RE: Hydrocratic dreams

May 19, 2011

Basanta Lohani
Kathmandu


Thanks.

As one of the main objectives of this article was to demolish the myth created by Susan Goldmark that Nepal’s GDP will be comparable to that of Saudi Arabia, I had to compare GDP of Saudi Arabia with potential value of energy export from Nepal.
Secondly, I have yet to find relevant law related to taxation on oil revenue in Saudi Arabia to be able to write about her income from oil. This is important as the gross export proceed of the oil doesn’t constitute income for Saudi Arabian government; investors will take away (repatriate) a lion’s share of it. Incidentally, I have done similar comparison with oil revenue of Norway in my articles earlier. Norway government in total levies about 80% of the oil revenue as tax and duties – 80 cents from each dollar of oil export goes to government treasury. But under current Nepal law, Nepal receives about 3% of the export revenue by way of taxes and duties. Hence, the impossibility of Nepal government becoming rich by exporting power.

With best regards,

Sincerely,


Ratna Sansar Shrestha, FCA
Senior Water Resource Analyst
www.RatnaSansar.com



From: Basanta Lohani [mailto:bklohani@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 6:40
To: Ratna Sansar Shrestha
Subject: RE: Hydrocratic dreams


Incisive, not peripheral the way the world bank director talked. May be if I were writing, I would have used Saudi Arabia's income from the oil , not the GDP, for making the comparison.

with best regards,

Basanta Lohani
Post Box No: 7844
Kathmandu
Nepal
Telephone: 977 1 4891413
Email bklohani@hotmai.com
bklohani@gmail.com

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From: rsansar@mos.com.np
To: rsansar@mos.com.np
Subject: FW: Hydrocratic dreams
Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 07:22:53 +0545

Using hydro-dollars to mitigate our trade deficit is a mirage