April 29: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma complained that the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development did not obey his…
April 29: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma complained that the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development did not obey his…
April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic…
April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy…
April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury…
April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from…
April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport…
April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the…
April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season.…
April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by…
April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15.…
April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country.…
April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims.…
April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest…
April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May…
April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS…
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Finance Minister Sharma said that the staff did not respond to his instruction to bring improved varieties of paddy seeds and distribute them to farmers two months ago.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “For the last two months, I have been asking to distribute improved variety of paddy seeds to the farmers, but you (the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture) have not shown any interest,” Finance Minister Sharma told the officials of the agriculture ministry during a discussion at the Finance Ministry on Wednesday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> During the meeting, the finance minister issued a fresh directive to provide improved varieties of seeds to the farmers so that they can plant paddy in the upcoming planting season in June-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance held discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, Department of Quality and Measurement on the topics of increasing paddy production, systematic operation of quarantine and quality certification.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Minister Sharma said that there is a pressure to reduce the growing import of rice starting from this year itself. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Sharma said, “If we use improved varieties of seeds, it is estimated that the paddy production will grow by three folds this year. Let's not delay this task. If we manage to raise the production three times by December, there will be no need to import rice.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sharma assured that if the improved seeds are expensive for the farmers, the ministry will issue subsidies right away. “If you need subsidy for improved seeds, tell us how much money you need, and we will issue it. We believed that rice imports worth billions of rupees can be reduced by spending little amount on seeds.”</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that traders should be encouraged to import seeds. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, Agriculture Secretary Dr Govinda Sharma informed that the productivity of paddy is 3.5 metric tons per hectare on an average and that the production will improve a lot with the use of improved variety of seeds.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14930', 'image' => '20220429102042_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 10:19:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15186', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling under Shortage of Milk', 'sub_title' => 'Demand for Yogurt and Ice Cream Increases during Summer while Production Declines', 'summary' => 'April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On one hand, the production of fresh milk has declined, while on the other hand, the stock of powdered milk and butter of the industries is half the requirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, the National Dairy Development Board informed that there is a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk in the market per day.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Milk production decreases from February to August and the demand for yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products increases in the summer as well as during the wedding season. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the board, the total demand of milk in the market is around 900,000 liters per day. However, the supply is only 710,000 liters, creating a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk. Milk production also decreases around this time as cattle do not get enough green grass to feed upon. The board informed that in previous years, the state-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and the private sector dairies used to have sufficient stocks of butter and powdered milk, which has declined this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Executive Director of the Board Babukaji Panta informed that the private and government dairies have 1400 metric tons of powdered milk and 2200 tons of butter in stock. Speaking at a program organized on the occasion of the 31st founding day of the board, he stated that about 3100 metric tons of powdered milk and 2900 metric tons of butter is required in the market from February to August.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The collection of fresh milk decreased with the decline in production. According to Balak Chaudhary, spokesperson of the board, the Dairy Development Corporation used to collect 150,000 liters of milk daily some time ago, but now it collects only 110,000 liters. Similarly, the Dairy Industry Association is collecting 350,000 liters of milk daily and the Nepal Dairy Association is collecting 260,000 liters of milk daily. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14929', 'image' => '20220429092708_milk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 09:26:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15188', 'article_category_id' => '264', 'title' => ' Insurance Board agrees to Reduce Premium of Engineering Insurance ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has formed a task force under the coordination of its executive director Raju Raman Poudel for this purpose.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has moved ahead with the process of reducing the minimum premium rate of engineering insurance by conducting necessary study. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The task force includes representatives from the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal, Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN), Nepal Insurers’ Association and Reinsurance Company, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Heavy Equipment Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Public Procurement and Monitoring Office, Nepal Surveyors’ Association. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has already written to these bodies to send their representative for the study. The task force has been given seven days to conduct the study. The task force will study the issue of revising the insurance premium rate of engineering insurance. Based on the study, the task force will submit a report with recommendations to the board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The minimum rate of engineering insurance will be reduced as per the suggestion in the report. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It's very challenging to reduce the minimum rate. However, businessmen in the targeted areas have been protesting,” said Poudel, adding, “We are making an attempt to resolve this issue by conducting necessary study. The rate may be reduced after the study.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the new insurance regulation will not be applicable during the study period. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board had issued a directive on September 22, 2020 and fixed the minimum rate of such insurance. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Following the decision, the promoter companies and construction entrepreneurs started protesting. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They also surrounded the office of the Insurance Board at Kupondole, Lalitpur after which the board reached an agreement with the agitating sides to form the task force. Meanwhile, the protest of construction and energy entrepreneurs has been postponed for the time being. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Insurance Board Surya Prasad Silwal said that an appropriate decision would be taken on the basis of the report submitted by the task force. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14928', 'image' => '20220429123613_1650950740.beema samiti.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 12:35:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15185', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Government Bans Import of 10 Items including Automobile till mid-July', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on Tuesday banning the import of 10 different items. The ban will remain in place until mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government's decision to ban imports indicates that the pressure on foreign exchange reserves has not abated. To discourage the import of luxury goods, the government has been adopting measures such as keeping 50 to 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of goods while the central bank has directed commercial banks to not opening LCs for luxury goods. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the diplomatic mission will be able to bring imported goods, said Commerce Secretary Ganesh Prasad Pandey.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the diplomatic missions would be allowed to import those items for their own purposes.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has said that the ban on liquor import will have a negative impact on the hotel business. HAN's acting president, Binayak Shah, said that the government should reconsider its decision. He said that the tourism sector would be affected if the government did not correct its decision.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had given a 16-point suggestion to the Ministry of Finance on April 3, saying that even the import of essential goods would not be possible if the import of luxury goods was not stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After the Finance Minister ignored the suggestion, the NRB summoned the chief executive officers of all commercial banks on April 6 and verbally instructed them not to open letters of credit for the import of luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the foreign exchange reserves have decreased to only US$ 9.5 billion. This is enough to support the import of goods and services for six and a half months. The ban on imports is likely to affect revenue collection. In April, the finance ministry had set a target of raising Rs 46 billion from customs duty but was able to collect only Rs 40 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has banned the import of vehicles run on petrol and diesel, electric vehicles can be imported without restrictions. Similarly, import of motorcycles of less than 250 cc has not been stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Gazette mentions that no ban will be imposed on the goods which have already been processed for import through banking medium before April 27.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Auto Mobiles Association of Nepal, said that it would be difficult to get vehicles in the market after two and a half months if the ban on import of vehicles is not lifted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that customers will not be able to get the vehicle they want in June, July and August if the LC is not opened by mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14927', 'image' => '20220428025847_nepal-major-imports-update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:57:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15184', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Load Shedding Returns after 4 Years ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India. NEA has started power cuts in the industrial sector by issuing a prior notice on Wednesday. NEA had been cutting power in the industrial sector without any notice after the shortage started during this dry season. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA informed that there will be power cuts in the industrial area for 48 hours effective from 10 am Wednesday. There will be power cuts at different times during this period. According to the NEA, there will be a 12-hour daily power cut in some industries and up to 16 hours in others. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Load shedding has re-started after 4 years in Nepal. Load shedding, which was prevalent for 15 years, had ended on May 14, 2018. NEA, which is supplying electricity from India, has informed that the problem has arisen as it has not been able to buy electricity from India. During the dry season, Nepal produces less electricity. At this time, electricity has to be imported from India to meet the domestic demand. But, the power generation in India itself has declined recently. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">India has a large share of electricity generated from coal. Recently, the Russia-Ukraine tensions have led to a shortage of coal around the world. This has affected India's power generation. At present, there is load shedding for up to 8 hours daily in India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA's executive director Kulman Ghising said that the power cuts have started in the industrial sector as there isn’t enough electricity supply from India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“There was some problem in the supply due to the unavailability of electricity from India through the bidding process. Therefore, we have started cutting electricity in the industrial sector by giving advanced notice,” he told New Business Age, “The situation will be normal if we can buy electricity from India. Otherwise there may be a problem in the electricity supply for some time.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA is currently providing electricity to household customers 24 hours a day. Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bhattarai says that only the power supply of the industrial sector has been cut off. He said that NEA is making efforts to ease the power supply. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal will generate more electricity than it needs from June. NEA says that there will be no such problem after that. Until then, supplies may be disrupted. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The industrial sector has been hit hard after load shedding started. Fuel and electricity are indispensable to the industry. Entrepreneurs say that the operation of the industry has been affected as load shedding has started and fear that industries will run at a loss or close down due to lack of energy. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Subodh Kumar Gupta said that the industry is affected by the power cut. “Now production costs will rise and the industry will be at a loss. However, we understand the problem at the moment,” he said, “The NEA should provide quality electricity as promised. Once the electricity is cut off, our production costs automatically increase. He said that the raw material in the machine does not work when the power is cut.” He said that the industries will prepare accordingly if the electricity is provided as promised. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association of Nepal Dhruba Thapa said that the cement industry would be more affected by load shedding. More electricity is needed to run cement and iron rod industries. Therefore, such industries have been hit hardest by load shedding, he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“If the situation returns to normal within a short period of time, then the industry can run smoothly. If the problem continues, the industry may have to shut down,” he said, “Running an industry with diesel during such an inflationary period is really difficult, but there’s no other solution. We are really worried right now.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He demanded that the government should give as much as it can to the industry even after cutting the electricity for household purposes. “It would have been better if the government had cut off domestic electricity and given it to us,” he said, “But the government does not seem interested in running the industry. Now when the industry is affected, it has a negative impact on the overall economy. The government needs to understand that.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14926', 'image' => '20220428024306_1651100134.Clipboard17.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:42:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15183', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'TIA to Extends Domestic Flight Time to 18 hours a Day ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In order to manage the air traffic congestion, the TIA has made necessary coordination with six airports of terai to operate domestic flights up to 18 hours a day from today, the state-owned national news agency reported citing CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The CAAN has decided to run the airport from 6.00 am to midnight in Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi airports. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This would help reduce existing air service pressure in Kathmandu-based TIA and also give a relief to the pandemic-battered tourism sector, he shared. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14925', 'image' => '20220428023242_5e.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15182', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Economy at the Crossroads: Former Governor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads. He made such remark during the 67</span></span><sup><span style="font-size:7.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">th</span></span></sup><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> anniversary of Nepal Rastra Bank. He also stated that there are problems with the economy of the nation and that the government is failing to carry out its responsibilities.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, the trade deficit has increased, balance of payments disturbed, foreign exchange reserves have been declining and current account is in a deficit. Rawal said that such facts should not be hidden but rather a collective effort is needed to normalize the situation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the global economy itself is in turmoil, Rawal said that no single person should be held responsible for the current economic crisis of the nation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He argued that excessive imports disturbed the balance of payments.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He suggested that all the concerned authorities should work in coordination with each other in order to overcome the issues seen in the nation’s economy. Dr. Rawal stated that Maha Prasad Adhikai received justice just like him when he was suspended as the governor 20 years back.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that some of the negative effects of world trade have also affected Nepal's economy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Governor Rawal said that giving priority to local production can help Nepal's economy during the current crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14924', 'image' => '20220428021318_economic crisis.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:12:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15181', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '109 Expedition Teams Granted Permission for Spring Expedition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p>April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. <br /> According to the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, some of the expedition teams have kicked off their attempts to climb 25 peaks. The teams comprise 876 aspiring climbers from within the country and aboard. <br /> According to the Mountaineering Section of the department, 302 climbers of 38 teams have alone received permits to climb the world's highest peak Mt Everest measuring 8848.86 meters for this spring season. Likewise, 97 climbers of nine teams have been granted permission to climb Mt Ama Dablam (6,814 meters). <br /> Similarly, four teams will be attempting to scale Mt Annapurna (8,011 meters), Mt Nuptse (7,861 meters), Mt Makalu (8,463) while two teams will be climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters). One team has been allowed to climb Mt Lhotse (8,516 meters). <br /> Likewise, four teams each have been granted permits to scale the Himlung Peak and the Dhambus Peak. <br /> The department has Rs 448.94 million in royalties by issuing mountaineering permits. -- RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14923', 'image' => '20220428123440_island-peak-climbing22.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 12:31:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15180', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => ''15 Commercial Banks Enough for the Country'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the survey conducted by the central bank, the participants remarked that the number of banks in Nepal is high based on the size of economy, per capita income and the population and suggested that the number should be reduced.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The NRB conducted the study for the first time after a decade of introduction its merger and acquisition policy. Suggestions for the study were collected through questionnaires from 140 people associated with banks and financial institutions including the chief executive officers (CEO), assistant chief executive officers, acting chief executive officers, chairmen, directors, senior staff and 90 experts and 230 people.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Fifty percent of the respondents suggested that the number of commercial banks should be between 11 to 15. Similarly, 20 percent suggested 5 to 10 banks, 15 percent suggested 16 to 20 banks and the remaining 15 percent suggested 20 to 25 banks were appropriate. Currently, 27 commercial banks are in operation in Nepal</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta said that the study has shown the market's view on the number of banks. “It does not mean that the number of banks must be limited to 15,” he said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the number of development banks and finance companies have declined significantly after the NRB introduced merger and acquisition policy, the number of commercial banks declined minimally. According to the NRB, so far 239 banks and financial institutions participated in the merger and acquisition process and then got limited to 62. A total of 177 licenses were revoked. However, out of 32 commercial banks licensed by NRB, only five merged. Recently, an agreement was reached for the merger of Himalayan and Nepal Investment Bank. The merger process of Nabil and Nepal Bangladesh Bank is also underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Eighty-four percent of participants from banks and financial institutions and 78 percent from experts suggested reducing the number only by giving discounts and facilities for mergers. According to the report, 57 percent of the participants suggested that the number of banks could be reduced through incentives, 20 percent through forced merger and 17 percent through voluntary capital increase. Similarly, 61 percent of the participants said that the merger would be effective if the policy of merging the weak with the strong organization was adopted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Through the merger policy, NRB has been providing policy concessions to the merging banks and financial institutions including cooling off period, priority sector loans, and CCD. Similarly, the government has also been giving income tax exemption.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Most of the respondents said that the merger policy taken by NRB has had a positive impact on banks and financial institutions. Seventy nine percent respondents said the merger increased the bank's risk-bearing capacity, 67 percent said it increased their investment capacity and 52 percent said it increased their operating capacity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Majority of the participants in the study suggested removing the existing classification of banks and financial institutions and moving to universal banking. Of those surveyed, 34 percent suggested moving to universal banking, 31 percent maintaining the current system and 27 percent moving to a specialized banking system.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14922', 'image' => '20220428115632_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:55:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15179', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Announces Public Holiday for 2 Days a Week from May 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday took a decision to this effect on a trial basis, Government Spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed during a press meet on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, declared public holiday on Saturdays and Sundays after a fortnight. The minister further said that the cabinet meeting agreed to fix office hours from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm during the weekdays. </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"">He shared that the cabinet decided to give holidays for two days a week with the belief that it would reduce fuel consumption. </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"">Although the cabinet meeting took such decision to reduce fuel consumption with the objective of easing the pressure on declining foreign exchange reserves, the Council of Ministers has ironically approved foreign visits of high-ranking government officials.</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 cabinet meeting approved a delegation led by Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal to visit Bangladesh and Education Minister Devendra Poudel’s visit to the UK. Likewise, Labour Minister Krishna Kumar Shrestha has been given the go ahead to visit Malaysia.</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"">Similarly, the cabinet meeting also approved India visit of National Planning Commission’s Vice Chairman Bishwonath Poudel and South Korea visit of Forest Secretary Dr Prem Narayan Kandel.</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"">Likewise, Health Secretary Dr Roshan Pokharel has been granted permission to visit Norway to attend a programme.</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 concept of two-day holiday a week was implemented by the government more than two decades ago. The provision was implemented on July 17, 1999 during the tenure of then then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Such decision was taken upon the recommendation of the then Administrative Reform Commission in 1991 with the objective of reducing administrative costs. The provision was revoked almost after three years without conducting a study on its impact.</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"">Recently, the government had floated a similar concept but to boost the tourism sector that has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts had suggested the government to give two days holiday in a week in order to promote domestic tourism. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14921', 'image' => '20220428110554_20220427142651_IMGL6946.JPG', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:05:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15178', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Tax on Tobacco Products Comparatively Less in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. In fact, the tax rate imposed by the government on tobacco products in Nepal is lower than that of neighboring countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the study, more than 27,000 people die annually from diseases caused by the use of tobacco in Nepal. Therefore, it has been recommended to raise the tax rate on tobacco products. According to the study conducted by the institute, the highest selling brand of tobacco in India in 2008 was taxed at 45.76 percent of the retail price. In 2018, this tax rate increased to 54.04 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study believes that the prevalence of tobacco products in India is the result of high tax imposition. However, it also found that the tax in Nepal was 24.27 percent in 2008 and only 30 percent in 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Taxes are a very effective tactics to control tobacco. However, due the government's presumption that raising taxes would encourage illegal trade, the rate of taxes in Nepal is not increasing,” the report states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study report also states that the use of tobacco has direct impact on healthcare cost. It also has a negative impact on the productivity of the family. According to the report, 1.4 percent of the annual GDP is lost due to tobacco. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Increasing the tax rate on tobacco products is a win-win situation. Taxes reduce consumption and improve public health, reduce economic losses and benefit the government.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report states that due to the increase in taxes, the price of tobacco products will increase and consumption will decrease. “Raising the tax rate automatically increases the revenue. Despite this reality, the tax rate on tobacco products in Nepal is very low and these products have become very affordable in the last few years.” The study has disproved the notion that raising taxes on tobacco products will increase illegal trade. During the study, only the prevalence of 0.33 percent illegal cigarettes was found in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Of the 4,300 packs of cigarettes inspected in 11 districts including all three geographical subdivisions of the nation, only 0.33 percent was found to be illegal. Most of the illegal cigarettes are manufactured in Indonesia and most of them were found in Kathmandu and Pokhara, far from the Nepal-India border. The excise duty sticker certified by the Inland Revenue Department was not affixed on the illegal packets.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The general secretary of the research institute, Dr. Jaya Kumar Gurung said that the study dismissed the assumption that the imposition of additional tax on tobacco products would increase the illegal trade. According to him, it is necessary to impose additional tax to reduce the use of tobacco products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">With the approval of the Nepal Health Research Council, the institute conducted a nationwide study in order to check the level of illegal trade of cigarettes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14920', 'image' => '20220427100429_istockphoto-1133345196-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 22:03:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15177', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Foreign Reinsurance Companies start Withdrawing Business from Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. As the proportion of insurance claims in Nepal has increased, foreign reinsurance companies have been incurring losses in their business. As a result, they have started leaving Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lately, high level, i.e. A-rated foreign companies have stopped reinsuring Nepali insurance companies. A report by the Nepal Insurers Association has shown that even B-rated companies are reluctant to take up business here.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the association, in the last five fiscal years, foreign reinsurance companies have incurred losses in their business in Nepal. According to the association, insurance companies of Nepal get a commission of 35 per cent of the premium from foreign companies. In addition, they are also paid an additional 60 per cent as insurance claim. Thus, foreign reinsurance companies have to return 95 per cent of the amount to Nepal. Adding management costs to that, they say the business is running at a loss.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even after the 2015 earthquakes, foreign reinsurance companies had suffered heavy losses in their business in Nepal. However, due to the recent natural calamities, the insurance claims have been increasing in Nepal every year. That has obviously affected foreign reinsurance companies.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, foreign reinsurance companies have started exiting the business here, says Chunky Chhetri, president of Nepal Insurance Association.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Insurance claims have increased in Nepal due for various reasons. This has automatically affected the foreign reinsurance companies. They are at a loss in their business with Nepal. Reinsurance companies are also profit-oriented entities. That's why foreign reinsurance companies are leaving Nepal,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the Insurance Board, insurance companies and the customers should be serious about this issue. “Failure to reinsure poses a challenge to make claims. However, there is a challenge to reinsurance,” he said. “It has become a big problem in the insurance sector. The time has come for everyone to join hands to solve this problem,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In this case, the association has concluded that the Insurance Board should revise the policy on reinsurance. The association says insurance premium rates are likely to increase in order to address this issue.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also submitted its suggestions to the board</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also demanded that the compulsory provision of reinsurance from Nepali companies be scrapped. The association demands that the board should immediately revoke this provision and make arrangements for reinsurance from a foreign company.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Keeping the entire risk within the country is considered dangerous even for the economy. On top of that, the risk is the same as the occurrence of natural disasters in Nepal. Therefore, the association demands that reinsurance should have external backing rather than within the country.</span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14919', 'image' => '20220427073816_Insurance.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 19:36:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15176', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'FNCCI Urges Government to Avail Loan for Productive Sector at 2 Percent Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the budget announcement for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is approaching, the federation has suggested the government to adopt export-oriented policy and to end undeclared power curs faced by the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation put forward those suggestions during a pre-budget discussion organized on Tuesday. On the occasion, FNCCI vice president Dinesh Shrestha said that concrete reforms were needed in the revenue system. He said that 80 percent of the taxpayers at present have paid only 20 percent of the total tax. According to Shrestha, the government should create a favorable environment for paying taxes and this would prevent tax evasion. "There has never been a study on how much taxes should be raised," he said, "It is necessary now." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the occasion, FNCCI Tax and Revenue Committee Chairman Sandeep Kumar Agrawal presented the paper on behalf of the FNCCI. He stressed on the need to come up with short, mid and long term plans to increase capital and for import substitution. He claimed that the prices of commodities have gone up worldwide and the rate of imports will continue to go up. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have estimated that the remittance inflow will be Rs 1 trillion this year," he said, "Apart from this, 30 to 40 percent of the remittances are still coming through informal channels, and an attractive policy is needed to bring it through the formal channels." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation has suggested revising the Nepal Integrated Trade Strategy (NTIS) for export promotion. Stating that the current arrangement of export refinancing is impractical, the federation asked to maintain the term of such loan for at least 3 years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The private sector has demanded cash incentives for shoe and sole manufacturers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the exporters have to go to the central bank and other banks to get the cash subsidy for export, Agrawal demanded the money to be transferred to their account as soon as the export is done. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the federation, there are many problems such as environmental impact assessment for the establishment of industries. While declaring industrial villages, the FNCCI has suggested the government to take into consideration the situation after decades. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, the federation has also demanded to bring a policy of giving tariff exemption to those who consume more energy. The suggestion has also laid emphasis on providing cheap electricity to the export-oriented industries. In addition, it has been mentioned that skilled manpower has to be imported from outside while the manpower produced by the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) have not been linked with the entrepreneurs. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14918', 'image' => '20220427023224_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15175', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector gets Top Priority in Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29, as per by the constitutional provision. The Ministry of Finance expedited the process of budget preparation, prioritizing the agriculture sector in order to revive the economy in the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the one hand, a team led by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Bhupal Baral is mobilized to prepare the budget on time; while on the other hand, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma is also taking the lead. The budget preparation team has decided to not prioritize “popular programmes” as the economy was threatened by such programmes in the previous years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Finance Minister Sharma has been saying that he will give priority to agriculture since a lot of agricultural produce is being imported. The ministry is preparing the budget in such a way that it would implement effective programmes rather than increase the budget for agriculture excessively. Though the budget will be focused on agriculture, Finance Minister Sharma has instructed the concerned officials not to emphasize on subsidy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the suggestion of Finance Minister Sharma, the team is preparing the budget to encourage the farmers through timely availability of fertilizers, technology and through technical assistance. Prakash Sanjel, joint secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture, informed that the ministry was given a budget ceiling of Rs 42.73 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the new budget prioritizes recovery from the current economic crisis, which should not be included in the next budget. As the current crisis is expected to improve in the next three months, ministry officials believe that no special programmes should be included in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite the pressure on foreign exchange reserves, it is estimated that the foreign exchange reserves will become balanced ahead of the next budget. Based on the same estimate, a senior government official said there is no strategy to bring in new programmes. However, the budget will address the issue of reducing trade deficit, the official added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry stated that the budget will be based on the vision, goals, objectives, strategies, priorities, annual policies and programmes of the government. The principles of budget and priorities will also be taken into consideration along with sustainable development goals mentioned in the 15<sup>th</sup> periodic plan. In addition, emphasis will be put on efficient management of financial federalism, high economic growth, rapid economic and social development and effective implementation of development programmes and projects for equitable distribution. Also, welfare programmes will be emphasized through social security schemes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry drafted the thematic budget to ensure the required funds for projects of national pride, transformational projects, new programmes of high importance and other projects under multi-year contract. Finance Minister Sharma has emphasized on the need to merge or reject programmes or projects of the same nature.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14917', 'image' => '20220427010238_ArunYadav_Rajbiraj_RSS_17_a.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 13:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15174', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Discusses Modernizing Postal Service ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Tuesday for the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma called for coming up with an action plan for the modernization of postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He was of the view of doing away with the outdated practices of the postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In his presentation, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal highlighted the need of improvement in the postal service, suggesting the implementation of a new approach. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The finance minister was of the view of hiring new workforce to operate the service while the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology proposed to use the post offices as e-commerce platform. </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 meeting was attended by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, finance secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini, revenue secretary Krishnahari Puskar, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal and the budget drafting committee members. </span></span></span><br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14916', 'image' => '20220427100836_postal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 10:07:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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Finance Minister Sharma said that the staff did not respond to his instruction to bring improved varieties of paddy seeds and distribute them to farmers two months ago.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “For the last two months, I have been asking to distribute improved variety of paddy seeds to the farmers, but you (the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture) have not shown any interest,” Finance Minister Sharma told the officials of the agriculture ministry during a discussion at the Finance Ministry on Wednesday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> During the meeting, the finance minister issued a fresh directive to provide improved varieties of seeds to the farmers so that they can plant paddy in the upcoming planting season in June-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance held discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, Department of Quality and Measurement on the topics of increasing paddy production, systematic operation of quarantine and quality certification.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Minister Sharma said that there is a pressure to reduce the growing import of rice starting from this year itself. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Sharma said, “If we use improved varieties of seeds, it is estimated that the paddy production will grow by three folds this year. Let's not delay this task. If we manage to raise the production three times by December, there will be no need to import rice.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sharma assured that if the improved seeds are expensive for the farmers, the ministry will issue subsidies right away. “If you need subsidy for improved seeds, tell us how much money you need, and we will issue it. We believed that rice imports worth billions of rupees can be reduced by spending little amount on seeds.”</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that traders should be encouraged to import seeds. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, Agriculture Secretary Dr Govinda Sharma informed that the productivity of paddy is 3.5 metric tons per hectare on an average and that the production will improve a lot with the use of improved variety of seeds.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14930', 'image' => '20220429102042_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 10:19:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15186', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling under Shortage of Milk', 'sub_title' => 'Demand for Yogurt and Ice Cream Increases during Summer while Production Declines', 'summary' => 'April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On one hand, the production of fresh milk has declined, while on the other hand, the stock of powdered milk and butter of the industries is half the requirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, the National Dairy Development Board informed that there is a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk in the market per day.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Milk production decreases from February to August and the demand for yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products increases in the summer as well as during the wedding season. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the board, the total demand of milk in the market is around 900,000 liters per day. However, the supply is only 710,000 liters, creating a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk. Milk production also decreases around this time as cattle do not get enough green grass to feed upon. The board informed that in previous years, the state-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and the private sector dairies used to have sufficient stocks of butter and powdered milk, which has declined this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Executive Director of the Board Babukaji Panta informed that the private and government dairies have 1400 metric tons of powdered milk and 2200 tons of butter in stock. Speaking at a program organized on the occasion of the 31st founding day of the board, he stated that about 3100 metric tons of powdered milk and 2900 metric tons of butter is required in the market from February to August.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The collection of fresh milk decreased with the decline in production. According to Balak Chaudhary, spokesperson of the board, the Dairy Development Corporation used to collect 150,000 liters of milk daily some time ago, but now it collects only 110,000 liters. Similarly, the Dairy Industry Association is collecting 350,000 liters of milk daily and the Nepal Dairy Association is collecting 260,000 liters of milk daily. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14929', 'image' => '20220429092708_milk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 09:26:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15188', 'article_category_id' => '264', 'title' => ' Insurance Board agrees to Reduce Premium of Engineering Insurance ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has formed a task force under the coordination of its executive director Raju Raman Poudel for this purpose.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has moved ahead with the process of reducing the minimum premium rate of engineering insurance by conducting necessary study. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The task force includes representatives from the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal, Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN), Nepal Insurers’ Association and Reinsurance Company, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Heavy Equipment Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Public Procurement and Monitoring Office, Nepal Surveyors’ Association. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has already written to these bodies to send their representative for the study. The task force has been given seven days to conduct the study. The task force will study the issue of revising the insurance premium rate of engineering insurance. Based on the study, the task force will submit a report with recommendations to the board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The minimum rate of engineering insurance will be reduced as per the suggestion in the report. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It's very challenging to reduce the minimum rate. However, businessmen in the targeted areas have been protesting,” said Poudel, adding, “We are making an attempt to resolve this issue by conducting necessary study. The rate may be reduced after the study.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the new insurance regulation will not be applicable during the study period. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board had issued a directive on September 22, 2020 and fixed the minimum rate of such insurance. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Following the decision, the promoter companies and construction entrepreneurs started protesting. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They also surrounded the office of the Insurance Board at Kupondole, Lalitpur after which the board reached an agreement with the agitating sides to form the task force. Meanwhile, the protest of construction and energy entrepreneurs has been postponed for the time being. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Insurance Board Surya Prasad Silwal said that an appropriate decision would be taken on the basis of the report submitted by the task force. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14928', 'image' => '20220429123613_1650950740.beema samiti.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 12:35:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15185', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Government Bans Import of 10 Items including Automobile till mid-July', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on Tuesday banning the import of 10 different items. The ban will remain in place until mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government's decision to ban imports indicates that the pressure on foreign exchange reserves has not abated. To discourage the import of luxury goods, the government has been adopting measures such as keeping 50 to 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of goods while the central bank has directed commercial banks to not opening LCs for luxury goods. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the diplomatic mission will be able to bring imported goods, said Commerce Secretary Ganesh Prasad Pandey.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the diplomatic missions would be allowed to import those items for their own purposes.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has said that the ban on liquor import will have a negative impact on the hotel business. HAN's acting president, Binayak Shah, said that the government should reconsider its decision. He said that the tourism sector would be affected if the government did not correct its decision.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had given a 16-point suggestion to the Ministry of Finance on April 3, saying that even the import of essential goods would not be possible if the import of luxury goods was not stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After the Finance Minister ignored the suggestion, the NRB summoned the chief executive officers of all commercial banks on April 6 and verbally instructed them not to open letters of credit for the import of luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the foreign exchange reserves have decreased to only US$ 9.5 billion. This is enough to support the import of goods and services for six and a half months. The ban on imports is likely to affect revenue collection. In April, the finance ministry had set a target of raising Rs 46 billion from customs duty but was able to collect only Rs 40 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has banned the import of vehicles run on petrol and diesel, electric vehicles can be imported without restrictions. Similarly, import of motorcycles of less than 250 cc has not been stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Gazette mentions that no ban will be imposed on the goods which have already been processed for import through banking medium before April 27.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Auto Mobiles Association of Nepal, said that it would be difficult to get vehicles in the market after two and a half months if the ban on import of vehicles is not lifted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that customers will not be able to get the vehicle they want in June, July and August if the LC is not opened by mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14927', 'image' => '20220428025847_nepal-major-imports-update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:57:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15184', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Load Shedding Returns after 4 Years ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India. NEA has started power cuts in the industrial sector by issuing a prior notice on Wednesday. NEA had been cutting power in the industrial sector without any notice after the shortage started during this dry season. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA informed that there will be power cuts in the industrial area for 48 hours effective from 10 am Wednesday. There will be power cuts at different times during this period. According to the NEA, there will be a 12-hour daily power cut in some industries and up to 16 hours in others. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Load shedding has re-started after 4 years in Nepal. Load shedding, which was prevalent for 15 years, had ended on May 14, 2018. NEA, which is supplying electricity from India, has informed that the problem has arisen as it has not been able to buy electricity from India. During the dry season, Nepal produces less electricity. At this time, electricity has to be imported from India to meet the domestic demand. But, the power generation in India itself has declined recently. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">India has a large share of electricity generated from coal. Recently, the Russia-Ukraine tensions have led to a shortage of coal around the world. This has affected India's power generation. At present, there is load shedding for up to 8 hours daily in India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA's executive director Kulman Ghising said that the power cuts have started in the industrial sector as there isn’t enough electricity supply from India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“There was some problem in the supply due to the unavailability of electricity from India through the bidding process. Therefore, we have started cutting electricity in the industrial sector by giving advanced notice,” he told New Business Age, “The situation will be normal if we can buy electricity from India. Otherwise there may be a problem in the electricity supply for some time.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA is currently providing electricity to household customers 24 hours a day. Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bhattarai says that only the power supply of the industrial sector has been cut off. He said that NEA is making efforts to ease the power supply. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal will generate more electricity than it needs from June. NEA says that there will be no such problem after that. Until then, supplies may be disrupted. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The industrial sector has been hit hard after load shedding started. Fuel and electricity are indispensable to the industry. Entrepreneurs say that the operation of the industry has been affected as load shedding has started and fear that industries will run at a loss or close down due to lack of energy. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Subodh Kumar Gupta said that the industry is affected by the power cut. “Now production costs will rise and the industry will be at a loss. However, we understand the problem at the moment,” he said, “The NEA should provide quality electricity as promised. Once the electricity is cut off, our production costs automatically increase. He said that the raw material in the machine does not work when the power is cut.” He said that the industries will prepare accordingly if the electricity is provided as promised. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association of Nepal Dhruba Thapa said that the cement industry would be more affected by load shedding. More electricity is needed to run cement and iron rod industries. Therefore, such industries have been hit hardest by load shedding, he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“If the situation returns to normal within a short period of time, then the industry can run smoothly. If the problem continues, the industry may have to shut down,” he said, “Running an industry with diesel during such an inflationary period is really difficult, but there’s no other solution. We are really worried right now.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He demanded that the government should give as much as it can to the industry even after cutting the electricity for household purposes. “It would have been better if the government had cut off domestic electricity and given it to us,” he said, “But the government does not seem interested in running the industry. Now when the industry is affected, it has a negative impact on the overall economy. The government needs to understand that.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14926', 'image' => '20220428024306_1651100134.Clipboard17.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:42:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15183', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'TIA to Extends Domestic Flight Time to 18 hours a Day ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In order to manage the air traffic congestion, the TIA has made necessary coordination with six airports of terai to operate domestic flights up to 18 hours a day from today, the state-owned national news agency reported citing CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The CAAN has decided to run the airport from 6.00 am to midnight in Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi airports. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This would help reduce existing air service pressure in Kathmandu-based TIA and also give a relief to the pandemic-battered tourism sector, he shared. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14925', 'image' => '20220428023242_5e.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15182', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Economy at the Crossroads: Former Governor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads. He made such remark during the 67</span></span><sup><span style="font-size:7.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">th</span></span></sup><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> anniversary of Nepal Rastra Bank. He also stated that there are problems with the economy of the nation and that the government is failing to carry out its responsibilities.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, the trade deficit has increased, balance of payments disturbed, foreign exchange reserves have been declining and current account is in a deficit. Rawal said that such facts should not be hidden but rather a collective effort is needed to normalize the situation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the global economy itself is in turmoil, Rawal said that no single person should be held responsible for the current economic crisis of the nation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He argued that excessive imports disturbed the balance of payments.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He suggested that all the concerned authorities should work in coordination with each other in order to overcome the issues seen in the nation’s economy. Dr. Rawal stated that Maha Prasad Adhikai received justice just like him when he was suspended as the governor 20 years back.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that some of the negative effects of world trade have also affected Nepal's economy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Governor Rawal said that giving priority to local production can help Nepal's economy during the current crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14924', 'image' => '20220428021318_economic crisis.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:12:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15181', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '109 Expedition Teams Granted Permission for Spring Expedition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p>April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. <br /> According to the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, some of the expedition teams have kicked off their attempts to climb 25 peaks. The teams comprise 876 aspiring climbers from within the country and aboard. <br /> According to the Mountaineering Section of the department, 302 climbers of 38 teams have alone received permits to climb the world's highest peak Mt Everest measuring 8848.86 meters for this spring season. Likewise, 97 climbers of nine teams have been granted permission to climb Mt Ama Dablam (6,814 meters). <br /> Similarly, four teams will be attempting to scale Mt Annapurna (8,011 meters), Mt Nuptse (7,861 meters), Mt Makalu (8,463) while two teams will be climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters). One team has been allowed to climb Mt Lhotse (8,516 meters). <br /> Likewise, four teams each have been granted permits to scale the Himlung Peak and the Dhambus Peak. <br /> The department has Rs 448.94 million in royalties by issuing mountaineering permits. -- RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14923', 'image' => '20220428123440_island-peak-climbing22.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 12:31:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15180', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => ''15 Commercial Banks Enough for the Country'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the survey conducted by the central bank, the participants remarked that the number of banks in Nepal is high based on the size of economy, per capita income and the population and suggested that the number should be reduced.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The NRB conducted the study for the first time after a decade of introduction its merger and acquisition policy. Suggestions for the study were collected through questionnaires from 140 people associated with banks and financial institutions including the chief executive officers (CEO), assistant chief executive officers, acting chief executive officers, chairmen, directors, senior staff and 90 experts and 230 people.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Fifty percent of the respondents suggested that the number of commercial banks should be between 11 to 15. Similarly, 20 percent suggested 5 to 10 banks, 15 percent suggested 16 to 20 banks and the remaining 15 percent suggested 20 to 25 banks were appropriate. Currently, 27 commercial banks are in operation in Nepal</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta said that the study has shown the market's view on the number of banks. “It does not mean that the number of banks must be limited to 15,” he said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the number of development banks and finance companies have declined significantly after the NRB introduced merger and acquisition policy, the number of commercial banks declined minimally. According to the NRB, so far 239 banks and financial institutions participated in the merger and acquisition process and then got limited to 62. A total of 177 licenses were revoked. However, out of 32 commercial banks licensed by NRB, only five merged. Recently, an agreement was reached for the merger of Himalayan and Nepal Investment Bank. The merger process of Nabil and Nepal Bangladesh Bank is also underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Eighty-four percent of participants from banks and financial institutions and 78 percent from experts suggested reducing the number only by giving discounts and facilities for mergers. According to the report, 57 percent of the participants suggested that the number of banks could be reduced through incentives, 20 percent through forced merger and 17 percent through voluntary capital increase. Similarly, 61 percent of the participants said that the merger would be effective if the policy of merging the weak with the strong organization was adopted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Through the merger policy, NRB has been providing policy concessions to the merging banks and financial institutions including cooling off period, priority sector loans, and CCD. Similarly, the government has also been giving income tax exemption.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Most of the respondents said that the merger policy taken by NRB has had a positive impact on banks and financial institutions. Seventy nine percent respondents said the merger increased the bank's risk-bearing capacity, 67 percent said it increased their investment capacity and 52 percent said it increased their operating capacity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Majority of the participants in the study suggested removing the existing classification of banks and financial institutions and moving to universal banking. Of those surveyed, 34 percent suggested moving to universal banking, 31 percent maintaining the current system and 27 percent moving to a specialized banking system.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14922', 'image' => '20220428115632_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:55:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15179', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Announces Public Holiday for 2 Days a Week from May 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday took a decision to this effect on a trial basis, Government Spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed during a press meet on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, declared public holiday on Saturdays and Sundays after a fortnight. The minister further said that the cabinet meeting agreed to fix office hours from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm during the weekdays. </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"">He shared that the cabinet decided to give holidays for two days a week with the belief that it would reduce fuel consumption. </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"">Although the cabinet meeting took such decision to reduce fuel consumption with the objective of easing the pressure on declining foreign exchange reserves, the Council of Ministers has ironically approved foreign visits of high-ranking government officials.</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 cabinet meeting approved a delegation led by Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal to visit Bangladesh and Education Minister Devendra Poudel’s visit to the UK. Likewise, Labour Minister Krishna Kumar Shrestha has been given the go ahead to visit Malaysia.</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"">Similarly, the cabinet meeting also approved India visit of National Planning Commission’s Vice Chairman Bishwonath Poudel and South Korea visit of Forest Secretary Dr Prem Narayan Kandel.</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"">Likewise, Health Secretary Dr Roshan Pokharel has been granted permission to visit Norway to attend a programme.</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 concept of two-day holiday a week was implemented by the government more than two decades ago. The provision was implemented on July 17, 1999 during the tenure of then then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Such decision was taken upon the recommendation of the then Administrative Reform Commission in 1991 with the objective of reducing administrative costs. The provision was revoked almost after three years without conducting a study on its impact.</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"">Recently, the government had floated a similar concept but to boost the tourism sector that has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts had suggested the government to give two days holiday in a week in order to promote domestic tourism. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14921', 'image' => '20220428110554_20220427142651_IMGL6946.JPG', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:05:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15178', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Tax on Tobacco Products Comparatively Less in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. In fact, the tax rate imposed by the government on tobacco products in Nepal is lower than that of neighboring countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the study, more than 27,000 people die annually from diseases caused by the use of tobacco in Nepal. Therefore, it has been recommended to raise the tax rate on tobacco products. According to the study conducted by the institute, the highest selling brand of tobacco in India in 2008 was taxed at 45.76 percent of the retail price. In 2018, this tax rate increased to 54.04 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study believes that the prevalence of tobacco products in India is the result of high tax imposition. However, it also found that the tax in Nepal was 24.27 percent in 2008 and only 30 percent in 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Taxes are a very effective tactics to control tobacco. However, due the government's presumption that raising taxes would encourage illegal trade, the rate of taxes in Nepal is not increasing,” the report states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study report also states that the use of tobacco has direct impact on healthcare cost. It also has a negative impact on the productivity of the family. According to the report, 1.4 percent of the annual GDP is lost due to tobacco. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Increasing the tax rate on tobacco products is a win-win situation. Taxes reduce consumption and improve public health, reduce economic losses and benefit the government.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report states that due to the increase in taxes, the price of tobacco products will increase and consumption will decrease. “Raising the tax rate automatically increases the revenue. Despite this reality, the tax rate on tobacco products in Nepal is very low and these products have become very affordable in the last few years.” The study has disproved the notion that raising taxes on tobacco products will increase illegal trade. During the study, only the prevalence of 0.33 percent illegal cigarettes was found in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Of the 4,300 packs of cigarettes inspected in 11 districts including all three geographical subdivisions of the nation, only 0.33 percent was found to be illegal. Most of the illegal cigarettes are manufactured in Indonesia and most of them were found in Kathmandu and Pokhara, far from the Nepal-India border. The excise duty sticker certified by the Inland Revenue Department was not affixed on the illegal packets.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The general secretary of the research institute, Dr. Jaya Kumar Gurung said that the study dismissed the assumption that the imposition of additional tax on tobacco products would increase the illegal trade. According to him, it is necessary to impose additional tax to reduce the use of tobacco products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">With the approval of the Nepal Health Research Council, the institute conducted a nationwide study in order to check the level of illegal trade of cigarettes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14920', 'image' => '20220427100429_istockphoto-1133345196-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 22:03:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15177', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Foreign Reinsurance Companies start Withdrawing Business from Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. As the proportion of insurance claims in Nepal has increased, foreign reinsurance companies have been incurring losses in their business. As a result, they have started leaving Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lately, high level, i.e. A-rated foreign companies have stopped reinsuring Nepali insurance companies. A report by the Nepal Insurers Association has shown that even B-rated companies are reluctant to take up business here.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the association, in the last five fiscal years, foreign reinsurance companies have incurred losses in their business in Nepal. According to the association, insurance companies of Nepal get a commission of 35 per cent of the premium from foreign companies. In addition, they are also paid an additional 60 per cent as insurance claim. Thus, foreign reinsurance companies have to return 95 per cent of the amount to Nepal. Adding management costs to that, they say the business is running at a loss.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even after the 2015 earthquakes, foreign reinsurance companies had suffered heavy losses in their business in Nepal. However, due to the recent natural calamities, the insurance claims have been increasing in Nepal every year. That has obviously affected foreign reinsurance companies.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, foreign reinsurance companies have started exiting the business here, says Chunky Chhetri, president of Nepal Insurance Association.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Insurance claims have increased in Nepal due for various reasons. This has automatically affected the foreign reinsurance companies. They are at a loss in their business with Nepal. Reinsurance companies are also profit-oriented entities. That's why foreign reinsurance companies are leaving Nepal,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the Insurance Board, insurance companies and the customers should be serious about this issue. “Failure to reinsure poses a challenge to make claims. However, there is a challenge to reinsurance,” he said. “It has become a big problem in the insurance sector. The time has come for everyone to join hands to solve this problem,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In this case, the association has concluded that the Insurance Board should revise the policy on reinsurance. The association says insurance premium rates are likely to increase in order to address this issue.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also submitted its suggestions to the board</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also demanded that the compulsory provision of reinsurance from Nepali companies be scrapped. The association demands that the board should immediately revoke this provision and make arrangements for reinsurance from a foreign company.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Keeping the entire risk within the country is considered dangerous even for the economy. On top of that, the risk is the same as the occurrence of natural disasters in Nepal. Therefore, the association demands that reinsurance should have external backing rather than within the country.</span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14919', 'image' => '20220427073816_Insurance.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 19:36:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15176', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'FNCCI Urges Government to Avail Loan for Productive Sector at 2 Percent Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the budget announcement for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is approaching, the federation has suggested the government to adopt export-oriented policy and to end undeclared power curs faced by the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation put forward those suggestions during a pre-budget discussion organized on Tuesday. On the occasion, FNCCI vice president Dinesh Shrestha said that concrete reforms were needed in the revenue system. He said that 80 percent of the taxpayers at present have paid only 20 percent of the total tax. According to Shrestha, the government should create a favorable environment for paying taxes and this would prevent tax evasion. "There has never been a study on how much taxes should be raised," he said, "It is necessary now." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the occasion, FNCCI Tax and Revenue Committee Chairman Sandeep Kumar Agrawal presented the paper on behalf of the FNCCI. He stressed on the need to come up with short, mid and long term plans to increase capital and for import substitution. He claimed that the prices of commodities have gone up worldwide and the rate of imports will continue to go up. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have estimated that the remittance inflow will be Rs 1 trillion this year," he said, "Apart from this, 30 to 40 percent of the remittances are still coming through informal channels, and an attractive policy is needed to bring it through the formal channels." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation has suggested revising the Nepal Integrated Trade Strategy (NTIS) for export promotion. Stating that the current arrangement of export refinancing is impractical, the federation asked to maintain the term of such loan for at least 3 years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The private sector has demanded cash incentives for shoe and sole manufacturers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the exporters have to go to the central bank and other banks to get the cash subsidy for export, Agrawal demanded the money to be transferred to their account as soon as the export is done. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the federation, there are many problems such as environmental impact assessment for the establishment of industries. While declaring industrial villages, the FNCCI has suggested the government to take into consideration the situation after decades. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, the federation has also demanded to bring a policy of giving tariff exemption to those who consume more energy. The suggestion has also laid emphasis on providing cheap electricity to the export-oriented industries. In addition, it has been mentioned that skilled manpower has to be imported from outside while the manpower produced by the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) have not been linked with the entrepreneurs. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14918', 'image' => '20220427023224_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15175', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector gets Top Priority in Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29, as per by the constitutional provision. The Ministry of Finance expedited the process of budget preparation, prioritizing the agriculture sector in order to revive the economy in the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the one hand, a team led by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Bhupal Baral is mobilized to prepare the budget on time; while on the other hand, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma is also taking the lead. The budget preparation team has decided to not prioritize “popular programmes” as the economy was threatened by such programmes in the previous years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Finance Minister Sharma has been saying that he will give priority to agriculture since a lot of agricultural produce is being imported. The ministry is preparing the budget in such a way that it would implement effective programmes rather than increase the budget for agriculture excessively. Though the budget will be focused on agriculture, Finance Minister Sharma has instructed the concerned officials not to emphasize on subsidy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the suggestion of Finance Minister Sharma, the team is preparing the budget to encourage the farmers through timely availability of fertilizers, technology and through technical assistance. Prakash Sanjel, joint secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture, informed that the ministry was given a budget ceiling of Rs 42.73 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the new budget prioritizes recovery from the current economic crisis, which should not be included in the next budget. As the current crisis is expected to improve in the next three months, ministry officials believe that no special programmes should be included in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite the pressure on foreign exchange reserves, it is estimated that the foreign exchange reserves will become balanced ahead of the next budget. Based on the same estimate, a senior government official said there is no strategy to bring in new programmes. However, the budget will address the issue of reducing trade deficit, the official added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry stated that the budget will be based on the vision, goals, objectives, strategies, priorities, annual policies and programmes of the government. The principles of budget and priorities will also be taken into consideration along with sustainable development goals mentioned in the 15<sup>th</sup> periodic plan. In addition, emphasis will be put on efficient management of financial federalism, high economic growth, rapid economic and social development and effective implementation of development programmes and projects for equitable distribution. Also, welfare programmes will be emphasized through social security schemes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry drafted the thematic budget to ensure the required funds for projects of national pride, transformational projects, new programmes of high importance and other projects under multi-year contract. Finance Minister Sharma has emphasized on the need to merge or reject programmes or projects of the same nature.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14917', 'image' => '20220427010238_ArunYadav_Rajbiraj_RSS_17_a.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 13:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15174', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Discusses Modernizing Postal Service ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Tuesday for the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma called for coming up with an action plan for the modernization of postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He was of the view of doing away with the outdated practices of the postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In his presentation, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal highlighted the need of improvement in the postal service, suggesting the implementation of a new approach. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The finance minister was of the view of hiring new workforce to operate the service while the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology proposed to use the post offices as e-commerce platform. </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 meeting was attended by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, finance secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini, revenue secretary Krishnahari Puskar, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal and the budget drafting committee members. </span></span></span><br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14916', 'image' => '20220427100836_postal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 10:07:54', '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' => '15187', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Finance Minister says Staff of Agriculture Ministry did not Obey his Orders', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 29: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma complained that the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development did not obey his orders.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma complained that the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development did not obey his orders. Finance Minister Sharma said that the staff did not respond to his instruction to bring improved varieties of paddy seeds and distribute them to farmers two months ago.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “For the last two months, I have been asking to distribute improved variety of paddy seeds to the farmers, but you (the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture) have not shown any interest,” Finance Minister Sharma told the officials of the agriculture ministry during a discussion at the Finance Ministry on Wednesday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> During the meeting, the finance minister issued a fresh directive to provide improved varieties of seeds to the farmers so that they can plant paddy in the upcoming planting season in June-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance held discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, Department of Quality and Measurement on the topics of increasing paddy production, systematic operation of quarantine and quality certification.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Minister Sharma said that there is a pressure to reduce the growing import of rice starting from this year itself. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Sharma said, “If we use improved varieties of seeds, it is estimated that the paddy production will grow by three folds this year. Let's not delay this task. If we manage to raise the production three times by December, there will be no need to import rice.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sharma assured that if the improved seeds are expensive for the farmers, the ministry will issue subsidies right away. “If you need subsidy for improved seeds, tell us how much money you need, and we will issue it. We believed that rice imports worth billions of rupees can be reduced by spending little amount on seeds.”</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that traders should be encouraged to import seeds. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, Agriculture Secretary Dr Govinda Sharma informed that the productivity of paddy is 3.5 metric tons per hectare on an average and that the production will improve a lot with the use of improved variety of seeds.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14930', 'image' => '20220429102042_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 10:19:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15186', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling under Shortage of Milk', 'sub_title' => 'Demand for Yogurt and Ice Cream Increases during Summer while Production Declines', 'summary' => 'April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On one hand, the production of fresh milk has declined, while on the other hand, the stock of powdered milk and butter of the industries is half the requirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, the National Dairy Development Board informed that there is a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk in the market per day.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Milk production decreases from February to August and the demand for yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products increases in the summer as well as during the wedding season. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the board, the total demand of milk in the market is around 900,000 liters per day. However, the supply is only 710,000 liters, creating a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk. Milk production also decreases around this time as cattle do not get enough green grass to feed upon. The board informed that in previous years, the state-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and the private sector dairies used to have sufficient stocks of butter and powdered milk, which has declined this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Executive Director of the Board Babukaji Panta informed that the private and government dairies have 1400 metric tons of powdered milk and 2200 tons of butter in stock. Speaking at a program organized on the occasion of the 31st founding day of the board, he stated that about 3100 metric tons of powdered milk and 2900 metric tons of butter is required in the market from February to August.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The collection of fresh milk decreased with the decline in production. According to Balak Chaudhary, spokesperson of the board, the Dairy Development Corporation used to collect 150,000 liters of milk daily some time ago, but now it collects only 110,000 liters. Similarly, the Dairy Industry Association is collecting 350,000 liters of milk daily and the Nepal Dairy Association is collecting 260,000 liters of milk daily. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14929', 'image' => '20220429092708_milk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 09:26:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15188', 'article_category_id' => '264', 'title' => ' Insurance Board agrees to Reduce Premium of Engineering Insurance ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has formed a task force under the coordination of its executive director Raju Raman Poudel for this purpose.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has moved ahead with the process of reducing the minimum premium rate of engineering insurance by conducting necessary study. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The task force includes representatives from the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal, Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN), Nepal Insurers’ Association and Reinsurance Company, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Heavy Equipment Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Public Procurement and Monitoring Office, Nepal Surveyors’ Association. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has already written to these bodies to send their representative for the study. The task force has been given seven days to conduct the study. The task force will study the issue of revising the insurance premium rate of engineering insurance. Based on the study, the task force will submit a report with recommendations to the board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The minimum rate of engineering insurance will be reduced as per the suggestion in the report. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It's very challenging to reduce the minimum rate. However, businessmen in the targeted areas have been protesting,” said Poudel, adding, “We are making an attempt to resolve this issue by conducting necessary study. The rate may be reduced after the study.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the new insurance regulation will not be applicable during the study period. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board had issued a directive on September 22, 2020 and fixed the minimum rate of such insurance. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Following the decision, the promoter companies and construction entrepreneurs started protesting. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They also surrounded the office of the Insurance Board at Kupondole, Lalitpur after which the board reached an agreement with the agitating sides to form the task force. Meanwhile, the protest of construction and energy entrepreneurs has been postponed for the time being. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Insurance Board Surya Prasad Silwal said that an appropriate decision would be taken on the basis of the report submitted by the task force. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14928', 'image' => '20220429123613_1650950740.beema samiti.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 12:35:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15185', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Government Bans Import of 10 Items including Automobile till mid-July', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on Tuesday banning the import of 10 different items. The ban will remain in place until mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government's decision to ban imports indicates that the pressure on foreign exchange reserves has not abated. To discourage the import of luxury goods, the government has been adopting measures such as keeping 50 to 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of goods while the central bank has directed commercial banks to not opening LCs for luxury goods. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the diplomatic mission will be able to bring imported goods, said Commerce Secretary Ganesh Prasad Pandey.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the diplomatic missions would be allowed to import those items for their own purposes.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has said that the ban on liquor import will have a negative impact on the hotel business. HAN's acting president, Binayak Shah, said that the government should reconsider its decision. He said that the tourism sector would be affected if the government did not correct its decision.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had given a 16-point suggestion to the Ministry of Finance on April 3, saying that even the import of essential goods would not be possible if the import of luxury goods was not stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After the Finance Minister ignored the suggestion, the NRB summoned the chief executive officers of all commercial banks on April 6 and verbally instructed them not to open letters of credit for the import of luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the foreign exchange reserves have decreased to only US$ 9.5 billion. This is enough to support the import of goods and services for six and a half months. The ban on imports is likely to affect revenue collection. In April, the finance ministry had set a target of raising Rs 46 billion from customs duty but was able to collect only Rs 40 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has banned the import of vehicles run on petrol and diesel, electric vehicles can be imported without restrictions. Similarly, import of motorcycles of less than 250 cc has not been stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Gazette mentions that no ban will be imposed on the goods which have already been processed for import through banking medium before April 27.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Auto Mobiles Association of Nepal, said that it would be difficult to get vehicles in the market after two and a half months if the ban on import of vehicles is not lifted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that customers will not be able to get the vehicle they want in June, July and August if the LC is not opened by mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14927', 'image' => '20220428025847_nepal-major-imports-update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:57:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15184', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Load Shedding Returns after 4 Years ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India. NEA has started power cuts in the industrial sector by issuing a prior notice on Wednesday. NEA had been cutting power in the industrial sector without any notice after the shortage started during this dry season. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA informed that there will be power cuts in the industrial area for 48 hours effective from 10 am Wednesday. There will be power cuts at different times during this period. According to the NEA, there will be a 12-hour daily power cut in some industries and up to 16 hours in others. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Load shedding has re-started after 4 years in Nepal. Load shedding, which was prevalent for 15 years, had ended on May 14, 2018. NEA, which is supplying electricity from India, has informed that the problem has arisen as it has not been able to buy electricity from India. During the dry season, Nepal produces less electricity. At this time, electricity has to be imported from India to meet the domestic demand. But, the power generation in India itself has declined recently. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">India has a large share of electricity generated from coal. Recently, the Russia-Ukraine tensions have led to a shortage of coal around the world. This has affected India's power generation. At present, there is load shedding for up to 8 hours daily in India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA's executive director Kulman Ghising said that the power cuts have started in the industrial sector as there isn’t enough electricity supply from India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“There was some problem in the supply due to the unavailability of electricity from India through the bidding process. Therefore, we have started cutting electricity in the industrial sector by giving advanced notice,” he told New Business Age, “The situation will be normal if we can buy electricity from India. Otherwise there may be a problem in the electricity supply for some time.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA is currently providing electricity to household customers 24 hours a day. Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bhattarai says that only the power supply of the industrial sector has been cut off. He said that NEA is making efforts to ease the power supply. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal will generate more electricity than it needs from June. NEA says that there will be no such problem after that. Until then, supplies may be disrupted. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The industrial sector has been hit hard after load shedding started. Fuel and electricity are indispensable to the industry. Entrepreneurs say that the operation of the industry has been affected as load shedding has started and fear that industries will run at a loss or close down due to lack of energy. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Subodh Kumar Gupta said that the industry is affected by the power cut. “Now production costs will rise and the industry will be at a loss. However, we understand the problem at the moment,” he said, “The NEA should provide quality electricity as promised. Once the electricity is cut off, our production costs automatically increase. He said that the raw material in the machine does not work when the power is cut.” He said that the industries will prepare accordingly if the electricity is provided as promised. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association of Nepal Dhruba Thapa said that the cement industry would be more affected by load shedding. More electricity is needed to run cement and iron rod industries. Therefore, such industries have been hit hardest by load shedding, he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“If the situation returns to normal within a short period of time, then the industry can run smoothly. If the problem continues, the industry may have to shut down,” he said, “Running an industry with diesel during such an inflationary period is really difficult, but there’s no other solution. We are really worried right now.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He demanded that the government should give as much as it can to the industry even after cutting the electricity for household purposes. “It would have been better if the government had cut off domestic electricity and given it to us,” he said, “But the government does not seem interested in running the industry. Now when the industry is affected, it has a negative impact on the overall economy. The government needs to understand that.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14926', 'image' => '20220428024306_1651100134.Clipboard17.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:42:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15183', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'TIA to Extends Domestic Flight Time to 18 hours a Day ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In order to manage the air traffic congestion, the TIA has made necessary coordination with six airports of terai to operate domestic flights up to 18 hours a day from today, the state-owned national news agency reported citing CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The CAAN has decided to run the airport from 6.00 am to midnight in Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi airports. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This would help reduce existing air service pressure in Kathmandu-based TIA and also give a relief to the pandemic-battered tourism sector, he shared. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14925', 'image' => '20220428023242_5e.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15182', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Economy at the Crossroads: Former Governor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads. He made such remark during the 67</span></span><sup><span style="font-size:7.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">th</span></span></sup><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> anniversary of Nepal Rastra Bank. He also stated that there are problems with the economy of the nation and that the government is failing to carry out its responsibilities.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, the trade deficit has increased, balance of payments disturbed, foreign exchange reserves have been declining and current account is in a deficit. Rawal said that such facts should not be hidden but rather a collective effort is needed to normalize the situation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the global economy itself is in turmoil, Rawal said that no single person should be held responsible for the current economic crisis of the nation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He argued that excessive imports disturbed the balance of payments.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He suggested that all the concerned authorities should work in coordination with each other in order to overcome the issues seen in the nation’s economy. Dr. Rawal stated that Maha Prasad Adhikai received justice just like him when he was suspended as the governor 20 years back.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that some of the negative effects of world trade have also affected Nepal's economy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Governor Rawal said that giving priority to local production can help Nepal's economy during the current crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14924', 'image' => '20220428021318_economic crisis.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:12:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15181', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '109 Expedition Teams Granted Permission for Spring Expedition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p>April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. <br /> According to the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, some of the expedition teams have kicked off their attempts to climb 25 peaks. The teams comprise 876 aspiring climbers from within the country and aboard. <br /> According to the Mountaineering Section of the department, 302 climbers of 38 teams have alone received permits to climb the world's highest peak Mt Everest measuring 8848.86 meters for this spring season. Likewise, 97 climbers of nine teams have been granted permission to climb Mt Ama Dablam (6,814 meters). <br /> Similarly, four teams will be attempting to scale Mt Annapurna (8,011 meters), Mt Nuptse (7,861 meters), Mt Makalu (8,463) while two teams will be climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters). One team has been allowed to climb Mt Lhotse (8,516 meters). <br /> Likewise, four teams each have been granted permits to scale the Himlung Peak and the Dhambus Peak. <br /> The department has Rs 448.94 million in royalties by issuing mountaineering permits. -- RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14923', 'image' => '20220428123440_island-peak-climbing22.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 12:31:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15180', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => ''15 Commercial Banks Enough for the Country'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the survey conducted by the central bank, the participants remarked that the number of banks in Nepal is high based on the size of economy, per capita income and the population and suggested that the number should be reduced.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The NRB conducted the study for the first time after a decade of introduction its merger and acquisition policy. Suggestions for the study were collected through questionnaires from 140 people associated with banks and financial institutions including the chief executive officers (CEO), assistant chief executive officers, acting chief executive officers, chairmen, directors, senior staff and 90 experts and 230 people.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Fifty percent of the respondents suggested that the number of commercial banks should be between 11 to 15. Similarly, 20 percent suggested 5 to 10 banks, 15 percent suggested 16 to 20 banks and the remaining 15 percent suggested 20 to 25 banks were appropriate. Currently, 27 commercial banks are in operation in Nepal</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta said that the study has shown the market's view on the number of banks. “It does not mean that the number of banks must be limited to 15,” he said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the number of development banks and finance companies have declined significantly after the NRB introduced merger and acquisition policy, the number of commercial banks declined minimally. According to the NRB, so far 239 banks and financial institutions participated in the merger and acquisition process and then got limited to 62. A total of 177 licenses were revoked. However, out of 32 commercial banks licensed by NRB, only five merged. Recently, an agreement was reached for the merger of Himalayan and Nepal Investment Bank. The merger process of Nabil and Nepal Bangladesh Bank is also underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Eighty-four percent of participants from banks and financial institutions and 78 percent from experts suggested reducing the number only by giving discounts and facilities for mergers. According to the report, 57 percent of the participants suggested that the number of banks could be reduced through incentives, 20 percent through forced merger and 17 percent through voluntary capital increase. Similarly, 61 percent of the participants said that the merger would be effective if the policy of merging the weak with the strong organization was adopted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Through the merger policy, NRB has been providing policy concessions to the merging banks and financial institutions including cooling off period, priority sector loans, and CCD. Similarly, the government has also been giving income tax exemption.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Most of the respondents said that the merger policy taken by NRB has had a positive impact on banks and financial institutions. Seventy nine percent respondents said the merger increased the bank's risk-bearing capacity, 67 percent said it increased their investment capacity and 52 percent said it increased their operating capacity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Majority of the participants in the study suggested removing the existing classification of banks and financial institutions and moving to universal banking. Of those surveyed, 34 percent suggested moving to universal banking, 31 percent maintaining the current system and 27 percent moving to a specialized banking system.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14922', 'image' => '20220428115632_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:55:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15179', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Announces Public Holiday for 2 Days a Week from May 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday took a decision to this effect on a trial basis, Government Spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed during a press meet on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, declared public holiday on Saturdays and Sundays after a fortnight. The minister further said that the cabinet meeting agreed to fix office hours from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm during the weekdays. </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"">He shared that the cabinet decided to give holidays for two days a week with the belief that it would reduce fuel consumption. </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"">Although the cabinet meeting took such decision to reduce fuel consumption with the objective of easing the pressure on declining foreign exchange reserves, the Council of Ministers has ironically approved foreign visits of high-ranking government officials.</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 cabinet meeting approved a delegation led by Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal to visit Bangladesh and Education Minister Devendra Poudel’s visit to the UK. Likewise, Labour Minister Krishna Kumar Shrestha has been given the go ahead to visit Malaysia.</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"">Similarly, the cabinet meeting also approved India visit of National Planning Commission’s Vice Chairman Bishwonath Poudel and South Korea visit of Forest Secretary Dr Prem Narayan Kandel.</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"">Likewise, Health Secretary Dr Roshan Pokharel has been granted permission to visit Norway to attend a programme.</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 concept of two-day holiday a week was implemented by the government more than two decades ago. The provision was implemented on July 17, 1999 during the tenure of then then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Such decision was taken upon the recommendation of the then Administrative Reform Commission in 1991 with the objective of reducing administrative costs. The provision was revoked almost after three years without conducting a study on its impact.</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"">Recently, the government had floated a similar concept but to boost the tourism sector that has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts had suggested the government to give two days holiday in a week in order to promote domestic tourism. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14921', 'image' => '20220428110554_20220427142651_IMGL6946.JPG', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:05:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15178', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Tax on Tobacco Products Comparatively Less in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. In fact, the tax rate imposed by the government on tobacco products in Nepal is lower than that of neighboring countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the study, more than 27,000 people die annually from diseases caused by the use of tobacco in Nepal. Therefore, it has been recommended to raise the tax rate on tobacco products. According to the study conducted by the institute, the highest selling brand of tobacco in India in 2008 was taxed at 45.76 percent of the retail price. In 2018, this tax rate increased to 54.04 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study believes that the prevalence of tobacco products in India is the result of high tax imposition. However, it also found that the tax in Nepal was 24.27 percent in 2008 and only 30 percent in 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Taxes are a very effective tactics to control tobacco. However, due the government's presumption that raising taxes would encourage illegal trade, the rate of taxes in Nepal is not increasing,” the report states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study report also states that the use of tobacco has direct impact on healthcare cost. It also has a negative impact on the productivity of the family. According to the report, 1.4 percent of the annual GDP is lost due to tobacco. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Increasing the tax rate on tobacco products is a win-win situation. Taxes reduce consumption and improve public health, reduce economic losses and benefit the government.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report states that due to the increase in taxes, the price of tobacco products will increase and consumption will decrease. “Raising the tax rate automatically increases the revenue. Despite this reality, the tax rate on tobacco products in Nepal is very low and these products have become very affordable in the last few years.” The study has disproved the notion that raising taxes on tobacco products will increase illegal trade. During the study, only the prevalence of 0.33 percent illegal cigarettes was found in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Of the 4,300 packs of cigarettes inspected in 11 districts including all three geographical subdivisions of the nation, only 0.33 percent was found to be illegal. Most of the illegal cigarettes are manufactured in Indonesia and most of them were found in Kathmandu and Pokhara, far from the Nepal-India border. The excise duty sticker certified by the Inland Revenue Department was not affixed on the illegal packets.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The general secretary of the research institute, Dr. Jaya Kumar Gurung said that the study dismissed the assumption that the imposition of additional tax on tobacco products would increase the illegal trade. According to him, it is necessary to impose additional tax to reduce the use of tobacco products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">With the approval of the Nepal Health Research Council, the institute conducted a nationwide study in order to check the level of illegal trade of cigarettes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14920', 'image' => '20220427100429_istockphoto-1133345196-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 22:03:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15177', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Foreign Reinsurance Companies start Withdrawing Business from Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. As the proportion of insurance claims in Nepal has increased, foreign reinsurance companies have been incurring losses in their business. As a result, they have started leaving Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lately, high level, i.e. A-rated foreign companies have stopped reinsuring Nepali insurance companies. A report by the Nepal Insurers Association has shown that even B-rated companies are reluctant to take up business here.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the association, in the last five fiscal years, foreign reinsurance companies have incurred losses in their business in Nepal. According to the association, insurance companies of Nepal get a commission of 35 per cent of the premium from foreign companies. In addition, they are also paid an additional 60 per cent as insurance claim. Thus, foreign reinsurance companies have to return 95 per cent of the amount to Nepal. Adding management costs to that, they say the business is running at a loss.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even after the 2015 earthquakes, foreign reinsurance companies had suffered heavy losses in their business in Nepal. However, due to the recent natural calamities, the insurance claims have been increasing in Nepal every year. That has obviously affected foreign reinsurance companies.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, foreign reinsurance companies have started exiting the business here, says Chunky Chhetri, president of Nepal Insurance Association.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Insurance claims have increased in Nepal due for various reasons. This has automatically affected the foreign reinsurance companies. They are at a loss in their business with Nepal. Reinsurance companies are also profit-oriented entities. That's why foreign reinsurance companies are leaving Nepal,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the Insurance Board, insurance companies and the customers should be serious about this issue. “Failure to reinsure poses a challenge to make claims. However, there is a challenge to reinsurance,” he said. “It has become a big problem in the insurance sector. The time has come for everyone to join hands to solve this problem,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In this case, the association has concluded that the Insurance Board should revise the policy on reinsurance. The association says insurance premium rates are likely to increase in order to address this issue.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also submitted its suggestions to the board</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also demanded that the compulsory provision of reinsurance from Nepali companies be scrapped. The association demands that the board should immediately revoke this provision and make arrangements for reinsurance from a foreign company.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Keeping the entire risk within the country is considered dangerous even for the economy. On top of that, the risk is the same as the occurrence of natural disasters in Nepal. Therefore, the association demands that reinsurance should have external backing rather than within the country.</span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14919', 'image' => '20220427073816_Insurance.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 19:36:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15176', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'FNCCI Urges Government to Avail Loan for Productive Sector at 2 Percent Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the budget announcement for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is approaching, the federation has suggested the government to adopt export-oriented policy and to end undeclared power curs faced by the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation put forward those suggestions during a pre-budget discussion organized on Tuesday. On the occasion, FNCCI vice president Dinesh Shrestha said that concrete reforms were needed in the revenue system. He said that 80 percent of the taxpayers at present have paid only 20 percent of the total tax. According to Shrestha, the government should create a favorable environment for paying taxes and this would prevent tax evasion. "There has never been a study on how much taxes should be raised," he said, "It is necessary now." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the occasion, FNCCI Tax and Revenue Committee Chairman Sandeep Kumar Agrawal presented the paper on behalf of the FNCCI. He stressed on the need to come up with short, mid and long term plans to increase capital and for import substitution. He claimed that the prices of commodities have gone up worldwide and the rate of imports will continue to go up. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have estimated that the remittance inflow will be Rs 1 trillion this year," he said, "Apart from this, 30 to 40 percent of the remittances are still coming through informal channels, and an attractive policy is needed to bring it through the formal channels." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation has suggested revising the Nepal Integrated Trade Strategy (NTIS) for export promotion. Stating that the current arrangement of export refinancing is impractical, the federation asked to maintain the term of such loan for at least 3 years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The private sector has demanded cash incentives for shoe and sole manufacturers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the exporters have to go to the central bank and other banks to get the cash subsidy for export, Agrawal demanded the money to be transferred to their account as soon as the export is done. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the federation, there are many problems such as environmental impact assessment for the establishment of industries. While declaring industrial villages, the FNCCI has suggested the government to take into consideration the situation after decades. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, the federation has also demanded to bring a policy of giving tariff exemption to those who consume more energy. The suggestion has also laid emphasis on providing cheap electricity to the export-oriented industries. In addition, it has been mentioned that skilled manpower has to be imported from outside while the manpower produced by the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) have not been linked with the entrepreneurs. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14918', 'image' => '20220427023224_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15175', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector gets Top Priority in Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29, as per by the constitutional provision. The Ministry of Finance expedited the process of budget preparation, prioritizing the agriculture sector in order to revive the economy in the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the one hand, a team led by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Bhupal Baral is mobilized to prepare the budget on time; while on the other hand, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma is also taking the lead. The budget preparation team has decided to not prioritize “popular programmes” as the economy was threatened by such programmes in the previous years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Finance Minister Sharma has been saying that he will give priority to agriculture since a lot of agricultural produce is being imported. The ministry is preparing the budget in such a way that it would implement effective programmes rather than increase the budget for agriculture excessively. Though the budget will be focused on agriculture, Finance Minister Sharma has instructed the concerned officials not to emphasize on subsidy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the suggestion of Finance Minister Sharma, the team is preparing the budget to encourage the farmers through timely availability of fertilizers, technology and through technical assistance. Prakash Sanjel, joint secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture, informed that the ministry was given a budget ceiling of Rs 42.73 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the new budget prioritizes recovery from the current economic crisis, which should not be included in the next budget. As the current crisis is expected to improve in the next three months, ministry officials believe that no special programmes should be included in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite the pressure on foreign exchange reserves, it is estimated that the foreign exchange reserves will become balanced ahead of the next budget. Based on the same estimate, a senior government official said there is no strategy to bring in new programmes. However, the budget will address the issue of reducing trade deficit, the official added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry stated that the budget will be based on the vision, goals, objectives, strategies, priorities, annual policies and programmes of the government. The principles of budget and priorities will also be taken into consideration along with sustainable development goals mentioned in the 15<sup>th</sup> periodic plan. In addition, emphasis will be put on efficient management of financial federalism, high economic growth, rapid economic and social development and effective implementation of development programmes and projects for equitable distribution. Also, welfare programmes will be emphasized through social security schemes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry drafted the thematic budget to ensure the required funds for projects of national pride, transformational projects, new programmes of high importance and other projects under multi-year contract. Finance Minister Sharma has emphasized on the need to merge or reject programmes or projects of the same nature.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14917', 'image' => '20220427010238_ArunYadav_Rajbiraj_RSS_17_a.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 13:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15174', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Discusses Modernizing Postal Service ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Tuesday for the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma called for coming up with an action plan for the modernization of postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He was of the view of doing away with the outdated practices of the postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In his presentation, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal highlighted the need of improvement in the postal service, suggesting the implementation of a new approach. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The finance minister was of the view of hiring new workforce to operate the service while the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology proposed to use the post offices as e-commerce platform. </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 meeting was attended by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, finance secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini, revenue secretary Krishnahari Puskar, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal and the budget drafting committee members. </span></span></span><br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14916', 'image' => '20220427100836_postal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 10:07:54', '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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Finance Minister Sharma said that the staff did not respond to his instruction to bring improved varieties of paddy seeds and distribute them to farmers two months ago.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> “For the last two months, I have been asking to distribute improved variety of paddy seeds to the farmers, but you (the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture) have not shown any interest,” Finance Minister Sharma told the officials of the agriculture ministry during a discussion at the Finance Ministry on Wednesday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> During the meeting, the finance minister issued a fresh directive to provide improved varieties of seeds to the farmers so that they can plant paddy in the upcoming planting season in June-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance held discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, Department of Quality and Measurement on the topics of increasing paddy production, systematic operation of quarantine and quality certification.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Minister Sharma said that there is a pressure to reduce the growing import of rice starting from this year itself. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Sharma said, “If we use improved varieties of seeds, it is estimated that the paddy production will grow by three folds this year. Let's not delay this task. If we manage to raise the production three times by December, there will be no need to import rice.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sharma assured that if the improved seeds are expensive for the farmers, the ministry will issue subsidies right away. “If you need subsidy for improved seeds, tell us how much money you need, and we will issue it. We believed that rice imports worth billions of rupees can be reduced by spending little amount on seeds.”</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the discussion, Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini said that traders should be encouraged to import seeds. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, Agriculture Secretary Dr Govinda Sharma informed that the productivity of paddy is 3.5 metric tons per hectare on an average and that the production will improve a lot with the use of improved variety of seeds.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14930', 'image' => '20220429102042_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 10:19:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15186', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling under Shortage of Milk', 'sub_title' => 'Demand for Yogurt and Ice Cream Increases during Summer while Production Declines', 'summary' => 'April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The market is currently reeling under shortage of milk. It is estimated that the production of milk falls short by 200,000 liters of the daily requirement in the domestic market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On one hand, the production of fresh milk has declined, while on the other hand, the stock of powdered milk and butter of the industries is half the requirement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, the National Dairy Development Board informed that there is a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk in the market per day.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Milk production decreases from February to August and the demand for yogurt, ice cream and other dairy products increases in the summer as well as during the wedding season. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the board, the total demand of milk in the market is around 900,000 liters per day. However, the supply is only 710,000 liters, creating a shortage of 200,000 liters of milk. Milk production also decreases around this time as cattle do not get enough green grass to feed upon. The board informed that in previous years, the state-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and the private sector dairies used to have sufficient stocks of butter and powdered milk, which has declined this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Executive Director of the Board Babukaji Panta informed that the private and government dairies have 1400 metric tons of powdered milk and 2200 tons of butter in stock. Speaking at a program organized on the occasion of the 31st founding day of the board, he stated that about 3100 metric tons of powdered milk and 2900 metric tons of butter is required in the market from February to August.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The collection of fresh milk decreased with the decline in production. According to Balak Chaudhary, spokesperson of the board, the Dairy Development Corporation used to collect 150,000 liters of milk daily some time ago, but now it collects only 110,000 liters. Similarly, the Dairy Industry Association is collecting 350,000 liters of milk daily and the Nepal Dairy Association is collecting 260,000 liters of milk daily. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14929', 'image' => '20220429092708_milk.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 09:26:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15188', 'article_category_id' => '264', 'title' => ' Insurance Board agrees to Reduce Premium of Engineering Insurance ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 29: The Insurance Board of Nepal (IBN) has agreed to review the minimum insurance premium rate for engineering (non-tariff) amid pressure from the agitating construction and energy entrepreneurs. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has formed a task force under the coordination of its executive director Raju Raman Poudel for this purpose.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has moved ahead with the process of reducing the minimum premium rate of engineering insurance by conducting necessary study. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The task force includes representatives from the Federation of Contractors’ Association of Nepal, Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN), Nepal Insurers’ Association and Reinsurance Company, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Heavy Equipment Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Public Procurement and Monitoring Office, Nepal Surveyors’ Association. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board has already written to these bodies to send their representative for the study. The task force has been given seven days to conduct the study. The task force will study the issue of revising the insurance premium rate of engineering insurance. Based on the study, the task force will submit a report with recommendations to the board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The minimum rate of engineering insurance will be reduced as per the suggestion in the report. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It's very challenging to reduce the minimum rate. However, businessmen in the targeted areas have been protesting,” said Poudel, adding, “We are making an attempt to resolve this issue by conducting necessary study. The rate may be reduced after the study.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the new insurance regulation will not be applicable during the study period. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board had issued a directive on September 22, 2020 and fixed the minimum rate of such insurance. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Following the decision, the promoter companies and construction entrepreneurs started protesting. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">They also surrounded the office of the Insurance Board at Kupondole, Lalitpur after which the board reached an agreement with the agitating sides to form the task force. Meanwhile, the protest of construction and energy entrepreneurs has been postponed for the time being. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Insurance Board Surya Prasad Silwal said that an appropriate decision would be taken on the basis of the report submitted by the task force. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-29', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14928', 'image' => '20220429123613_1650950740.beema samiti.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-29 12:35:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15185', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Government Bans Import of 10 Items including Automobile till mid-July', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: The government has restricted imports of 10 goods three weeks after banks stopped issuing letters of credit (LCs) for importing vehicles and luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on Tuesday banning the import of 10 different items. The ban will remain in place until mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government's decision to ban imports indicates that the pressure on foreign exchange reserves has not abated. To discourage the import of luxury goods, the government has been adopting measures such as keeping 50 to 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of goods while the central bank has directed commercial banks to not opening LCs for luxury goods. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the diplomatic mission will be able to bring imported goods, said Commerce Secretary Ganesh Prasad Pandey.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the diplomatic missions would be allowed to import those items for their own purposes.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has said that the ban on liquor import will have a negative impact on the hotel business. HAN's acting president, Binayak Shah, said that the government should reconsider its decision. He said that the tourism sector would be affected if the government did not correct its decision.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had given a 16-point suggestion to the Ministry of Finance on April 3, saying that even the import of essential goods would not be possible if the import of luxury goods was not stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">After the Finance Minister ignored the suggestion, the NRB summoned the chief executive officers of all commercial banks on April 6 and verbally instructed them not to open letters of credit for the import of luxury goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the foreign exchange reserves have decreased to only US$ 9.5 billion. This is enough to support the import of goods and services for six and a half months. The ban on imports is likely to affect revenue collection. In April, the finance ministry had set a target of raising Rs 46 billion from customs duty but was able to collect only Rs 40 billion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has banned the import of vehicles run on petrol and diesel, electric vehicles can be imported without restrictions. Similarly, import of motorcycles of less than 250 cc has not been stopped.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Nepal Gazette mentions that no ban will be imposed on the goods which have already been processed for import through banking medium before April 27.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Auto Mobiles Association of Nepal, said that it would be difficult to get vehicles in the market after two and a half months if the ban on import of vehicles is not lifted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that customers will not be able to get the vehicle they want in June, July and August if the LC is not opened by mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14927', 'image' => '20220428025847_nepal-major-imports-update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:57:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15184', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Load Shedding Returns after 4 Years ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has formally started load shedding in the industrial sector after it failed to import electricity from India. NEA has started power cuts in the industrial sector by issuing a prior notice on Wednesday. NEA had been cutting power in the industrial sector without any notice after the shortage started during this dry season. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA informed that there will be power cuts in the industrial area for 48 hours effective from 10 am Wednesday. There will be power cuts at different times during this period. According to the NEA, there will be a 12-hour daily power cut in some industries and up to 16 hours in others. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Load shedding has re-started after 4 years in Nepal. Load shedding, which was prevalent for 15 years, had ended on May 14, 2018. NEA, which is supplying electricity from India, has informed that the problem has arisen as it has not been able to buy electricity from India. During the dry season, Nepal produces less electricity. At this time, electricity has to be imported from India to meet the domestic demand. But, the power generation in India itself has declined recently. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">India has a large share of electricity generated from coal. Recently, the Russia-Ukraine tensions have led to a shortage of coal around the world. This has affected India's power generation. At present, there is load shedding for up to 8 hours daily in India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA's executive director Kulman Ghising said that the power cuts have started in the industrial sector as there isn’t enough electricity supply from India. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“There was some problem in the supply due to the unavailability of electricity from India through the bidding process. Therefore, we have started cutting electricity in the industrial sector by giving advanced notice,” he told New Business Age, “The situation will be normal if we can buy electricity from India. Otherwise there may be a problem in the electricity supply for some time.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NEA is currently providing electricity to household customers 24 hours a day. Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bhattarai says that only the power supply of the industrial sector has been cut off. He said that NEA is making efforts to ease the power supply. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepal will generate more electricity than it needs from June. NEA says that there will be no such problem after that. Until then, supplies may be disrupted. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The industrial sector has been hit hard after load shedding started. Fuel and electricity are indispensable to the industry. Entrepreneurs say that the operation of the industry has been affected as load shedding has started and fear that industries will run at a loss or close down due to lack of energy. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Subodh Kumar Gupta said that the industry is affected by the power cut. “Now production costs will rise and the industry will be at a loss. However, we understand the problem at the moment,” he said, “The NEA should provide quality electricity as promised. Once the electricity is cut off, our production costs automatically increase. He said that the raw material in the machine does not work when the power is cut.” He said that the industries will prepare accordingly if the electricity is provided as promised. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association of Nepal Dhruba Thapa said that the cement industry would be more affected by load shedding. More electricity is needed to run cement and iron rod industries. Therefore, such industries have been hit hardest by load shedding, he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“If the situation returns to normal within a short period of time, then the industry can run smoothly. If the problem continues, the industry may have to shut down,” he said, “Running an industry with diesel during such an inflationary period is really difficult, but there’s no other solution. We are really worried right now.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He demanded that the government should give as much as it can to the industry even after cutting the electricity for household purposes. “It would have been better if the government had cut off domestic electricity and given it to us,” he said, “But the government does not seem interested in running the industry. Now when the industry is affected, it has a negative impact on the overall economy. The government needs to understand that.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14926', 'image' => '20220428024306_1651100134.Clipboard17.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:42:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15183', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'TIA to Extends Domestic Flight Time to 18 hours a Day ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has extended domestic flight service time to 18 hours a day to manage the growing air traffic at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In order to manage the air traffic congestion, the TIA has made necessary coordination with six airports of terai to operate domestic flights up to 18 hours a day from today, the state-owned national news agency reported citing CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The CAAN has decided to run the airport from 6.00 am to midnight in Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi airports. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This would help reduce existing air service pressure in Kathmandu-based TIA and also give a relief to the pandemic-battered tourism sector, he shared. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14925', 'image' => '20220428023242_5e.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15182', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Economy at the Crossroads: Former Governor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Former governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr Tilak Rawal, said that the economy of Nepal is at the crossroads. He made such remark during the 67</span></span><sup><span style="font-size:7.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">th</span></span></sup><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> anniversary of Nepal Rastra Bank. He also stated that there are problems with the economy of the nation and that the government is failing to carry out its responsibilities.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, the trade deficit has increased, balance of payments disturbed, foreign exchange reserves have been declining and current account is in a deficit. Rawal said that such facts should not be hidden but rather a collective effort is needed to normalize the situation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the global economy itself is in turmoil, Rawal said that no single person should be held responsible for the current economic crisis of the nation.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He argued that excessive imports disturbed the balance of payments.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He suggested that all the concerned authorities should work in coordination with each other in order to overcome the issues seen in the nation’s economy. Dr. Rawal stated that Maha Prasad Adhikai received justice just like him when he was suspended as the governor 20 years back.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that some of the negative effects of world trade have also affected Nepal's economy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Governor Rawal said that giving priority to local production can help Nepal's economy during the current crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14924', 'image' => '20220428021318_economic crisis.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 14:12:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15181', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '109 Expedition Teams Granted Permission for Spring Expedition ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p>April 28: A total of 109 teams have so far acquired mountaineering expedition permit for this spring season. <br /> According to the Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, some of the expedition teams have kicked off their attempts to climb 25 peaks. The teams comprise 876 aspiring climbers from within the country and aboard. <br /> According to the Mountaineering Section of the department, 302 climbers of 38 teams have alone received permits to climb the world's highest peak Mt Everest measuring 8848.86 meters for this spring season. Likewise, 97 climbers of nine teams have been granted permission to climb Mt Ama Dablam (6,814 meters). <br /> Similarly, four teams will be attempting to scale Mt Annapurna (8,011 meters), Mt Nuptse (7,861 meters), Mt Makalu (8,463) while two teams will be climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters). One team has been allowed to climb Mt Lhotse (8,516 meters). <br /> Likewise, four teams each have been granted permits to scale the Himlung Peak and the Dhambus Peak. <br /> The department has Rs 448.94 million in royalties by issuing mountaineering permits. -- RSS <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14923', 'image' => '20220428123440_island-peak-climbing22.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 12:31:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15180', 'article_category_id' => '218', 'title' => ''15 Commercial Banks Enough for the Country'', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 28: Experts and stakeholders have backed the concept of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to reduce the number of banks and financial institutions, suggesting that the existing number of commercial banks have to be reduced by half.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the survey conducted by the central bank, the participants remarked that the number of banks in Nepal is high based on the size of economy, per capita income and the population and suggested that the number should be reduced.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The NRB conducted the study for the first time after a decade of introduction its merger and acquisition policy. Suggestions for the study were collected through questionnaires from 140 people associated with banks and financial institutions including the chief executive officers (CEO), assistant chief executive officers, acting chief executive officers, chairmen, directors, senior staff and 90 experts and 230 people.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Fifty percent of the respondents suggested that the number of commercial banks should be between 11 to 15. Similarly, 20 percent suggested 5 to 10 banks, 15 percent suggested 16 to 20 banks and the remaining 15 percent suggested 20 to 25 banks were appropriate. Currently, 27 commercial banks are in operation in Nepal</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta said that the study has shown the market's view on the number of banks. “It does not mean that the number of banks must be limited to 15,” he said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the number of development banks and finance companies have declined significantly after the NRB introduced merger and acquisition policy, the number of commercial banks declined minimally. According to the NRB, so far 239 banks and financial institutions participated in the merger and acquisition process and then got limited to 62. A total of 177 licenses were revoked. However, out of 32 commercial banks licensed by NRB, only five merged. Recently, an agreement was reached for the merger of Himalayan and Nepal Investment Bank. The merger process of Nabil and Nepal Bangladesh Bank is also underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Eighty-four percent of participants from banks and financial institutions and 78 percent from experts suggested reducing the number only by giving discounts and facilities for mergers. According to the report, 57 percent of the participants suggested that the number of banks could be reduced through incentives, 20 percent through forced merger and 17 percent through voluntary capital increase. Similarly, 61 percent of the participants said that the merger would be effective if the policy of merging the weak with the strong organization was adopted.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Through the merger policy, NRB has been providing policy concessions to the merging banks and financial institutions including cooling off period, priority sector loans, and CCD. Similarly, the government has also been giving income tax exemption.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Most of the respondents said that the merger policy taken by NRB has had a positive impact on banks and financial institutions. Seventy nine percent respondents said the merger increased the bank's risk-bearing capacity, 67 percent said it increased their investment capacity and 52 percent said it increased their operating capacity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Majority of the participants in the study suggested removing the existing classification of banks and financial institutions and moving to universal banking. Of those surveyed, 34 percent suggested moving to universal banking, 31 percent maintaining the current system and 27 percent moving to a specialized banking system.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14922', 'image' => '20220428115632_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:55:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15179', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Announces Public Holiday for 2 Days a Week from May 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 28: The government has decided to give regular holidays for two days a week starting from May 15. A meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday took a decision to this effect on a trial basis, Government Spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed during a press meet on Wednesday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Karki, who is also the Minister for Communications and Information Technology, declared public holiday on Saturdays and Sundays after a fortnight. The minister further said that the cabinet meeting agreed to fix office hours from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm during the weekdays. </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"">He shared that the cabinet decided to give holidays for two days a week with the belief that it would reduce fuel consumption. </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"">Although the cabinet meeting took such decision to reduce fuel consumption with the objective of easing the pressure on declining foreign exchange reserves, the Council of Ministers has ironically approved foreign visits of high-ranking government officials.</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 cabinet meeting approved a delegation led by Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal to visit Bangladesh and Education Minister Devendra Poudel’s visit to the UK. Likewise, Labour Minister Krishna Kumar Shrestha has been given the go ahead to visit Malaysia.</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"">Similarly, the cabinet meeting also approved India visit of National Planning Commission’s Vice Chairman Bishwonath Poudel and South Korea visit of Forest Secretary Dr Prem Narayan Kandel.</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"">Likewise, Health Secretary Dr Roshan Pokharel has been granted permission to visit Norway to attend a programme.</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 concept of two-day holiday a week was implemented by the government more than two decades ago. The provision was implemented on July 17, 1999 during the tenure of then then Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Such decision was taken upon the recommendation of the then Administrative Reform Commission in 1991 with the objective of reducing administrative costs. The provision was revoked almost after three years without conducting a study on its impact.</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"">Recently, the government had floated a similar concept but to boost the tourism sector that has been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts had suggested the government to give two days holiday in a week in order to promote domestic tourism. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-28', 'modified' => '2022-04-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14921', 'image' => '20220428110554_20220427142651_IMGL6946.JPG', 'article_date' => '2022-04-28 11:05:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15178', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Tax on Tobacco Products Comparatively Less in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: A study conducted by the Nepal Development Research Institute has shown that taxes are being levied on tobacco products at low rates in the country. In fact, the tax rate imposed by the government on tobacco products in Nepal is lower than that of neighboring countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the study, more than 27,000 people die annually from diseases caused by the use of tobacco in Nepal. Therefore, it has been recommended to raise the tax rate on tobacco products. According to the study conducted by the institute, the highest selling brand of tobacco in India in 2008 was taxed at 45.76 percent of the retail price. In 2018, this tax rate increased to 54.04 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study believes that the prevalence of tobacco products in India is the result of high tax imposition. However, it also found that the tax in Nepal was 24.27 percent in 2008 and only 30 percent in 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Taxes are a very effective tactics to control tobacco. However, due the government's presumption that raising taxes would encourage illegal trade, the rate of taxes in Nepal is not increasing,” the report states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The study report also states that the use of tobacco has direct impact on healthcare cost. It also has a negative impact on the productivity of the family. According to the report, 1.4 percent of the annual GDP is lost due to tobacco. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Increasing the tax rate on tobacco products is a win-win situation. Taxes reduce consumption and improve public health, reduce economic losses and benefit the government.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report states that due to the increase in taxes, the price of tobacco products will increase and consumption will decrease. “Raising the tax rate automatically increases the revenue. Despite this reality, the tax rate on tobacco products in Nepal is very low and these products have become very affordable in the last few years.” The study has disproved the notion that raising taxes on tobacco products will increase illegal trade. During the study, only the prevalence of 0.33 percent illegal cigarettes was found in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Of the 4,300 packs of cigarettes inspected in 11 districts including all three geographical subdivisions of the nation, only 0.33 percent was found to be illegal. Most of the illegal cigarettes are manufactured in Indonesia and most of them were found in Kathmandu and Pokhara, far from the Nepal-India border. The excise duty sticker certified by the Inland Revenue Department was not affixed on the illegal packets.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The general secretary of the research institute, Dr. Jaya Kumar Gurung said that the study dismissed the assumption that the imposition of additional tax on tobacco products would increase the illegal trade. According to him, it is necessary to impose additional tax to reduce the use of tobacco products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">With the approval of the Nepal Health Research Council, the institute conducted a nationwide study in order to check the level of illegal trade of cigarettes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14920', 'image' => '20220427100429_istockphoto-1133345196-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 22:03:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15177', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Foreign Reinsurance Companies start Withdrawing Business from Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: Foreign reinsurance companies have started to withdraw their investment from Nepal following the rise in the number of insurance claims. As the proportion of insurance claims in Nepal has increased, foreign reinsurance companies have been incurring losses in their business. As a result, they have started leaving Nepal.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Lately, high level, i.e. A-rated foreign companies have stopped reinsuring Nepali insurance companies. A report by the Nepal Insurers Association has shown that even B-rated companies are reluctant to take up business here.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the association, in the last five fiscal years, foreign reinsurance companies have incurred losses in their business in Nepal. According to the association, insurance companies of Nepal get a commission of 35 per cent of the premium from foreign companies. In addition, they are also paid an additional 60 per cent as insurance claim. Thus, foreign reinsurance companies have to return 95 per cent of the amount to Nepal. Adding management costs to that, they say the business is running at a loss.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even after the 2015 earthquakes, foreign reinsurance companies had suffered heavy losses in their business in Nepal. However, due to the recent natural calamities, the insurance claims have been increasing in Nepal every year. That has obviously affected foreign reinsurance companies.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As a result, foreign reinsurance companies have started exiting the business here, says Chunky Chhetri, president of Nepal Insurance Association.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Insurance claims have increased in Nepal due for various reasons. This has automatically affected the foreign reinsurance companies. They are at a loss in their business with Nepal. Reinsurance companies are also profit-oriented entities. That's why foreign reinsurance companies are leaving Nepal,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the Insurance Board, insurance companies and the customers should be serious about this issue. “Failure to reinsure poses a challenge to make claims. However, there is a challenge to reinsurance,” he said. “It has become a big problem in the insurance sector. The time has come for everyone to join hands to solve this problem,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In this case, the association has concluded that the Insurance Board should revise the policy on reinsurance. The association says insurance premium rates are likely to increase in order to address this issue.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also submitted its suggestions to the board</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association has also demanded that the compulsory provision of reinsurance from Nepali companies be scrapped. The association demands that the board should immediately revoke this provision and make arrangements for reinsurance from a foreign company.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Keeping the entire risk within the country is considered dangerous even for the economy. On top of that, the risk is the same as the occurrence of natural disasters in Nepal. Therefore, the association demands that reinsurance should have external backing rather than within the country.</span></span></span></p> <p><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14919', 'image' => '20220427073816_Insurance.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 19:36:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15176', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'FNCCI Urges Government to Avail Loan for Productive Sector at 2 Percent Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), an umbrella organization of the private sector, has suggested the government to make arrangements to provide loans to manufacturing industries at 2 percent interest rate. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As the budget announcement for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is approaching, the federation has suggested the government to adopt export-oriented policy and to end undeclared power curs faced by the industrial sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation put forward those suggestions during a pre-budget discussion organized on Tuesday. On the occasion, FNCCI vice president Dinesh Shrestha said that concrete reforms were needed in the revenue system. He said that 80 percent of the taxpayers at present have paid only 20 percent of the total tax. According to Shrestha, the government should create a favorable environment for paying taxes and this would prevent tax evasion. "There has never been a study on how much taxes should be raised," he said, "It is necessary now." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the occasion, FNCCI Tax and Revenue Committee Chairman Sandeep Kumar Agrawal presented the paper on behalf of the FNCCI. He stressed on the need to come up with short, mid and long term plans to increase capital and for import substitution. He claimed that the prices of commodities have gone up worldwide and the rate of imports will continue to go up. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have estimated that the remittance inflow will be Rs 1 trillion this year," he said, "Apart from this, 30 to 40 percent of the remittances are still coming through informal channels, and an attractive policy is needed to bring it through the formal channels." </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation has suggested revising the Nepal Integrated Trade Strategy (NTIS) for export promotion. Stating that the current arrangement of export refinancing is impractical, the federation asked to maintain the term of such loan for at least 3 years. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The private sector has demanded cash incentives for shoe and sole manufacturers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the exporters have to go to the central bank and other banks to get the cash subsidy for export, Agrawal demanded the money to be transferred to their account as soon as the export is done. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the federation, there are many problems such as environmental impact assessment for the establishment of industries. While declaring industrial villages, the FNCCI has suggested the government to take into consideration the situation after decades. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, the federation has also demanded to bring a policy of giving tariff exemption to those who consume more energy. The suggestion has also laid emphasis on providing cheap electricity to the export-oriented industries. In addition, it has been mentioned that skilled manpower has to be imported from outside while the manpower produced by the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) have not been linked with the entrepreneurs. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14918', 'image' => '20220427023224_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 14:31:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15175', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector gets Top Priority in Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 27: The government intensified consultations for preparing the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) to be introduced on May 29, as per by the constitutional provision. The Ministry of Finance expedited the process of budget preparation, prioritizing the agriculture sector in order to revive the economy in the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">On the one hand, a team led by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Bhupal Baral is mobilized to prepare the budget on time; while on the other hand, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma is also taking the lead. The budget preparation team has decided to not prioritize “popular programmes” as the economy was threatened by such programmes in the previous years.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Finance Minister Sharma has been saying that he will give priority to agriculture since a lot of agricultural produce is being imported. The ministry is preparing the budget in such a way that it would implement effective programmes rather than increase the budget for agriculture excessively. Though the budget will be focused on agriculture, Finance Minister Sharma has instructed the concerned officials not to emphasize on subsidy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the suggestion of Finance Minister Sharma, the team is preparing the budget to encourage the farmers through timely availability of fertilizers, technology and through technical assistance. Prakash Sanjel, joint secretary and spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture, informed that the ministry was given a budget ceiling of Rs 42.73 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the new budget prioritizes recovery from the current economic crisis, which should not be included in the next budget. As the current crisis is expected to improve in the next three months, ministry officials believe that no special programmes should be included in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite the pressure on foreign exchange reserves, it is estimated that the foreign exchange reserves will become balanced ahead of the next budget. Based on the same estimate, a senior government official said there is no strategy to bring in new programmes. However, the budget will address the issue of reducing trade deficit, the official added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry stated that the budget will be based on the vision, goals, objectives, strategies, priorities, annual policies and programmes of the government. The principles of budget and priorities will also be taken into consideration along with sustainable development goals mentioned in the 15<sup>th</sup> periodic plan. In addition, emphasis will be put on efficient management of financial federalism, high economic growth, rapid economic and social development and effective implementation of development programmes and projects for equitable distribution. Also, welfare programmes will be emphasized through social security schemes.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The ministry drafted the thematic budget to ensure the required funds for projects of national pride, transformational projects, new programmes of high importance and other projects under multi-year contract. Finance Minister Sharma has emphasized on the need to merge or reject programmes or projects of the same nature.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14917', 'image' => '20220427010238_ArunYadav_Rajbiraj_RSS_17_a.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 13:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15174', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Discusses Modernizing Postal Service ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 27: The government is preparing to introduce a special provision in the upcoming budget for modernising the postal service as per the need of time, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Tuesday for the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma called for coming up with an action plan for the modernization of postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He was of the view of doing away with the outdated practices of the postal service. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In his presentation, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal highlighted the need of improvement in the postal service, suggesting the implementation of a new approach. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The finance minister was of the view of hiring new workforce to operate the service while the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology proposed to use the post offices as e-commerce platform. </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 meeting was attended by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, finance secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini, revenue secretary Krishnahari Puskar, communications secretary Dr Baikuntha Aryal and the budget drafting committee members. </span></span></span><br /> <br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-27', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14916', 'image' => '20220427100836_postal.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-27 10:07:54', '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
