“India is positive about giving 40 percent subsidy on sales of non-lethal military hardware to Nepal,” a highly-placed source at Nepal Army (NA) told myrepublica.com on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, the southern neighbor, which is the largest military aid supplier to Nepal Army, provided non-lethal military materials to Nepal on the basis of 70 percent cash and 30 percent subsidy.
According to sources at the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal had made the request for increasing the subsidy during the three-day meeting of the Nepal-India Consultative Group on Security Issues held in Kathmandu from December 4-6. Officials from both the ministries had attended the meeting.
A senior official at the Ministry of Defense told myrepublica.com that India recently expressed its readiness to increase the subsidy as requested by Nepal.
Nepal has been requesting India to give the same subsidy on non-lethal materials that the later has given in its sales of lethal military hardware, ever since the fifth Nepal-India Consultative Group on Security Issues held in 2006, in Kathmandu, said a source who was involved in the meeting. India had then agreed with Nepal to give 70 per cent subsidy on its sales of lethal materials to the Nepal Army.
Even during the meeting of the Consultative Group held in New Delhi in 2007, Kathmandu had requested New Delhi for highest possible subsidy but the meeting had ended even without issuing a joint statement after political issues cropped up in the meeting, said another knowledgeable source on condition of anonymity.
“Albeit little, this time, India has been positive about increasing the subsidy by ten percent on sales of non-lethal materials,” said another source at the Defense Ministry.
Nepal has been buying non-lethal hardware like vehicles, communications equipments, and tools, among others, from India. But such supplies have been stopped following the power seizure by then King Gyanendra in February 2005. Though India had agreed with Nepal to resume the supplies of non-lethal materials during the Consultative Group meeting early in December, the date for supplies is yet to be fixed, said the defense ministry source.
kiran@myrepublica.com
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