May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak.…
May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak.…
May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country.…
May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit.…
May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism…
May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers.…
May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy.…
May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority…
May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government.…
May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown.…
May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution.…
May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market.…
May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country.…
May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis.…
May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24.…
May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak. At an interaction with the theme of 'policies, programmes and budget for the fiscal year, 2077/78' organised by Nepali Congress on Wednesday at party office in Sanepa, they demanded that the government seek alternatives to lockdown and reduce interests on loan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, senior vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Shekhar Golchha said that the country's economy would go two years backward due to lockdown. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"Private sector should be improved to recover country's economy. For that, the government should take steps like facility on property record, concession on electricity, bringing down bank loans to five percent and value added tax rate to 10 percent and 20 percent exemption on income and corporate taxes." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Saying that approximately 5,000 construction projects were operating before lockdown, president of the Federation of Contractors Association Nepal (FCAN) Rabi Singh said they have incurred losses of around Rs 35 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Sirjana Rana demanded that time to repay loans should be extended, loan interests capitalised and loans re-tabulated. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents Achyut Guragain demanded that an arrangement should be made to provide loans at two percent interest rate to manage salaries to tourism employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged that NC would take up demands of private sector with the Parliament and the government and create pressure on the government to address them. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11780', 'image' => '20200507092819_sg(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 09:27:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12029', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Climb to 99', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. The number climbed to 99 from 82 a day earlier, after 17 people tested positive to COVID-19 in Parsa on Wednesday (May 6). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Furthermore, three people who had been discharged from hospital after recovery have tested positive again. A man discharged from a hospital in Kathmandu on April 23 tested positive again, said Dr Bikash Devkota at a regular press briefing held at the Ministry of Health and Population on Wednesday. Likewise, a 19-year-old youth from Rautahat and 44-year-old man from Parsa also tested positive in a re-test carried out more than a week after they had been discharged from hospital. All of them have been re-admitted to hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, health authorities have conducted 14,096 tests through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method whereas 52,970 tests have been conducted through the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) method, Dr Devkota shared. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The number of people in quarantine is 18,734 with 136 in isolation in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, six people undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at Koshi Hospital were discharged on Wednesday, after they tested negative. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11779', 'image' => '20200507065939_infographic-mers-689.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 06:58:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12028', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Revise Refinancing Limit to Rs 100 million', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. According to NRB, only limited industries and businesspersons are getting access to renewal of loan facility. So, NRB has decided to reduce the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million from the proposed Rs 500 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">NRB Governor Maha Prashad Adhikari said that with the introduction of this policy, businesspersons cannot take refinancing of more than Rs 100 million. He said that current policy has facilitated only the big industrialists. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“NRB’s current focus is to encourage the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs),” said Adhikari. He said that downsizing the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million will benefit SMEs. NRB is planning to create a fund of Rs 100 billion and mobilize it in productive sector. Presently, only Rs 180 million has been mobilized from the Refinancing Fund. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“We have instructed the banks to reduce interest rate and postpone the deadline for repayment. However, we can’t instruct the BFIs to give up the interest altogether,” he said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to him microfinance companies have not been able to renew loans. In the new work procedure, all BFIs will get access to the facility. “The enterprises which meet the criteria can benefit from refinancing easily. We will also work on making the facility easily accessible so that people don’t need to come to NRB for any process,” said Adhikari. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB, BFIs have collected deposits of Rs 3600.78 billion and have already mobilized Rs 3200.46 billion for loan. According to Adhikari, maximum amount of loan worth Rs 600.60 billion has been mobilized in the wholesale and retail sectors. Similarly, agriculture sector has been given Rs 200.20 billion loan and other productive sectors has been given a loan of Rs 500.32 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11778', 'image' => '20200506033111_1588716058.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:30:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12027', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Focus on Big Tourism Projects ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said that the ministry is planning to formulate next year's budget in line with this policy among the three levels of government for the sustainability of the projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Addressing the leaders of the opposition parties in the federal parliament on Tuesday, May 5, regarding the budget and policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year 2020/21, Minister Bhattarai opined that allocating the budget for small projects would be less efficient and there won't be any local participation.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, lawmakers of the opposition parties urged the government to focus on tourism rehabilitation programmes to combat the impacts of coronavirus in this sector. They suggested that coronavirus has had a major impact on the tourism sector the most. They also informed that job creation and protection of existing industries should be the top priority right now.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepali Congress lawmaker and Minister for Tourism of the shadow government Devendra Raj Kandel suggested that the government should allocate budget in tourism projects that can bring prosperity to the nation. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kandel suggested to include a programme to promote domestic tourism in the context of the postponement of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign. During the discussion program, Prem Suwal from NWPP, Durga Poudel from Rastriya Janamorcha and Amrita Devi Agrahari from RJPN suggested to introduce programmes that would restore tourism.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister Bhattarai informed that he will try his best to address the suggestions received from the parliamentarians as much as possible. Stating that the construction of new airports is the topmost priority of all, Minister Bhattarai added that the ministry will aim in building new airports on the basis of justification, necessity and professionalism.</span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11777', 'image' => '20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:19:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12024', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DoL to Monitor Whether Hotels are Giving Salary to Employees or not', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Department is carrying out monitoring in this regard after complaints that some hotel entrepreneurs have not given the remuneration for the month of Chaitra despite the government's directives calling on all industries and enterprises to compulsorily give the salary for the month of the specified month to their employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The entrepreneurs had agreed to pay the salary during discussions with the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">DoL said the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Committee will facilitate in the monitoring. Likewise, the Labour and Occupational Security Department, and the Labour and Employment Office would follow-up on this, Ministry's spokesperson Suman Ghimire said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry has urged all the sides concerned to make arrangements for paying the salary of workers by utilising the economic facilities provided by the government. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11776', 'image' => '20200506090255_90511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:01:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12026', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Prepare Monetary Policy after Lockdown Ends', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. Officials at the central bank informed that they will be able to get a clear picture of the crisis only after the lockdown ends.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Governor Chintamani Shivkoti informed that the central bank’s board meeting will take further decision on Wednesday (May 6).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The initial relief package was aimed at providing support up to mid-March,” said Shivakoti, adding, “The second relief package was until mid-July.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The central bank is now waiting for the lockdown to end to ascertain the exact impact on different sectors in order to prepare the monetary policy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A committee headed by the Executive Director of the Research Department of NRB, Dr Gunakar Bhatta, is currently collecting data to study the impact of coronavirus on tourism, hotel, aviation and industrial sectors to provide loan assistance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The effects of coronavirus on different sectors will have an impact on the overall economy of the country,” said Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee includes representatives from the BFI Regulation Department, Foreign Exchange Management Department, Payment Department and Supervision Department of NRB as well as chairman of Nepal Bankers Association Bhuvan Dahal as members.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11775', 'image' => '20200506100208_1588717198.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 10:01:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12025', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Preparations Underway to Reopen Industries on Priority Basis: Minister Bhatta', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said that preparations are underway to open these industries in three phases on priority basis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at an interaction program organised in the capital by the society of economic journalists of Nepal (SEJON) on Tuesday (May 5), Minister Bhatta said priority will be given to the industries producing daily essential food items in the first phase. The government is planning to open industries supporting development and construction works in the second phase followed by export-based industries in the third phase. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister Bhatta also added that the ministry is constantly holding discussions with trade unions and industrialists to ease the process of re-opening the industrial sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Kathmandu is not considered a red zone. But there is high risk here due to the population density,” said Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government has conducted a study to classify industrial sector into red, yellow and green zones and will be allowed to operate according to the classification. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A cabinet meeting today (May 6) will take a decision to this effect, according to the minister.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the High Level Coordination Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on Tuesday had recommended the government to extend the lockdown by a week.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are coordinating with the agriculture and finance ministries to create job opportunities,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We have decided to operate dysfunctional industries in Public Private Partnership model while the small and medium scale enterprises as well as industrial estates would be allowed to operate on priority basis,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">These programmes would be included in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year as well as the government’s policies and programmes, informed Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11774', 'image' => '20200506094201_2023535_aaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:41:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12022', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lockdown to be Extended', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting held at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar took a decision to this effect. However, the length of the extension for the lockdown will be determined by the cabinet. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Emerging from the meeting, Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Narayan Prasad Bidari, shared that the committee assessed that moves of the government to be effective when it came to saving the lives of the public by ordering nationwide lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The participants in the meeting had endorsed extension of the stay-at-home order that has been enforced by the government since May 24 to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19 infection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Bidari further shared, “We discussed about all the policies and efforts taken and executed by the government to prevent and control COVID-19 and to treat the infected ones. We determined that the lives of people have been safeguarded by enforcing the lockdown which has helped curb the infection.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting also dwelt about how to reduce the cases of COVID-19 to nil, according to Bidari. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11773', 'image' => '20200506085132_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:50:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12023', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Entry into Kathmandu Valley barred Except for Emergencies', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Even getting the entry pass, the vehicles are not permitted to get through the capital city from border points—Nagdhunga, Pharping, Mudkhu, Jagati and Jarsinghpauwa—except for emergencies. Now, only the vehicles carrying highly essentials goods and health supplies would be permitted to enter the capital city from other districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Nepal Police Bishow Raj Pokhrel said that vehicles except the emergency ones are prevented from coming into the Kathmandu valley though they have entry pass. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, around 1,500 vehicles have been entering the Kathmandu valley everyday and of them 400 vehicles bear the entry pass in the name of different purposes, the police records reveal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, the number of vehicles carrying daily essentials has increased lately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Despite the pandemic COVID-19 paralyzing the normal life, the people tend to get the entry pass under different pretexts which has prompted the security officials to be stricter in the entry of vehicles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The police was obliged to take the step as more entry passes were distributed in the districts resulting in the pressure of vehicles from outer districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Shrestha deployed at Nagdhunga said that around 80 vehicles coming to valley by taking entry pass from the outer districts were prevented from coming to the valley and this step is ongoing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He, however, said that sick people, those travelling for death rituals, emergency jobs and professions are allowed to move to their destinations in the valley. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11772', 'image' => '20200506085535_pass1588678175.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:54:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12019', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lack of Data Hindering Relief Package for Tourism Industry', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. ', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in a statement informed that there is a lack of official data to identify the exact losses incurred by the tourism industry in Nepal. However, there is no doubt that tourism is the most affected sector due to the crisis created by coronavirus. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board, Dr Dhananjay Regmi, held a video conversation with media persons on Monday to discuss about Nepali Tourism amid coronavirus crisis. During the conversation, he informed that Nepali tourism sector has a tentative investment of Rs 160 billion and has created around 300,000 jobs, according to a study conducted by Nepal Tourism Board.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, other organizations claim that the actual size of the investment in tourism is more than Rs 160 billion while this sector provides 800,000 to 1 million jobs.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Even though the government had earlier demanded data on the total investment and employment provided by the industry, tourism entrepreneurs could not provide the data. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government is having difficulties to allocate relief packages for the tourism industry to combat coronavirus due to the unavailability of accurate data.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of 837 firms had participated in the study conducted by the NTB. Regmi after studying the data informed that the tourism sector has an estimated bank loan of Rs 60 billion where Rs 1 billion is to be paid in installments and interest every month.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"The government will only include the companies which are officially registered and are paying taxes while announcing the relief package through the budget. So, those who are not registered may be left out,” he informed.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/20180103040118_Tourists.jpg" style="height:960px; width:720px" /></span></span></p> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11771', 'image' => '20200505123424_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12021', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB may Lose Rs 7 Billion in Revenue', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. Many countries have reduced their interest rate to save their economy. So, NRB will lose billions of rupees which it earns through interest coming from the deposits it makes in international banks. In the current fiscal year, it is estimated that NRB will have profit of only Rs 28 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">In the fiscal year 2018/2019, NRB had made a profit of Rs 35.77 billion from international currency and investment in securities. Similarly, in the fiscal year 2017/2018, the profit was Rs 32.34 billion. However, in the current fiscal year, NRB predicted that it will lose Rs 7 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Almost all foreign exchange reserves of Nepal is in dollar. Nepal has deposited in USA, Singapore and India. As the interest rate has decreased in those countries, Nepal is poised to lose profit obtained from the interest. Currently, USA has reduced the interest rate in deposit to 0.25 percent. Similarly, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also decreased the interest rate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta, Nepal had invested its foreign exchange reserve in the Central Bank of USA at an interest rate of 2.25 percent per annum.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Chnitamani Siwakoti, deputy governor of NRB, says that the profit from the interest will decrease till the end of this FY. “We get the maximum revenue from foreign exchange reserves. The revenue from foreign exchange reserve is much higher than the revenue from treasury bills, bonds and security investments,” added Shivakoti.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif""> “Every year, NRB invests its profit in various funds and provides the remaining amount to the government,” said Shivakoti. In the last FY, NRB provided Rs 12 billion to the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to Bhatta, many countries have decreased the interest rate as they are investing the amount in relief packages. In Nepal too, the interest rate in deposit has been decreased to 6.5 percent. The interest rate in deposit has reduced worldwide, and the effects will be felt for a very long time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11770', 'image' => '20200505024559_20160909042218_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 14:45:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12020', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Reach 82 with Seven New Cases in Banke ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Joint spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Samir Adhikari, said coronavirus infection was found in four women and three men at Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City in course of carrying out tests at the Nepalgunj-based Bheri Hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the infected males are of 22, 30 and 40 years while the infected females are of 9, 32, 34 and 55 years of age. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With seven new cases the number of infected people in Banke district has climbed to 23. Before this, coronavirus infection was found in 16 people in the district. The health condition of the infected persons is normal, Dr Adhikari said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11769', 'image' => '20200505124232_Toll Rises4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:41:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12018', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Former Finance Ministers Urge Government to Cut Spending', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance ministers Surendra Pandey, Gyanendra Karki and Baburam Bhattarai made such remarks at a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Parliament on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at the meeting, the ex finance ministers drew the attention of the government toward the unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and urged it to cut its spending for proper resource management.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance minister and leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party Surendra Pandey suggested the government to reduce recurrent expenditure and not to recruit any new employees and security personnel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government recruits 10,000 employees and security personnel each year. Let’s not make any recruitment this year,” said Pandey. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He claimed that the government can save 30 percent of the recurrent expenditure if it reduces general employees and mobilizes technical staffers in their place.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, former finance minister Gyanendra Karki of the main opposition Nepali Congress accused the government of giving an extra burden to the state coffers by forming the Squatters Commission at a time when the country is reeling under crisis of coronavirus. He said that the government’s first priority should have been ensuring proper medical kits and equipment to the health workers deployed in the frontline against coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The present need is not the Squatters Commission but ventilators and ICU,” said Karki.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government’s expenditure in unproductive sector is not justifiable,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He also demanded the current status of national pride projects by issuing white paper. Kakri said that the country’s economy has been on a downward trend since the last eight months and the coronavirus pandemic will further deepen the crisis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also a former finance minister, urged the government to reduce the size of the upcoming budget arguing that the revenue collection is expected to slump in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">However, he said that the government must give special attention not to shrink employment opportunities and must focus on big projects and social security while preparing the budget despite downsizing it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11768', 'image' => '20200505094959_20151216125539_ed 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12017', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Mulls Reopening Industries by Classifying them into Green and Yellow Zones', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is currently holding discussions with the High-Level Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on the prospects of reopening industries by classifying them into green and yellow zones based on the extent of risk of coronavirus infection.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The ministry is finalizing its plan to reopen the industries by classifying them into different categories. State Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Moti Lal Dugad informed New Business Age that the government will take a decision to this effect within a few days.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The lockdown will be in force until May 7. We will come up with a work procedure very soon,” said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to State Minister Dugad, the areas with high risk will be listed as red zones and will remain closed. However, green and yellow zones will be allowed to operate by maintaining physical distance among the workers under a certain criteria, said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government will make arrangement for operating industries and businesses by adopting necessary precautions even if the lockdown gets extended.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, only the industries producing essential items and medicines are operational in the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior Vice President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) Shekhar Golchha said that it is not essential to allow the industries to operate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Lockdown has proved to be effective. It has almost become a success. Since the coronavirus pandemic is under control in Nepal, the government must now allow industries with low risk to resume operation,” he said. “This would not only prevent the collapse of the industries but also avoid the entire economy of the country from ruin,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11767', 'image' => '20200505092339_20181118041106_kapada-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:23:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12014', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Big Hotels Decide to Shut Down for 6 Months', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Operators of big hotels of Nepal on Sunday (May 3) took a decision in this regard. According to the star-rated hotels, all services will remain closed for six months effective from April 13.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The hotel operators informed that the lockdown has affected tourism sector the most. They were of the view that the coronavirus pandemic will have long-term effects on the tourism industry. It is estimated that the current crisis will cause a slump in tourism business for at least a year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In such a context, the hotel operators decided to shut their business for six months, according to Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the six months of closure, the hotels have decided to provide 12.5 percent of the basic salary and other remunerations to the staffers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In case the labour unions do not agree with the decision of providing 12.5 percent salary, the hotel operators have warned of laying off the staffers fully or partially as per Section 145 of the Labour Act 2074. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Sunday’s meeting also agreed to seek support from the government for setting up ‘job retention fund’ to pay the staffers additional amount to the 12.5 percent of basic salary. Both the hotel operators and the trade unions have agreed to this proposal to seek government support, said HAN in a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Representatives from Radisson Hotel, Hotel Annapurna, Shangri-La Hotel, Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Regency, Shankar Hotel, Hotel Akama among others had attended the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">HAN further said that they are open to discussion with the concerned authorities and stakeholders including the workers for better management of the industry.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-04', 'modified' => '2020-05-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11766', 'image' => '20200504104410_20190511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-04 10:43:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12030', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Demands Resumption of Industries Affected by Lockdown ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak. At an interaction with the theme of 'policies, programmes and budget for the fiscal year, 2077/78' organised by Nepali Congress on Wednesday at party office in Sanepa, they demanded that the government seek alternatives to lockdown and reduce interests on loan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, senior vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Shekhar Golchha said that the country's economy would go two years backward due to lockdown. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"Private sector should be improved to recover country's economy. For that, the government should take steps like facility on property record, concession on electricity, bringing down bank loans to five percent and value added tax rate to 10 percent and 20 percent exemption on income and corporate taxes." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Saying that approximately 5,000 construction projects were operating before lockdown, president of the Federation of Contractors Association Nepal (FCAN) Rabi Singh said they have incurred losses of around Rs 35 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Sirjana Rana demanded that time to repay loans should be extended, loan interests capitalised and loans re-tabulated. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents Achyut Guragain demanded that an arrangement should be made to provide loans at two percent interest rate to manage salaries to tourism employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged that NC would take up demands of private sector with the Parliament and the government and create pressure on the government to address them. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11780', 'image' => '20200507092819_sg(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 09:27:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12029', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Climb to 99', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. The number climbed to 99 from 82 a day earlier, after 17 people tested positive to COVID-19 in Parsa on Wednesday (May 6). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Furthermore, three people who had been discharged from hospital after recovery have tested positive again. A man discharged from a hospital in Kathmandu on April 23 tested positive again, said Dr Bikash Devkota at a regular press briefing held at the Ministry of Health and Population on Wednesday. Likewise, a 19-year-old youth from Rautahat and 44-year-old man from Parsa also tested positive in a re-test carried out more than a week after they had been discharged from hospital. All of them have been re-admitted to hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, health authorities have conducted 14,096 tests through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method whereas 52,970 tests have been conducted through the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) method, Dr Devkota shared. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The number of people in quarantine is 18,734 with 136 in isolation in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, six people undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at Koshi Hospital were discharged on Wednesday, after they tested negative. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11779', 'image' => '20200507065939_infographic-mers-689.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 06:58:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12028', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Revise Refinancing Limit to Rs 100 million', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. According to NRB, only limited industries and businesspersons are getting access to renewal of loan facility. So, NRB has decided to reduce the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million from the proposed Rs 500 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">NRB Governor Maha Prashad Adhikari said that with the introduction of this policy, businesspersons cannot take refinancing of more than Rs 100 million. He said that current policy has facilitated only the big industrialists. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“NRB’s current focus is to encourage the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs),” said Adhikari. He said that downsizing the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million will benefit SMEs. NRB is planning to create a fund of Rs 100 billion and mobilize it in productive sector. Presently, only Rs 180 million has been mobilized from the Refinancing Fund. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“We have instructed the banks to reduce interest rate and postpone the deadline for repayment. However, we can’t instruct the BFIs to give up the interest altogether,” he said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to him microfinance companies have not been able to renew loans. In the new work procedure, all BFIs will get access to the facility. “The enterprises which meet the criteria can benefit from refinancing easily. We will also work on making the facility easily accessible so that people don’t need to come to NRB for any process,” said Adhikari. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB, BFIs have collected deposits of Rs 3600.78 billion and have already mobilized Rs 3200.46 billion for loan. According to Adhikari, maximum amount of loan worth Rs 600.60 billion has been mobilized in the wholesale and retail sectors. Similarly, agriculture sector has been given Rs 200.20 billion loan and other productive sectors has been given a loan of Rs 500.32 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11778', 'image' => '20200506033111_1588716058.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:30:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12027', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Focus on Big Tourism Projects ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said that the ministry is planning to formulate next year's budget in line with this policy among the three levels of government for the sustainability of the projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Addressing the leaders of the opposition parties in the federal parliament on Tuesday, May 5, regarding the budget and policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year 2020/21, Minister Bhattarai opined that allocating the budget for small projects would be less efficient and there won't be any local participation.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, lawmakers of the opposition parties urged the government to focus on tourism rehabilitation programmes to combat the impacts of coronavirus in this sector. They suggested that coronavirus has had a major impact on the tourism sector the most. They also informed that job creation and protection of existing industries should be the top priority right now.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepali Congress lawmaker and Minister for Tourism of the shadow government Devendra Raj Kandel suggested that the government should allocate budget in tourism projects that can bring prosperity to the nation. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kandel suggested to include a programme to promote domestic tourism in the context of the postponement of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign. During the discussion program, Prem Suwal from NWPP, Durga Poudel from Rastriya Janamorcha and Amrita Devi Agrahari from RJPN suggested to introduce programmes that would restore tourism.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister Bhattarai informed that he will try his best to address the suggestions received from the parliamentarians as much as possible. Stating that the construction of new airports is the topmost priority of all, Minister Bhattarai added that the ministry will aim in building new airports on the basis of justification, necessity and professionalism.</span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11777', 'image' => '20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:19:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12024', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DoL to Monitor Whether Hotels are Giving Salary to Employees or not', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Department is carrying out monitoring in this regard after complaints that some hotel entrepreneurs have not given the remuneration for the month of Chaitra despite the government's directives calling on all industries and enterprises to compulsorily give the salary for the month of the specified month to their employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The entrepreneurs had agreed to pay the salary during discussions with the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">DoL said the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Committee will facilitate in the monitoring. Likewise, the Labour and Occupational Security Department, and the Labour and Employment Office would follow-up on this, Ministry's spokesperson Suman Ghimire said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry has urged all the sides concerned to make arrangements for paying the salary of workers by utilising the economic facilities provided by the government. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11776', 'image' => '20200506090255_90511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:01:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12026', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Prepare Monetary Policy after Lockdown Ends', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. Officials at the central bank informed that they will be able to get a clear picture of the crisis only after the lockdown ends.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Governor Chintamani Shivkoti informed that the central bank’s board meeting will take further decision on Wednesday (May 6).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The initial relief package was aimed at providing support up to mid-March,” said Shivakoti, adding, “The second relief package was until mid-July.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The central bank is now waiting for the lockdown to end to ascertain the exact impact on different sectors in order to prepare the monetary policy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A committee headed by the Executive Director of the Research Department of NRB, Dr Gunakar Bhatta, is currently collecting data to study the impact of coronavirus on tourism, hotel, aviation and industrial sectors to provide loan assistance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The effects of coronavirus on different sectors will have an impact on the overall economy of the country,” said Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee includes representatives from the BFI Regulation Department, Foreign Exchange Management Department, Payment Department and Supervision Department of NRB as well as chairman of Nepal Bankers Association Bhuvan Dahal as members.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11775', 'image' => '20200506100208_1588717198.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 10:01:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12025', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Preparations Underway to Reopen Industries on Priority Basis: Minister Bhatta', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said that preparations are underway to open these industries in three phases on priority basis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at an interaction program organised in the capital by the society of economic journalists of Nepal (SEJON) on Tuesday (May 5), Minister Bhatta said priority will be given to the industries producing daily essential food items in the first phase. The government is planning to open industries supporting development and construction works in the second phase followed by export-based industries in the third phase. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister Bhatta also added that the ministry is constantly holding discussions with trade unions and industrialists to ease the process of re-opening the industrial sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Kathmandu is not considered a red zone. But there is high risk here due to the population density,” said Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government has conducted a study to classify industrial sector into red, yellow and green zones and will be allowed to operate according to the classification. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A cabinet meeting today (May 6) will take a decision to this effect, according to the minister.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the High Level Coordination Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on Tuesday had recommended the government to extend the lockdown by a week.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are coordinating with the agriculture and finance ministries to create job opportunities,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We have decided to operate dysfunctional industries in Public Private Partnership model while the small and medium scale enterprises as well as industrial estates would be allowed to operate on priority basis,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">These programmes would be included in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year as well as the government’s policies and programmes, informed Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11774', 'image' => '20200506094201_2023535_aaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:41:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12022', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lockdown to be Extended', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting held at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar took a decision to this effect. However, the length of the extension for the lockdown will be determined by the cabinet. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Emerging from the meeting, Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Narayan Prasad Bidari, shared that the committee assessed that moves of the government to be effective when it came to saving the lives of the public by ordering nationwide lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The participants in the meeting had endorsed extension of the stay-at-home order that has been enforced by the government since May 24 to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19 infection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Bidari further shared, “We discussed about all the policies and efforts taken and executed by the government to prevent and control COVID-19 and to treat the infected ones. We determined that the lives of people have been safeguarded by enforcing the lockdown which has helped curb the infection.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting also dwelt about how to reduce the cases of COVID-19 to nil, according to Bidari. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11773', 'image' => '20200506085132_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:50:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12023', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Entry into Kathmandu Valley barred Except for Emergencies', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Even getting the entry pass, the vehicles are not permitted to get through the capital city from border points—Nagdhunga, Pharping, Mudkhu, Jagati and Jarsinghpauwa—except for emergencies. Now, only the vehicles carrying highly essentials goods and health supplies would be permitted to enter the capital city from other districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Nepal Police Bishow Raj Pokhrel said that vehicles except the emergency ones are prevented from coming into the Kathmandu valley though they have entry pass. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, around 1,500 vehicles have been entering the Kathmandu valley everyday and of them 400 vehicles bear the entry pass in the name of different purposes, the police records reveal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, the number of vehicles carrying daily essentials has increased lately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Despite the pandemic COVID-19 paralyzing the normal life, the people tend to get the entry pass under different pretexts which has prompted the security officials to be stricter in the entry of vehicles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The police was obliged to take the step as more entry passes were distributed in the districts resulting in the pressure of vehicles from outer districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Shrestha deployed at Nagdhunga said that around 80 vehicles coming to valley by taking entry pass from the outer districts were prevented from coming to the valley and this step is ongoing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He, however, said that sick people, those travelling for death rituals, emergency jobs and professions are allowed to move to their destinations in the valley. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11772', 'image' => '20200506085535_pass1588678175.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:54:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12019', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lack of Data Hindering Relief Package for Tourism Industry', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. ', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in a statement informed that there is a lack of official data to identify the exact losses incurred by the tourism industry in Nepal. However, there is no doubt that tourism is the most affected sector due to the crisis created by coronavirus. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board, Dr Dhananjay Regmi, held a video conversation with media persons on Monday to discuss about Nepali Tourism amid coronavirus crisis. During the conversation, he informed that Nepali tourism sector has a tentative investment of Rs 160 billion and has created around 300,000 jobs, according to a study conducted by Nepal Tourism Board.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, other organizations claim that the actual size of the investment in tourism is more than Rs 160 billion while this sector provides 800,000 to 1 million jobs.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Even though the government had earlier demanded data on the total investment and employment provided by the industry, tourism entrepreneurs could not provide the data. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government is having difficulties to allocate relief packages for the tourism industry to combat coronavirus due to the unavailability of accurate data.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of 837 firms had participated in the study conducted by the NTB. Regmi after studying the data informed that the tourism sector has an estimated bank loan of Rs 60 billion where Rs 1 billion is to be paid in installments and interest every month.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"The government will only include the companies which are officially registered and are paying taxes while announcing the relief package through the budget. So, those who are not registered may be left out,” he informed.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/20180103040118_Tourists.jpg" style="height:960px; width:720px" /></span></span></p> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11771', 'image' => '20200505123424_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12021', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB may Lose Rs 7 Billion in Revenue', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. Many countries have reduced their interest rate to save their economy. So, NRB will lose billions of rupees which it earns through interest coming from the deposits it makes in international banks. In the current fiscal year, it is estimated that NRB will have profit of only Rs 28 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">In the fiscal year 2018/2019, NRB had made a profit of Rs 35.77 billion from international currency and investment in securities. Similarly, in the fiscal year 2017/2018, the profit was Rs 32.34 billion. However, in the current fiscal year, NRB predicted that it will lose Rs 7 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Almost all foreign exchange reserves of Nepal is in dollar. Nepal has deposited in USA, Singapore and India. As the interest rate has decreased in those countries, Nepal is poised to lose profit obtained from the interest. Currently, USA has reduced the interest rate in deposit to 0.25 percent. Similarly, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also decreased the interest rate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta, Nepal had invested its foreign exchange reserve in the Central Bank of USA at an interest rate of 2.25 percent per annum.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Chnitamani Siwakoti, deputy governor of NRB, says that the profit from the interest will decrease till the end of this FY. “We get the maximum revenue from foreign exchange reserves. The revenue from foreign exchange reserve is much higher than the revenue from treasury bills, bonds and security investments,” added Shivakoti.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif""> “Every year, NRB invests its profit in various funds and provides the remaining amount to the government,” said Shivakoti. In the last FY, NRB provided Rs 12 billion to the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to Bhatta, many countries have decreased the interest rate as they are investing the amount in relief packages. In Nepal too, the interest rate in deposit has been decreased to 6.5 percent. The interest rate in deposit has reduced worldwide, and the effects will be felt for a very long time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11770', 'image' => '20200505024559_20160909042218_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 14:45:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12020', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Reach 82 with Seven New Cases in Banke ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Joint spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Samir Adhikari, said coronavirus infection was found in four women and three men at Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City in course of carrying out tests at the Nepalgunj-based Bheri Hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the infected males are of 22, 30 and 40 years while the infected females are of 9, 32, 34 and 55 years of age. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With seven new cases the number of infected people in Banke district has climbed to 23. Before this, coronavirus infection was found in 16 people in the district. The health condition of the infected persons is normal, Dr Adhikari said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11769', 'image' => '20200505124232_Toll Rises4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:41:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12018', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Former Finance Ministers Urge Government to Cut Spending', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance ministers Surendra Pandey, Gyanendra Karki and Baburam Bhattarai made such remarks at a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Parliament on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at the meeting, the ex finance ministers drew the attention of the government toward the unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and urged it to cut its spending for proper resource management.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance minister and leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party Surendra Pandey suggested the government to reduce recurrent expenditure and not to recruit any new employees and security personnel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government recruits 10,000 employees and security personnel each year. Let’s not make any recruitment this year,” said Pandey. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He claimed that the government can save 30 percent of the recurrent expenditure if it reduces general employees and mobilizes technical staffers in their place.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, former finance minister Gyanendra Karki of the main opposition Nepali Congress accused the government of giving an extra burden to the state coffers by forming the Squatters Commission at a time when the country is reeling under crisis of coronavirus. He said that the government’s first priority should have been ensuring proper medical kits and equipment to the health workers deployed in the frontline against coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The present need is not the Squatters Commission but ventilators and ICU,” said Karki.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government’s expenditure in unproductive sector is not justifiable,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He also demanded the current status of national pride projects by issuing white paper. Kakri said that the country’s economy has been on a downward trend since the last eight months and the coronavirus pandemic will further deepen the crisis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also a former finance minister, urged the government to reduce the size of the upcoming budget arguing that the revenue collection is expected to slump in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">However, he said that the government must give special attention not to shrink employment opportunities and must focus on big projects and social security while preparing the budget despite downsizing it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11768', 'image' => '20200505094959_20151216125539_ed 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12017', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Mulls Reopening Industries by Classifying them into Green and Yellow Zones', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is currently holding discussions with the High-Level Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on the prospects of reopening industries by classifying them into green and yellow zones based on the extent of risk of coronavirus infection.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The ministry is finalizing its plan to reopen the industries by classifying them into different categories. State Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Moti Lal Dugad informed New Business Age that the government will take a decision to this effect within a few days.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The lockdown will be in force until May 7. We will come up with a work procedure very soon,” said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to State Minister Dugad, the areas with high risk will be listed as red zones and will remain closed. However, green and yellow zones will be allowed to operate by maintaining physical distance among the workers under a certain criteria, said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government will make arrangement for operating industries and businesses by adopting necessary precautions even if the lockdown gets extended.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, only the industries producing essential items and medicines are operational in the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior Vice President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) Shekhar Golchha said that it is not essential to allow the industries to operate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Lockdown has proved to be effective. It has almost become a success. Since the coronavirus pandemic is under control in Nepal, the government must now allow industries with low risk to resume operation,” he said. “This would not only prevent the collapse of the industries but also avoid the entire economy of the country from ruin,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11767', 'image' => '20200505092339_20181118041106_kapada-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:23:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12014', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Big Hotels Decide to Shut Down for 6 Months', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Operators of big hotels of Nepal on Sunday (May 3) took a decision in this regard. According to the star-rated hotels, all services will remain closed for six months effective from April 13.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The hotel operators informed that the lockdown has affected tourism sector the most. They were of the view that the coronavirus pandemic will have long-term effects on the tourism industry. It is estimated that the current crisis will cause a slump in tourism business for at least a year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In such a context, the hotel operators decided to shut their business for six months, according to Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the six months of closure, the hotels have decided to provide 12.5 percent of the basic salary and other remunerations to the staffers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In case the labour unions do not agree with the decision of providing 12.5 percent salary, the hotel operators have warned of laying off the staffers fully or partially as per Section 145 of the Labour Act 2074. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Sunday’s meeting also agreed to seek support from the government for setting up ‘job retention fund’ to pay the staffers additional amount to the 12.5 percent of basic salary. Both the hotel operators and the trade unions have agreed to this proposal to seek government support, said HAN in a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Representatives from Radisson Hotel, Hotel Annapurna, Shangri-La Hotel, Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Regency, Shankar Hotel, Hotel Akama among others had attended the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">HAN further said that they are open to discussion with the concerned authorities and stakeholders including the workers for better management of the industry.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-04', 'modified' => '2020-05-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11766', 'image' => '20200504104410_20190511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-04 10:43:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak. At an interaction with the theme of 'policies, programmes and budget for the fiscal year, 2077/78' organised by Nepali Congress on Wednesday at party office in Sanepa, they demanded that the government seek alternatives to lockdown and reduce interests on loan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, senior vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Shekhar Golchha said that the country's economy would go two years backward due to lockdown. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"Private sector should be improved to recover country's economy. For that, the government should take steps like facility on property record, concession on electricity, bringing down bank loans to five percent and value added tax rate to 10 percent and 20 percent exemption on income and corporate taxes." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Saying that approximately 5,000 construction projects were operating before lockdown, president of the Federation of Contractors Association Nepal (FCAN) Rabi Singh said they have incurred losses of around Rs 35 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Sirjana Rana demanded that time to repay loans should be extended, loan interests capitalised and loans re-tabulated. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents Achyut Guragain demanded that an arrangement should be made to provide loans at two percent interest rate to manage salaries to tourism employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged that NC would take up demands of private sector with the Parliament and the government and create pressure on the government to address them. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11780', 'image' => '20200507092819_sg(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 09:27:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12029', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Climb to 99', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. The number climbed to 99 from 82 a day earlier, after 17 people tested positive to COVID-19 in Parsa on Wednesday (May 6). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Furthermore, three people who had been discharged from hospital after recovery have tested positive again. A man discharged from a hospital in Kathmandu on April 23 tested positive again, said Dr Bikash Devkota at a regular press briefing held at the Ministry of Health and Population on Wednesday. Likewise, a 19-year-old youth from Rautahat and 44-year-old man from Parsa also tested positive in a re-test carried out more than a week after they had been discharged from hospital. All of them have been re-admitted to hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, health authorities have conducted 14,096 tests through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method whereas 52,970 tests have been conducted through the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) method, Dr Devkota shared. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The number of people in quarantine is 18,734 with 136 in isolation in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, six people undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at Koshi Hospital were discharged on Wednesday, after they tested negative. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11779', 'image' => '20200507065939_infographic-mers-689.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 06:58:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12028', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Revise Refinancing Limit to Rs 100 million', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. According to NRB, only limited industries and businesspersons are getting access to renewal of loan facility. So, NRB has decided to reduce the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million from the proposed Rs 500 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">NRB Governor Maha Prashad Adhikari said that with the introduction of this policy, businesspersons cannot take refinancing of more than Rs 100 million. He said that current policy has facilitated only the big industrialists. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“NRB’s current focus is to encourage the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs),” said Adhikari. He said that downsizing the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million will benefit SMEs. NRB is planning to create a fund of Rs 100 billion and mobilize it in productive sector. Presently, only Rs 180 million has been mobilized from the Refinancing Fund. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“We have instructed the banks to reduce interest rate and postpone the deadline for repayment. However, we can’t instruct the BFIs to give up the interest altogether,” he said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to him microfinance companies have not been able to renew loans. In the new work procedure, all BFIs will get access to the facility. “The enterprises which meet the criteria can benefit from refinancing easily. We will also work on making the facility easily accessible so that people don’t need to come to NRB for any process,” said Adhikari. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB, BFIs have collected deposits of Rs 3600.78 billion and have already mobilized Rs 3200.46 billion for loan. According to Adhikari, maximum amount of loan worth Rs 600.60 billion has been mobilized in the wholesale and retail sectors. Similarly, agriculture sector has been given Rs 200.20 billion loan and other productive sectors has been given a loan of Rs 500.32 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11778', 'image' => '20200506033111_1588716058.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:30:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12027', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Focus on Big Tourism Projects ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said that the ministry is planning to formulate next year's budget in line with this policy among the three levels of government for the sustainability of the projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Addressing the leaders of the opposition parties in the federal parliament on Tuesday, May 5, regarding the budget and policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year 2020/21, Minister Bhattarai opined that allocating the budget for small projects would be less efficient and there won't be any local participation.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, lawmakers of the opposition parties urged the government to focus on tourism rehabilitation programmes to combat the impacts of coronavirus in this sector. They suggested that coronavirus has had a major impact on the tourism sector the most. They also informed that job creation and protection of existing industries should be the top priority right now.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepali Congress lawmaker and Minister for Tourism of the shadow government Devendra Raj Kandel suggested that the government should allocate budget in tourism projects that can bring prosperity to the nation. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kandel suggested to include a programme to promote domestic tourism in the context of the postponement of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign. During the discussion program, Prem Suwal from NWPP, Durga Poudel from Rastriya Janamorcha and Amrita Devi Agrahari from RJPN suggested to introduce programmes that would restore tourism.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister Bhattarai informed that he will try his best to address the suggestions received from the parliamentarians as much as possible. Stating that the construction of new airports is the topmost priority of all, Minister Bhattarai added that the ministry will aim in building new airports on the basis of justification, necessity and professionalism.</span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11777', 'image' => '20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:19:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12024', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DoL to Monitor Whether Hotels are Giving Salary to Employees or not', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Department is carrying out monitoring in this regard after complaints that some hotel entrepreneurs have not given the remuneration for the month of Chaitra despite the government's directives calling on all industries and enterprises to compulsorily give the salary for the month of the specified month to their employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The entrepreneurs had agreed to pay the salary during discussions with the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">DoL said the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Committee will facilitate in the monitoring. Likewise, the Labour and Occupational Security Department, and the Labour and Employment Office would follow-up on this, Ministry's spokesperson Suman Ghimire said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry has urged all the sides concerned to make arrangements for paying the salary of workers by utilising the economic facilities provided by the government. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11776', 'image' => '20200506090255_90511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:01:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12026', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Prepare Monetary Policy after Lockdown Ends', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. Officials at the central bank informed that they will be able to get a clear picture of the crisis only after the lockdown ends.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Governor Chintamani Shivkoti informed that the central bank’s board meeting will take further decision on Wednesday (May 6).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The initial relief package was aimed at providing support up to mid-March,” said Shivakoti, adding, “The second relief package was until mid-July.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The central bank is now waiting for the lockdown to end to ascertain the exact impact on different sectors in order to prepare the monetary policy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A committee headed by the Executive Director of the Research Department of NRB, Dr Gunakar Bhatta, is currently collecting data to study the impact of coronavirus on tourism, hotel, aviation and industrial sectors to provide loan assistance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The effects of coronavirus on different sectors will have an impact on the overall economy of the country,” said Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee includes representatives from the BFI Regulation Department, Foreign Exchange Management Department, Payment Department and Supervision Department of NRB as well as chairman of Nepal Bankers Association Bhuvan Dahal as members.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11775', 'image' => '20200506100208_1588717198.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 10:01:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12025', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Preparations Underway to Reopen Industries on Priority Basis: Minister Bhatta', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said that preparations are underway to open these industries in three phases on priority basis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at an interaction program organised in the capital by the society of economic journalists of Nepal (SEJON) on Tuesday (May 5), Minister Bhatta said priority will be given to the industries producing daily essential food items in the first phase. The government is planning to open industries supporting development and construction works in the second phase followed by export-based industries in the third phase. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister Bhatta also added that the ministry is constantly holding discussions with trade unions and industrialists to ease the process of re-opening the industrial sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Kathmandu is not considered a red zone. But there is high risk here due to the population density,” said Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government has conducted a study to classify industrial sector into red, yellow and green zones and will be allowed to operate according to the classification. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A cabinet meeting today (May 6) will take a decision to this effect, according to the minister.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the High Level Coordination Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on Tuesday had recommended the government to extend the lockdown by a week.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are coordinating with the agriculture and finance ministries to create job opportunities,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We have decided to operate dysfunctional industries in Public Private Partnership model while the small and medium scale enterprises as well as industrial estates would be allowed to operate on priority basis,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">These programmes would be included in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year as well as the government’s policies and programmes, informed Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11774', 'image' => '20200506094201_2023535_aaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:41:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12022', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lockdown to be Extended', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting held at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar took a decision to this effect. However, the length of the extension for the lockdown will be determined by the cabinet. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Emerging from the meeting, Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Narayan Prasad Bidari, shared that the committee assessed that moves of the government to be effective when it came to saving the lives of the public by ordering nationwide lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The participants in the meeting had endorsed extension of the stay-at-home order that has been enforced by the government since May 24 to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19 infection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Bidari further shared, “We discussed about all the policies and efforts taken and executed by the government to prevent and control COVID-19 and to treat the infected ones. We determined that the lives of people have been safeguarded by enforcing the lockdown which has helped curb the infection.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting also dwelt about how to reduce the cases of COVID-19 to nil, according to Bidari. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11773', 'image' => '20200506085132_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:50:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12023', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Entry into Kathmandu Valley barred Except for Emergencies', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Even getting the entry pass, the vehicles are not permitted to get through the capital city from border points—Nagdhunga, Pharping, Mudkhu, Jagati and Jarsinghpauwa—except for emergencies. Now, only the vehicles carrying highly essentials goods and health supplies would be permitted to enter the capital city from other districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Nepal Police Bishow Raj Pokhrel said that vehicles except the emergency ones are prevented from coming into the Kathmandu valley though they have entry pass. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, around 1,500 vehicles have been entering the Kathmandu valley everyday and of them 400 vehicles bear the entry pass in the name of different purposes, the police records reveal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, the number of vehicles carrying daily essentials has increased lately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Despite the pandemic COVID-19 paralyzing the normal life, the people tend to get the entry pass under different pretexts which has prompted the security officials to be stricter in the entry of vehicles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The police was obliged to take the step as more entry passes were distributed in the districts resulting in the pressure of vehicles from outer districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Shrestha deployed at Nagdhunga said that around 80 vehicles coming to valley by taking entry pass from the outer districts were prevented from coming to the valley and this step is ongoing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He, however, said that sick people, those travelling for death rituals, emergency jobs and professions are allowed to move to their destinations in the valley. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11772', 'image' => '20200506085535_pass1588678175.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:54:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12019', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lack of Data Hindering Relief Package for Tourism Industry', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. ', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in a statement informed that there is a lack of official data to identify the exact losses incurred by the tourism industry in Nepal. However, there is no doubt that tourism is the most affected sector due to the crisis created by coronavirus. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board, Dr Dhananjay Regmi, held a video conversation with media persons on Monday to discuss about Nepali Tourism amid coronavirus crisis. During the conversation, he informed that Nepali tourism sector has a tentative investment of Rs 160 billion and has created around 300,000 jobs, according to a study conducted by Nepal Tourism Board.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, other organizations claim that the actual size of the investment in tourism is more than Rs 160 billion while this sector provides 800,000 to 1 million jobs.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Even though the government had earlier demanded data on the total investment and employment provided by the industry, tourism entrepreneurs could not provide the data. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government is having difficulties to allocate relief packages for the tourism industry to combat coronavirus due to the unavailability of accurate data.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of 837 firms had participated in the study conducted by the NTB. Regmi after studying the data informed that the tourism sector has an estimated bank loan of Rs 60 billion where Rs 1 billion is to be paid in installments and interest every month.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"The government will only include the companies which are officially registered and are paying taxes while announcing the relief package through the budget. So, those who are not registered may be left out,” he informed.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/20180103040118_Tourists.jpg" style="height:960px; width:720px" /></span></span></p> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11771', 'image' => '20200505123424_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12021', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB may Lose Rs 7 Billion in Revenue', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. Many countries have reduced their interest rate to save their economy. So, NRB will lose billions of rupees which it earns through interest coming from the deposits it makes in international banks. In the current fiscal year, it is estimated that NRB will have profit of only Rs 28 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">In the fiscal year 2018/2019, NRB had made a profit of Rs 35.77 billion from international currency and investment in securities. Similarly, in the fiscal year 2017/2018, the profit was Rs 32.34 billion. However, in the current fiscal year, NRB predicted that it will lose Rs 7 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Almost all foreign exchange reserves of Nepal is in dollar. Nepal has deposited in USA, Singapore and India. As the interest rate has decreased in those countries, Nepal is poised to lose profit obtained from the interest. Currently, USA has reduced the interest rate in deposit to 0.25 percent. Similarly, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also decreased the interest rate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta, Nepal had invested its foreign exchange reserve in the Central Bank of USA at an interest rate of 2.25 percent per annum.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Chnitamani Siwakoti, deputy governor of NRB, says that the profit from the interest will decrease till the end of this FY. “We get the maximum revenue from foreign exchange reserves. The revenue from foreign exchange reserve is much higher than the revenue from treasury bills, bonds and security investments,” added Shivakoti.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif""> “Every year, NRB invests its profit in various funds and provides the remaining amount to the government,” said Shivakoti. In the last FY, NRB provided Rs 12 billion to the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to Bhatta, many countries have decreased the interest rate as they are investing the amount in relief packages. In Nepal too, the interest rate in deposit has been decreased to 6.5 percent. The interest rate in deposit has reduced worldwide, and the effects will be felt for a very long time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11770', 'image' => '20200505024559_20160909042218_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 14:45:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12020', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Reach 82 with Seven New Cases in Banke ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Joint spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Samir Adhikari, said coronavirus infection was found in four women and three men at Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City in course of carrying out tests at the Nepalgunj-based Bheri Hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the infected males are of 22, 30 and 40 years while the infected females are of 9, 32, 34 and 55 years of age. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With seven new cases the number of infected people in Banke district has climbed to 23. Before this, coronavirus infection was found in 16 people in the district. The health condition of the infected persons is normal, Dr Adhikari said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11769', 'image' => '20200505124232_Toll Rises4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:41:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12018', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Former Finance Ministers Urge Government to Cut Spending', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance ministers Surendra Pandey, Gyanendra Karki and Baburam Bhattarai made such remarks at a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Parliament on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at the meeting, the ex finance ministers drew the attention of the government toward the unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and urged it to cut its spending for proper resource management.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance minister and leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party Surendra Pandey suggested the government to reduce recurrent expenditure and not to recruit any new employees and security personnel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government recruits 10,000 employees and security personnel each year. Let’s not make any recruitment this year,” said Pandey. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He claimed that the government can save 30 percent of the recurrent expenditure if it reduces general employees and mobilizes technical staffers in their place.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, former finance minister Gyanendra Karki of the main opposition Nepali Congress accused the government of giving an extra burden to the state coffers by forming the Squatters Commission at a time when the country is reeling under crisis of coronavirus. He said that the government’s first priority should have been ensuring proper medical kits and equipment to the health workers deployed in the frontline against coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The present need is not the Squatters Commission but ventilators and ICU,” said Karki.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government’s expenditure in unproductive sector is not justifiable,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He also demanded the current status of national pride projects by issuing white paper. Kakri said that the country’s economy has been on a downward trend since the last eight months and the coronavirus pandemic will further deepen the crisis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also a former finance minister, urged the government to reduce the size of the upcoming budget arguing that the revenue collection is expected to slump in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">However, he said that the government must give special attention not to shrink employment opportunities and must focus on big projects and social security while preparing the budget despite downsizing it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11768', 'image' => '20200505094959_20151216125539_ed 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12017', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Mulls Reopening Industries by Classifying them into Green and Yellow Zones', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is currently holding discussions with the High-Level Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on the prospects of reopening industries by classifying them into green and yellow zones based on the extent of risk of coronavirus infection.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The ministry is finalizing its plan to reopen the industries by classifying them into different categories. State Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Moti Lal Dugad informed New Business Age that the government will take a decision to this effect within a few days.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The lockdown will be in force until May 7. We will come up with a work procedure very soon,” said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to State Minister Dugad, the areas with high risk will be listed as red zones and will remain closed. However, green and yellow zones will be allowed to operate by maintaining physical distance among the workers under a certain criteria, said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government will make arrangement for operating industries and businesses by adopting necessary precautions even if the lockdown gets extended.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, only the industries producing essential items and medicines are operational in the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior Vice President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) Shekhar Golchha said that it is not essential to allow the industries to operate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Lockdown has proved to be effective. It has almost become a success. Since the coronavirus pandemic is under control in Nepal, the government must now allow industries with low risk to resume operation,” he said. “This would not only prevent the collapse of the industries but also avoid the entire economy of the country from ruin,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11767', 'image' => '20200505092339_20181118041106_kapada-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:23:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12014', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Big Hotels Decide to Shut Down for 6 Months', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Operators of big hotels of Nepal on Sunday (May 3) took a decision in this regard. According to the star-rated hotels, all services will remain closed for six months effective from April 13.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The hotel operators informed that the lockdown has affected tourism sector the most. They were of the view that the coronavirus pandemic will have long-term effects on the tourism industry. It is estimated that the current crisis will cause a slump in tourism business for at least a year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In such a context, the hotel operators decided to shut their business for six months, according to Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the six months of closure, the hotels have decided to provide 12.5 percent of the basic salary and other remunerations to the staffers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In case the labour unions do not agree with the decision of providing 12.5 percent salary, the hotel operators have warned of laying off the staffers fully or partially as per Section 145 of the Labour Act 2074. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Sunday’s meeting also agreed to seek support from the government for setting up ‘job retention fund’ to pay the staffers additional amount to the 12.5 percent of basic salary. Both the hotel operators and the trade unions have agreed to this proposal to seek government support, said HAN in a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Representatives from Radisson Hotel, Hotel Annapurna, Shangri-La Hotel, Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Regency, Shankar Hotel, Hotel Akama among others had attended the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">HAN further said that they are open to discussion with the concerned authorities and stakeholders including the workers for better management of the industry.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-04', 'modified' => '2020-05-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11766', 'image' => '20200504104410_20190511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-04 10:43:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: Stakeholders of private sector have demanded resumption of industries severely affected by lockdown amid coronavirus outbreak. At an interaction with the theme of 'policies, programmes and budget for the fiscal year, 2077/78' organised by Nepali Congress on Wednesday at party office in Sanepa, they demanded that the government seek alternatives to lockdown and reduce interests on loan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, senior vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Shekhar Golchha said that the country's economy would go two years backward due to lockdown. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"Private sector should be improved to recover country's economy. For that, the government should take steps like facility on property record, concession on electricity, bringing down bank loans to five percent and value added tax rate to 10 percent and 20 percent exemption on income and corporate taxes." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Saying that approximately 5,000 construction projects were operating before lockdown, president of the Federation of Contractors Association Nepal (FCAN) Rabi Singh said they have incurred losses of around Rs 35 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Sirjana Rana demanded that time to repay loans should be extended, loan interests capitalised and loans re-tabulated. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents Achyut Guragain demanded that an arrangement should be made to provide loans at two percent interest rate to manage salaries to tourism employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, NC president Sher Bahadur Deuba pledged that NC would take up demands of private sector with the Parliament and the government and create pressure on the government to address them. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11780', 'image' => '20200507092819_sg(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 09:27:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12029', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Climb to 99', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 7: The total number of people infected with coronavirus has reached 99 in the country. The number climbed to 99 from 82 a day earlier, after 17 people tested positive to COVID-19 in Parsa on Wednesday (May 6). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Furthermore, three people who had been discharged from hospital after recovery have tested positive again. A man discharged from a hospital in Kathmandu on April 23 tested positive again, said Dr Bikash Devkota at a regular press briefing held at the Ministry of Health and Population on Wednesday. Likewise, a 19-year-old youth from Rautahat and 44-year-old man from Parsa also tested positive in a re-test carried out more than a week after they had been discharged from hospital. All of them have been re-admitted to hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, health authorities have conducted 14,096 tests through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method whereas 52,970 tests have been conducted through the Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) method, Dr Devkota shared. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The number of people in quarantine is 18,734 with 136 in isolation in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, six people undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at Koshi Hospital were discharged on Wednesday, after they tested negative. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-07', 'modified' => '2020-05-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11779', 'image' => '20200507065939_infographic-mers-689.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-07 06:58:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12028', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Revise Refinancing Limit to Rs 100 million', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank is preparing to reduce the refinancing limit. According to NRB, only limited industries and businesspersons are getting access to renewal of loan facility. So, NRB has decided to reduce the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million from the proposed Rs 500 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">NRB Governor Maha Prashad Adhikari said that with the introduction of this policy, businesspersons cannot take refinancing of more than Rs 100 million. He said that current policy has facilitated only the big industrialists. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“NRB’s current focus is to encourage the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs),” said Adhikari. He said that downsizing the refinancing limit to Rs 100 million will benefit SMEs. NRB is planning to create a fund of Rs 100 billion and mobilize it in productive sector. Presently, only Rs 180 million has been mobilized from the Refinancing Fund. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">“We have instructed the banks to reduce interest rate and postpone the deadline for repayment. However, we can’t instruct the BFIs to give up the interest altogether,” he said. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to him microfinance companies have not been able to renew loans. In the new work procedure, all BFIs will get access to the facility. “The enterprises which meet the criteria can benefit from refinancing easily. We will also work on making the facility easily accessible so that people don’t need to come to NRB for any process,” said Adhikari. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB, BFIs have collected deposits of Rs 3600.78 billion and have already mobilized Rs 3200.46 billion for loan. According to Adhikari, maximum amount of loan worth Rs 600.60 billion has been mobilized in the wholesale and retail sectors. Similarly, agriculture sector has been given Rs 200.20 billion loan and other productive sectors has been given a loan of Rs 500.32 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11778', 'image' => '20200506033111_1588716058.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:30:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12027', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Focus on Big Tourism Projects ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 6: The federal government is planning to move ahead bigger tourism projects under 'Investment Partnership and Return on Investment’ policy rather than focusing on smaller tourism projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai said that the ministry is planning to formulate next year's budget in line with this policy among the three levels of government for the sustainability of the projects.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Addressing the leaders of the opposition parties in the federal parliament on Tuesday, May 5, regarding the budget and policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year 2020/21, Minister Bhattarai opined that allocating the budget for small projects would be less efficient and there won't be any local participation.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, lawmakers of the opposition parties urged the government to focus on tourism rehabilitation programmes to combat the impacts of coronavirus in this sector. They suggested that coronavirus has had a major impact on the tourism sector the most. They also informed that job creation and protection of existing industries should be the top priority right now.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepali Congress lawmaker and Minister for Tourism of the shadow government Devendra Raj Kandel suggested that the government should allocate budget in tourism projects that can bring prosperity to the nation. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kandel suggested to include a programme to promote domestic tourism in the context of the postponement of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign. During the discussion program, Prem Suwal from NWPP, Durga Poudel from Rastriya Janamorcha and Amrita Devi Agrahari from RJPN suggested to introduce programmes that would restore tourism.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Minister Bhattarai informed that he will try his best to address the suggestions received from the parliamentarians as much as possible. Stating that the construction of new airports is the topmost priority of all, Minister Bhattarai added that the ministry will aim in building new airports on the basis of justification, necessity and professionalism.</span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11777', 'image' => '20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 15:19:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12024', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DoL to Monitor Whether Hotels are Giving Salary to Employees or not', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The Department of Labour (DoL) is monitoring whether or not the hotel entrepreneurs have given salary for the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) to their workers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Department is carrying out monitoring in this regard after complaints that some hotel entrepreneurs have not given the remuneration for the month of Chaitra despite the government's directives calling on all industries and enterprises to compulsorily give the salary for the month of the specified month to their employees. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The entrepreneurs had agreed to pay the salary during discussions with the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">DoL said the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) and the Joint Trade Union Coordination Committee will facilitate in the monitoring. Likewise, the Labour and Occupational Security Department, and the Labour and Employment Office would follow-up on this, Ministry's spokesperson Suman Ghimire said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry has urged all the sides concerned to make arrangements for paying the salary of workers by utilising the economic facilities provided by the government. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11776', 'image' => '20200506090255_90511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:01:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12026', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Prepare Monetary Policy after Lockdown Ends', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to prepare the monetary policy in around mid-July as it is currently busy studying the impact of coronavirus on the country’s economy. Officials at the central bank informed that they will be able to get a clear picture of the crisis only after the lockdown ends.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Governor Chintamani Shivkoti informed that the central bank’s board meeting will take further decision on Wednesday (May 6).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The initial relief package was aimed at providing support up to mid-March,” said Shivakoti, adding, “The second relief package was until mid-July.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The central bank is now waiting for the lockdown to end to ascertain the exact impact on different sectors in order to prepare the monetary policy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A committee headed by the Executive Director of the Research Department of NRB, Dr Gunakar Bhatta, is currently collecting data to study the impact of coronavirus on tourism, hotel, aviation and industrial sectors to provide loan assistance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The effects of coronavirus on different sectors will have an impact on the overall economy of the country,” said Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee includes representatives from the BFI Regulation Department, Foreign Exchange Management Department, Payment Department and Supervision Department of NRB as well as chairman of Nepal Bankers Association Bhuvan Dahal as members.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11775', 'image' => '20200506100208_1588717198.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 10:01:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12025', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Preparations Underway to Reopen Industries on Priority Basis: Minister Bhatta', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: The government is making preparations to reopen the industries that have been closed due to the lockdown on priority basis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said that preparations are underway to open these industries in three phases on priority basis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at an interaction program organised in the capital by the society of economic journalists of Nepal (SEJON) on Tuesday (May 5), Minister Bhatta said priority will be given to the industries producing daily essential food items in the first phase. The government is planning to open industries supporting development and construction works in the second phase followed by export-based industries in the third phase. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Minister Bhatta also added that the ministry is constantly holding discussions with trade unions and industrialists to ease the process of re-opening the industrial sector. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Kathmandu is not considered a red zone. But there is high risk here due to the population density,” said Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government has conducted a study to classify industrial sector into red, yellow and green zones and will be allowed to operate according to the classification. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A cabinet meeting today (May 6) will take a decision to this effect, according to the minister.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the High Level Coordination Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on Tuesday had recommended the government to extend the lockdown by a week.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are coordinating with the agriculture and finance ministries to create job opportunities,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We have decided to operate dysfunctional industries in Public Private Partnership model while the small and medium scale enterprises as well as industrial estates would be allowed to operate on priority basis,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">These programmes would be included in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year as well as the government’s policies and programmes, informed Minister Bhatta.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11774', 'image' => '20200506094201_2023535_aaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 09:41:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12022', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lockdown to be Extended', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: A meeting of the High-Level Coordination Committee for the Prevention and Control of Coronavirus held on Tuesday has decided to give continuity to the lockdown imposed by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting held at Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar took a decision to this effect. However, the length of the extension for the lockdown will be determined by the cabinet. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Emerging from the meeting, Secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Narayan Prasad Bidari, shared that the committee assessed that moves of the government to be effective when it came to saving the lives of the public by ordering nationwide lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The participants in the meeting had endorsed extension of the stay-at-home order that has been enforced by the government since May 24 to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19 infection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Bidari further shared, “We discussed about all the policies and efforts taken and executed by the government to prevent and control COVID-19 and to treat the infected ones. We determined that the lives of people have been safeguarded by enforcing the lockdown which has helped curb the infection.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The meeting also dwelt about how to reduce the cases of COVID-19 to nil, according to Bidari. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11773', 'image' => '20200506085132_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:50:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12023', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Entry into Kathmandu Valley barred Except for Emergencies', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 6: Despite having entry pass for the vehicles, it is not that easy to enter into the Kathmandu valley from the outer districts during the ongoing lockdown. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Even getting the entry pass, the vehicles are not permitted to get through the capital city from border points—Nagdhunga, Pharping, Mudkhu, Jagati and Jarsinghpauwa—except for emergencies. Now, only the vehicles carrying highly essentials goods and health supplies would be permitted to enter the capital city from other districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Nepal Police Bishow Raj Pokhrel said that vehicles except the emergency ones are prevented from coming into the Kathmandu valley though they have entry pass. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, around 1,500 vehicles have been entering the Kathmandu valley everyday and of them 400 vehicles bear the entry pass in the name of different purposes, the police records reveal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, the number of vehicles carrying daily essentials has increased lately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Despite the pandemic COVID-19 paralyzing the normal life, the people tend to get the entry pass under different pretexts which has prompted the security officials to be stricter in the entry of vehicles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The police was obliged to take the step as more entry passes were distributed in the districts resulting in the pressure of vehicles from outer districts. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Superintendent of Police Ghanshyam Shrestha deployed at Nagdhunga said that around 80 vehicles coming to valley by taking entry pass from the outer districts were prevented from coming to the valley and this step is ongoing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He, however, said that sick people, those travelling for death rituals, emergency jobs and professions are allowed to move to their destinations in the valley. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-06', 'modified' => '2020-05-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11772', 'image' => '20200506085535_pass1588678175.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-06 08:54:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12019', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Lack of Data Hindering Relief Package for Tourism Industry', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. ', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">May 5: Lack of integrated data in the tourism industry has become a major hindrance to identify the exact losses for relief distribution. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) in a statement informed that there is a lack of official data to identify the exact losses incurred by the tourism industry in Nepal. However, there is no doubt that tourism is the most affected sector due to the crisis created by coronavirus. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Chief Executive Officer of Nepal Tourism Board, Dr Dhananjay Regmi, held a video conversation with media persons on Monday to discuss about Nepali Tourism amid coronavirus crisis. During the conversation, he informed that Nepali tourism sector has a tentative investment of Rs 160 billion and has created around 300,000 jobs, according to a study conducted by Nepal Tourism Board.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, other organizations claim that the actual size of the investment in tourism is more than Rs 160 billion while this sector provides 800,000 to 1 million jobs.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Even though the government had earlier demanded data on the total investment and employment provided by the industry, tourism entrepreneurs could not provide the data. </span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government is having difficulties to allocate relief packages for the tourism industry to combat coronavirus due to the unavailability of accurate data.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of 837 firms had participated in the study conducted by the NTB. Regmi after studying the data informed that the tourism sector has an estimated bank loan of Rs 60 billion where Rs 1 billion is to be paid in installments and interest every month.</span></span></h1> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"The government will only include the companies which are officially registered and are paying taxes while announcing the relief package through the budget. So, those who are not registered may be left out,” he informed.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/20180103040118_Tourists.jpg" style="height:960px; width:720px" /></span></span></p> <h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> <h1> </h1> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11771', 'image' => '20200505123424_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12021', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB may Lose Rs 7 Billion in Revenue', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">May 5: The lockdowns imposed by the governments across the globe is expected to adversely affect the interest which Nepal Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) receives from the international market. Many countries have reduced their interest rate to save their economy. So, NRB will lose billions of rupees which it earns through interest coming from the deposits it makes in international banks. In the current fiscal year, it is estimated that NRB will have profit of only Rs 28 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">In the fiscal year 2018/2019, NRB had made a profit of Rs 35.77 billion from international currency and investment in securities. Similarly, in the fiscal year 2017/2018, the profit was Rs 32.34 billion. However, in the current fiscal year, NRB predicted that it will lose Rs 7 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Almost all foreign exchange reserves of Nepal is in dollar. Nepal has deposited in USA, Singapore and India. As the interest rate has decreased in those countries, Nepal is poised to lose profit obtained from the interest. Currently, USA has reduced the interest rate in deposit to 0.25 percent. Similarly, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also decreased the interest rate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta, Nepal had invested its foreign exchange reserve in the Central Bank of USA at an interest rate of 2.25 percent per annum.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">Chnitamani Siwakoti, deputy governor of NRB, says that the profit from the interest will decrease till the end of this FY. “We get the maximum revenue from foreign exchange reserves. The revenue from foreign exchange reserve is much higher than the revenue from treasury bills, bonds and security investments,” added Shivakoti.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif""> “Every year, NRB invests its profit in various funds and provides the remaining amount to the government,” said Shivakoti. In the last FY, NRB provided Rs 12 billion to the government.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-family:"Mangal","serif"">According to Bhatta, many countries have decreased the interest rate as they are investing the amount in relief packages. In Nepal too, the interest rate in deposit has been decreased to 6.5 percent. The interest rate in deposit has reduced worldwide, and the effects will be felt for a very long time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11770', 'image' => '20200505024559_20160909042218_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 14:45:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12020', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'COVID-19 Cases Reach 82 with Seven New Cases in Banke ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: Coronavirus infection has been confirmed in seven more people in Banke on Tuesday, taking the total number of infected people to 82 in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Joint spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Samir Adhikari, said coronavirus infection was found in four women and three men at Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City in course of carrying out tests at the Nepalgunj-based Bheri Hospital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the infected males are of 22, 30 and 40 years while the infected females are of 9, 32, 34 and 55 years of age. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With seven new cases the number of infected people in Banke district has climbed to 23. Before this, coronavirus infection was found in 16 people in the district. The health condition of the infected persons is normal, Dr Adhikari said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11769', 'image' => '20200505124232_Toll Rises4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 12:41:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12018', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Former Finance Ministers Urge Government to Cut Spending', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: While the government is preparing to announce budget for the upcoming fiscal year, former finance ministers have suggested the government to cut its spending for better management of resource during the ongoing crisis. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance ministers Surendra Pandey, Gyanendra Karki and Baburam Bhattarai made such remarks at a meeting of the Finance Committee of the Parliament on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Speaking at the meeting, the ex finance ministers drew the attention of the government toward the unprecedented crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and urged it to cut its spending for proper resource management.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former finance minister and leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party Surendra Pandey suggested the government to reduce recurrent expenditure and not to recruit any new employees and security personnel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government recruits 10,000 employees and security personnel each year. Let’s not make any recruitment this year,” said Pandey. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He claimed that the government can save 30 percent of the recurrent expenditure if it reduces general employees and mobilizes technical staffers in their place.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, former finance minister Gyanendra Karki of the main opposition Nepali Congress accused the government of giving an extra burden to the state coffers by forming the Squatters Commission at a time when the country is reeling under crisis of coronavirus. He said that the government’s first priority should have been ensuring proper medical kits and equipment to the health workers deployed in the frontline against coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The present need is not the Squatters Commission but ventilators and ICU,” said Karki.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The government’s expenditure in unproductive sector is not justifiable,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He also demanded the current status of national pride projects by issuing white paper. Kakri said that the country’s economy has been on a downward trend since the last eight months and the coronavirus pandemic will further deepen the crisis.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, who is also a former finance minister, urged the government to reduce the size of the upcoming budget arguing that the revenue collection is expected to slump in the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">However, he said that the government must give special attention not to shrink employment opportunities and must focus on big projects and social security while preparing the budget despite downsizing it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11768', 'image' => '20200505094959_20151216125539_ed 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12017', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Mulls Reopening Industries by Classifying them into Green and Yellow Zones', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 5: The government has hinted at reopening businesses and industries that have remained closed since the government imposed a lockdown on March 24. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is currently holding discussions with the High-Level Committee to Prevent Coronavirus on the prospects of reopening industries by classifying them into green and yellow zones based on the extent of risk of coronavirus infection.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The ministry is finalizing its plan to reopen the industries by classifying them into different categories. State Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Moti Lal Dugad informed New Business Age that the government will take a decision to this effect within a few days.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The lockdown will be in force until May 7. We will come up with a work procedure very soon,” said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to State Minister Dugad, the areas with high risk will be listed as red zones and will remain closed. However, green and yellow zones will be allowed to operate by maintaining physical distance among the workers under a certain criteria, said Dugad.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He further said that the government will make arrangement for operating industries and businesses by adopting necessary precautions even if the lockdown gets extended.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Currently, only the industries producing essential items and medicines are operational in the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior Vice President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) Shekhar Golchha said that it is not essential to allow the industries to operate. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Lockdown has proved to be effective. It has almost become a success. Since the coronavirus pandemic is under control in Nepal, the government must now allow industries with low risk to resume operation,” he said. “This would not only prevent the collapse of the industries but also avoid the entire economy of the country from ruin,” he added.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-05', 'modified' => '2020-05-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11767', 'image' => '20200505092339_20181118041106_kapada-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-05 09:23:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12014', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Big Hotels Decide to Shut Down for 6 Months', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">May 4: Star-rated hotels of Nepal have decided to close operation for six months effective from the Nepali New Year citing unprecedented crisis due to lockdown imposed to control the spread of coronavirus. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Operators of big hotels of Nepal on Sunday (May 3) took a decision in this regard. According to the star-rated hotels, all services will remain closed for six months effective from April 13.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The hotel operators informed that the lockdown has affected tourism sector the most. They were of the view that the coronavirus pandemic will have long-term effects on the tourism industry. It is estimated that the current crisis will cause a slump in tourism business for at least a year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In such a context, the hotel operators decided to shut their business for six months, according to Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the six months of closure, the hotels have decided to provide 12.5 percent of the basic salary and other remunerations to the staffers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">In case the labour unions do not agree with the decision of providing 12.5 percent salary, the hotel operators have warned of laying off the staffers fully or partially as per Section 145 of the Labour Act 2074. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Sunday’s meeting also agreed to seek support from the government for setting up ‘job retention fund’ to pay the staffers additional amount to the 12.5 percent of basic salary. Both the hotel operators and the trade unions have agreed to this proposal to seek government support, said HAN in a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Representatives from Radisson Hotel, Hotel Annapurna, Shangri-La Hotel, Soaltee Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Regency, Shankar Hotel, Hotel Akama among others had attended the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">HAN further said that they are open to discussion with the concerned authorities and stakeholders including the workers for better management of the industry.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-05-04', 'modified' => '2020-05-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '11766', 'image' => '20200504104410_20190511105700_Clipboard37 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-05-04 10:43:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '20' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
