Chief Secretary Aryal was also dragged into the excise sticker case

Aryal, who is being investigated by the authority in the case of the purchase of Terramax technology equipment of the Telecommunication Authority, is also being investigated for 'improper' and 'suspicious' financial transactions with Vikal Paudel, the then executive director of the Security Printing Center (Surakshan Matran Kendra), who was accused of corruption while he was the secretary of the Ministry of Communications.

Ritesh Shakya and Dilgraj Mainali, then two directors general of the Internal Revenue Department, Paudel, the then executive director of the center and Aryal Sticker, the chief secretary, were involved in the investigation of the case.

The Security Printing Center under the Ministry of Communications called for a tender to print excise duty stickers for the Internal Revenue Department on October 4, 2079. Printcell Pvt Ltd got the contract for excise sticker printing called for by the center on 26 November 2079. An agreement was signed between Printcell and the Center to print 4332 million excise duty stickers at the rate of 89 paisa each.

Financial transaction between Chief Secretary Aryal and corruption accused Vikal Poudel

According to the agreement, the cost of sticker printing comes to 385 million 48 thousand rupees. According to an official of the Ministry of Finance, a similar sticker used to cost a maximum of 25 paise before that. If calculated at 25 paisa each, it seems that the cost of those stickers will be only 108.3 million. But the contract has been maintained at a cost of 4 times more than that.

Not only that, Printcell had an agreement to purchase only sticker paper and ink. The contract was awarded to Printcell at an 'unreasonable price' in which the rest of the printing work would be done from the centre. 5 crore was given as advance payment. At that time, Aryal, the current chief secretary, and Paudel, the executive director of the center, were the communications secretary. It is arranged that the Chairman of the Security Printing Development Committee will be the Communication Secretary.

The decision of the officials including Aryal and Poudel was made to contract for the purchase of stickers. Aryal was the Communications Secretary from July 25, 2078 to March 14, 2079. Aryal, who was transferred to the Prime Minister's Office from Communications, became the Chief Secretary on May 32, three days before his retirement. After Chief Secretary Shankardas Bairagi unexpectedly resigned on May 31 after 4 months in office, Aryal became the Chief Secretary the next day. Bairagi was moved to the National Security Council after being made a 'national security adviser' like a 'non-existent' minister.

Chief Secretary Aryal says: Depositing money in the account number I sent is not a big deal. He was the director general of the department from February 2, 2078 to December 14, 2079. Shakya is currently the head of the Budget Division of the Ministry of Finance. Mainali became Director General after Shakya. Mainali became the Director General till 22 Jan 2080. Mainali came to the department when the contract process started and the selection of the supply company was about to be reached. On December 26, 12 days after Mainali became the Director General, Printcell Pvt Ltd got the sticker printing contract. Mainali is currently the head of the Public Debt Management Office.

The matter of assigning the responsibility of printing stickers to Printcell by maintaining an unnatural price became controversial. According to the source, the authority took a statement from the then director generals of the department, Shakya and Mainali, only a few weeks ago when the authority proceeded with the investigation in this case. Before that, the Authority had also taken a statement from the then executive director of Security Printing, Paudel. Paudel is currently under the control of the authority for 1 dozen crimes including illegal wealth acquisition. The corruption case filed against him by the Authority in 2080 in Baisakh regarding the purchase of security printing equipment is pending in the special court.

After taking statements from the then director general of the department Shakya and Mainali and the then executive director of the center Paudel in the excise case, the authority has also started the investigation against the chief secretary Aryal. According to Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Communication sources, all documents related to sticker printing and contract have already been taken by the authority.

Chief Secretary Aryal along with the then Communications Ministers Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, the then Communications Secretary and now Chief Information Commissioner of the National Information Commission Mahendraman Gurung, incumbent Secretary Vinod Prakash Singh, the then Chairman of the Telecommunication Authority Digambar Jha and Purushottam Khanal are under investigation by the Authority. The authority has already taken a statement from them in the Teramox case. As this case is not resolved, some more high-ranking government officials, including the chief secretary, have been dragged into the excise sticker case. According to

sources, Chief Secretary Aryal reached the authority on Friday and gave a statement. The statement with him is not over yet. "The cost of printing stickers from government printing is only ink and paper, the cost should have been reduced for that, but the authority was questioned as to why it was purchased at such a high price," the government officials affiliated with both ministries told Kantipur, "just like the previous purchases from the center, there was corruption in this too. The authorities have taken away all the documents related to the matter.