June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and…
June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and…
June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the…
Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international…
Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco…
June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF).…
June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety…
June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’…
June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been…
June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended.…
June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people.…
June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday…
June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning.…
The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with…
Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of…
June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and landslides. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Residents of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality and Yamphudin village have been compelled to live in darkness after the disasters destroyed the infrastructures of the micro hydro power stations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of five hydro power stations at ward no 3 and 4 in Maiwakhola Rural Municipality were swept away by the floods and landslides, said chairperson of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality, Bijay Prakash Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The power generation capacity of these micro hydro power stations ranged from 19 kilowatt to 64 kilowatt. Maangmaya 1 and Maangmaya 2, Thadekhola, Lodamba and Yamphewa micro hydro power stations were completely damaged, shared chairperson Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, power stations generating electricity from the Tumya Khola (River) and Kabeli Khola (River) in Sirijunga Rural Municipality in the district were also swept by the disaster affecting 170 households in the village, shared Krishna Gurung, ward no 8 chairperson of Sirijunga Rural Municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Communication services in the disaster-hit areas have been adversely affected due to the prolonged absence of electricity, said ward chairperson Gurung. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17962', 'image' => '20230621113247_SP_Taplejung-IMG-20230618-WA0012__01__01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:31:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18231', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'KMC asks IRD to Return House Rent Taxes to the Local Level ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC argued that the responsibility of collecting house rent taxes fall within the jurisdiction of the metropolis as per the provisions of the constitution and law. According to the KMC, the department is collecting institutional house rent taxes instead of the metropolis. A letter written by the KMC Mayor Balendra Shah to the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission states that the department should return the taxes it collected to the metropolis. "The metropolis is only collecting private house rent taxes," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the metropolis has had to bear a loss of Rs 1.43 billion because the IRD has been collecting the institutional house rent taxes, the KMC mayor also requested the commission to compensate for the loss. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I make a humble request to the respected commission to take required initiatives for the department to return the house rent taxes collected so far to the metropolis and ensure the jurisdiction of the local level to collect house rent taxes. This interference by the department is not acceptable to the metropolis," reads the letter. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17961', 'image' => '20230621110115_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:00:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18230', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dhading Zipline Becoming Tourist Hotspot', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">With its impressive length of 1,200 meters, it is considered one of the steepest and second longest ziplines in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline has successfully drawn in around 4,000 tourists within a single year, as reported by Pratyush Lama, the zipline manager. The adventure sport was inaugurated on April 20, 2022, by Shalikram Jamarkattel, the former Minister for Financial Affairs and Planning of Bagmati Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">However, like many other businesses, the resort and zipline have faced challenges due to the current economic conditions, resulting in a recent decline in customer numbers, as mentioned by the resort operator. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To counter this setback, there are plans to expand the existing nine-room resort and construct a swimming pool.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For those seeking this exhilarating adventure, the zipline charges Rs 3,500 per person, according to Bikash Bhandari, the zipline technician. Additionally, there is a 25 percent discount available along with various package options.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline itself consists of a pulley system suspended on a stainless steel cable, mounted on a slope. It is open to individuals above the age of 10, with a precautionary advisory for people with high blood pressure to avoid riding it. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline experiences high demand on public holidays, especially Saturdays, attracting crowds of visitors. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The entire resort and zipline cover a total area of 127 ropanis, with a total investment of approximately Rs 270 million, including Rs 20 million specifically allocated to the zipline, according to resort manager Lama. (RSS)</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17960', 'image' => '20230621060724_collage (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 06:04:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18229', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Minister Basnet Proposes Tax Increase on Tobacco Products Soon', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">During a meeting with a delegation from the Health and Population Department of the CPN (UML), the Minister emphasized that the increased taxes would be allocated towards providing medical treatment for individuals who cannot afford the cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged that the current tax rates on tobacco products are lower than the standards set by the World Health Organization. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">By raising taxes, the prices of tobacco products would increase, potentially reducing consumption. The revenue generated from these taxes would be utilized to establish a fund to support the medical needs of the underprivileged community.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Expressing concerns over the emigration of medical professionals, Minister Basnet highlighted the challenges faced by doctors and nurses who leave Nepal in search of better remuneration and facilities abroad. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The government has already issued a directive to allocate 10 percent of hospital beds for the treatment of needy patients. Violations of this directive will be subject to punishment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Furthermore, the government is actively working to recall 800 employees who are currently serving in different positions on deputation within the Ministry. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Krishna Gopal Shrestha, the Chief of the Health and Population Department of the CPN-UML and a lawmaker, submitted an 11-point memorandum to the Minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum emphasizes the importance of delivering quality healthcare services to citizens and outlines various demands, including the proper implementation of the provision for 10 percent free treatment in hospitals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum of the understanding demands for improved access to healthcare for chronic diseases, effective implementation of the health insurance program, and the establishment of basic health facilities at 396 local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Other demands include accessible dialysis and surgery services, the swift enactment of the Federal Health Service Act, and the promotion of safety for healthcare professionals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum also stresses the necessity of government initiatives to prevent diseases such as diarrhea, measles, and dengue, as well as preparedness for water-induced disasters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged the concerns raised in the memorandum and assured the delegation that the government would take appropriate action to address these issues effectively. (RSS)</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17959', 'image' => '20230621055244_collage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 05:50:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18228', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Slashes Aviation Fuel Price', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). The selling price of aviation fuel for domestic flights has been reduced by Rs 10 per liter. ATF for domestic flights now costs Rs 150 per liter, according to the Nepal Oil Corporation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the selling price of ATF for international flights has been reduced by USD 200 per kiloliter (about Rs 26 per liter). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the NOC, prices of other petroleum products have remained unchanged. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17958', 'image' => '20230620112904_20230525064255_Nepal-Airlines-1-3.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 23:25:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18227', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fiscal Management of Provinces Dependent on Federal Transfers rather than their own Resources ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Except for the Koshi provincial government which brought its annual budget through an ordinance, the rest of the six provinces have already presented the Finance Bill along with the Appropriation Bill in their respective Province Assembly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koshi Province made some changes in its revenue policy through an ordinance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Looking at the resource management of the provincial governments, resource collected from their own revenue sources is less while it is more dependent on fiscal transfers and revenue distribution from the federal government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Therefore, the provinces have emphasized on expanding both the tax rate and its coverage in order to increase the proportion of the internal revenue. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provinces have the rights over determining the vehicle tax, houses and land registration tax, tourism fees, advertisement tax, tax on agricultural income, service charges and fines and other surcharges. The provinces have been making their revenue policy every year incorporating these sectors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In their revenue policies, the provinces have given main priority to making the internal sources more effective by expanding the tax ambit for the economic activities falling under their exclusive rights. They have also focused on making the tax system convenient and technology-friendly, tax rate up-to-date by revising the tax structure and controlling tax evasion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the provincial governments have included in their Finance Bill provisions such as exemption on registration and transfer of vehicles, discouraging the use of motor vehicles older than 20 years, making the land and house registration and transfer easier, providing some exemption on the registration and transfer of land used for production and exemption on the fine to commercial firms failing to renew registration for a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The combined budgets of the seven provinces for the next fiscal year amount to Rs 305.46 billion, which is nearly 17 percent higher than the current fiscal year’s budget. All provinces presented their budgets targeting economic recovery. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bagmati has the biggest financial outlay of all seven provinces while Karnali presented the smallest financing plan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Most of the provinces have set aside a big chunk of their budgets for infrastructure development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17957', 'image' => '20230620030224_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 15:01:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18226', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Committee Directs Government to Resume Issuance of Stock Brokers License', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the committee on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Finance, the Securities Board of Nepal and Nepal Stock Exchange to go ahead with the issuance of license by fulfilling the due process and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee’s senior-most member Santosh Chalise said that the directive has been issued to provide the license to the stock brokers and traders by fulfilling the criteria and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Finance Committee on June 12 had stopped the process of issuing the broker license, saying an investigation was required whether or not the minimum criteria had been fulfilled while issuing the license to the stock brokers and traders. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The board had issued stock dealer and broker license to 18 companies, including seven companies on May 22 and 11 companies on June 5. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Committee had issued directive to stop the process for issuing license, arguing that an investigation was required whether these companies that acquired license fulfilled the minimum criteria. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, the committee members put their views in favour of carrying out works by keeping competition, transparency and openness in priority in an open market economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Former Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel suggested resuming the license process by fulfilling the due process, procedures, laws and standards. He urged the Finance Ministry and the SEEBON to be accountable and responsible on the questions raised in the parliament and the parliamentary committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee member and former Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki stressed on the need of making the stock market dynamic as per the law and in a transparent manner for the benefit of the society. He also drew the attention of the committee to carry out serious discussions on the country's economic situation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON Chair Ramesh Hamal claimed that the licenses have been issued to the stock brokers and traders in a transparent manner and that there was no weakness anywhere in this process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Supreme Court had also given a go-ahead for the licensing process for the stock traders before this. The Supreme Court decision on April 9 had paved the way for issuing new stock broker and trader license for new stock company, commodity market and stock transactions. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17956', 'image' => '20230620024101_Parliament RSS 800.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 14:40:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18225', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Problems in System Causing Power Cuts: Kulman Ghising', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA informed that although it is natural to have problems in the system during the rainy season, some districts of central and western Nepal have seen unnatural problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the increase in heat throughout the country last week, the demand for electricity increased, but some complications have arisen in the system and efforts have been made to solve those problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In a press conference organized by the NEA on Monday, Ghising said, "The problem is also increasing due to the delay in construction of transmission line, distribution system and substation. The authority alone cannot do everything to solve it. Everyone's support and cooperation is necessary."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the obstruction of the local people in the construction of the transmission line is the most complicated, he complained that even the decision made by the Council of Ministers was not implemented by the Ministry of Forests and Environment and its subordinate agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, executive director Ghising said that although the cabinet has approved the land use and cutting of trees on the Hetauda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission line, the Ministry of Forest has not yet made a decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the obstructions in the construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inruwa and the Hetaunda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission lines, the electricity from the east could not be supplied to West Nepal. At present, only a 132 kV capacity transmission line is in operation in that area.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line of 400 KV capacity under construction has been obstructed by the local people and the forest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the incessant rains in Eastern Nepal since Saturday evening, almost 100 megawatts of the Kabeli Corridor could not be connected to the national grid. He said that even though the authority is trying to increase internal consumption, there is an obligation to sell the excess electricity during the rainy season.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, the total electricity generation capacity of Nepal is 2700 megawatts, but only 2000 megawatts of electricity is available in the system. He said that even though there is an increase in demand for electricity in the evening and in the summer time, there is a situation where electricity is wasted at night, so electricity has been exported to India to manage it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He also dismissed the accusation made against the NEA that it was exporting electricity to India by cutting the domestic supply. He made it clear that NEA has been selling only surplus electricity to India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It was also found that unnecessary comments were made that electricity was sold to India by cutting supply within the country. We are exporting electricity because it is done so that we can sell electricity rather than waste it.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17955', 'image' => '20230620014958_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:49:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18224', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Duration of Tourists' Stay Declining', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. The average length of stay of tourists increased in the previous two years, but is now going downhill.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The average stay of tourists in Nepal never reached 15 days in the last decade except for 2020 and 2021 – the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic period when the average stay of tourists in Nepal had reached 15 days, according to the Economic Survey 2079/80 published by the Ministry of Finance. However, in 2022, when the pandemic subsided and arrival of tourists gradually improved, the length of stay decreased. According to the economic survey, the average stay of tourists dropped to 13.1 days in 2022, which was 15.1 days in 2020 and 15.5 days in 2021.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Nepal Tourism Statistics 2021' released by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation also shows that tourists stayed in Nepal for the longest period of time in the last decade. In other years, the average length of stay was 12 to 13.5 days. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Binayak Shah says that due to the standards introduced by the government to avoid and prevent the spread of Covid-19 including mandatory quarantine, the length of stay of tourists had increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shah, more tourists came from neighboring countries as the Covid-19 gradually decreased. As they went to destinations like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, the length of their stay decreased. According to the economic survey, 10 percent of the total tourists come for adventure trekking/mountaineering and around 64.7 percent come for entertainment, holidays and travel. The share of pilgrims is 12.9 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lumbini emerged as the main choice of domestic and foreign tourists in 2022 for religious tourism. The total number of domestic and foreign tourists who visited Lumbini in 2022 was 904,000. This number includes 649,000 Nepalese, 231,000 Indians and 24,000 from other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">About 1,200,000 million tourists arrived in Nepal in 2019, 230,000 tourists in 2020 and 151,000 visitors in 2021. Since 2022, there has been an improvement in tourist arrivals. In 2022, a total of 614,869 tourists have visited Nepal. According to the data of Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 404,231 tourists arrived in Nepal in 5 months of 2023.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17954', 'image' => '20230620011442_20220704124518_tournba.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18222', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Errors in Budget can be Corrected: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. Speaking at the 66th Annual General Meeting of Morang Merchants’ Association (MMA), Mahat said, “I reckon this budget is not extremely outstanding and may have some errors and they can be corrected.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Defending the VAT imposed on potatoes and onions, Mahat said, “Can you call Nepal an agricultural country and import potatoes and onions?” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He explained that VAT has been imposed on potatoes and onions so that local farmers' products can get a market and become self-reliant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the industrialists opposed the policy of imposing 10 percent customs duty on raw materials for vegetable ghee and oil industry.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat mentioned that the allocation of capital expenditure has decreased and said that the size of the budget has decreased due to internal and external debt and their interest obligations. He said that although the capital expenditure is currently 17 percent, if the amount spent at the local level is added, it will be 27 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat claimed that the size of the development budget is small due to social security, various types of concessions and allowances, capital interest and employee salaries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He claims that after Nepal Rastra Bank issues the monetary policy, the interest rate will decrease, the economy will become more viable and the revenue will increase.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He assured that the government will make efforts to turn Biratnagar into an economic hub. Terming the budget of Rs 120 million allocated for Biratnagar ring road as low, Minister Mahat said it can be increased by 4 folds by ensuring resources.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17953', 'image' => '20230620121418_20230402035731_1680390939.prakash sharan mahat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18223', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Death Toll from Floods and Landslides Climbs to Six', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the Nepal Police, three persons died in natural disasters in Taplejung and one each in Paanchthar, Sankhuwasabha and Nuwakot districts. Issuing a bulletin, the police headquarters said the five of the victims were male and one was female.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, three persons were injured in floods and landslide in Sankhuwasabha, two in Taplejung and one in Paanchthar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal Police Spokesperson DIG Kuber Kadayat shared that a total of 29 people—21 in Sankhuwasabha, three in Taplejung and five in Panchthar are still missing in landslide and floods. Search for the missing is underway, he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thirty-five houses, 10 huts, 13 bridges, five industries and two government offices suffered damages. A total of 67 domestic cattle perished while 97 families have been displaced due to the natural disaster. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Police personnel in coordination with different bodies and locals have been carrying out activities to shift the families, which are vulnerable to landslide and flood, to safer places. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17952', 'image' => '20230620122813_RK_PACHTHAR (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:27:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18221', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Earthquake in Darchula ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. The earthquake occurred at 4:55 am with its epicenter at Khandeshowri in the district, according to the National Seismological Centre, Lainchour. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier on June 12, the earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale was recorded in Bajura district. Earthquakes have been occurring frequently in western parts of Nepal in recent months. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17951', 'image' => '20230620111902_earth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 11:18:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18220', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Machhapuchhre Bank and PABSON Sign Agreement For Financial and Digital Literacy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 20: The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Santosh Koirala and PABSON President DK Dhunagana signed the agreement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On the occasion, Guruprasad Paudel, the Executive Director of the Nepal Rastra Bank, said that literacy programme in schools will not only help students but also to their parents.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dr. Upendra Mahato, the Chairman of the bank, said that incorporating banking education in textbooks on school-level textbooks would play an important role. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dhungana, the President of PABSON, mentioned that PABSON has included banking education in its academic calendar.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17950', 'image' => '20230620060931_collage (35).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 06:07:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18219', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'France’s Aviation Authority to Help Enhance Nepal’s Air Safety', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">June 20: Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt"> The agreement, aimed at enhancing Nepal's air safety, was formalized through the signing of a four-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Paris, the capital of France on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">Pradeep Adhikari, the Director General of CAAN, and Damien Caze, representing the French civil aviation authority, had signed the Memorandum of Understanding.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">As per the agreement, the French aviation authority will help improve quality of Nepal’s air safety including technical capacity building and training.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17949', 'image' => '20230620054405_collage (32).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 05:42:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18218', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB ‘Preparing’ to Issue its own Digital Currency ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank's executive director, Guru Prasad Paudel, confirmed that the NRB is making preparations for issuing its own digital currency and is currently studying the requirements. According to Paudel, 11 countries in the world have their digital own currency so far.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made such remarks at a programme organised to sign a Memorandum of Understanding about finance and digital literacy between the Machhapuchhre Bank and the Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The latest data show a significant volume of digital transactions. On an average, Nepal sees monthly digital transactions of Rs 40 billion. In the month of Baisakh (mid April-mid to mid-May), 8.6 million people made transactions worth over Rs 26 billion through QR codes. The use of digital transactions is increasing, suggesting the need for issuing a digital currency, NRB officials said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB is observing the current fiscal year as the Digital Payment Promotion Year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-19', 'modified' => '2023-06-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17948', 'image' => '20230619074931_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-19 19:48:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $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
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and landslides. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Residents of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality and Yamphudin village have been compelled to live in darkness after the disasters destroyed the infrastructures of the micro hydro power stations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of five hydro power stations at ward no 3 and 4 in Maiwakhola Rural Municipality were swept away by the floods and landslides, said chairperson of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality, Bijay Prakash Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The power generation capacity of these micro hydro power stations ranged from 19 kilowatt to 64 kilowatt. Maangmaya 1 and Maangmaya 2, Thadekhola, Lodamba and Yamphewa micro hydro power stations were completely damaged, shared chairperson Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, power stations generating electricity from the Tumya Khola (River) and Kabeli Khola (River) in Sirijunga Rural Municipality in the district were also swept by the disaster affecting 170 households in the village, shared Krishna Gurung, ward no 8 chairperson of Sirijunga Rural Municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Communication services in the disaster-hit areas have been adversely affected due to the prolonged absence of electricity, said ward chairperson Gurung. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17962', 'image' => '20230621113247_SP_Taplejung-IMG-20230618-WA0012__01__01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:31:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18231', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'KMC asks IRD to Return House Rent Taxes to the Local Level ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC argued that the responsibility of collecting house rent taxes fall within the jurisdiction of the metropolis as per the provisions of the constitution and law. According to the KMC, the department is collecting institutional house rent taxes instead of the metropolis. A letter written by the KMC Mayor Balendra Shah to the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission states that the department should return the taxes it collected to the metropolis. "The metropolis is only collecting private house rent taxes," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the metropolis has had to bear a loss of Rs 1.43 billion because the IRD has been collecting the institutional house rent taxes, the KMC mayor also requested the commission to compensate for the loss. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I make a humble request to the respected commission to take required initiatives for the department to return the house rent taxes collected so far to the metropolis and ensure the jurisdiction of the local level to collect house rent taxes. This interference by the department is not acceptable to the metropolis," reads the letter. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17961', 'image' => '20230621110115_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:00:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18230', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dhading Zipline Becoming Tourist Hotspot', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">With its impressive length of 1,200 meters, it is considered one of the steepest and second longest ziplines in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline has successfully drawn in around 4,000 tourists within a single year, as reported by Pratyush Lama, the zipline manager. The adventure sport was inaugurated on April 20, 2022, by Shalikram Jamarkattel, the former Minister for Financial Affairs and Planning of Bagmati Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">However, like many other businesses, the resort and zipline have faced challenges due to the current economic conditions, resulting in a recent decline in customer numbers, as mentioned by the resort operator. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To counter this setback, there are plans to expand the existing nine-room resort and construct a swimming pool.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For those seeking this exhilarating adventure, the zipline charges Rs 3,500 per person, according to Bikash Bhandari, the zipline technician. Additionally, there is a 25 percent discount available along with various package options.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline itself consists of a pulley system suspended on a stainless steel cable, mounted on a slope. It is open to individuals above the age of 10, with a precautionary advisory for people with high blood pressure to avoid riding it. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline experiences high demand on public holidays, especially Saturdays, attracting crowds of visitors. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The entire resort and zipline cover a total area of 127 ropanis, with a total investment of approximately Rs 270 million, including Rs 20 million specifically allocated to the zipline, according to resort manager Lama. (RSS)</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17960', 'image' => '20230621060724_collage (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 06:04:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18229', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Minister Basnet Proposes Tax Increase on Tobacco Products Soon', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">During a meeting with a delegation from the Health and Population Department of the CPN (UML), the Minister emphasized that the increased taxes would be allocated towards providing medical treatment for individuals who cannot afford the cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged that the current tax rates on tobacco products are lower than the standards set by the World Health Organization. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">By raising taxes, the prices of tobacco products would increase, potentially reducing consumption. The revenue generated from these taxes would be utilized to establish a fund to support the medical needs of the underprivileged community.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Expressing concerns over the emigration of medical professionals, Minister Basnet highlighted the challenges faced by doctors and nurses who leave Nepal in search of better remuneration and facilities abroad. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The government has already issued a directive to allocate 10 percent of hospital beds for the treatment of needy patients. Violations of this directive will be subject to punishment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Furthermore, the government is actively working to recall 800 employees who are currently serving in different positions on deputation within the Ministry. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Krishna Gopal Shrestha, the Chief of the Health and Population Department of the CPN-UML and a lawmaker, submitted an 11-point memorandum to the Minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum emphasizes the importance of delivering quality healthcare services to citizens and outlines various demands, including the proper implementation of the provision for 10 percent free treatment in hospitals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum of the understanding demands for improved access to healthcare for chronic diseases, effective implementation of the health insurance program, and the establishment of basic health facilities at 396 local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Other demands include accessible dialysis and surgery services, the swift enactment of the Federal Health Service Act, and the promotion of safety for healthcare professionals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum also stresses the necessity of government initiatives to prevent diseases such as diarrhea, measles, and dengue, as well as preparedness for water-induced disasters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged the concerns raised in the memorandum and assured the delegation that the government would take appropriate action to address these issues effectively. (RSS)</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17959', 'image' => '20230621055244_collage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 05:50:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18228', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Slashes Aviation Fuel Price', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). The selling price of aviation fuel for domestic flights has been reduced by Rs 10 per liter. ATF for domestic flights now costs Rs 150 per liter, according to the Nepal Oil Corporation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the selling price of ATF for international flights has been reduced by USD 200 per kiloliter (about Rs 26 per liter). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the NOC, prices of other petroleum products have remained unchanged. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17958', 'image' => '20230620112904_20230525064255_Nepal-Airlines-1-3.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 23:25:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18227', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fiscal Management of Provinces Dependent on Federal Transfers rather than their own Resources ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Except for the Koshi provincial government which brought its annual budget through an ordinance, the rest of the six provinces have already presented the Finance Bill along with the Appropriation Bill in their respective Province Assembly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koshi Province made some changes in its revenue policy through an ordinance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Looking at the resource management of the provincial governments, resource collected from their own revenue sources is less while it is more dependent on fiscal transfers and revenue distribution from the federal government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Therefore, the provinces have emphasized on expanding both the tax rate and its coverage in order to increase the proportion of the internal revenue. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provinces have the rights over determining the vehicle tax, houses and land registration tax, tourism fees, advertisement tax, tax on agricultural income, service charges and fines and other surcharges. The provinces have been making their revenue policy every year incorporating these sectors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In their revenue policies, the provinces have given main priority to making the internal sources more effective by expanding the tax ambit for the economic activities falling under their exclusive rights. They have also focused on making the tax system convenient and technology-friendly, tax rate up-to-date by revising the tax structure and controlling tax evasion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the provincial governments have included in their Finance Bill provisions such as exemption on registration and transfer of vehicles, discouraging the use of motor vehicles older than 20 years, making the land and house registration and transfer easier, providing some exemption on the registration and transfer of land used for production and exemption on the fine to commercial firms failing to renew registration for a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The combined budgets of the seven provinces for the next fiscal year amount to Rs 305.46 billion, which is nearly 17 percent higher than the current fiscal year’s budget. All provinces presented their budgets targeting economic recovery. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bagmati has the biggest financial outlay of all seven provinces while Karnali presented the smallest financing plan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Most of the provinces have set aside a big chunk of their budgets for infrastructure development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17957', 'image' => '20230620030224_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 15:01:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18226', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Committee Directs Government to Resume Issuance of Stock Brokers License', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the committee on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Finance, the Securities Board of Nepal and Nepal Stock Exchange to go ahead with the issuance of license by fulfilling the due process and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee’s senior-most member Santosh Chalise said that the directive has been issued to provide the license to the stock brokers and traders by fulfilling the criteria and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Finance Committee on June 12 had stopped the process of issuing the broker license, saying an investigation was required whether or not the minimum criteria had been fulfilled while issuing the license to the stock brokers and traders. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The board had issued stock dealer and broker license to 18 companies, including seven companies on May 22 and 11 companies on June 5. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Committee had issued directive to stop the process for issuing license, arguing that an investigation was required whether these companies that acquired license fulfilled the minimum criteria. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, the committee members put their views in favour of carrying out works by keeping competition, transparency and openness in priority in an open market economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Former Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel suggested resuming the license process by fulfilling the due process, procedures, laws and standards. He urged the Finance Ministry and the SEEBON to be accountable and responsible on the questions raised in the parliament and the parliamentary committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee member and former Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki stressed on the need of making the stock market dynamic as per the law and in a transparent manner for the benefit of the society. He also drew the attention of the committee to carry out serious discussions on the country's economic situation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON Chair Ramesh Hamal claimed that the licenses have been issued to the stock brokers and traders in a transparent manner and that there was no weakness anywhere in this process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Supreme Court had also given a go-ahead for the licensing process for the stock traders before this. The Supreme Court decision on April 9 had paved the way for issuing new stock broker and trader license for new stock company, commodity market and stock transactions. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17956', 'image' => '20230620024101_Parliament RSS 800.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 14:40:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18225', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Problems in System Causing Power Cuts: Kulman Ghising', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA informed that although it is natural to have problems in the system during the rainy season, some districts of central and western Nepal have seen unnatural problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the increase in heat throughout the country last week, the demand for electricity increased, but some complications have arisen in the system and efforts have been made to solve those problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In a press conference organized by the NEA on Monday, Ghising said, "The problem is also increasing due to the delay in construction of transmission line, distribution system and substation. The authority alone cannot do everything to solve it. Everyone's support and cooperation is necessary."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the obstruction of the local people in the construction of the transmission line is the most complicated, he complained that even the decision made by the Council of Ministers was not implemented by the Ministry of Forests and Environment and its subordinate agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, executive director Ghising said that although the cabinet has approved the land use and cutting of trees on the Hetauda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission line, the Ministry of Forest has not yet made a decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the obstructions in the construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inruwa and the Hetaunda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission lines, the electricity from the east could not be supplied to West Nepal. At present, only a 132 kV capacity transmission line is in operation in that area.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line of 400 KV capacity under construction has been obstructed by the local people and the forest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the incessant rains in Eastern Nepal since Saturday evening, almost 100 megawatts of the Kabeli Corridor could not be connected to the national grid. He said that even though the authority is trying to increase internal consumption, there is an obligation to sell the excess electricity during the rainy season.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, the total electricity generation capacity of Nepal is 2700 megawatts, but only 2000 megawatts of electricity is available in the system. He said that even though there is an increase in demand for electricity in the evening and in the summer time, there is a situation where electricity is wasted at night, so electricity has been exported to India to manage it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He also dismissed the accusation made against the NEA that it was exporting electricity to India by cutting the domestic supply. He made it clear that NEA has been selling only surplus electricity to India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It was also found that unnecessary comments were made that electricity was sold to India by cutting supply within the country. We are exporting electricity because it is done so that we can sell electricity rather than waste it.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17955', 'image' => '20230620014958_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:49:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18224', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Duration of Tourists' Stay Declining', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. The average length of stay of tourists increased in the previous two years, but is now going downhill.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The average stay of tourists in Nepal never reached 15 days in the last decade except for 2020 and 2021 – the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic period when the average stay of tourists in Nepal had reached 15 days, according to the Economic Survey 2079/80 published by the Ministry of Finance. However, in 2022, when the pandemic subsided and arrival of tourists gradually improved, the length of stay decreased. According to the economic survey, the average stay of tourists dropped to 13.1 days in 2022, which was 15.1 days in 2020 and 15.5 days in 2021.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Nepal Tourism Statistics 2021' released by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation also shows that tourists stayed in Nepal for the longest period of time in the last decade. In other years, the average length of stay was 12 to 13.5 days. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Binayak Shah says that due to the standards introduced by the government to avoid and prevent the spread of Covid-19 including mandatory quarantine, the length of stay of tourists had increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shah, more tourists came from neighboring countries as the Covid-19 gradually decreased. As they went to destinations like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, the length of their stay decreased. According to the economic survey, 10 percent of the total tourists come for adventure trekking/mountaineering and around 64.7 percent come for entertainment, holidays and travel. The share of pilgrims is 12.9 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lumbini emerged as the main choice of domestic and foreign tourists in 2022 for religious tourism. The total number of domestic and foreign tourists who visited Lumbini in 2022 was 904,000. This number includes 649,000 Nepalese, 231,000 Indians and 24,000 from other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">About 1,200,000 million tourists arrived in Nepal in 2019, 230,000 tourists in 2020 and 151,000 visitors in 2021. Since 2022, there has been an improvement in tourist arrivals. In 2022, a total of 614,869 tourists have visited Nepal. According to the data of Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 404,231 tourists arrived in Nepal in 5 months of 2023.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17954', 'image' => '20230620011442_20220704124518_tournba.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18222', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Errors in Budget can be Corrected: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. Speaking at the 66th Annual General Meeting of Morang Merchants’ Association (MMA), Mahat said, “I reckon this budget is not extremely outstanding and may have some errors and they can be corrected.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Defending the VAT imposed on potatoes and onions, Mahat said, “Can you call Nepal an agricultural country and import potatoes and onions?” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He explained that VAT has been imposed on potatoes and onions so that local farmers' products can get a market and become self-reliant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the industrialists opposed the policy of imposing 10 percent customs duty on raw materials for vegetable ghee and oil industry.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat mentioned that the allocation of capital expenditure has decreased and said that the size of the budget has decreased due to internal and external debt and their interest obligations. He said that although the capital expenditure is currently 17 percent, if the amount spent at the local level is added, it will be 27 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat claimed that the size of the development budget is small due to social security, various types of concessions and allowances, capital interest and employee salaries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He claims that after Nepal Rastra Bank issues the monetary policy, the interest rate will decrease, the economy will become more viable and the revenue will increase.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He assured that the government will make efforts to turn Biratnagar into an economic hub. Terming the budget of Rs 120 million allocated for Biratnagar ring road as low, Minister Mahat said it can be increased by 4 folds by ensuring resources.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17953', 'image' => '20230620121418_20230402035731_1680390939.prakash sharan mahat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18223', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Death Toll from Floods and Landslides Climbs to Six', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the Nepal Police, three persons died in natural disasters in Taplejung and one each in Paanchthar, Sankhuwasabha and Nuwakot districts. Issuing a bulletin, the police headquarters said the five of the victims were male and one was female.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, three persons were injured in floods and landslide in Sankhuwasabha, two in Taplejung and one in Paanchthar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal Police Spokesperson DIG Kuber Kadayat shared that a total of 29 people—21 in Sankhuwasabha, three in Taplejung and five in Panchthar are still missing in landslide and floods. Search for the missing is underway, he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thirty-five houses, 10 huts, 13 bridges, five industries and two government offices suffered damages. A total of 67 domestic cattle perished while 97 families have been displaced due to the natural disaster. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Police personnel in coordination with different bodies and locals have been carrying out activities to shift the families, which are vulnerable to landslide and flood, to safer places. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17952', 'image' => '20230620122813_RK_PACHTHAR (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:27:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18221', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Earthquake in Darchula ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. The earthquake occurred at 4:55 am with its epicenter at Khandeshowri in the district, according to the National Seismological Centre, Lainchour. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier on June 12, the earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale was recorded in Bajura district. Earthquakes have been occurring frequently in western parts of Nepal in recent months. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17951', 'image' => '20230620111902_earth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 11:18:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18220', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Machhapuchhre Bank and PABSON Sign Agreement For Financial and Digital Literacy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 20: The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Santosh Koirala and PABSON President DK Dhunagana signed the agreement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On the occasion, Guruprasad Paudel, the Executive Director of the Nepal Rastra Bank, said that literacy programme in schools will not only help students but also to their parents.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dr. Upendra Mahato, the Chairman of the bank, said that incorporating banking education in textbooks on school-level textbooks would play an important role. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dhungana, the President of PABSON, mentioned that PABSON has included banking education in its academic calendar.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17950', 'image' => '20230620060931_collage (35).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 06:07:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18219', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'France’s Aviation Authority to Help Enhance Nepal’s Air Safety', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">June 20: Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt"> The agreement, aimed at enhancing Nepal's air safety, was formalized through the signing of a four-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Paris, the capital of France on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">Pradeep Adhikari, the Director General of CAAN, and Damien Caze, representing the French civil aviation authority, had signed the Memorandum of Understanding.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">As per the agreement, the French aviation authority will help improve quality of Nepal’s air safety including technical capacity building and training.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17949', 'image' => '20230620054405_collage (32).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 05:42:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18218', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB ‘Preparing’ to Issue its own Digital Currency ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank's executive director, Guru Prasad Paudel, confirmed that the NRB is making preparations for issuing its own digital currency and is currently studying the requirements. According to Paudel, 11 countries in the world have their digital own currency so far.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made such remarks at a programme organised to sign a Memorandum of Understanding about finance and digital literacy between the Machhapuchhre Bank and the Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The latest data show a significant volume of digital transactions. On an average, Nepal sees monthly digital transactions of Rs 40 billion. In the month of Baisakh (mid April-mid to mid-May), 8.6 million people made transactions worth over Rs 26 billion through QR codes. The use of digital transactions is increasing, suggesting the need for issuing a digital currency, NRB officials said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB is observing the current fiscal year as the Digital Payment Promotion Year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-19', 'modified' => '2023-06-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17948', 'image' => '20230619074931_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-19 19:48:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $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
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$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' => '18232', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Villages in Taplejung Shrouded in Darkness after 7 Micro Hydro Power Stations Swept Away ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and landslides. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and landslides. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Residents of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality and Yamphudin village have been compelled to live in darkness after the disasters destroyed the infrastructures of the micro hydro power stations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of five hydro power stations at ward no 3 and 4 in Maiwakhola Rural Municipality were swept away by the floods and landslides, said chairperson of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality, Bijay Prakash Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The power generation capacity of these micro hydro power stations ranged from 19 kilowatt to 64 kilowatt. Maangmaya 1 and Maangmaya 2, Thadekhola, Lodamba and Yamphewa micro hydro power stations were completely damaged, shared chairperson Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, power stations generating electricity from the Tumya Khola (River) and Kabeli Khola (River) in Sirijunga Rural Municipality in the district were also swept by the disaster affecting 170 households in the village, shared Krishna Gurung, ward no 8 chairperson of Sirijunga Rural Municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Communication services in the disaster-hit areas have been adversely affected due to the prolonged absence of electricity, said ward chairperson Gurung. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17962', 'image' => '20230621113247_SP_Taplejung-IMG-20230618-WA0012__01__01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:31:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18231', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'KMC asks IRD to Return House Rent Taxes to the Local Level ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC argued that the responsibility of collecting house rent taxes fall within the jurisdiction of the metropolis as per the provisions of the constitution and law. According to the KMC, the department is collecting institutional house rent taxes instead of the metropolis. A letter written by the KMC Mayor Balendra Shah to the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission states that the department should return the taxes it collected to the metropolis. "The metropolis is only collecting private house rent taxes," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the metropolis has had to bear a loss of Rs 1.43 billion because the IRD has been collecting the institutional house rent taxes, the KMC mayor also requested the commission to compensate for the loss. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I make a humble request to the respected commission to take required initiatives for the department to return the house rent taxes collected so far to the metropolis and ensure the jurisdiction of the local level to collect house rent taxes. This interference by the department is not acceptable to the metropolis," reads the letter. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17961', 'image' => '20230621110115_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:00:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18230', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dhading Zipline Becoming Tourist Hotspot', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">With its impressive length of 1,200 meters, it is considered one of the steepest and second longest ziplines in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline has successfully drawn in around 4,000 tourists within a single year, as reported by Pratyush Lama, the zipline manager. The adventure sport was inaugurated on April 20, 2022, by Shalikram Jamarkattel, the former Minister for Financial Affairs and Planning of Bagmati Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">However, like many other businesses, the resort and zipline have faced challenges due to the current economic conditions, resulting in a recent decline in customer numbers, as mentioned by the resort operator. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To counter this setback, there are plans to expand the existing nine-room resort and construct a swimming pool.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For those seeking this exhilarating adventure, the zipline charges Rs 3,500 per person, according to Bikash Bhandari, the zipline technician. Additionally, there is a 25 percent discount available along with various package options.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline itself consists of a pulley system suspended on a stainless steel cable, mounted on a slope. It is open to individuals above the age of 10, with a precautionary advisory for people with high blood pressure to avoid riding it. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline experiences high demand on public holidays, especially Saturdays, attracting crowds of visitors. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The entire resort and zipline cover a total area of 127 ropanis, with a total investment of approximately Rs 270 million, including Rs 20 million specifically allocated to the zipline, according to resort manager Lama. (RSS)</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17960', 'image' => '20230621060724_collage (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 06:04:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18229', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Minister Basnet Proposes Tax Increase on Tobacco Products Soon', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">During a meeting with a delegation from the Health and Population Department of the CPN (UML), the Minister emphasized that the increased taxes would be allocated towards providing medical treatment for individuals who cannot afford the cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged that the current tax rates on tobacco products are lower than the standards set by the World Health Organization. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">By raising taxes, the prices of tobacco products would increase, potentially reducing consumption. The revenue generated from these taxes would be utilized to establish a fund to support the medical needs of the underprivileged community.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Expressing concerns over the emigration of medical professionals, Minister Basnet highlighted the challenges faced by doctors and nurses who leave Nepal in search of better remuneration and facilities abroad. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The government has already issued a directive to allocate 10 percent of hospital beds for the treatment of needy patients. Violations of this directive will be subject to punishment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Furthermore, the government is actively working to recall 800 employees who are currently serving in different positions on deputation within the Ministry. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Krishna Gopal Shrestha, the Chief of the Health and Population Department of the CPN-UML and a lawmaker, submitted an 11-point memorandum to the Minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum emphasizes the importance of delivering quality healthcare services to citizens and outlines various demands, including the proper implementation of the provision for 10 percent free treatment in hospitals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum of the understanding demands for improved access to healthcare for chronic diseases, effective implementation of the health insurance program, and the establishment of basic health facilities at 396 local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Other demands include accessible dialysis and surgery services, the swift enactment of the Federal Health Service Act, and the promotion of safety for healthcare professionals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum also stresses the necessity of government initiatives to prevent diseases such as diarrhea, measles, and dengue, as well as preparedness for water-induced disasters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged the concerns raised in the memorandum and assured the delegation that the government would take appropriate action to address these issues effectively. (RSS)</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17959', 'image' => '20230621055244_collage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 05:50:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18228', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Slashes Aviation Fuel Price', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). The selling price of aviation fuel for domestic flights has been reduced by Rs 10 per liter. ATF for domestic flights now costs Rs 150 per liter, according to the Nepal Oil Corporation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the selling price of ATF for international flights has been reduced by USD 200 per kiloliter (about Rs 26 per liter). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the NOC, prices of other petroleum products have remained unchanged. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17958', 'image' => '20230620112904_20230525064255_Nepal-Airlines-1-3.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 23:25:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18227', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fiscal Management of Provinces Dependent on Federal Transfers rather than their own Resources ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Except for the Koshi provincial government which brought its annual budget through an ordinance, the rest of the six provinces have already presented the Finance Bill along with the Appropriation Bill in their respective Province Assembly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koshi Province made some changes in its revenue policy through an ordinance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Looking at the resource management of the provincial governments, resource collected from their own revenue sources is less while it is more dependent on fiscal transfers and revenue distribution from the federal government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Therefore, the provinces have emphasized on expanding both the tax rate and its coverage in order to increase the proportion of the internal revenue. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provinces have the rights over determining the vehicle tax, houses and land registration tax, tourism fees, advertisement tax, tax on agricultural income, service charges and fines and other surcharges. The provinces have been making their revenue policy every year incorporating these sectors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In their revenue policies, the provinces have given main priority to making the internal sources more effective by expanding the tax ambit for the economic activities falling under their exclusive rights. They have also focused on making the tax system convenient and technology-friendly, tax rate up-to-date by revising the tax structure and controlling tax evasion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the provincial governments have included in their Finance Bill provisions such as exemption on registration and transfer of vehicles, discouraging the use of motor vehicles older than 20 years, making the land and house registration and transfer easier, providing some exemption on the registration and transfer of land used for production and exemption on the fine to commercial firms failing to renew registration for a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The combined budgets of the seven provinces for the next fiscal year amount to Rs 305.46 billion, which is nearly 17 percent higher than the current fiscal year’s budget. All provinces presented their budgets targeting economic recovery. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bagmati has the biggest financial outlay of all seven provinces while Karnali presented the smallest financing plan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Most of the provinces have set aside a big chunk of their budgets for infrastructure development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17957', 'image' => '20230620030224_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 15:01:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18226', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Committee Directs Government to Resume Issuance of Stock Brokers License', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the committee on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Finance, the Securities Board of Nepal and Nepal Stock Exchange to go ahead with the issuance of license by fulfilling the due process and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee’s senior-most member Santosh Chalise said that the directive has been issued to provide the license to the stock brokers and traders by fulfilling the criteria and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Finance Committee on June 12 had stopped the process of issuing the broker license, saying an investigation was required whether or not the minimum criteria had been fulfilled while issuing the license to the stock brokers and traders. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The board had issued stock dealer and broker license to 18 companies, including seven companies on May 22 and 11 companies on June 5. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Committee had issued directive to stop the process for issuing license, arguing that an investigation was required whether these companies that acquired license fulfilled the minimum criteria. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, the committee members put their views in favour of carrying out works by keeping competition, transparency and openness in priority in an open market economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Former Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel suggested resuming the license process by fulfilling the due process, procedures, laws and standards. He urged the Finance Ministry and the SEEBON to be accountable and responsible on the questions raised in the parliament and the parliamentary committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee member and former Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki stressed on the need of making the stock market dynamic as per the law and in a transparent manner for the benefit of the society. He also drew the attention of the committee to carry out serious discussions on the country's economic situation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON Chair Ramesh Hamal claimed that the licenses have been issued to the stock brokers and traders in a transparent manner and that there was no weakness anywhere in this process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Supreme Court had also given a go-ahead for the licensing process for the stock traders before this. The Supreme Court decision on April 9 had paved the way for issuing new stock broker and trader license for new stock company, commodity market and stock transactions. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17956', 'image' => '20230620024101_Parliament RSS 800.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 14:40:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18225', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Problems in System Causing Power Cuts: Kulman Ghising', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA informed that although it is natural to have problems in the system during the rainy season, some districts of central and western Nepal have seen unnatural problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the increase in heat throughout the country last week, the demand for electricity increased, but some complications have arisen in the system and efforts have been made to solve those problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In a press conference organized by the NEA on Monday, Ghising said, "The problem is also increasing due to the delay in construction of transmission line, distribution system and substation. The authority alone cannot do everything to solve it. Everyone's support and cooperation is necessary."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the obstruction of the local people in the construction of the transmission line is the most complicated, he complained that even the decision made by the Council of Ministers was not implemented by the Ministry of Forests and Environment and its subordinate agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, executive director Ghising said that although the cabinet has approved the land use and cutting of trees on the Hetauda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission line, the Ministry of Forest has not yet made a decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the obstructions in the construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inruwa and the Hetaunda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission lines, the electricity from the east could not be supplied to West Nepal. At present, only a 132 kV capacity transmission line is in operation in that area.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line of 400 KV capacity under construction has been obstructed by the local people and the forest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the incessant rains in Eastern Nepal since Saturday evening, almost 100 megawatts of the Kabeli Corridor could not be connected to the national grid. He said that even though the authority is trying to increase internal consumption, there is an obligation to sell the excess electricity during the rainy season.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, the total electricity generation capacity of Nepal is 2700 megawatts, but only 2000 megawatts of electricity is available in the system. He said that even though there is an increase in demand for electricity in the evening and in the summer time, there is a situation where electricity is wasted at night, so electricity has been exported to India to manage it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He also dismissed the accusation made against the NEA that it was exporting electricity to India by cutting the domestic supply. He made it clear that NEA has been selling only surplus electricity to India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It was also found that unnecessary comments were made that electricity was sold to India by cutting supply within the country. We are exporting electricity because it is done so that we can sell electricity rather than waste it.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17955', 'image' => '20230620014958_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:49:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18224', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Duration of Tourists' Stay Declining', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. The average length of stay of tourists increased in the previous two years, but is now going downhill.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The average stay of tourists in Nepal never reached 15 days in the last decade except for 2020 and 2021 – the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic period when the average stay of tourists in Nepal had reached 15 days, according to the Economic Survey 2079/80 published by the Ministry of Finance. However, in 2022, when the pandemic subsided and arrival of tourists gradually improved, the length of stay decreased. According to the economic survey, the average stay of tourists dropped to 13.1 days in 2022, which was 15.1 days in 2020 and 15.5 days in 2021.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Nepal Tourism Statistics 2021' released by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation also shows that tourists stayed in Nepal for the longest period of time in the last decade. In other years, the average length of stay was 12 to 13.5 days. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Binayak Shah says that due to the standards introduced by the government to avoid and prevent the spread of Covid-19 including mandatory quarantine, the length of stay of tourists had increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shah, more tourists came from neighboring countries as the Covid-19 gradually decreased. As they went to destinations like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, the length of their stay decreased. According to the economic survey, 10 percent of the total tourists come for adventure trekking/mountaineering and around 64.7 percent come for entertainment, holidays and travel. The share of pilgrims is 12.9 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lumbini emerged as the main choice of domestic and foreign tourists in 2022 for religious tourism. The total number of domestic and foreign tourists who visited Lumbini in 2022 was 904,000. This number includes 649,000 Nepalese, 231,000 Indians and 24,000 from other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">About 1,200,000 million tourists arrived in Nepal in 2019, 230,000 tourists in 2020 and 151,000 visitors in 2021. Since 2022, there has been an improvement in tourist arrivals. In 2022, a total of 614,869 tourists have visited Nepal. According to the data of Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 404,231 tourists arrived in Nepal in 5 months of 2023.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17954', 'image' => '20230620011442_20220704124518_tournba.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18222', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Errors in Budget can be Corrected: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. Speaking at the 66th Annual General Meeting of Morang Merchants’ Association (MMA), Mahat said, “I reckon this budget is not extremely outstanding and may have some errors and they can be corrected.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Defending the VAT imposed on potatoes and onions, Mahat said, “Can you call Nepal an agricultural country and import potatoes and onions?” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He explained that VAT has been imposed on potatoes and onions so that local farmers' products can get a market and become self-reliant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the industrialists opposed the policy of imposing 10 percent customs duty on raw materials for vegetable ghee and oil industry.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat mentioned that the allocation of capital expenditure has decreased and said that the size of the budget has decreased due to internal and external debt and their interest obligations. He said that although the capital expenditure is currently 17 percent, if the amount spent at the local level is added, it will be 27 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat claimed that the size of the development budget is small due to social security, various types of concessions and allowances, capital interest and employee salaries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He claims that after Nepal Rastra Bank issues the monetary policy, the interest rate will decrease, the economy will become more viable and the revenue will increase.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He assured that the government will make efforts to turn Biratnagar into an economic hub. Terming the budget of Rs 120 million allocated for Biratnagar ring road as low, Minister Mahat said it can be increased by 4 folds by ensuring resources.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17953', 'image' => '20230620121418_20230402035731_1680390939.prakash sharan mahat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18223', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Death Toll from Floods and Landslides Climbs to Six', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the Nepal Police, three persons died in natural disasters in Taplejung and one each in Paanchthar, Sankhuwasabha and Nuwakot districts. Issuing a bulletin, the police headquarters said the five of the victims were male and one was female.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, three persons were injured in floods and landslide in Sankhuwasabha, two in Taplejung and one in Paanchthar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal Police Spokesperson DIG Kuber Kadayat shared that a total of 29 people—21 in Sankhuwasabha, three in Taplejung and five in Panchthar are still missing in landslide and floods. Search for the missing is underway, he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thirty-five houses, 10 huts, 13 bridges, five industries and two government offices suffered damages. A total of 67 domestic cattle perished while 97 families have been displaced due to the natural disaster. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Police personnel in coordination with different bodies and locals have been carrying out activities to shift the families, which are vulnerable to landslide and flood, to safer places. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17952', 'image' => '20230620122813_RK_PACHTHAR (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:27:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18221', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Earthquake in Darchula ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. The earthquake occurred at 4:55 am with its epicenter at Khandeshowri in the district, according to the National Seismological Centre, Lainchour. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier on June 12, the earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale was recorded in Bajura district. Earthquakes have been occurring frequently in western parts of Nepal in recent months. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17951', 'image' => '20230620111902_earth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 11:18:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18220', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Machhapuchhre Bank and PABSON Sign Agreement For Financial and Digital Literacy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 20: The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Santosh Koirala and PABSON President DK Dhunagana signed the agreement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On the occasion, Guruprasad Paudel, the Executive Director of the Nepal Rastra Bank, said that literacy programme in schools will not only help students but also to their parents.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dr. Upendra Mahato, the Chairman of the bank, said that incorporating banking education in textbooks on school-level textbooks would play an important role. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dhungana, the President of PABSON, mentioned that PABSON has included banking education in its academic calendar.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17950', 'image' => '20230620060931_collage (35).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 06:07:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18219', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'France’s Aviation Authority to Help Enhance Nepal’s Air Safety', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">June 20: Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt"> The agreement, aimed at enhancing Nepal's air safety, was formalized through the signing of a four-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Paris, the capital of France on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">Pradeep Adhikari, the Director General of CAAN, and Damien Caze, representing the French civil aviation authority, had signed the Memorandum of Understanding.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">As per the agreement, the French aviation authority will help improve quality of Nepal’s air safety including technical capacity building and training.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17949', 'image' => '20230620054405_collage (32).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 05:42:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18218', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB ‘Preparing’ to Issue its own Digital Currency ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank's executive director, Guru Prasad Paudel, confirmed that the NRB is making preparations for issuing its own digital currency and is currently studying the requirements. According to Paudel, 11 countries in the world have their digital own currency so far.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made such remarks at a programme organised to sign a Memorandum of Understanding about finance and digital literacy between the Machhapuchhre Bank and the Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The latest data show a significant volume of digital transactions. On an average, Nepal sees monthly digital transactions of Rs 40 billion. In the month of Baisakh (mid April-mid to mid-May), 8.6 million people made transactions worth over Rs 26 billion through QR codes. The use of digital transactions is increasing, suggesting the need for issuing a digital currency, NRB officials said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB is observing the current fiscal year as the Digital Payment Promotion Year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-19', 'modified' => '2023-06-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17948', 'image' => '20230619074931_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-19 19:48:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $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:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: Two villages in Taplejung district have remained in darkness since last Friday after the seven micro hydro power stations were swept away by rain-triggered floods and landslides. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Residents of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality and Yamphudin village have been compelled to live in darkness after the disasters destroyed the infrastructures of the micro hydro power stations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A total of five hydro power stations at ward no 3 and 4 in Maiwakhola Rural Municipality were swept away by the floods and landslides, said chairperson of Maiwakhola Rural Municipality, Bijay Prakash Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The power generation capacity of these micro hydro power stations ranged from 19 kilowatt to 64 kilowatt. Maangmaya 1 and Maangmaya 2, Thadekhola, Lodamba and Yamphewa micro hydro power stations were completely damaged, shared chairperson Banem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, power stations generating electricity from the Tumya Khola (River) and Kabeli Khola (River) in Sirijunga Rural Municipality in the district were also swept by the disaster affecting 170 households in the village, shared Krishna Gurung, ward no 8 chairperson of Sirijunga Rural Municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Communication services in the disaster-hit areas have been adversely affected due to the prolonged absence of electricity, said ward chairperson Gurung. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17962', 'image' => '20230621113247_SP_Taplejung-IMG-20230618-WA0012__01__01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:31:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18231', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'KMC asks IRD to Return House Rent Taxes to the Local Level ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 21: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has written to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) demanding that the latter provides house rent taxes collected to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC argued that the responsibility of collecting house rent taxes fall within the jurisdiction of the metropolis as per the provisions of the constitution and law. According to the KMC, the department is collecting institutional house rent taxes instead of the metropolis. A letter written by the KMC Mayor Balendra Shah to the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission states that the department should return the taxes it collected to the metropolis. "The metropolis is only collecting private house rent taxes," he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the metropolis has had to bear a loss of Rs 1.43 billion because the IRD has been collecting the institutional house rent taxes, the KMC mayor also requested the commission to compensate for the loss. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I make a humble request to the respected commission to take required initiatives for the department to return the house rent taxes collected so far to the metropolis and ensure the jurisdiction of the local level to collect house rent taxes. This interference by the department is not acceptable to the metropolis," reads the letter. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17961', 'image' => '20230621110115_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 11:00:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18230', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dhading Zipline Becoming Tourist Hotspot', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Situated in Satghumti of Thakre Rural Municipality-7 in Dhading district, approximately 27 kilometers away from Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu, the 'Naubise Triumph Organic Resort and Zipline' has become a major attraction for both domestic and international tourists. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">With its impressive length of 1,200 meters, it is considered one of the steepest and second longest ziplines in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline has successfully drawn in around 4,000 tourists within a single year, as reported by Pratyush Lama, the zipline manager. The adventure sport was inaugurated on April 20, 2022, by Shalikram Jamarkattel, the former Minister for Financial Affairs and Planning of Bagmati Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">However, like many other businesses, the resort and zipline have faced challenges due to the current economic conditions, resulting in a recent decline in customer numbers, as mentioned by the resort operator. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To counter this setback, there are plans to expand the existing nine-room resort and construct a swimming pool.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">For those seeking this exhilarating adventure, the zipline charges Rs 3,500 per person, according to Bikash Bhandari, the zipline technician. Additionally, there is a 25 percent discount available along with various package options.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline itself consists of a pulley system suspended on a stainless steel cable, mounted on a slope. It is open to individuals above the age of 10, with a precautionary advisory for people with high blood pressure to avoid riding it. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The zipline experiences high demand on public holidays, especially Saturdays, attracting crowds of visitors. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The entire resort and zipline cover a total area of 127 ropanis, with a total investment of approximately Rs 270 million, including Rs 20 million specifically allocated to the zipline, according to resort manager Lama. (RSS)</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17960', 'image' => '20230621060724_collage (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 06:04:41', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18229', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Minister Basnet Proposes Tax Increase on Tobacco Products Soon', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 21: Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has pledged to submit a proposal to the Council of Ministers to raise taxes on tobacco products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">During a meeting with a delegation from the Health and Population Department of the CPN (UML), the Minister emphasized that the increased taxes would be allocated towards providing medical treatment for individuals who cannot afford the cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged that the current tax rates on tobacco products are lower than the standards set by the World Health Organization. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">By raising taxes, the prices of tobacco products would increase, potentially reducing consumption. The revenue generated from these taxes would be utilized to establish a fund to support the medical needs of the underprivileged community.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Expressing concerns over the emigration of medical professionals, Minister Basnet highlighted the challenges faced by doctors and nurses who leave Nepal in search of better remuneration and facilities abroad. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The government has already issued a directive to allocate 10 percent of hospital beds for the treatment of needy patients. Violations of this directive will be subject to punishment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Furthermore, the government is actively working to recall 800 employees who are currently serving in different positions on deputation within the Ministry. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Krishna Gopal Shrestha, the Chief of the Health and Population Department of the CPN-UML and a lawmaker, submitted an 11-point memorandum to the Minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum emphasizes the importance of delivering quality healthcare services to citizens and outlines various demands, including the proper implementation of the provision for 10 percent free treatment in hospitals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum of the understanding demands for improved access to healthcare for chronic diseases, effective implementation of the health insurance program, and the establishment of basic health facilities at 396 local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Other demands include accessible dialysis and surgery services, the swift enactment of the Federal Health Service Act, and the promotion of safety for healthcare professionals.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The memorandum also stresses the necessity of government initiatives to prevent diseases such as diarrhea, measles, and dengue, as well as preparedness for water-induced disasters. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Minister Basnet acknowledged the concerns raised in the memorandum and assured the delegation that the government would take appropriate action to address these issues effectively. (RSS)</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-21', 'modified' => '2023-06-21', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17959', 'image' => '20230621055244_collage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-21 05:50:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18228', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Slashes Aviation Fuel Price', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The government has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF). The selling price of aviation fuel for domestic flights has been reduced by Rs 10 per liter. ATF for domestic flights now costs Rs 150 per liter, according to the Nepal Oil Corporation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the selling price of ATF for international flights has been reduced by USD 200 per kiloliter (about Rs 26 per liter). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the NOC, prices of other petroleum products have remained unchanged. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17958', 'image' => '20230620112904_20230525064255_Nepal-Airlines-1-3.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 23:25:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18227', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fiscal Management of Provinces Dependent on Federal Transfers rather than their own Resources ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: All seven provinces have already unveiled their budgets for the next fiscal year (FY 2022-23) beginning from mid-July, laying focus on reviving an ailing economy by increasing agricultural production and expanding the social safety net. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Except for the Koshi provincial government which brought its annual budget through an ordinance, the rest of the six provinces have already presented the Finance Bill along with the Appropriation Bill in their respective Province Assembly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Koshi Province made some changes in its revenue policy through an ordinance.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Looking at the resource management of the provincial governments, resource collected from their own revenue sources is less while it is more dependent on fiscal transfers and revenue distribution from the federal government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Therefore, the provinces have emphasized on expanding both the tax rate and its coverage in order to increase the proportion of the internal revenue. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provinces have the rights over determining the vehicle tax, houses and land registration tax, tourism fees, advertisement tax, tax on agricultural income, service charges and fines and other surcharges. The provinces have been making their revenue policy every year incorporating these sectors. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In their revenue policies, the provinces have given main priority to making the internal sources more effective by expanding the tax ambit for the economic activities falling under their exclusive rights. They have also focused on making the tax system convenient and technology-friendly, tax rate up-to-date by revising the tax structure and controlling tax evasion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the provincial governments have included in their Finance Bill provisions such as exemption on registration and transfer of vehicles, discouraging the use of motor vehicles older than 20 years, making the land and house registration and transfer easier, providing some exemption on the registration and transfer of land used for production and exemption on the fine to commercial firms failing to renew registration for a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The combined budgets of the seven provinces for the next fiscal year amount to Rs 305.46 billion, which is nearly 17 percent higher than the current fiscal year’s budget. All provinces presented their budgets targeting economic recovery. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Bagmati has the biggest financial outlay of all seven provinces while Karnali presented the smallest financing plan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Most of the provinces have set aside a big chunk of their budgets for infrastructure development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17957', 'image' => '20230620030224_1683767264.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 15:01:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18226', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Committee Directs Government to Resume Issuance of Stock Brokers License', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: The Finance Committee under the House of Representatives has issued a directive to the bodies concerned to move ahead the stalled process related to issuing stock broker and stock dealers’ license. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the committee on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Finance, the Securities Board of Nepal and Nepal Stock Exchange to go ahead with the issuance of license by fulfilling the due process and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee’s senior-most member Santosh Chalise said that the directive has been issued to provide the license to the stock brokers and traders by fulfilling the criteria and procedures. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Finance Committee on June 12 had stopped the process of issuing the broker license, saying an investigation was required whether or not the minimum criteria had been fulfilled while issuing the license to the stock brokers and traders. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The board had issued stock dealer and broker license to 18 companies, including seven companies on May 22 and 11 companies on June 5. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Committee had issued directive to stop the process for issuing license, arguing that an investigation was required whether these companies that acquired license fulfilled the minimum criteria. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, the committee members put their views in favour of carrying out works by keeping competition, transparency and openness in priority in an open market economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Former Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel suggested resuming the license process by fulfilling the due process, procedures, laws and standards. He urged the Finance Ministry and the SEEBON to be accountable and responsible on the questions raised in the parliament and the parliamentary committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Committee member and former Finance Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki stressed on the need of making the stock market dynamic as per the law and in a transparent manner for the benefit of the society. He also drew the attention of the committee to carry out serious discussions on the country's economic situation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON Chair Ramesh Hamal claimed that the licenses have been issued to the stock brokers and traders in a transparent manner and that there was no weakness anywhere in this process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Supreme Court had also given a go-ahead for the licensing process for the stock traders before this. The Supreme Court decision on April 9 had paved the way for issuing new stock broker and trader license for new stock company, commodity market and stock transactions. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17956', 'image' => '20230620024101_Parliament RSS 800.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 14:40:10', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18225', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Problems in System Causing Power Cuts: Kulman Ghising', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there have been problems in the electricity supply in some parts of the country due to malfunction in the system, but due to tireless efforts, all those problems have been solved.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA informed that although it is natural to have problems in the system during the rainy season, some districts of central and western Nepal have seen unnatural problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the increase in heat throughout the country last week, the demand for electricity increased, but some complications have arisen in the system and efforts have been made to solve those problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In a press conference organized by the NEA on Monday, Ghising said, "The problem is also increasing due to the delay in construction of transmission line, distribution system and substation. The authority alone cannot do everything to solve it. Everyone's support and cooperation is necessary."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the obstruction of the local people in the construction of the transmission line is the most complicated, he complained that even the decision made by the Council of Ministers was not implemented by the Ministry of Forests and Environment and its subordinate agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, executive director Ghising said that although the cabinet has approved the land use and cutting of trees on the Hetauda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission line, the Ministry of Forest has not yet made a decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the obstructions in the construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inruwa and the Hetaunda-Bardghat-New Butwal transmission lines, the electricity from the east could not be supplied to West Nepal. At present, only a 132 kV capacity transmission line is in operation in that area.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa transmission line of 400 KV capacity under construction has been obstructed by the local people and the forest.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that due to the incessant rains in Eastern Nepal since Saturday evening, almost 100 megawatts of the Kabeli Corridor could not be connected to the national grid. He said that even though the authority is trying to increase internal consumption, there is an obligation to sell the excess electricity during the rainy season.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, the total electricity generation capacity of Nepal is 2700 megawatts, but only 2000 megawatts of electricity is available in the system. He said that even though there is an increase in demand for electricity in the evening and in the summer time, there is a situation where electricity is wasted at night, so electricity has been exported to India to manage it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He also dismissed the accusation made against the NEA that it was exporting electricity to India by cutting the domestic supply. He made it clear that NEA has been selling only surplus electricity to India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It was also found that unnecessary comments were made that electricity was sold to India by cutting supply within the country. We are exporting electricity because it is done so that we can sell electricity rather than waste it.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17955', 'image' => '20230620014958_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:49:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18224', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Duration of Tourists' Stay Declining', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Although the arrival of tourists in Nepal, dropped after the onset of Covid-19 infection, the stay period of the tourists had extended. The average length of stay of tourists increased in the previous two years, but is now going downhill.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The average stay of tourists in Nepal never reached 15 days in the last decade except for 2020 and 2021 – the two years of the Covid-19 pandemic period when the average stay of tourists in Nepal had reached 15 days, according to the Economic Survey 2079/80 published by the Ministry of Finance. However, in 2022, when the pandemic subsided and arrival of tourists gradually improved, the length of stay decreased. According to the economic survey, the average stay of tourists dropped to 13.1 days in 2022, which was 15.1 days in 2020 and 15.5 days in 2021.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Nepal Tourism Statistics 2021' released by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation also shows that tourists stayed in Nepal for the longest period of time in the last decade. In other years, the average length of stay was 12 to 13.5 days. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) Binayak Shah says that due to the standards introduced by the government to avoid and prevent the spread of Covid-19 including mandatory quarantine, the length of stay of tourists had increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shah, more tourists came from neighboring countries as the Covid-19 gradually decreased. As they went to destinations like Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan, the length of their stay decreased. According to the economic survey, 10 percent of the total tourists come for adventure trekking/mountaineering and around 64.7 percent come for entertainment, holidays and travel. The share of pilgrims is 12.9 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lumbini emerged as the main choice of domestic and foreign tourists in 2022 for religious tourism. The total number of domestic and foreign tourists who visited Lumbini in 2022 was 904,000. This number includes 649,000 Nepalese, 231,000 Indians and 24,000 from other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">About 1,200,000 million tourists arrived in Nepal in 2019, 230,000 tourists in 2020 and 151,000 visitors in 2021. Since 2022, there has been an improvement in tourist arrivals. In 2022, a total of 614,869 tourists have visited Nepal. According to the data of Nepal Tourism Board, a total of 404,231 tourists arrived in Nepal in 5 months of 2023.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17954', 'image' => '20230620011442_20220704124518_tournba.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 13:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18222', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Errors in Budget can be Corrected: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 20: Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has claimed that the budget for the next fiscal year was prepared in a fair manner and that it covers the daily concerns of the people. Speaking at the 66th Annual General Meeting of Morang Merchants’ Association (MMA), Mahat said, “I reckon this budget is not extremely outstanding and may have some errors and they can be corrected.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Defending the VAT imposed on potatoes and onions, Mahat said, “Can you call Nepal an agricultural country and import potatoes and onions?” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He explained that VAT has been imposed on potatoes and onions so that local farmers' products can get a market and become self-reliant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the industrialists opposed the policy of imposing 10 percent customs duty on raw materials for vegetable ghee and oil industry.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat mentioned that the allocation of capital expenditure has decreased and said that the size of the budget has decreased due to internal and external debt and their interest obligations. He said that although the capital expenditure is currently 17 percent, if the amount spent at the local level is added, it will be 27 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Mahat claimed that the size of the development budget is small due to social security, various types of concessions and allowances, capital interest and employee salaries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He claims that after Nepal Rastra Bank issues the monetary policy, the interest rate will decrease, the economy will become more viable and the revenue will increase.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He assured that the government will make efforts to turn Biratnagar into an economic hub. Terming the budget of Rs 120 million allocated for Biratnagar ring road as low, Minister Mahat said it can be increased by 4 folds by ensuring resources.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17953', 'image' => '20230620121418_20230402035731_1680390939.prakash sharan mahat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:13:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18223', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Death Toll from Floods and Landslides Climbs to Six', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: At least six people have lost their lives in floods and landslides triggered by incessant rainfall at different parts of the country since Saturday night. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the Nepal Police, three persons died in natural disasters in Taplejung and one each in Paanchthar, Sankhuwasabha and Nuwakot districts. Issuing a bulletin, the police headquarters said the five of the victims were male and one was female.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, three persons were injured in floods and landslide in Sankhuwasabha, two in Taplejung and one in Paanchthar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal Police Spokesperson DIG Kuber Kadayat shared that a total of 29 people—21 in Sankhuwasabha, three in Taplejung and five in Panchthar are still missing in landslide and floods. Search for the missing is underway, he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Thirty-five houses, 10 huts, 13 bridges, five industries and two government offices suffered damages. A total of 67 domestic cattle perished while 97 families have been displaced due to the natural disaster. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Police personnel in coordination with different bodies and locals have been carrying out activities to shift the families, which are vulnerable to landslide and flood, to safer places. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17952', 'image' => '20230620122813_RK_PACHTHAR (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 12:27:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18221', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Earthquake in Darchula ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 20: An earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter scale was recorded in Darchula district this morning. The earthquake occurred at 4:55 am with its epicenter at Khandeshowri in the district, according to the National Seismological Centre, Lainchour. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier on June 12, the earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale was recorded in Bajura district. Earthquakes have been occurring frequently in western parts of Nepal in recent months. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17951', 'image' => '20230620111902_earth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 11:18:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18220', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Machhapuchhre Bank and PABSON Sign Agreement For Financial and Digital Literacy', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">June 20: The Machhapuchhre Bank Limited and the Private and Boarding Schools’ Organization Nepal (PABSON) have signed a financial and digital literacy initiative agreement. As per the agreemnet, the bank will </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> launch nationwide financial literacy programme in schools in collaboration with PABSON. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Santosh Koirala and PABSON President DK Dhunagana signed the agreement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">On the occasion, Guruprasad Paudel, the Executive Director of the Nepal Rastra Bank, said that literacy programme in schools will not only help students but also to their parents.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dr. Upendra Mahato, the Chairman of the bank, said that incorporating banking education in textbooks on school-level textbooks would play an important role. </span></span><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Dhungana, the President of PABSON, mentioned that PABSON has included banking education in its academic calendar.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17950', 'image' => '20230620060931_collage (35).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 06:07:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18219', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'France’s Aviation Authority to Help Enhance Nepal’s Air Safety', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">June 20: Nepal's air safety system is set to receive a significant boost following the successful agreement reached between the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the Civil Aviation Authority of France.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt"> The agreement, aimed at enhancing Nepal's air safety, was formalized through the signing of a four-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Paris, the capital of France on Monday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">Pradeep Adhikari, the Director General of CAAN, and Damien Caze, representing the French civil aviation authority, had signed the Memorandum of Understanding.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17.0pt">As per the agreement, the French aviation authority will help improve quality of Nepal’s air safety including technical capacity building and training.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-20', 'modified' => '2023-06-20', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17949', 'image' => '20230620054405_collage (32).jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-20 05:42:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '42' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '18218', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB ‘Preparing’ to Issue its own Digital Currency ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 19: The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is preparing to issue digital currency in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank's executive director, Guru Prasad Paudel, confirmed that the NRB is making preparations for issuing its own digital currency and is currently studying the requirements. According to Paudel, 11 countries in the world have their digital own currency so far.</span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made such remarks at a programme organised to sign a Memorandum of Understanding about finance and digital literacy between the Machhapuchhre Bank and the Private and Boarding School Organisation of Nepal (PABSON) on Monday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The latest data show a significant volume of digital transactions. On an average, Nepal sees monthly digital transactions of Rs 40 billion. In the month of Baisakh (mid April-mid to mid-May), 8.6 million people made transactions worth over Rs 26 billion through QR codes. The use of digital transactions is increasing, suggesting the need for issuing a digital currency, NRB officials said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB is observing the current fiscal year as the Digital Payment Promotion Year. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2023-06-19', 'modified' => '2023-06-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '17948', 'image' => '20230619074931_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2023-06-19 19:48:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $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
