NEA union leaders say U-Tamakoshi shares to Sanchaya Kosh staffs 'unfair', demand redistribution

ShareSansar, August 18:

Dubbing the allocation of the shares of Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project to the staffs of the Provident Fund Nepal (EPF) or Karmachari Sanchaya Kosh 'too high and unfair', the staff unions of Nepal Electricity Authority have demanded the review of the share allocation.
 
According to Karobar Daily, the union leaders have lamented that a higher portion of the share allocation to the staffs of the EPF just because the provident fund management company provided the loan for the project is unjustifiable. They have demanded the redistribution of the shares in an equal manner to all the staffs.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark 29th anniversary of the NEA, leaders of five staff unions active in the government power utility said that the Memorandum of Articles (Prabandha Patra) of the UTHKPL should be amended to slash the allocation of shares to the EPF along with the staff of other lenders Nepal Telecom, Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) and Rastriya Beema Sansthan (RBS).

“We are facing injustice in the distribution of the shares of the Upper Tamakoshi. The shares should be redistributed proportionately among the staffs of all the organizations,” said, Sitaram Thapa, chairman of National Employees' Organisation at NEA.
   
Khagendra Shahi, chairman of employees union close to UCPN-Maoist also echoed Thapa. “Nowhere in the world there is the practice of distributing shares to the staff of loan provider. The allocation of EPF staff should be decreased and provide to to NEA staff,” Shahi said.

Janardan Bhattarai of Employees Association close to Nepali Congress also demanded the redistribution of the shares to make it fair.

CPN (UML)’s sister wing staff union chairman Ram Prasad Rimal said that EPF and NEA should sit down for the dialogue to settle the share distribution dispute.

Political parties and the locals of the Dolkaha, where the project is being developed, are up in arms against the big portion of the share allocation to the staff of EPF, CIT and RBS. Staffs of EPF,NTC CIT and RBS that have stake in the Upper Tamakoshi will benefit the most from the IPO worth Rs 1059 crore, which is being floated at the face value of Rs 100.

EPF staff, in fact, will benefit the most. Since there are just 500 staff with EPF, the principle financer of the project, each of the EPF staff will be getting 3,050 units or 15 lakh 24 thousand, nine hundred 60 units, which amounts to 1.44 percent of the total primary shares.

NEA and Upper Tamakoshi project staff will be getting 3.84 percent of the total shares, or 40 lakh 66 thousand 560 units, altogether. There are 10 thousand 5 hundred staff with NEA each of whom will be entitled to around 387 units of the primary shares.

Similarly, Nepal Telecom staff will get 9 lakh 14 thousand 976 units; there were 5,712 staff when the agreement was signed. It means each of the NTC staff will get 160 units of the IPO.

CIT staff will get 3 lakh 4 thousand 992 units; Rastriya Beema Sansthan (RBS) will also get as equal as CIT. There were 150 staff at CIT when the loan accord was inked, which means each will get 2,033 units. Likewise, there were 180 staff at RBS and each will get 1,695 units.