KATHMANDU, Nepal – Opposition parties in Nepal have decided to retaliate against King Gyanendra by calling for an economic blockade in response to his decision to hold a general election and continue the repression of anti-government protests.
Besides continuing their nationwide shutdown that reached its 12th day Monday and showed no sign of subsiding, the alliance of seven opposition parties have now begun a campaign asking people not to pay any tax to the government headed by the king.
The Joint Movement Central Coordination Committee of the alliance has, in a bid to empty the already depleted state treasury, asked residents not to pay electricity, water and telephone bills.
Mounting pressure on the king to relinquish the absolute power he seized with the help of the army last year after a bloodless coup, the opposition is also asking for a boycott of all products and services of the businesses and industries belonging to the royal family and its relatives.
These include five-star hotels, tea gardens, car dealerships and a host of other lucrative business ventures, mostly held under the names of sleeping partners.
Nepalis living abroad in foreign employment have been asked not to send remittances during the pro-democracy protest period.
Besides tourism and agriculture, remittances from Nepalis working abroad are the third major prop of the economy, keeping it afloat even when the first has been hit by insurgency and the royal coup and the second by a poor monsoon.
Widening their economic battle, the opposition has also asked foreign donors to stop financial aid to the government, saying it is an unconstitutional regime illegally headed by the king.
Last year the opposition had failed to rouse a strong and sustained protest against Gyanendra as people remained angry with the parties for not having delivered the reforms they had promised during their 15-year tenure.
However, this time, the king himself has helped the opposition by imposing a series of draconian curbs, nepotism, corruption in the cabinet, failure to control the Maoist insurgency and profligacy, spending millions on foreign tours.
Besides unemployment and inflation, Nepal this year has been plagued like never before by acute power scarcity, causing over six hours of power outage in the capital itself daily.
A Nepali economist, Surendra Bhakta Pradhanga, chairman of Kathmandu Research Centre, says Nepal has suffered a loss of about Nepali Rs.3.85 billion each day of the 11-day closure.
Imports, trade, exports and industries have been the hardest hit, suffering a daily loss of Nepali Rs.293.3 million, Rs.188.8 million, Rs.141.4 million and Rs.112.5 million respectively.
The tourism sector has been losing Rs.40 million daily.
If the closure continues, Pradhanga warned that the economy, though used to conflict, would no longer be able to sustain the mounting losses.
The Asian Development Bank has forecast the lowest GDP growth for Nepal in Asia for 2006: two percent.
Earlier this year, another economist, Raghav Dhoj Pant, predicted the kingdom could go bankrupt by June.
