February 28

A more possessive streak emerges and makes you wonder what is going on. Work-related interactions carry a secretive tone. Refuse to honor a request that could be costly or difficult in some manner.

Tonight: Indulge a little.

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