Shahida Hussien

New and controversial Excise Tax Amendment bill which has been forwarded to the Budget Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives (HPR) is said to see further changes this week, especially regarding new imported vehicles, cigarettes and bottled water, The Reporter has learnt.

The newly drafted Code of Conduct for the Mass Media and Journalists on the Manner of Reporting about Elections, a daft regulation put together by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE), appears to be more comprehensive and strict, maintaining the ban on Election Day prediction and pre-election polling by the media houses, while allowing the publishing of pre-election polls with proper citing of polling organization and other details.

The Legetafo-Legedadi city administration of the Oromia Regional States have demolished 930 houses, this week, which it said were constructed on a piece of land reserved for a green area under city’s masterplan, displacing thousands of residents from the area, causing widespread public outcry.  

With 47 million mobile subscribers and close 4.3 million internet users with penetration rate of 4.2 percent, Ethiopia is still one of the most underserved countries in the world when it comes to information and communication technology and telecom.

The Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) has contracted a Chinese engineering company— ECE Engineering Corporation—for the construction of the first ever PVC resin (Polyvinyl Chloride) manufacturing plant at cost of five billion birr (USD 250 million at current exchange rates) in Arato locality of Mekelle city, the capital of the Tigray Regional State.