December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta.…
December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta.…
December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather.…
December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern…
December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning…
December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for…
December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary…
December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data.…
December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected…
December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports.…
December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction…
December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage.…
December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim…
December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial…
December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private…
December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy.…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta. The probe committee was formed under the directive of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Spokesperson of Nepal Police, Tek Prasad Rai, shared this information on Friday. DIG Singh is currently working with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). She had also been deputed in the previous investigation in the murder. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee also comprises Superintendent of Police (SP) Kamal Thapa, Inspector Dhirendra Rokaya and a doctor as well. They have been mandated to initiate investigation process in a new way. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the very day Home Minister Lamichhane assumed office, he had said that he would make utmost efforts to deliver justice in Nirmala's rape-and-murder case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Panta was murdered after rape in about four years ago. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-31', 'modified' => '2022-12-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16371', 'image' => '20221231120720_20220921034658_Nepal_Police_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-31 12:06:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Paddy Production up by Seven Percent this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. According to government data, the production of paddy increased this year by almost seven percent. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) said that the country produced 5,486,472 tons of paddy this year, which is 6.94 percent more than the yield of last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ministry published the report based on the data of estimated rice production provided by all the seven provinces of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the MoALD, paddy plantation this year was done on 1,447,789 hectares of land, which was two percent less than that of last year but the production was up by 6.94 percent. The productivity has also grown to 3.8 tons per hectare this year. Earlier, the productivity of rice was 3.5 tons per hectare.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The production last year was affected due to the unseasonal rainfall in October last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the weather was fair and the farmers were provided with fertilizer a bit late while the use of improved variety of seeds also contributed to the growth in production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the production this year increased, it was still less than the production two years ago by 200,000 metric tons when the country produced 5,621,000 tons – a record high production in the last seven years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Province-wise, the Madhesh Province produced 1,388,000 tons of paddy this year, the largest of all. Province 1 produced 1,336,000 tons and Lumbini province grew 1,151,000 tons of paddy during the main harvesting season. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16370', 'image' => '20221230102838_20220720044056_640px-Rice_Plants_(IRRI).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 22:28:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NTB Urges not to Obstruct Arrival of Tourists on the Pretext of New Wave', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour. Nepal's tourism business has gradually started to revive after the first and second waves of Covid-19. In this situation, stakeholders said that the risk of Covid-19 infection may increase due to the movement of Chinese tourists and labourers working for various projects in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the data of the Department of Immigration, 5,906 Chinese citizens visited Nepal in the first five months of the current fiscal year. According to the department, 1,704 Chinese citizens came to Nepal in July, 1,203 in August, 1,009 in October, 1,067 in November and 923 in December.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has said that tourists are coming regularly from China, even though they are in small numbers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Officials of the Nepal Tourism Board said that Nepal should not be strict on arrival of Chinese nationals as they have been fully vaccinated and have completed the procedures including quarantine in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Chinese tourists have followed all the norms against Covid-19, so their arrival should not be affected," said Dhananjay Regmi, executive director of NTB. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Regmi said that it is natural for Covid-19 infection to be seen normally in the winter season. According to Regmi, the arrival of foreign tourists, including Chinese, should not be restricted on this pretext.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the past few months, the Covid-19 infection has been spreading rapidly in cities including Shanghai, the financial capital of China. To reduce the rapid spread of infection, the Chinese government had imposed a lockdown in the cities with high infection.</span> <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But after widespread protests against the lockdown, the government relaxed the lockdown.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The coronavirus currently spreading in China is a sub-variant of Omicron 'BF-7'. Experts have said that the infection rate of this variant is very fast. It is said that it will have the ability to infect a large number of people in a short time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Praveen Shrestha said that the government should start preparations early to prevent this variant from spreading in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Common people should also take health precautions to avoid infection," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The new variant of Covid-19, which is spreading rapidly in Chinese cities including Shanghai, has also been seen sporadically in the states of India including Gujarat. But the Indian government has said that the number of people infected with the new variant is negligible.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Since India has an open border with Nepal, if such a variant is seen in India, there is a risk that it may enter Nepal as well. There is no need to panic now, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr Sanjay Kumar Thakur. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"In Nepal, many people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, some have also taken booster doses," he said, "those who are yet to be vaccinated are being prepared to be given regular vaccinations and booster doses."</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16369', 'image' => '20221230041919_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 16:18:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16627', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Issues Directive not to Impose Excise Duty on Mobile Phones ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. </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 Prime Minister Dahal’s press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma, the prime minister instructed the finance minister to give continuity to the previous provision regarding the mobile phone sets brought from aboard for personal use. </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"">Nepali migrant workers have criticized the government’s decision to charge a tax up to 18 percent on a mobile phone set brought from abroad. </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, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) decided to implement the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) beginning from December 30 to what it said was to discourage the grey market of smartphones. </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"">As per the provision, anyone found carrying more than one smartphone while returning from abroad will be imposed excise duty up to 18 percent while in case of possessing more than two sets, the third will be seized by the customs officials. </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"">The NTA had called for registering the imported mobile phone sets brought into the country for personal use in the MDMS system if the set has not been registered yet.</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 NTA, mobile phone sets that have not been declared at the customs will not be registered from December 30 onwards and the operation of such mobile sets will also be banned. (With inputs from RSS)</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16368', 'image' => '20221230024655_20221226113313_nokia-3210-hero.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 14:46:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16626', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Demand Opening of Jugal Mountain Peaks for Expedition', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of stakeholders on Tuesday, which was attended by Member of the House of Representatives Madhav Sapkota, Chairman of Jugal Rural Municipality Resham Syangbo, Director General of the Department of Tourism Homprasad Luintel, Deputy Secretary of Home Ministry, Chief Surveyor and others, took a decision to this effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Discussions were held on a study report led by Jugal Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk regarding the opening of different peaks of the Jugal mountain range located in Sindhupalchowk for climbing. The selected peaks are located near the capital city, have easy foot trails, and are capable of contributing towards the economic as well as social development. Thus, it was decided to request the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation through the Department of Tourism to open them for expedition,” reads a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The meeting also decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks proposed for expedition. MP Sapkota said that they decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks including Jugal I (6591 m), Jugal II (6518 m), Jugal III (6184 m) and Jugal IV (6120 m).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The 6,151 meter high Gyalzen Peak under the Jugal mountain range was expedited twice prior to this. It was successfully climbed for the first time on 9 April, 2019 under the leadership of Maya Gurung. Similarly, it was climbed for the second time in November 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16367', 'image' => '20221230015802_20211213010237_68453777_2651477498229724_6102999853028081664_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 13:57:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16625', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ruling Alliance to Unveil Common Minimum Programme within Five Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government is under pressure to bring a supplementary budget to resolve the current economic crisis faced by the country. Despite such pressure, the government is doing homework to unveil the Common Minimum Programme next week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">‘PM Dahal called a meeting of the ruling alliance at his official residence in Baluwatar on Thursday to discuss about the Common Minimum Programme of the coalition government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the meeting, the ruling alliance agreed to unveil the Common Minimum Program within the next five days.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane informed that the meeting decided to form a committee under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli to prepare the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The ruling parties have decided to bring the Common Minimum Programme within the next five days,” Lamichhane said after the meeting on Thursday, adding, “A committee has been formed under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli. The committee has one representative from each of the ruling parties.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government led by Dahal has the backing of seven political parties and three independent lawmakers. The seven parties include CPN Maoist Centre, CPN UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Rastriya Prajatantra Party has been telling the coalition government to address its demand through the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The committee led by Oli has already started drafting the Common Minimum Programme. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ruling parties have prioritized the issue of nationalism and resolving the economic crisis, according to a member of the committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The programme will also focus on promoting production-oriented economy, improving the supply chain, reducing inflation, corruption control and government-private sector partnership. Also in the agenda of the CMP is creating investment-friendly environment and improving public service delivery.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CMP is also expected to encourage returnee migrant workers to engage in entrepreneurship while attracting people towards agriculture is also on cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Of late, the private sector has been demanding a supplementary budget arguing that the economy is heading towards crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16366', 'image' => '20221230121920_RSS_D85_2124.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16624', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Halts Survey on Real Estate Price Citing Lack of Authentic Data', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. The central bank had started the survey since last year with a plan to release the report in every three months. The main reason behind the central bank’s move is the lack of credibility of the real estate price obtained from the survey. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Executive Director of Economic Research Department of NRB, Prakash Kumar Shrestha, said that the survey could not be continued as the statistics received were not trustworthy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“For the survey, we made basis for transaction that happened in the land revenue offices, price determined in the banks for collateral purpose and the price rate received independently from the market centres. There was no consistency in data against the market price in the time of recession at present,” Executive Director Shrestha argued. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB has come to a conclusion that Nepal’s real estate sector is yet to become professional and competitive due to fluctuation in the price. Dr Shrestha said that such situation could be the result of showing high price of transaction for collateral valuation but recording low price for tax purpose and showing yet another for the transactions taken place in the family members. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The land revenue offices have been receiving transaction tax and capital gains tax in the transaction of the real estate and housing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank had initiated the survey based on 20 different cities having more transaction of real estate or housing. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16365', 'image' => '20221230111846_Real estate.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 11:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16623', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Pledge to Return back Rs 4.66 Billion Collected Illegally from Customers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data of NRB shows that 25 commercial banks other than Agricultural Development Bank Limited collected more than Rs 4.66 billion from their customers against the rules.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NIC Asia Bank is on top of this list and has promised to return Rs 480 million to the customers. Nabil Bank, which is in the second position, has promised to return Rs 470 million and Global IME Bank, which is in the third position, has promised to return Rs 450 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the data, Standard Chartered Bank needs to refund the lowest amount of Rs 4 million to the customers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The executive director of NRB, Dev Kumar Dhakal said that the amount to be refunded for the premiums raised by the banks against the rules is Rs 4.66 billion. Banks have already written off the said amount from the profit of the previous fiscal year and have pledged to return the amount accordingly.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manoj Gyawali, deputy CEO of Nabil Bank, said that they have started refunding as per the instructions of NRB. He informed that since they promised to return the amount in round figures, some of the amounts may be more or less than the exact amount. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16364', 'image' => '20221229061159_20221221110200_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 18:11:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16622', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Studies Suggest Diversification of Products and Markets to Boost Nepal’s Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. Such a revelation was made on the basis of the findings of two separate studies presented during a seminar on “Trade policy and economic diplomacy in Federal Nepal” organized by the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), in collaboration with The Asia foundation (TAF) on Thursday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting the findings of a study, Former Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), and SAWTEE researcher Neelu Thapa recommended identification and development of products along with the need for product and market diversification to boost Nepal’s exports. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The study highlighted the need of technical support and capacity building programs and recommended strong coordination within the three tiers of governments for effective implementation of trade policies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, MoICS Secretary Toyam Raya said that Nepal’s future trade policies must be formulated through proper and adequate consultations among all the three tiers of the government as well as the private sector. Diplomatic missions play a vital role in promoting exports, he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, Bharat Raj Paudyal, secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said that federalism can be leveraged to address the major issues that plague Nepal’s exports including weak intergovernmental coordination, supply-side constraints, poor adoption of technology, weak production capacity, lack of trade policy coherence, and finally poor implementation of policies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a statement issued by SAWTEE, he also pointed out that economic diplomacy cannot function in isolation, hence collaboration and coordination between various stakeholders are essential.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Dr Posh Raj Pandey, chairman of SAWTEE, pointed out that while Nepal has accorded the highest priority to export promotion, the export performance in the past decade has been dismal, primarily because of poor supply capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">SAWTEE’s Executive Director Dr Paras Kharel said that Nepal stands on the verge of graduating from the LDC category (in 2026) and therefore trade and economic diplomacy carry special importance in charting the post-graduation landscape.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The panelists, including former policymakers, emphasized on the need to make trade policy more focused. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The private sector representatives including Neeru Rayamajhi Khatri, president of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN), Shanta Baskota Koirala, director of Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Centre (KTERC) and Rajendra Timilsina, an entrepreneur associated with Himalayan Natural Food Product and Export Pvt Ltd, drew the attention towards the need to integrate trade policy to promote entrepreneurship. They suggested increasing access to technology, infrastructure, knowledge, and capacity building activities of the entrepreneurs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Urging the policymakers to take advantage of the federal structure, Former President of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association Rajan Sharma emphasized on the need to allow sub-national governments to play a role in enhancing the supply-chain.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another study recommended strong partnership between government agencies for the utilization of economic diplomacy and the need to establish and strengthen the institutional arrangement for economic diplomacy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Ambassador Dr Dinesh Bhattarai and SAWTEE’s Research Officer Swastik Aryal presented the findings of the study on economic diplomacy for trade facilitation and export promotion in the context of federal Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prof Shambhu Ram Simkhada, a former ambassador, emphasized that focus should be laid on high-value niche products instead of mass production of low-value products for export.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Suraj Vaidya gave an insight into the challenges faced by the private sector in trade such as lengthy bureaucratic processes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Trade and economic diplomacy expert Rabi Shankar Sainju highlighted the importance of infrastructural development, better linkages between buyers and suppliers, and effective diplomacy to remove protectionist measures applied by other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The event saw the participation of current and former policymakers, trade experts, diplomats, researchers, academicians and journalists, among others, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16363', 'image' => '20221229044243_20220819110523_export.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 16:42:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16621', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mid-Hill Highway makes 64 Percent Headway in One and a Half Decades ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started. The construction of this highway began in 2064/65 BS. This highway connects 215 settlements of 26 districts in the hill region of the country. The 1,879 kilometres long highway stretches from Chiyo Bhanjyang of Panchthar district in eastern Nepal to Jhulaghat of Baitadi district in far-western Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is believed that nearly 10 million population would directly benefit upon the completion of this highway. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although six years have elapsed since the first deadline of this project ended, there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the roadway at several places. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Project Information Officer Suraj Adhikari said that there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the site near the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project. According to him, the alignment of the highway was along the Budhigandaki River in Gorkha district but the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources has written to the project that it was planning to construct the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project at the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari said although there was confusion regarding the highway's alignment in Kaski until some time ago, the issue has been resolved now. He added that nearly 415 kilometres of road and 25 bridges remain to be constructed under the Mid-hill Highway Project. Out of the remaining works, contract still remains to be signed for the construction of 205 kilometres road and 19 bridges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Highway Project has stated that the contract has to be managed for black-topping of 357 kilometres of the highway, construction of 18 bridges and for construction of 134.5 kilometres road in the current fiscal year alone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although the extended deadline for completion of the project terminates by the end of the current fiscal year, it is unlikely that even the contracting process for the remaining works would be completed by that time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The alignment of the road has been altered in one section of the highway in Kaski district by a decision of the Council of Ministers. </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 project’s Information Officer Adhikari said that the Ministry of Energy has sent a letter to the project to go ahead with the construction of the highway in the Budhigandaki section as it will take 7/8 years more for the construction of the Budhigandaki Reservoir Multi-purpose Project. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16362', 'image' => '20221229031843_MidhillHKC_Jajarkot-IMG_1431 - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 15:18:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16620', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Committee Tells Government Bodies to Step Up Efforts to Control Revenue Leakage ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. A meeting of the committee held on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane held discussion regarding the present condition of revenue collection and controlling revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, Ananda Kafle, said discussions and review were held regarding challenges seen in revenue collection and initiatives taken to control smuggling. On the occasion, Finance Minister Poudel asked the bodies to make maximum efforts to control all types of revenue leakages. Minister Poudel assured that the government was ready to provide any kind of support required to control revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Lamichhane said the home administration would actively work to control revenue leakage taking place at the border check points. Directing the employees to work with high-morale without any political pressure and influence, Home Minister Lamichhane asked chiefs of all security bodies to work with determination in order to stop illegal trade activities. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, the finance secretary, the home secretary, chiefs of security bodies, the director-general of the Inland Revenue Department, among others were present in the meeting. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16361', 'image' => '20221229024328_revenue-leakage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:42:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16619', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Light Snowfall Likely in Hill Areas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, partial changes would also occur in the mountainous belt of other provinces owing to the effects in the country's weather system, shared the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department further informed that light snowfall was likely to take place in the hill region of Province 1 in the next 24 hours. Some parts of the Terai would see foggy weather condition which may also affect the normal life. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has urged one and all to remain cautious of the excessive cold brought by the changes in weather conditions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Country Experiencing Chilling Cold with Gradual Fall in Mercury Level </span></strong><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country is experiencing chilling cold with a gradual fall in the mercury level for the past few days, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology under the Weather Forecasting Division. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division, the minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley was recorded at 3.4 degree Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature, which was 4.4 degree Celsius on Tuesday, dipped to 3.4 on Wednesday, said Meteorologist Raju Pradhananga. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the minimum temperature of Birendranagar was recorded at 3.1 degrees Celsius, Taplejung 3.1 degrees Celsius, Lumle 4 degrees Celsius, Dadeldhura 4.4 degrees, Jomsom minus 5 degrees Celsius and Jumla minus 6.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The maximum temperature of the country has also started falling along with the minimum temperature. Tarai districts as well as the hill region have started experiencing thick fog, according to the division. However, the hill districts witnessed sunny day in the afternoon. -- </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Cold cripples life in western Tarai since three days</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Increasing cold since the last three days has crippled life in the Western Tarai including Banke district. As a result, people's mobility has gone down while patients with asthma, pneumonia, common cold and fever have increased. The weather is densely foggy since the morning. "We are restricted inside house due to cold," said Ram Suhaban Yadav of Nepalgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Senior citizens, children, daily wage labourers and poor people have been particularly affected due to cold. Daily wagers are finding it difficult to go for work as a result of cold, said Ramdin Godiya of Duduwa Rural Municipality in Banke district. </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"">"We are left high and dry to support for my family without money. We do not have enough food to eat and clothing to warm ourselves. We are keeping ourselves by burning firewood," he said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16360', 'image' => '20221229020155_snowwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:01:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16618', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Repo worth Rs 50 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions. The central bank is issuing the repo for liquidity management as a large amount of money would go out from the banking system in the form of revenue upon payment of the first installment of the income tax on January 14. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NRB is auctioning the repo on Thursday itself. The maturity period of the repo will be of 45 days. Category A, B and C banks and financial institutions can participate in the bidding process. The repo will mature on February 12, according to the NRB. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16359', 'image' => '20221229015151_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 13:51:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16617', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Agitating Industrialists Call Off Protests', 'sub_title' => 'Government to Address the Demands of Industrialists by Mid-January', 'summary' => 'December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During a discussion with the industrialists and entrepreneurs at the ministry on Wednesday, Finance Minister Paudel said that he was committed to resolving the problems faced by the private at the earliest. He also urged the industrialists to withdraw their protests as he was effortful to find a solution to the problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Upon the request of Finance Minister Paudel, the industrialists immediately called off their protests.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">One of the industrialists told New Business Age that they decided to call off the strike after the prime minister as well as the finance minister assured them to address their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Following the meeting, various umbrella bodies of industrialists and entrepreneurs organized a joint press conference on Wednesday evening and announced their decision to call off the strikes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> The meeting held earlier with Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Paudel was led by Bhavani Rana, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The finance minister took the matter seriously and assured that most of the problems will be addressed within the month of Paush (mid-December to mid-January),” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari was also present during the meeting.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the discussion, the industrialists had raised the issues of working capital loan guidelines and the high interest rates charged by the banks. They also urged to categorize bankers and businessmen and requested the government to lower the service charge of banks. In order to ease the liquidity crisis in the banking system, the industrialists suggested the government to impose CCD ratio instead of maintaining the CD ratio, according to FNCCI Vice President Dinesh Shrestha.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Shrestha said that the finance minister was positive about addressing the demands of the private sector including the demand to lower the interest rates, easing liquidity crisis and giving additional time for refinancing. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16358', 'image' => '20221229122922_1672284226.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 12:28:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16616', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Urges Government to Slash Interest Rate', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. The CNI delegation led by its President Vishnu Kumar Agarwal stressed that reforming the economy in a challenging situation and should be the first priority of the new government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The CNI submitted a memo to the prime minister along with suggestions for the reforms. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">CNI suggested measures that can be taken immediately by giving priority to the financial sector, industrial promotion, infrastructure, tourism and energy, and information technology sector to revive the economy again. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agarwal said that he is confident that the government will give top priority to CNI’s suggestions and implement them as the morale of industrialists has dropped significantly due to high contraction in demand, high interest rates, lack of investable capital etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the meeting, he said, “In order to boost the morale of industrialists, the interest rate should be reduced immediately and the current working capital loan guidelines should be postponed for 2 years.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agrawal said that the government should work to give a positive message immediately and to encourage industrialists. Agarwal also suggested that to encourage import-substituting industries, the six existing industrial zones should be operated as soon as possible on the model of India's Rudrapur Industrial Zone in public-private-partnership. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prime Minister Dahal responded saying that he is looking for clear suggestions from the private sector like CNI to improve the economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“I expected the same from the private sector. CNI has clearly given a plan for reform. Thanks to CNI for this,” said Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the CNI team also submitted a memo to the Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel with suggestions including clear steps to be taken immediately to speed up the economy which is in crisis. Governor of NRB Maha Prasad Adhikari, Revenue Secretary Rameshwar Dangal, and Deputy Governor of NRB Bam Bahadur Mishra were also present during the meeting with the finance minister.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16357', 'image' => '20221229111736_CNI dahal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 11:17:02', '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
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16631', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DIG-led Committee formed to Probe Nirmala Panta Murder Case ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta. The probe committee was formed under the directive of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Spokesperson of Nepal Police, Tek Prasad Rai, shared this information on Friday. DIG Singh is currently working with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). She had also been deputed in the previous investigation in the murder. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee also comprises Superintendent of Police (SP) Kamal Thapa, Inspector Dhirendra Rokaya and a doctor as well. They have been mandated to initiate investigation process in a new way. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the very day Home Minister Lamichhane assumed office, he had said that he would make utmost efforts to deliver justice in Nirmala's rape-and-murder case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Panta was murdered after rape in about four years ago. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-31', 'modified' => '2022-12-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16371', 'image' => '20221231120720_20220921034658_Nepal_Police_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-31 12:06:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Paddy Production up by Seven Percent this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. According to government data, the production of paddy increased this year by almost seven percent. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) said that the country produced 5,486,472 tons of paddy this year, which is 6.94 percent more than the yield of last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ministry published the report based on the data of estimated rice production provided by all the seven provinces of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the MoALD, paddy plantation this year was done on 1,447,789 hectares of land, which was two percent less than that of last year but the production was up by 6.94 percent. The productivity has also grown to 3.8 tons per hectare this year. Earlier, the productivity of rice was 3.5 tons per hectare.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The production last year was affected due to the unseasonal rainfall in October last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the weather was fair and the farmers were provided with fertilizer a bit late while the use of improved variety of seeds also contributed to the growth in production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the production this year increased, it was still less than the production two years ago by 200,000 metric tons when the country produced 5,621,000 tons – a record high production in the last seven years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Province-wise, the Madhesh Province produced 1,388,000 tons of paddy this year, the largest of all. Province 1 produced 1,336,000 tons and Lumbini province grew 1,151,000 tons of paddy during the main harvesting season. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16370', 'image' => '20221230102838_20220720044056_640px-Rice_Plants_(IRRI).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 22:28:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NTB Urges not to Obstruct Arrival of Tourists on the Pretext of New Wave', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour. Nepal's tourism business has gradually started to revive after the first and second waves of Covid-19. In this situation, stakeholders said that the risk of Covid-19 infection may increase due to the movement of Chinese tourists and labourers working for various projects in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the data of the Department of Immigration, 5,906 Chinese citizens visited Nepal in the first five months of the current fiscal year. According to the department, 1,704 Chinese citizens came to Nepal in July, 1,203 in August, 1,009 in October, 1,067 in November and 923 in December.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has said that tourists are coming regularly from China, even though they are in small numbers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Officials of the Nepal Tourism Board said that Nepal should not be strict on arrival of Chinese nationals as they have been fully vaccinated and have completed the procedures including quarantine in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Chinese tourists have followed all the norms against Covid-19, so their arrival should not be affected," said Dhananjay Regmi, executive director of NTB. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Regmi said that it is natural for Covid-19 infection to be seen normally in the winter season. According to Regmi, the arrival of foreign tourists, including Chinese, should not be restricted on this pretext.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the past few months, the Covid-19 infection has been spreading rapidly in cities including Shanghai, the financial capital of China. To reduce the rapid spread of infection, the Chinese government had imposed a lockdown in the cities with high infection.</span> <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But after widespread protests against the lockdown, the government relaxed the lockdown.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The coronavirus currently spreading in China is a sub-variant of Omicron 'BF-7'. Experts have said that the infection rate of this variant is very fast. It is said that it will have the ability to infect a large number of people in a short time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Praveen Shrestha said that the government should start preparations early to prevent this variant from spreading in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Common people should also take health precautions to avoid infection," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The new variant of Covid-19, which is spreading rapidly in Chinese cities including Shanghai, has also been seen sporadically in the states of India including Gujarat. But the Indian government has said that the number of people infected with the new variant is negligible.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Since India has an open border with Nepal, if such a variant is seen in India, there is a risk that it may enter Nepal as well. There is no need to panic now, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr Sanjay Kumar Thakur. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"In Nepal, many people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, some have also taken booster doses," he said, "those who are yet to be vaccinated are being prepared to be given regular vaccinations and booster doses."</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16369', 'image' => '20221230041919_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 16:18:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16627', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Issues Directive not to Impose Excise Duty on Mobile Phones ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. </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 Prime Minister Dahal’s press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma, the prime minister instructed the finance minister to give continuity to the previous provision regarding the mobile phone sets brought from aboard for personal use. </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"">Nepali migrant workers have criticized the government’s decision to charge a tax up to 18 percent on a mobile phone set brought from abroad. </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, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) decided to implement the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) beginning from December 30 to what it said was to discourage the grey market of smartphones. </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"">As per the provision, anyone found carrying more than one smartphone while returning from abroad will be imposed excise duty up to 18 percent while in case of possessing more than two sets, the third will be seized by the customs officials. </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"">The NTA had called for registering the imported mobile phone sets brought into the country for personal use in the MDMS system if the set has not been registered yet.</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 NTA, mobile phone sets that have not been declared at the customs will not be registered from December 30 onwards and the operation of such mobile sets will also be banned. (With inputs from RSS)</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16368', 'image' => '20221230024655_20221226113313_nokia-3210-hero.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 14:46:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16626', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Demand Opening of Jugal Mountain Peaks for Expedition', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of stakeholders on Tuesday, which was attended by Member of the House of Representatives Madhav Sapkota, Chairman of Jugal Rural Municipality Resham Syangbo, Director General of the Department of Tourism Homprasad Luintel, Deputy Secretary of Home Ministry, Chief Surveyor and others, took a decision to this effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Discussions were held on a study report led by Jugal Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk regarding the opening of different peaks of the Jugal mountain range located in Sindhupalchowk for climbing. The selected peaks are located near the capital city, have easy foot trails, and are capable of contributing towards the economic as well as social development. Thus, it was decided to request the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation through the Department of Tourism to open them for expedition,” reads a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The meeting also decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks proposed for expedition. MP Sapkota said that they decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks including Jugal I (6591 m), Jugal II (6518 m), Jugal III (6184 m) and Jugal IV (6120 m).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The 6,151 meter high Gyalzen Peak under the Jugal mountain range was expedited twice prior to this. It was successfully climbed for the first time on 9 April, 2019 under the leadership of Maya Gurung. Similarly, it was climbed for the second time in November 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16367', 'image' => '20221230015802_20211213010237_68453777_2651477498229724_6102999853028081664_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 13:57:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16625', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ruling Alliance to Unveil Common Minimum Programme within Five Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government is under pressure to bring a supplementary budget to resolve the current economic crisis faced by the country. Despite such pressure, the government is doing homework to unveil the Common Minimum Programme next week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">‘PM Dahal called a meeting of the ruling alliance at his official residence in Baluwatar on Thursday to discuss about the Common Minimum Programme of the coalition government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the meeting, the ruling alliance agreed to unveil the Common Minimum Program within the next five days.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane informed that the meeting decided to form a committee under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli to prepare the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The ruling parties have decided to bring the Common Minimum Programme within the next five days,” Lamichhane said after the meeting on Thursday, adding, “A committee has been formed under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli. The committee has one representative from each of the ruling parties.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government led by Dahal has the backing of seven political parties and three independent lawmakers. The seven parties include CPN Maoist Centre, CPN UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Rastriya Prajatantra Party has been telling the coalition government to address its demand through the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The committee led by Oli has already started drafting the Common Minimum Programme. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ruling parties have prioritized the issue of nationalism and resolving the economic crisis, according to a member of the committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The programme will also focus on promoting production-oriented economy, improving the supply chain, reducing inflation, corruption control and government-private sector partnership. Also in the agenda of the CMP is creating investment-friendly environment and improving public service delivery.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CMP is also expected to encourage returnee migrant workers to engage in entrepreneurship while attracting people towards agriculture is also on cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Of late, the private sector has been demanding a supplementary budget arguing that the economy is heading towards crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16366', 'image' => '20221230121920_RSS_D85_2124.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16624', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Halts Survey on Real Estate Price Citing Lack of Authentic Data', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. The central bank had started the survey since last year with a plan to release the report in every three months. The main reason behind the central bank’s move is the lack of credibility of the real estate price obtained from the survey. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Executive Director of Economic Research Department of NRB, Prakash Kumar Shrestha, said that the survey could not be continued as the statistics received were not trustworthy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“For the survey, we made basis for transaction that happened in the land revenue offices, price determined in the banks for collateral purpose and the price rate received independently from the market centres. There was no consistency in data against the market price in the time of recession at present,” Executive Director Shrestha argued. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB has come to a conclusion that Nepal’s real estate sector is yet to become professional and competitive due to fluctuation in the price. Dr Shrestha said that such situation could be the result of showing high price of transaction for collateral valuation but recording low price for tax purpose and showing yet another for the transactions taken place in the family members. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The land revenue offices have been receiving transaction tax and capital gains tax in the transaction of the real estate and housing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank had initiated the survey based on 20 different cities having more transaction of real estate or housing. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16365', 'image' => '20221230111846_Real estate.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 11:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16623', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Pledge to Return back Rs 4.66 Billion Collected Illegally from Customers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data of NRB shows that 25 commercial banks other than Agricultural Development Bank Limited collected more than Rs 4.66 billion from their customers against the rules.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NIC Asia Bank is on top of this list and has promised to return Rs 480 million to the customers. Nabil Bank, which is in the second position, has promised to return Rs 470 million and Global IME Bank, which is in the third position, has promised to return Rs 450 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the data, Standard Chartered Bank needs to refund the lowest amount of Rs 4 million to the customers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The executive director of NRB, Dev Kumar Dhakal said that the amount to be refunded for the premiums raised by the banks against the rules is Rs 4.66 billion. Banks have already written off the said amount from the profit of the previous fiscal year and have pledged to return the amount accordingly.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manoj Gyawali, deputy CEO of Nabil Bank, said that they have started refunding as per the instructions of NRB. He informed that since they promised to return the amount in round figures, some of the amounts may be more or less than the exact amount. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16364', 'image' => '20221229061159_20221221110200_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 18:11:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16622', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Studies Suggest Diversification of Products and Markets to Boost Nepal’s Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. Such a revelation was made on the basis of the findings of two separate studies presented during a seminar on “Trade policy and economic diplomacy in Federal Nepal” organized by the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), in collaboration with The Asia foundation (TAF) on Thursday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting the findings of a study, Former Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), and SAWTEE researcher Neelu Thapa recommended identification and development of products along with the need for product and market diversification to boost Nepal’s exports. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The study highlighted the need of technical support and capacity building programs and recommended strong coordination within the three tiers of governments for effective implementation of trade policies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, MoICS Secretary Toyam Raya said that Nepal’s future trade policies must be formulated through proper and adequate consultations among all the three tiers of the government as well as the private sector. Diplomatic missions play a vital role in promoting exports, he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, Bharat Raj Paudyal, secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said that federalism can be leveraged to address the major issues that plague Nepal’s exports including weak intergovernmental coordination, supply-side constraints, poor adoption of technology, weak production capacity, lack of trade policy coherence, and finally poor implementation of policies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a statement issued by SAWTEE, he also pointed out that economic diplomacy cannot function in isolation, hence collaboration and coordination between various stakeholders are essential.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Dr Posh Raj Pandey, chairman of SAWTEE, pointed out that while Nepal has accorded the highest priority to export promotion, the export performance in the past decade has been dismal, primarily because of poor supply capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">SAWTEE’s Executive Director Dr Paras Kharel said that Nepal stands on the verge of graduating from the LDC category (in 2026) and therefore trade and economic diplomacy carry special importance in charting the post-graduation landscape.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The panelists, including former policymakers, emphasized on the need to make trade policy more focused. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The private sector representatives including Neeru Rayamajhi Khatri, president of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN), Shanta Baskota Koirala, director of Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Centre (KTERC) and Rajendra Timilsina, an entrepreneur associated with Himalayan Natural Food Product and Export Pvt Ltd, drew the attention towards the need to integrate trade policy to promote entrepreneurship. They suggested increasing access to technology, infrastructure, knowledge, and capacity building activities of the entrepreneurs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Urging the policymakers to take advantage of the federal structure, Former President of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association Rajan Sharma emphasized on the need to allow sub-national governments to play a role in enhancing the supply-chain.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another study recommended strong partnership between government agencies for the utilization of economic diplomacy and the need to establish and strengthen the institutional arrangement for economic diplomacy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Ambassador Dr Dinesh Bhattarai and SAWTEE’s Research Officer Swastik Aryal presented the findings of the study on economic diplomacy for trade facilitation and export promotion in the context of federal Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prof Shambhu Ram Simkhada, a former ambassador, emphasized that focus should be laid on high-value niche products instead of mass production of low-value products for export.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Suraj Vaidya gave an insight into the challenges faced by the private sector in trade such as lengthy bureaucratic processes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Trade and economic diplomacy expert Rabi Shankar Sainju highlighted the importance of infrastructural development, better linkages between buyers and suppliers, and effective diplomacy to remove protectionist measures applied by other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The event saw the participation of current and former policymakers, trade experts, diplomats, researchers, academicians and journalists, among others, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16363', 'image' => '20221229044243_20220819110523_export.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 16:42:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16621', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mid-Hill Highway makes 64 Percent Headway in One and a Half Decades ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started. The construction of this highway began in 2064/65 BS. This highway connects 215 settlements of 26 districts in the hill region of the country. The 1,879 kilometres long highway stretches from Chiyo Bhanjyang of Panchthar district in eastern Nepal to Jhulaghat of Baitadi district in far-western Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is believed that nearly 10 million population would directly benefit upon the completion of this highway. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although six years have elapsed since the first deadline of this project ended, there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the roadway at several places. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Project Information Officer Suraj Adhikari said that there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the site near the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project. According to him, the alignment of the highway was along the Budhigandaki River in Gorkha district but the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources has written to the project that it was planning to construct the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project at the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari said although there was confusion regarding the highway's alignment in Kaski until some time ago, the issue has been resolved now. He added that nearly 415 kilometres of road and 25 bridges remain to be constructed under the Mid-hill Highway Project. Out of the remaining works, contract still remains to be signed for the construction of 205 kilometres road and 19 bridges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Highway Project has stated that the contract has to be managed for black-topping of 357 kilometres of the highway, construction of 18 bridges and for construction of 134.5 kilometres road in the current fiscal year alone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although the extended deadline for completion of the project terminates by the end of the current fiscal year, it is unlikely that even the contracting process for the remaining works would be completed by that time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The alignment of the road has been altered in one section of the highway in Kaski district by a decision of the Council of Ministers. </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 project’s Information Officer Adhikari said that the Ministry of Energy has sent a letter to the project to go ahead with the construction of the highway in the Budhigandaki section as it will take 7/8 years more for the construction of the Budhigandaki Reservoir Multi-purpose Project. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16362', 'image' => '20221229031843_MidhillHKC_Jajarkot-IMG_1431 - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 15:18:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16620', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Committee Tells Government Bodies to Step Up Efforts to Control Revenue Leakage ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. A meeting of the committee held on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane held discussion regarding the present condition of revenue collection and controlling revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, Ananda Kafle, said discussions and review were held regarding challenges seen in revenue collection and initiatives taken to control smuggling. On the occasion, Finance Minister Poudel asked the bodies to make maximum efforts to control all types of revenue leakages. Minister Poudel assured that the government was ready to provide any kind of support required to control revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Lamichhane said the home administration would actively work to control revenue leakage taking place at the border check points. Directing the employees to work with high-morale without any political pressure and influence, Home Minister Lamichhane asked chiefs of all security bodies to work with determination in order to stop illegal trade activities. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, the finance secretary, the home secretary, chiefs of security bodies, the director-general of the Inland Revenue Department, among others were present in the meeting. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16361', 'image' => '20221229024328_revenue-leakage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:42:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16619', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Light Snowfall Likely in Hill Areas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, partial changes would also occur in the mountainous belt of other provinces owing to the effects in the country's weather system, shared the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department further informed that light snowfall was likely to take place in the hill region of Province 1 in the next 24 hours. Some parts of the Terai would see foggy weather condition which may also affect the normal life. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has urged one and all to remain cautious of the excessive cold brought by the changes in weather conditions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Country Experiencing Chilling Cold with Gradual Fall in Mercury Level </span></strong><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country is experiencing chilling cold with a gradual fall in the mercury level for the past few days, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology under the Weather Forecasting Division. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division, the minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley was recorded at 3.4 degree Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature, which was 4.4 degree Celsius on Tuesday, dipped to 3.4 on Wednesday, said Meteorologist Raju Pradhananga. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the minimum temperature of Birendranagar was recorded at 3.1 degrees Celsius, Taplejung 3.1 degrees Celsius, Lumle 4 degrees Celsius, Dadeldhura 4.4 degrees, Jomsom minus 5 degrees Celsius and Jumla minus 6.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The maximum temperature of the country has also started falling along with the minimum temperature. Tarai districts as well as the hill region have started experiencing thick fog, according to the division. However, the hill districts witnessed sunny day in the afternoon. -- </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Cold cripples life in western Tarai since three days</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Increasing cold since the last three days has crippled life in the Western Tarai including Banke district. As a result, people's mobility has gone down while patients with asthma, pneumonia, common cold and fever have increased. The weather is densely foggy since the morning. "We are restricted inside house due to cold," said Ram Suhaban Yadav of Nepalgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Senior citizens, children, daily wage labourers and poor people have been particularly affected due to cold. Daily wagers are finding it difficult to go for work as a result of cold, said Ramdin Godiya of Duduwa Rural Municipality in Banke district. </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"">"We are left high and dry to support for my family without money. We do not have enough food to eat and clothing to warm ourselves. We are keeping ourselves by burning firewood," he said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16360', 'image' => '20221229020155_snowwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:01:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16618', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Repo worth Rs 50 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions. The central bank is issuing the repo for liquidity management as a large amount of money would go out from the banking system in the form of revenue upon payment of the first installment of the income tax on January 14. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NRB is auctioning the repo on Thursday itself. The maturity period of the repo will be of 45 days. Category A, B and C banks and financial institutions can participate in the bidding process. The repo will mature on February 12, according to the NRB. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16359', 'image' => '20221229015151_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 13:51:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16617', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Agitating Industrialists Call Off Protests', 'sub_title' => 'Government to Address the Demands of Industrialists by Mid-January', 'summary' => 'December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During a discussion with the industrialists and entrepreneurs at the ministry on Wednesday, Finance Minister Paudel said that he was committed to resolving the problems faced by the private at the earliest. He also urged the industrialists to withdraw their protests as he was effortful to find a solution to the problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Upon the request of Finance Minister Paudel, the industrialists immediately called off their protests.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">One of the industrialists told New Business Age that they decided to call off the strike after the prime minister as well as the finance minister assured them to address their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Following the meeting, various umbrella bodies of industrialists and entrepreneurs organized a joint press conference on Wednesday evening and announced their decision to call off the strikes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> The meeting held earlier with Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Paudel was led by Bhavani Rana, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The finance minister took the matter seriously and assured that most of the problems will be addressed within the month of Paush (mid-December to mid-January),” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari was also present during the meeting.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the discussion, the industrialists had raised the issues of working capital loan guidelines and the high interest rates charged by the banks. They also urged to categorize bankers and businessmen and requested the government to lower the service charge of banks. In order to ease the liquidity crisis in the banking system, the industrialists suggested the government to impose CCD ratio instead of maintaining the CD ratio, according to FNCCI Vice President Dinesh Shrestha.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Shrestha said that the finance minister was positive about addressing the demands of the private sector including the demand to lower the interest rates, easing liquidity crisis and giving additional time for refinancing. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16358', 'image' => '20221229122922_1672284226.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 12:28:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16616', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Urges Government to Slash Interest Rate', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. The CNI delegation led by its President Vishnu Kumar Agarwal stressed that reforming the economy in a challenging situation and should be the first priority of the new government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The CNI submitted a memo to the prime minister along with suggestions for the reforms. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">CNI suggested measures that can be taken immediately by giving priority to the financial sector, industrial promotion, infrastructure, tourism and energy, and information technology sector to revive the economy again. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agarwal said that he is confident that the government will give top priority to CNI’s suggestions and implement them as the morale of industrialists has dropped significantly due to high contraction in demand, high interest rates, lack of investable capital etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the meeting, he said, “In order to boost the morale of industrialists, the interest rate should be reduced immediately and the current working capital loan guidelines should be postponed for 2 years.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agrawal said that the government should work to give a positive message immediately and to encourage industrialists. Agarwal also suggested that to encourage import-substituting industries, the six existing industrial zones should be operated as soon as possible on the model of India's Rudrapur Industrial Zone in public-private-partnership. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prime Minister Dahal responded saying that he is looking for clear suggestions from the private sector like CNI to improve the economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“I expected the same from the private sector. CNI has clearly given a plan for reform. Thanks to CNI for this,” said Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the CNI team also submitted a memo to the Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel with suggestions including clear steps to be taken immediately to speed up the economy which is in crisis. Governor of NRB Maha Prasad Adhikari, Revenue Secretary Rameshwar Dangal, and Deputy Governor of NRB Bam Bahadur Mishra were also present during the meeting with the finance minister.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16357', 'image' => '20221229111736_CNI dahal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 11:17:02', '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' => '16631', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DIG-led Committee formed to Probe Nirmala Panta Murder Case ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta. The probe committee was formed under the directive of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Spokesperson of Nepal Police, Tek Prasad Rai, shared this information on Friday. DIG Singh is currently working with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). She had also been deputed in the previous investigation in the murder. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee also comprises Superintendent of Police (SP) Kamal Thapa, Inspector Dhirendra Rokaya and a doctor as well. They have been mandated to initiate investigation process in a new way. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the very day Home Minister Lamichhane assumed office, he had said that he would make utmost efforts to deliver justice in Nirmala's rape-and-murder case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Panta was murdered after rape in about four years ago. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-31', 'modified' => '2022-12-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16371', 'image' => '20221231120720_20220921034658_Nepal_Police_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-31 12:06:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Paddy Production up by Seven Percent this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. According to government data, the production of paddy increased this year by almost seven percent. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) said that the country produced 5,486,472 tons of paddy this year, which is 6.94 percent more than the yield of last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ministry published the report based on the data of estimated rice production provided by all the seven provinces of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the MoALD, paddy plantation this year was done on 1,447,789 hectares of land, which was two percent less than that of last year but the production was up by 6.94 percent. The productivity has also grown to 3.8 tons per hectare this year. Earlier, the productivity of rice was 3.5 tons per hectare.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The production last year was affected due to the unseasonal rainfall in October last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the weather was fair and the farmers were provided with fertilizer a bit late while the use of improved variety of seeds also contributed to the growth in production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the production this year increased, it was still less than the production two years ago by 200,000 metric tons when the country produced 5,621,000 tons – a record high production in the last seven years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Province-wise, the Madhesh Province produced 1,388,000 tons of paddy this year, the largest of all. Province 1 produced 1,336,000 tons and Lumbini province grew 1,151,000 tons of paddy during the main harvesting season. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16370', 'image' => '20221230102838_20220720044056_640px-Rice_Plants_(IRRI).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 22:28:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NTB Urges not to Obstruct Arrival of Tourists on the Pretext of New Wave', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour. Nepal's tourism business has gradually started to revive after the first and second waves of Covid-19. In this situation, stakeholders said that the risk of Covid-19 infection may increase due to the movement of Chinese tourists and labourers working for various projects in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the data of the Department of Immigration, 5,906 Chinese citizens visited Nepal in the first five months of the current fiscal year. According to the department, 1,704 Chinese citizens came to Nepal in July, 1,203 in August, 1,009 in October, 1,067 in November and 923 in December.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has said that tourists are coming regularly from China, even though they are in small numbers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Officials of the Nepal Tourism Board said that Nepal should not be strict on arrival of Chinese nationals as they have been fully vaccinated and have completed the procedures including quarantine in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Chinese tourists have followed all the norms against Covid-19, so their arrival should not be affected," said Dhananjay Regmi, executive director of NTB. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Regmi said that it is natural for Covid-19 infection to be seen normally in the winter season. According to Regmi, the arrival of foreign tourists, including Chinese, should not be restricted on this pretext.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the past few months, the Covid-19 infection has been spreading rapidly in cities including Shanghai, the financial capital of China. To reduce the rapid spread of infection, the Chinese government had imposed a lockdown in the cities with high infection.</span> <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But after widespread protests against the lockdown, the government relaxed the lockdown.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The coronavirus currently spreading in China is a sub-variant of Omicron 'BF-7'. Experts have said that the infection rate of this variant is very fast. It is said that it will have the ability to infect a large number of people in a short time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Praveen Shrestha said that the government should start preparations early to prevent this variant from spreading in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Common people should also take health precautions to avoid infection," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The new variant of Covid-19, which is spreading rapidly in Chinese cities including Shanghai, has also been seen sporadically in the states of India including Gujarat. But the Indian government has said that the number of people infected with the new variant is negligible.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Since India has an open border with Nepal, if such a variant is seen in India, there is a risk that it may enter Nepal as well. There is no need to panic now, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr Sanjay Kumar Thakur. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"In Nepal, many people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, some have also taken booster doses," he said, "those who are yet to be vaccinated are being prepared to be given regular vaccinations and booster doses."</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16369', 'image' => '20221230041919_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 16:18:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16627', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Issues Directive not to Impose Excise Duty on Mobile Phones ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. </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 Prime Minister Dahal’s press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma, the prime minister instructed the finance minister to give continuity to the previous provision regarding the mobile phone sets brought from aboard for personal use. </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"">Nepali migrant workers have criticized the government’s decision to charge a tax up to 18 percent on a mobile phone set brought from abroad. </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, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) decided to implement the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) beginning from December 30 to what it said was to discourage the grey market of smartphones. </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"">As per the provision, anyone found carrying more than one smartphone while returning from abroad will be imposed excise duty up to 18 percent while in case of possessing more than two sets, the third will be seized by the customs officials. </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"">The NTA had called for registering the imported mobile phone sets brought into the country for personal use in the MDMS system if the set has not been registered yet.</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 NTA, mobile phone sets that have not been declared at the customs will not be registered from December 30 onwards and the operation of such mobile sets will also be banned. (With inputs from RSS)</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16368', 'image' => '20221230024655_20221226113313_nokia-3210-hero.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 14:46:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16626', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Demand Opening of Jugal Mountain Peaks for Expedition', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of stakeholders on Tuesday, which was attended by Member of the House of Representatives Madhav Sapkota, Chairman of Jugal Rural Municipality Resham Syangbo, Director General of the Department of Tourism Homprasad Luintel, Deputy Secretary of Home Ministry, Chief Surveyor and others, took a decision to this effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Discussions were held on a study report led by Jugal Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk regarding the opening of different peaks of the Jugal mountain range located in Sindhupalchowk for climbing. The selected peaks are located near the capital city, have easy foot trails, and are capable of contributing towards the economic as well as social development. Thus, it was decided to request the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation through the Department of Tourism to open them for expedition,” reads a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The meeting also decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks proposed for expedition. MP Sapkota said that they decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks including Jugal I (6591 m), Jugal II (6518 m), Jugal III (6184 m) and Jugal IV (6120 m).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The 6,151 meter high Gyalzen Peak under the Jugal mountain range was expedited twice prior to this. It was successfully climbed for the first time on 9 April, 2019 under the leadership of Maya Gurung. Similarly, it was climbed for the second time in November 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16367', 'image' => '20221230015802_20211213010237_68453777_2651477498229724_6102999853028081664_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 13:57:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16625', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ruling Alliance to Unveil Common Minimum Programme within Five Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government is under pressure to bring a supplementary budget to resolve the current economic crisis faced by the country. Despite such pressure, the government is doing homework to unveil the Common Minimum Programme next week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">‘PM Dahal called a meeting of the ruling alliance at his official residence in Baluwatar on Thursday to discuss about the Common Minimum Programme of the coalition government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the meeting, the ruling alliance agreed to unveil the Common Minimum Program within the next five days.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane informed that the meeting decided to form a committee under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli to prepare the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The ruling parties have decided to bring the Common Minimum Programme within the next five days,” Lamichhane said after the meeting on Thursday, adding, “A committee has been formed under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli. The committee has one representative from each of the ruling parties.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government led by Dahal has the backing of seven political parties and three independent lawmakers. The seven parties include CPN Maoist Centre, CPN UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Rastriya Prajatantra Party has been telling the coalition government to address its demand through the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The committee led by Oli has already started drafting the Common Minimum Programme. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ruling parties have prioritized the issue of nationalism and resolving the economic crisis, according to a member of the committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The programme will also focus on promoting production-oriented economy, improving the supply chain, reducing inflation, corruption control and government-private sector partnership. Also in the agenda of the CMP is creating investment-friendly environment and improving public service delivery.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CMP is also expected to encourage returnee migrant workers to engage in entrepreneurship while attracting people towards agriculture is also on cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Of late, the private sector has been demanding a supplementary budget arguing that the economy is heading towards crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16366', 'image' => '20221230121920_RSS_D85_2124.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16624', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Halts Survey on Real Estate Price Citing Lack of Authentic Data', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. The central bank had started the survey since last year with a plan to release the report in every three months. The main reason behind the central bank’s move is the lack of credibility of the real estate price obtained from the survey. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Executive Director of Economic Research Department of NRB, Prakash Kumar Shrestha, said that the survey could not be continued as the statistics received were not trustworthy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“For the survey, we made basis for transaction that happened in the land revenue offices, price determined in the banks for collateral purpose and the price rate received independently from the market centres. There was no consistency in data against the market price in the time of recession at present,” Executive Director Shrestha argued. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB has come to a conclusion that Nepal’s real estate sector is yet to become professional and competitive due to fluctuation in the price. Dr Shrestha said that such situation could be the result of showing high price of transaction for collateral valuation but recording low price for tax purpose and showing yet another for the transactions taken place in the family members. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The land revenue offices have been receiving transaction tax and capital gains tax in the transaction of the real estate and housing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank had initiated the survey based on 20 different cities having more transaction of real estate or housing. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16365', 'image' => '20221230111846_Real estate.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 11:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16623', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Pledge to Return back Rs 4.66 Billion Collected Illegally from Customers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data of NRB shows that 25 commercial banks other than Agricultural Development Bank Limited collected more than Rs 4.66 billion from their customers against the rules.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NIC Asia Bank is on top of this list and has promised to return Rs 480 million to the customers. Nabil Bank, which is in the second position, has promised to return Rs 470 million and Global IME Bank, which is in the third position, has promised to return Rs 450 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the data, Standard Chartered Bank needs to refund the lowest amount of Rs 4 million to the customers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The executive director of NRB, Dev Kumar Dhakal said that the amount to be refunded for the premiums raised by the banks against the rules is Rs 4.66 billion. Banks have already written off the said amount from the profit of the previous fiscal year and have pledged to return the amount accordingly.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manoj Gyawali, deputy CEO of Nabil Bank, said that they have started refunding as per the instructions of NRB. He informed that since they promised to return the amount in round figures, some of the amounts may be more or less than the exact amount. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16364', 'image' => '20221229061159_20221221110200_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 18:11:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16622', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Studies Suggest Diversification of Products and Markets to Boost Nepal’s Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. Such a revelation was made on the basis of the findings of two separate studies presented during a seminar on “Trade policy and economic diplomacy in Federal Nepal” organized by the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), in collaboration with The Asia foundation (TAF) on Thursday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting the findings of a study, Former Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), and SAWTEE researcher Neelu Thapa recommended identification and development of products along with the need for product and market diversification to boost Nepal’s exports. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The study highlighted the need of technical support and capacity building programs and recommended strong coordination within the three tiers of governments for effective implementation of trade policies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, MoICS Secretary Toyam Raya said that Nepal’s future trade policies must be formulated through proper and adequate consultations among all the three tiers of the government as well as the private sector. Diplomatic missions play a vital role in promoting exports, he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, Bharat Raj Paudyal, secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said that federalism can be leveraged to address the major issues that plague Nepal’s exports including weak intergovernmental coordination, supply-side constraints, poor adoption of technology, weak production capacity, lack of trade policy coherence, and finally poor implementation of policies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a statement issued by SAWTEE, he also pointed out that economic diplomacy cannot function in isolation, hence collaboration and coordination between various stakeholders are essential.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Dr Posh Raj Pandey, chairman of SAWTEE, pointed out that while Nepal has accorded the highest priority to export promotion, the export performance in the past decade has been dismal, primarily because of poor supply capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">SAWTEE’s Executive Director Dr Paras Kharel said that Nepal stands on the verge of graduating from the LDC category (in 2026) and therefore trade and economic diplomacy carry special importance in charting the post-graduation landscape.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The panelists, including former policymakers, emphasized on the need to make trade policy more focused. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The private sector representatives including Neeru Rayamajhi Khatri, president of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN), Shanta Baskota Koirala, director of Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Centre (KTERC) and Rajendra Timilsina, an entrepreneur associated with Himalayan Natural Food Product and Export Pvt Ltd, drew the attention towards the need to integrate trade policy to promote entrepreneurship. They suggested increasing access to technology, infrastructure, knowledge, and capacity building activities of the entrepreneurs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Urging the policymakers to take advantage of the federal structure, Former President of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association Rajan Sharma emphasized on the need to allow sub-national governments to play a role in enhancing the supply-chain.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another study recommended strong partnership between government agencies for the utilization of economic diplomacy and the need to establish and strengthen the institutional arrangement for economic diplomacy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Ambassador Dr Dinesh Bhattarai and SAWTEE’s Research Officer Swastik Aryal presented the findings of the study on economic diplomacy for trade facilitation and export promotion in the context of federal Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prof Shambhu Ram Simkhada, a former ambassador, emphasized that focus should be laid on high-value niche products instead of mass production of low-value products for export.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Suraj Vaidya gave an insight into the challenges faced by the private sector in trade such as lengthy bureaucratic processes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Trade and economic diplomacy expert Rabi Shankar Sainju highlighted the importance of infrastructural development, better linkages between buyers and suppliers, and effective diplomacy to remove protectionist measures applied by other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The event saw the participation of current and former policymakers, trade experts, diplomats, researchers, academicians and journalists, among others, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16363', 'image' => '20221229044243_20220819110523_export.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 16:42:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16621', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mid-Hill Highway makes 64 Percent Headway in One and a Half Decades ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started. The construction of this highway began in 2064/65 BS. This highway connects 215 settlements of 26 districts in the hill region of the country. The 1,879 kilometres long highway stretches from Chiyo Bhanjyang of Panchthar district in eastern Nepal to Jhulaghat of Baitadi district in far-western Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is believed that nearly 10 million population would directly benefit upon the completion of this highway. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although six years have elapsed since the first deadline of this project ended, there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the roadway at several places. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Project Information Officer Suraj Adhikari said that there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the site near the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project. According to him, the alignment of the highway was along the Budhigandaki River in Gorkha district but the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources has written to the project that it was planning to construct the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project at the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari said although there was confusion regarding the highway's alignment in Kaski until some time ago, the issue has been resolved now. He added that nearly 415 kilometres of road and 25 bridges remain to be constructed under the Mid-hill Highway Project. Out of the remaining works, contract still remains to be signed for the construction of 205 kilometres road and 19 bridges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Highway Project has stated that the contract has to be managed for black-topping of 357 kilometres of the highway, construction of 18 bridges and for construction of 134.5 kilometres road in the current fiscal year alone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although the extended deadline for completion of the project terminates by the end of the current fiscal year, it is unlikely that even the contracting process for the remaining works would be completed by that time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The alignment of the road has been altered in one section of the highway in Kaski district by a decision of the Council of Ministers. </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 project’s Information Officer Adhikari said that the Ministry of Energy has sent a letter to the project to go ahead with the construction of the highway in the Budhigandaki section as it will take 7/8 years more for the construction of the Budhigandaki Reservoir Multi-purpose Project. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16362', 'image' => '20221229031843_MidhillHKC_Jajarkot-IMG_1431 - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 15:18:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16620', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Committee Tells Government Bodies to Step Up Efforts to Control Revenue Leakage ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. A meeting of the committee held on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane held discussion regarding the present condition of revenue collection and controlling revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, Ananda Kafle, said discussions and review were held regarding challenges seen in revenue collection and initiatives taken to control smuggling. On the occasion, Finance Minister Poudel asked the bodies to make maximum efforts to control all types of revenue leakages. Minister Poudel assured that the government was ready to provide any kind of support required to control revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Lamichhane said the home administration would actively work to control revenue leakage taking place at the border check points. Directing the employees to work with high-morale without any political pressure and influence, Home Minister Lamichhane asked chiefs of all security bodies to work with determination in order to stop illegal trade activities. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, the finance secretary, the home secretary, chiefs of security bodies, the director-general of the Inland Revenue Department, among others were present in the meeting. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16361', 'image' => '20221229024328_revenue-leakage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:42:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16619', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Light Snowfall Likely in Hill Areas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, partial changes would also occur in the mountainous belt of other provinces owing to the effects in the country's weather system, shared the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department further informed that light snowfall was likely to take place in the hill region of Province 1 in the next 24 hours. Some parts of the Terai would see foggy weather condition which may also affect the normal life. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has urged one and all to remain cautious of the excessive cold brought by the changes in weather conditions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Country Experiencing Chilling Cold with Gradual Fall in Mercury Level </span></strong><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country is experiencing chilling cold with a gradual fall in the mercury level for the past few days, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology under the Weather Forecasting Division. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division, the minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley was recorded at 3.4 degree Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature, which was 4.4 degree Celsius on Tuesday, dipped to 3.4 on Wednesday, said Meteorologist Raju Pradhananga. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the minimum temperature of Birendranagar was recorded at 3.1 degrees Celsius, Taplejung 3.1 degrees Celsius, Lumle 4 degrees Celsius, Dadeldhura 4.4 degrees, Jomsom minus 5 degrees Celsius and Jumla minus 6.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The maximum temperature of the country has also started falling along with the minimum temperature. Tarai districts as well as the hill region have started experiencing thick fog, according to the division. However, the hill districts witnessed sunny day in the afternoon. -- </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Cold cripples life in western Tarai since three days</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Increasing cold since the last three days has crippled life in the Western Tarai including Banke district. As a result, people's mobility has gone down while patients with asthma, pneumonia, common cold and fever have increased. The weather is densely foggy since the morning. "We are restricted inside house due to cold," said Ram Suhaban Yadav of Nepalgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Senior citizens, children, daily wage labourers and poor people have been particularly affected due to cold. Daily wagers are finding it difficult to go for work as a result of cold, said Ramdin Godiya of Duduwa Rural Municipality in Banke district. </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"">"We are left high and dry to support for my family without money. We do not have enough food to eat and clothing to warm ourselves. We are keeping ourselves by burning firewood," he said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16360', 'image' => '20221229020155_snowwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:01:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16618', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Repo worth Rs 50 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions. The central bank is issuing the repo for liquidity management as a large amount of money would go out from the banking system in the form of revenue upon payment of the first installment of the income tax on January 14. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NRB is auctioning the repo on Thursday itself. The maturity period of the repo will be of 45 days. Category A, B and C banks and financial institutions can participate in the bidding process. The repo will mature on February 12, according to the NRB. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16359', 'image' => '20221229015151_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 13:51:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16617', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Agitating Industrialists Call Off Protests', 'sub_title' => 'Government to Address the Demands of Industrialists by Mid-January', 'summary' => 'December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During a discussion with the industrialists and entrepreneurs at the ministry on Wednesday, Finance Minister Paudel said that he was committed to resolving the problems faced by the private at the earliest. He also urged the industrialists to withdraw their protests as he was effortful to find a solution to the problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Upon the request of Finance Minister Paudel, the industrialists immediately called off their protests.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">One of the industrialists told New Business Age that they decided to call off the strike after the prime minister as well as the finance minister assured them to address their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Following the meeting, various umbrella bodies of industrialists and entrepreneurs organized a joint press conference on Wednesday evening and announced their decision to call off the strikes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> The meeting held earlier with Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Paudel was led by Bhavani Rana, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The finance minister took the matter seriously and assured that most of the problems will be addressed within the month of Paush (mid-December to mid-January),” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari was also present during the meeting.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the discussion, the industrialists had raised the issues of working capital loan guidelines and the high interest rates charged by the banks. They also urged to categorize bankers and businessmen and requested the government to lower the service charge of banks. In order to ease the liquidity crisis in the banking system, the industrialists suggested the government to impose CCD ratio instead of maintaining the CD ratio, according to FNCCI Vice President Dinesh Shrestha.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Shrestha said that the finance minister was positive about addressing the demands of the private sector including the demand to lower the interest rates, easing liquidity crisis and giving additional time for refinancing. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16358', 'image' => '20221229122922_1672284226.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 12:28:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16616', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Urges Government to Slash Interest Rate', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. The CNI delegation led by its President Vishnu Kumar Agarwal stressed that reforming the economy in a challenging situation and should be the first priority of the new government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The CNI submitted a memo to the prime minister along with suggestions for the reforms. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">CNI suggested measures that can be taken immediately by giving priority to the financial sector, industrial promotion, infrastructure, tourism and energy, and information technology sector to revive the economy again. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agarwal said that he is confident that the government will give top priority to CNI’s suggestions and implement them as the morale of industrialists has dropped significantly due to high contraction in demand, high interest rates, lack of investable capital etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the meeting, he said, “In order to boost the morale of industrialists, the interest rate should be reduced immediately and the current working capital loan guidelines should be postponed for 2 years.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agrawal said that the government should work to give a positive message immediately and to encourage industrialists. Agarwal also suggested that to encourage import-substituting industries, the six existing industrial zones should be operated as soon as possible on the model of India's Rudrapur Industrial Zone in public-private-partnership. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prime Minister Dahal responded saying that he is looking for clear suggestions from the private sector like CNI to improve the economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“I expected the same from the private sector. CNI has clearly given a plan for reform. Thanks to CNI for this,” said Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the CNI team also submitted a memo to the Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel with suggestions including clear steps to be taken immediately to speed up the economy which is in crisis. Governor of NRB Maha Prasad Adhikari, Revenue Secretary Rameshwar Dangal, and Deputy Governor of NRB Bam Bahadur Mishra were also present during the meeting with the finance minister.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16357', 'image' => '20221229111736_CNI dahal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 11:17:02', '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:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 31: Nepal Police has formed a five-member probe committee under the coordination of Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Puja Singh to investigate the rape-and-murder of 13-year-old Niramala Panta. The probe committee was formed under the directive of Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Spokesperson of Nepal Police, Tek Prasad Rai, shared this information on Friday. DIG Singh is currently working with the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB). She had also been deputed in the previous investigation in the murder. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The committee also comprises Superintendent of Police (SP) Kamal Thapa, Inspector Dhirendra Rokaya and a doctor as well. They have been mandated to initiate investigation process in a new way. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the very day Home Minister Lamichhane assumed office, he had said that he would make utmost efforts to deliver justice in Nirmala's rape-and-murder case. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Panta was murdered after rape in about four years ago. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-31', 'modified' => '2022-12-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16371', 'image' => '20221231120720_20220921034658_Nepal_Police_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-31 12:06:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Paddy Production up by Seven Percent this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: Although the farmers faced scarcity of fertilizer this year, the production of paddy was up due to favourable weather. According to government data, the production of paddy increased this year by almost seven percent. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) said that the country produced 5,486,472 tons of paddy this year, which is 6.94 percent more than the yield of last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ministry published the report based on the data of estimated rice production provided by all the seven provinces of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the MoALD, paddy plantation this year was done on 1,447,789 hectares of land, which was two percent less than that of last year but the production was up by 6.94 percent. The productivity has also grown to 3.8 tons per hectare this year. Earlier, the productivity of rice was 3.5 tons per hectare.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The production last year was affected due to the unseasonal rainfall in October last year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, the weather was fair and the farmers were provided with fertilizer a bit late while the use of improved variety of seeds also contributed to the growth in production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Although the production this year increased, it was still less than the production two years ago by 200,000 metric tons when the country produced 5,621,000 tons – a record high production in the last seven years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Province-wise, the Madhesh Province produced 1,388,000 tons of paddy this year, the largest of all. Province 1 produced 1,336,000 tons and Lumbini province grew 1,151,000 tons of paddy during the main harvesting season. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16370', 'image' => '20221230102838_20220720044056_640px-Rice_Plants_(IRRI).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 22:28:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NTB Urges not to Obstruct Arrival of Tourists on the Pretext of New Wave', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: The rapid spread of a new variant of Covid-19 in China has raised concerns that the contagious disease might enter Nepal from the northern neighbour. Nepal's tourism business has gradually started to revive after the first and second waves of Covid-19. In this situation, stakeholders said that the risk of Covid-19 infection may increase due to the movement of Chinese tourists and labourers working for various projects in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the data of the Department of Immigration, 5,906 Chinese citizens visited Nepal in the first five months of the current fiscal year. According to the department, 1,704 Chinese citizens came to Nepal in July, 1,203 in August, 1,009 in October, 1,067 in November and 923 in December.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has said that tourists are coming regularly from China, even though they are in small numbers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Officials of the Nepal Tourism Board said that Nepal should not be strict on arrival of Chinese nationals as they have been fully vaccinated and have completed the procedures including quarantine in China. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Chinese tourists have followed all the norms against Covid-19, so their arrival should not be affected," said Dhananjay Regmi, executive director of NTB. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Regmi said that it is natural for Covid-19 infection to be seen normally in the winter season. According to Regmi, the arrival of foreign tourists, including Chinese, should not be restricted on this pretext.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For the past few months, the Covid-19 infection has been spreading rapidly in cities including Shanghai, the financial capital of China. To reduce the rapid spread of infection, the Chinese government had imposed a lockdown in the cities with high infection.</span> <span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But after widespread protests against the lockdown, the government relaxed the lockdown.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The coronavirus currently spreading in China is a sub-variant of Omicron 'BF-7'. Experts have said that the infection rate of this variant is very fast. It is said that it will have the ability to infect a large number of people in a short time.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Infectious disease specialist Dr Praveen Shrestha said that the government should start preparations early to prevent this variant from spreading in Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Common people should also take health precautions to avoid infection," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The new variant of Covid-19, which is spreading rapidly in Chinese cities including Shanghai, has also been seen sporadically in the states of India including Gujarat. But the Indian government has said that the number of people infected with the new variant is negligible.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Since India has an open border with Nepal, if such a variant is seen in India, there is a risk that it may enter Nepal as well. There is no need to panic now, said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Dr Sanjay Kumar Thakur. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"In Nepal, many people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, some have also taken booster doses," he said, "those who are yet to be vaccinated are being prepared to be given regular vaccinations and booster doses."</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16369', 'image' => '20221230041919_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 16:18:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16627', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Dahal Issues Directive not to Impose Excise Duty on Mobile Phones ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Bishnu Prasad Poudel, not to implement the decision to impose excise duty on mobile phone sets brought by Nepali migrant worker while returning home. </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 Prime Minister Dahal’s press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma, the prime minister instructed the finance minister to give continuity to the previous provision regarding the mobile phone sets brought from aboard for personal use. </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"">Nepali migrant workers have criticized the government’s decision to charge a tax up to 18 percent on a mobile phone set brought from abroad. </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, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) decided to implement the Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) beginning from December 30 to what it said was to discourage the grey market of smartphones. </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"">As per the provision, anyone found carrying more than one smartphone while returning from abroad will be imposed excise duty up to 18 percent while in case of possessing more than two sets, the third will be seized by the customs officials. </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"">The NTA had called for registering the imported mobile phone sets brought into the country for personal use in the MDMS system if the set has not been registered yet.</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 NTA, mobile phone sets that have not been declared at the customs will not be registered from December 30 onwards and the operation of such mobile sets will also be banned. (With inputs from RSS)</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16368', 'image' => '20221230024655_20221226113313_nokia-3210-hero.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 14:46:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16626', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Demand Opening of Jugal Mountain Peaks for Expedition', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">December 30: Stakeholders have decided to request the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to open various virgin peaks of the Jugal mountain range in Sindhupalchowk district for expedition.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">A meeting of stakeholders on Tuesday, which was attended by Member of the House of Representatives Madhav Sapkota, Chairman of Jugal Rural Municipality Resham Syangbo, Director General of the Department of Tourism Homprasad Luintel, Deputy Secretary of Home Ministry, Chief Surveyor and others, took a decision to this effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Discussions were held on a study report led by Jugal Rural Municipality of Sindhupalchowk regarding the opening of different peaks of the Jugal mountain range located in Sindhupalchowk for climbing. The selected peaks are located near the capital city, have easy foot trails, and are capable of contributing towards the economic as well as social development. Thus, it was decided to request the Government of Nepal, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation through the Department of Tourism to open them for expedition,” reads a statement issued after the meeting.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The meeting also decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks proposed for expedition. MP Sapkota said that they decided to request the government to name the mountain peaks including Jugal I (6591 m), Jugal II (6518 m), Jugal III (6184 m) and Jugal IV (6120 m).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The 6,151 meter high Gyalzen Peak under the Jugal mountain range was expedited twice prior to this. It was successfully climbed for the first time on 9 April, 2019 under the leadership of Maya Gurung. Similarly, it was climbed for the second time in November 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16367', 'image' => '20221230015802_20211213010237_68453777_2651477498229724_6102999853028081664_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 13:57:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16625', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ruling Alliance to Unveil Common Minimum Programme within Five Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 30: The new government led by CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has decided to unveil the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling alliance before announcing the supplementary budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government is under pressure to bring a supplementary budget to resolve the current economic crisis faced by the country. Despite such pressure, the government is doing homework to unveil the Common Minimum Programme next week.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">‘PM Dahal called a meeting of the ruling alliance at his official residence in Baluwatar on Thursday to discuss about the Common Minimum Programme of the coalition government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the meeting, the ruling alliance agreed to unveil the Common Minimum Program within the next five days.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane informed that the meeting decided to form a committee under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli to prepare the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The ruling parties have decided to bring the Common Minimum Programme within the next five days,” Lamichhane said after the meeting on Thursday, adding, “A committee has been formed under the coordination of CPN UML Chairman KP Oli. The committee has one representative from each of the ruling parties.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government led by Dahal has the backing of seven political parties and three independent lawmakers. The seven parties include CPN Maoist Centre, CPN UML, Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party and Nagarik Unmukti Party.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Rastriya Prajatantra Party has been telling the coalition government to address its demand through the Common Minimum Programme.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The committee led by Oli has already started drafting the Common Minimum Programme. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The ruling parties have prioritized the issue of nationalism and resolving the economic crisis, according to a member of the committee.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The programme will also focus on promoting production-oriented economy, improving the supply chain, reducing inflation, corruption control and government-private sector partnership. Also in the agenda of the CMP is creating investment-friendly environment and improving public service delivery.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The CMP is also expected to encourage returnee migrant workers to engage in entrepreneurship while attracting people towards agriculture is also on cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Of late, the private sector has been demanding a supplementary budget arguing that the economy is heading towards crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16366', 'image' => '20221230121920_RSS_D85_2124.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16624', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Halts Survey on Real Estate Price Citing Lack of Authentic Data', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 30: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has stopped publication of survey on real estate or housing price due to the lack of credible data. The central bank had started the survey since last year with a plan to release the report in every three months. The main reason behind the central bank’s move is the lack of credibility of the real estate price obtained from the survey. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Executive Director of Economic Research Department of NRB, Prakash Kumar Shrestha, said that the survey could not be continued as the statistics received were not trustworthy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“For the survey, we made basis for transaction that happened in the land revenue offices, price determined in the banks for collateral purpose and the price rate received independently from the market centres. There was no consistency in data against the market price in the time of recession at present,” Executive Director Shrestha argued. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NRB has come to a conclusion that Nepal’s real estate sector is yet to become professional and competitive due to fluctuation in the price. Dr Shrestha said that such situation could be the result of showing high price of transaction for collateral valuation but recording low price for tax purpose and showing yet another for the transactions taken place in the family members. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The land revenue offices have been receiving transaction tax and capital gains tax in the transaction of the real estate and housing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The central bank had initiated the survey based on 20 different cities having more transaction of real estate or housing. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-30', 'modified' => '2022-12-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16365', 'image' => '20221230111846_Real estate.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-30 11:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16623', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Banks Pledge to Return back Rs 4.66 Billion Collected Illegally from Customers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: Banks have promised to return more than Rs 4.5 billion collected as premium and interest from customers against the rules after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) instructed the banks to return the amount collected illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data of NRB shows that 25 commercial banks other than Agricultural Development Bank Limited collected more than Rs 4.66 billion from their customers against the rules.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NIC Asia Bank is on top of this list and has promised to return Rs 480 million to the customers. Nabil Bank, which is in the second position, has promised to return Rs 470 million and Global IME Bank, which is in the third position, has promised to return Rs 450 million. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the data, Standard Chartered Bank needs to refund the lowest amount of Rs 4 million to the customers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The executive director of NRB, Dev Kumar Dhakal said that the amount to be refunded for the premiums raised by the banks against the rules is Rs 4.66 billion. Banks have already written off the said amount from the profit of the previous fiscal year and have pledged to return the amount accordingly.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manoj Gyawali, deputy CEO of Nabil Bank, said that they have started refunding as per the instructions of NRB. He informed that since they promised to return the amount in round figures, some of the amounts may be more or less than the exact amount. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16364', 'image' => '20221229061159_20221221110200_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 18:11:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16622', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Studies Suggest Diversification of Products and Markets to Boost Nepal’s Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 28: Experts have suggested diversification of products and market to boost Nepal’s exports. Such a revelation was made on the basis of the findings of two separate studies presented during a seminar on “Trade policy and economic diplomacy in Federal Nepal” organized by the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), in collaboration with The Asia foundation (TAF) on Thursday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Presenting the findings of a study, Former Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), and SAWTEE researcher Neelu Thapa recommended identification and development of products along with the need for product and market diversification to boost Nepal’s exports. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The study highlighted the need of technical support and capacity building programs and recommended strong coordination within the three tiers of governments for effective implementation of trade policies</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Speaking at the inaugural session of the seminar, MoICS Secretary Toyam Raya said that Nepal’s future trade policies must be formulated through proper and adequate consultations among all the three tiers of the government as well as the private sector. Diplomatic missions play a vital role in promoting exports, he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, Bharat Raj Paudyal, secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), said that federalism can be leveraged to address the major issues that plague Nepal’s exports including weak intergovernmental coordination, supply-side constraints, poor adoption of technology, weak production capacity, lack of trade policy coherence, and finally poor implementation of policies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a statement issued by SAWTEE, he also pointed out that economic diplomacy cannot function in isolation, hence collaboration and coordination between various stakeholders are essential.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Dr Posh Raj Pandey, chairman of SAWTEE, pointed out that while Nepal has accorded the highest priority to export promotion, the export performance in the past decade has been dismal, primarily because of poor supply capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">SAWTEE’s Executive Director Dr Paras Kharel said that Nepal stands on the verge of graduating from the LDC category (in 2026) and therefore trade and economic diplomacy carry special importance in charting the post-graduation landscape.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The panelists, including former policymakers, emphasized on the need to make trade policy more focused. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The private sector representatives including Neeru Rayamajhi Khatri, president of the Federation of Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (FWEAN), Shanta Baskota Koirala, director of Kanchanjangha Tea Estate and Research Centre (KTERC) and Rajendra Timilsina, an entrepreneur associated with Himalayan Natural Food Product and Export Pvt Ltd, drew the attention towards the need to integrate trade policy to promote entrepreneurship. They suggested increasing access to technology, infrastructure, knowledge, and capacity building activities of the entrepreneurs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Urging the policymakers to take advantage of the federal structure, Former President of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association Rajan Sharma emphasized on the need to allow sub-national governments to play a role in enhancing the supply-chain.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another study recommended strong partnership between government agencies for the utilization of economic diplomacy and the need to establish and strengthen the institutional arrangement for economic diplomacy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Ambassador Dr Dinesh Bhattarai and SAWTEE’s Research Officer Swastik Aryal presented the findings of the study on economic diplomacy for trade facilitation and export promotion in the context of federal Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prof Shambhu Ram Simkhada, a former ambassador, emphasized that focus should be laid on high-value niche products instead of mass production of low-value products for export.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) Suraj Vaidya gave an insight into the challenges faced by the private sector in trade such as lengthy bureaucratic processes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Trade and economic diplomacy expert Rabi Shankar Sainju highlighted the importance of infrastructural development, better linkages between buyers and suppliers, and effective diplomacy to remove protectionist measures applied by other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The event saw the participation of current and former policymakers, trade experts, diplomats, researchers, academicians and journalists, among others, added the statement.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16363', 'image' => '20221229044243_20220819110523_export.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 16:42:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16621', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mid-Hill Highway makes 64 Percent Headway in One and a Half Decades ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Pushpalal (Mid-hill) Highway has made 64 percent progress in one and a half decades since its construction started. The construction of this highway began in 2064/65 BS. This highway connects 215 settlements of 26 districts in the hill region of the country. The 1,879 kilometres long highway stretches from Chiyo Bhanjyang of Panchthar district in eastern Nepal to Jhulaghat of Baitadi district in far-western Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is believed that nearly 10 million population would directly benefit upon the completion of this highway. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although six years have elapsed since the first deadline of this project ended, there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the roadway at several places. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Project Information Officer Suraj Adhikari said that there is still confusion regarding the alignment of the site near the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project. According to him, the alignment of the highway was along the Budhigandaki River in Gorkha district but the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources has written to the project that it was planning to construct the Budhigandaki High-dam Multipurpose Project at the site. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari said although there was confusion regarding the highway's alignment in Kaski until some time ago, the issue has been resolved now. He added that nearly 415 kilometres of road and 25 bridges remain to be constructed under the Mid-hill Highway Project. Out of the remaining works, contract still remains to be signed for the construction of 205 kilometres road and 19 bridges. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Highway Project has stated that the contract has to be managed for black-topping of 357 kilometres of the highway, construction of 18 bridges and for construction of 134.5 kilometres road in the current fiscal year alone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Although the extended deadline for completion of the project terminates by the end of the current fiscal year, it is unlikely that even the contracting process for the remaining works would be completed by that time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The alignment of the road has been altered in one section of the highway in Kaski district by a decision of the Council of Ministers. </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 project’s Information Officer Adhikari said that the Ministry of Energy has sent a letter to the project to go ahead with the construction of the highway in the Budhigandaki section as it will take 7/8 years more for the construction of the Budhigandaki Reservoir Multi-purpose Project. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16362', 'image' => '20221229031843_MidhillHKC_Jajarkot-IMG_1431 - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 15:18:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16620', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Committee Tells Government Bodies to Step Up Efforts to Control Revenue Leakage ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee has directed the bodies concerned to make maximum efforts to control revenue leakage. A meeting of the committee held on Wednesday in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane held discussion regarding the present condition of revenue collection and controlling revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson for the Finance Ministry, Ananda Kafle, said discussions and review were held regarding challenges seen in revenue collection and initiatives taken to control smuggling. On the occasion, Finance Minister Poudel asked the bodies to make maximum efforts to control all types of revenue leakages. Minister Poudel assured that the government was ready to provide any kind of support required to control revenue leakage. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Lamichhane said the home administration would actively work to control revenue leakage taking place at the border check points. Directing the employees to work with high-morale without any political pressure and influence, Home Minister Lamichhane asked chiefs of all security bodies to work with determination in order to stop illegal trade activities. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, the finance secretary, the home secretary, chiefs of security bodies, the director-general of the Inland Revenue Department, among others were present in the meeting. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16361', 'image' => '20221229024328_revenue-leakage.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:42:40', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16619', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Light Snowfall Likely in Hill Areas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: The influence of westerly wind is likely to cause partial to general changes in the weather pattern in the mountainous belt and bring light snowfall in the hill areas of the Province-1 and Sudurpaschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, partial changes would also occur in the mountainous belt of other provinces owing to the effects in the country's weather system, shared the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department further informed that light snowfall was likely to take place in the hill region of Province 1 in the next 24 hours. Some parts of the Terai would see foggy weather condition which may also affect the normal life. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department has urged one and all to remain cautious of the excessive cold brought by the changes in weather conditions. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Country Experiencing Chilling Cold with Gradual Fall in Mercury Level </span></strong><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country is experiencing chilling cold with a gradual fall in the mercury level for the past few days, according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology under the Weather Forecasting Division. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division, the minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley was recorded at 3.4 degree Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature, which was 4.4 degree Celsius on Tuesday, dipped to 3.4 on Wednesday, said Meteorologist Raju Pradhananga. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the minimum temperature of Birendranagar was recorded at 3.1 degrees Celsius, Taplejung 3.1 degrees Celsius, Lumle 4 degrees Celsius, Dadeldhura 4.4 degrees, Jomsom minus 5 degrees Celsius and Jumla minus 6.5 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The maximum temperature of the country has also started falling along with the minimum temperature. Tarai districts as well as the hill region have started experiencing thick fog, according to the division. However, the hill districts witnessed sunny day in the afternoon. -- </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Cold cripples life in western Tarai since three days</span></strong> <br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Increasing cold since the last three days has crippled life in the Western Tarai including Banke district. As a result, people's mobility has gone down while patients with asthma, pneumonia, common cold and fever have increased. The weather is densely foggy since the morning. "We are restricted inside house due to cold," said Ram Suhaban Yadav of Nepalgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Senior citizens, children, daily wage labourers and poor people have been particularly affected due to cold. Daily wagers are finding it difficult to go for work as a result of cold, said Ramdin Godiya of Duduwa Rural Municipality in Banke district. </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"">"We are left high and dry to support for my family without money. We do not have enough food to eat and clothing to warm ourselves. We are keeping ourselves by burning firewood," he said. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16360', 'image' => '20221229020155_snowwww.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 14:01:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16618', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Repo worth Rs 50 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">December 29: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is all set to issue repo worth Rs 50 billion for managing the liquidity in banks and financial institutions. The central bank is issuing the repo for liquidity management as a large amount of money would go out from the banking system in the form of revenue upon payment of the first installment of the income tax on January 14. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NRB is auctioning the repo on Thursday itself. The maturity period of the repo will be of 45 days. Category A, B and C banks and financial institutions can participate in the bidding process. The repo will mature on February 12, according to the NRB. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16359', 'image' => '20221229015151_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 13:51:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16617', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Agitating Industrialists Call Off Protests', 'sub_title' => 'Government to Address the Demands of Industrialists by Mid-January', 'summary' => 'December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">December 29: The agitating industrialists have called off their protest programmes after getting assurance from Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel that the government will soon address the problems faced by the economy and the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During a discussion with the industrialists and entrepreneurs at the ministry on Wednesday, Finance Minister Paudel said that he was committed to resolving the problems faced by the private at the earliest. He also urged the industrialists to withdraw their protests as he was effortful to find a solution to the problems.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Upon the request of Finance Minister Paudel, the industrialists immediately called off their protests.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">One of the industrialists told New Business Age that they decided to call off the strike after the prime minister as well as the finance minister assured them to address their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Following the meeting, various umbrella bodies of industrialists and entrepreneurs organized a joint press conference on Wednesday evening and announced their decision to call off the strikes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> The meeting held earlier with Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Paudel was led by Bhavani Rana, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The finance minister took the matter seriously and assured that most of the problems will be addressed within the month of Paush (mid-December to mid-January),” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal Rastra Bank’s Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari was also present during the meeting.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the discussion, the industrialists had raised the issues of working capital loan guidelines and the high interest rates charged by the banks. They also urged to categorize bankers and businessmen and requested the government to lower the service charge of banks. In order to ease the liquidity crisis in the banking system, the industrialists suggested the government to impose CCD ratio instead of maintaining the CD ratio, according to FNCCI Vice President Dinesh Shrestha.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Shrestha said that the finance minister was positive about addressing the demands of the private sector including the demand to lower the interest rates, easing liquidity crisis and giving additional time for refinancing. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16358', 'image' => '20221229122922_1672284226.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 12:28:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16616', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Urges Government to Slash Interest Rate', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">December 29: A delegation of Confederation of Nepalese Industry (CNI) recently met the newly appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and urged the government to take necessary measures to revive the economy. The CNI delegation led by its President Vishnu Kumar Agarwal stressed that reforming the economy in a challenging situation and should be the first priority of the new government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The CNI submitted a memo to the prime minister along with suggestions for the reforms. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">CNI suggested measures that can be taken immediately by giving priority to the financial sector, industrial promotion, infrastructure, tourism and energy, and information technology sector to revive the economy again. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agarwal said that he is confident that the government will give top priority to CNI’s suggestions and implement them as the morale of industrialists has dropped significantly due to high contraction in demand, high interest rates, lack of investable capital etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the meeting, he said, “In order to boost the morale of industrialists, the interest rate should be reduced immediately and the current working capital loan guidelines should be postponed for 2 years.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Agrawal said that the government should work to give a positive message immediately and to encourage industrialists. Agarwal also suggested that to encourage import-substituting industries, the six existing industrial zones should be operated as soon as possible on the model of India's Rudrapur Industrial Zone in public-private-partnership. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prime Minister Dahal responded saying that he is looking for clear suggestions from the private sector like CNI to improve the economy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“I expected the same from the private sector. CNI has clearly given a plan for reform. Thanks to CNI for this,” said Dahal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the CNI team also submitted a memo to the Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel with suggestions including clear steps to be taken immediately to speed up the economy which is in crisis. Governor of NRB Maha Prasad Adhikari, Revenue Secretary Rameshwar Dangal, and Deputy Governor of NRB Bam Bahadur Mishra were also present during the meeting with the finance minister.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-12-29', 'modified' => '2022-12-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '16357', 'image' => '20221229111736_CNI dahal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-12-29 11:17:02', '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
