April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant…
April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant…
April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the…
April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their…
April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector.…
April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs.…
April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has…
April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank…
April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and…
April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season.…
April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu…
April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising…
April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other.…
April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday…
April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079…
April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the…
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15113', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate Direct Flights to Saudi Arabia from April 22 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers. </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 cost of air travel is expected to become affordable for the aspiring Nepali workers with the operation of flights by the national flag carrier to Saudi Arabia, one of the major labour destination countries of Nepal. </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"">With the operation of flights, Nepali workers will have to pay Rs 37,000 for a one-way ticket to Riyad. Passengers have been paying more than Rs 63,000 at present to travel to nearby Doha via private airliner in economy class with discount. </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"">According to the Executive Chairperson of Nepal Airlines Yubraj Adhikari, the state-owned airlines company will be exploring additional destinations and would expand its services gradually. NAC has already received flight permits to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NAC will operate two flights a week between Kathmandu and Riyadh and the number of flights will be expanded to three times a week after studying the situation, NAC said. </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"">NAC officials including Executive Chairperson Adhikari had visited Saudi Arabia two months ago to seek flight permission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">For the time being, the one-way ticket for Kathmandu-Riyad flight will cost Rs 37,000, confirmed NA Spokesperson Archana Khadka. </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 inaugural flight would be conducted by a wide-body aircraft of NAC which plans to operate both wide-body and narrow-body aircraft for the flights later on. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-17', 'modified' => '2022-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14855', 'image' => '20220417083329_Nepal-Airlines-NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-17 08:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15112', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fall Armyworms Affect Maize Plantation across the Country', 'sub_title' => 'Government Bodies Unaware of the Situation', 'summary' => 'April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country. However, the government has not taken concrete steps for its prevention and control. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on the other hand is unaware of this situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre, the outbreak of fall armyworms is on the rise in Kathmandu Valley, Terai, hills and some Himalayan districts as well. Authorities at the concerned ministry have not taken any initiative to control and prevent the pest. The Centre for Pesticide Management and the Ministry of Agriculture do not have exact information on the extent of damage caused by the pest infestation so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the outbreak of worms is prevalent all over the country, the districts with high temperatures like Banke, Bardia, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu in western Terai and Sunsari, Rautahat and Siraha in the eastern Terai are facing greater impact of the worm infestation. According to the Agriculture Knowledge Center Banke, the outbreak has spread to maize planted over 3,550 hectares in Banke and about 7,000 hectares in Bardiya. The centre estimated that the worm outbreak may have spread to 700 hectares in Kailali and Dang.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Bhuwaneshwor Yadav, a representative farmer from Sunsari, the outbreak has spread to about 800-900 hectares of crops in Sunsari as well. Yadav said, “No concrete steps have been taken for prevention and control by the agricultural knowledge center or even the local level. On the one hand, farmers do not know how to control it, what medicine to use, while on the other hand, all government bodies are unaware of the outbreak.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the damage report of some districts is kept by the Agriculture Knowledge Center, the data of most of the districts is not available with the concerned local and central government. Sahadev Humagain, head of the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center said there were reports of worm outbreaks in various districts of the country but the body responsible for controlling and collecting data did not send details of the damage. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said, “Once the exact details of the damage are known, control efforts will be initiated and technicians will be dispatched. However, nothing can be done from the center alone as the bodies responsible at the local level remain unaware of the situation.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It has been three years since the American armyworms first entered Nepal. It hides from sunrise till sunset and destroys corn leaves, stalks, kernels and later the entire plant at night. As the worm has completely adapted to the environment in a short period of time, it is not possible to eradicate it completely. Humagain said that no initiative has been taken for the control so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Agriculture is unaware that the farmers who were affected by the unseasonal rainfall last October are now being attacked by the fall armyworms. Ministry spokesperson Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the ministry has not received any report from the concerned bodies so far. It is a well-known fact that outbreaks are common and frequent during this time of year. However, he said that the ministry had not made any plan as no major damage was reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Scientists say that this worm, which was seen in West Africa in 2016, can travel up to 100 kilometers in one night. About three years ago, this insect was first seen in various states of India for the first time in Asia. Later, it reportedly entered Nepal through Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14854', 'image' => '20220415030136_maize armyworn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 15:00:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15111', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs to get Loan Facility for Export ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">By amending the Industrial Enterprises Act 2076, a provision has been made for women entrepreneurs to get a minimum of Rs 500,000 to maximum of Rs 5 million loan depending on the type of industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government published the revised Industrial Enterprise Act in the Nepal Gazette on April 4, 2022 by including the new provision. This has opened the door for women entrepreneurs to get loans for export. Although the previous arrangement also had provision for such loans, the limit of loan amount was not fixed depending on the nature of the industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the amended regulations published in the Nepal Gazette, women entrepreneurs will get export credit on the basis of the financial condition of the business. The amended act states that in order to get a loan for export, at least 30 percent of the total production of the last fiscal year has to be exported. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The amended regulations have set a credit limit for women entrepreneurs for additional facilities. According to the new regulations, small entrepreneurs will get export loans of Rs 500,000, cottage industry Rs 1.5 million, small entrepreneurs Rs 2 million, medium entrepreneurs Rs 3 million and large entrepreneurs Rs 5 million. The loan will be provided through the banking system. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sarada Rijal, a woman entrepreneur, said that the revised system would encourage women entrepreneurs to venture out, especially in export-oriented industries. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government has also invested in the industrial villages targeting women she said that this policy would further encourage women entrepreneurs. According to her, a women’s industrial village is also being made in Panchkhal of Kavre. The process of setting up the village started after the government announced the plan to open an industrial village in all seven provinces.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Entrepreneurs say that the industrial village to develop women entrepreneurship and the current export credit policy will help women entrepreneurs. They stressed on the need to make the process of getting loans simple and easy for women entrepreneurs, who are still finding it difficult to get access to business loans. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14853', 'image' => '20220415021513_women.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 14:14:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15110', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '2078 Marred by Liquidity Crisis ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. As economic activities picked up pace immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, banks and financial institutions aggressively pushed for credit expansion. However, as deposit collection did not grow as compared to the credit flow of banks, there was a liquidity crisis in the banking system. As a result, at the end of the year, the new credit flow of banks and financial institutions has almost stopped. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deposits in banks increased by Rs 4.43 billion from Rs 4.45 trillion in 2077 to Rs 4.91 trillion in 2078. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, credit flow increased by Rs 678.77 billion from Rs 4.022 trillion to Rs 4.78 trillion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The main reason for the liquidity crisis in banks and financial institutions was the change in policy of NRB. The NRB removed the provision of maintaining 85 percent capital, loan and deposit (CCD) ratio in the banks through the monetary policy of the current Fiscal Year (FY 2078/79) and implemented the provision of maintaining 90 percent credit-deposit (CD) ratio. Due to this reason, the ability of banks to expand credit flow decreased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, as most of the credit was provided for imports, the country's foreign exchange earnings, remittances, tourism and other sectors were affected, and the deposits could not increase. Due to this, the financial sector is facing liquidity crisis in the market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Dispute between finance minister and governor</strong> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The year 2078 will also be remembered for the suspension of Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. With the tension between Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari boiling during the announcement of monetary policy for the current FY, the ministry has started an investigation against the governor for not cooperating with the government. The governor has been suspended since the investigation began. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has been criticized for taking political action against the governor who was seeking economic reform. Due to the dispute between the finance minister and the governor, the leadership of NRB is now in the hands of the acting Governor. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Cash margin for LC</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the credit flow of banks and financial institutions increased, it shifted to the unproductive sector, which in turn posed a challenge to the financial sector. Due to this pressure, NRB tightened its grip on equity loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The central bank has discouraged investment in real estate and transportation sectors by increasing the risk burden of these loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the central bank, which has implemented provision of 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to reduce the import of goods under 47 different types of harmonic codes, has verbally instructed the banks not to open LCs until the situation improves. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14852', 'image' => '20220415125258_Liquidity.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:52:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15109', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector Faced Numerous Problems in 2078', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. Last year, neither the weather was favourable for the farmers nor the government was able to bring any encouraging programmes. Moreover, most of the programmes announced were not implemented properly. Outbreaks of armyworms were reported in maize planted in 67 districts earlier this year. The government made efforts to prevent and control the problem, but it was not effective enough to satisfy the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dairy farmers and businessmen suffered greatly due to not being able to sell stock of powdered milk and butter worth more than Rs 3 billion at the beginning of the year as a consequence of Covid-19 pandemic and prohibitory orders. The challenges faced by the dairy business still persisted at the end of the year 2078, despite the government increasing the price of milk and milk products. While milk was surplus at the beginning of the year, there was a shortage of milk by the end of the year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Prahlad Dahal, general secretary of the Nepal Dairy Association, there is a shortage of 300,000 liters of milk in the market currently as many farmers gave up on dairy business due to the pandemic. According to him, the risk of foreign milk products gaining market has increased after the decline in milk production in the domestic market. Although farmers were excited when the government increased the price of milk by Rs 10 per liter after many years, now the middlemen are making more profit than the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Just like the previous years, farmers faced shortage of chemical fertilizers in 2078 as well. Farmers in most of the districts could not get fertilizer during the main planting season. The government-owned Salt Trading Corporation failed to distribute fertilizers evenly despite having sufficient stock. Last March, the government decided to import 935,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer for the next five years through G2G deal with the Government of India. However, there are doubts about its implementation. As the farming season is approaching, the contracted companies have not been able to import fertilizers even after the expiration of the contract period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Farmers were also affected by natural calamities in 2078. The unseasonal rainfall from October 16 to 20 destroyed paddy crop planted in 111,069 hectares of land across the country. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 42,113 metric tons of paddy worth Rs 11.87 billion were destroyed at that time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the 'Agriculture for Food' campaign, also says that there were more negative impacts than positive ones for Nepali farmers and the overall agricultural sector in the year 2078 BS. According to him, it is unfortunate that the decision of the government to provide relief of Rs 5.52 billion to the affected farmers has yet to be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The unseasonal rainfall caused a loss of over Rs 50 million to the flower business which was declared 90 percent self-sufficient. But the flower producers complained that the government has not addressed the issue so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, less than a year after the declaration of self-reliance, the poultry industry reached a state of crisis. Poultry farmers faced problems like rising prices of raw materials and medicines in the international market, recurring bird flu and epidemics such as Ranikhet, which even led to closure of some hatchery industries after most of the farmers stopped raising chickens. The price of meat went up to around Rs 400 per kg due to the decline in poultry production. Farmers complained that the government has not taken any active initiative to prevent and control the spread of bird flu in 14 districts so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Towards the end of the year, there was a good news for the agricultural sector. Impactors Women's Development Society, a group of 16 young women, developed a mobile app called 'Saathi' which identifies and solves various problems encountered in agriculture through the use of artificial intelligence.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14851', 'image' => '20220415123059_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:30:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15108', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Production of Mid-Marshyangdi Hydropower Station Increases due to Rainfall', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pawan Basnet, head of the station, informed that the power generation started increasing due to the rise in water level in Marsyangdi River following occasional rainfall in recent days and the melting of snow. He said that only 26/27 MW of electricity was being generated since December, but now, the production has reached 58 to 60 MW. In the previous years, electricity generation used to show an increase only in May.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the station, if the production shows an increase in the same manner, it will be able to generate electricity at full capacity within April. Construction of the project started in 2000 and completed in 2008. The hydropower station was constructed at a cost of Rs 27.20 billion.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14850', 'image' => '20220415121145_marsyangdi590_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:10:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15107', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Banks' Interest on Loans hits Double Digit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report states that the interest on loans increased due to the increase in interest on deposits as well as the increasing operational cost of the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest rate on loans of banks in the month of Falgun (mid-February to mid-March) was 10.5 percent, the report states adding that the interest on loans reached double digit in the month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest on loans was 8.48 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year. The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing the interest on deposits to attract customers following the liquidity crunch in the banking system. As a result, the interest on loans also increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The interest on deposits have almost doubled in the current fiscal year. According to the central bank, the average interest on deposits was 4.76 percent in the first month of the current fiscal year (mid-July to mid-August) which increased to 8.73 percent in the eighth month ie Falgun (mid-February to mid-March).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing interest on deposits to attract customers since mid-October to mid-November. The central bank had to intervene due to such competition among the banks. Issuing a circular on October 19, the central bank instructed the banks not to change interest rate more than 10 percent at a time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel says that the interest rate remained under control due to the central bank’s intervention.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Had the central bank not issued such directive, the interest on loans would have reached 18 percent by now,” said Pokharel, adding, “The interest rates on deposits as well as loans remained under control due to the NRB’s intervention.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Commercial banks are trying to keep the interest rate stable following a gentleman’s agreement among members of Nepal Bankers’ Association, an umbrella body of the CEOs of commercial banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks had decided to increase the interest on loans by 10 percent in mid-February. But the bankers agreed to maintain the same rate for at least two months. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The maximum interest on deposits at present is 11.3 percent on fixed deposits. Banks can increase the interest on fixed deposits by an additional one percentage point in case the deposit is collected through remittance.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14849', 'image' => '20220415114234_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 11:41:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15106', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks 100 Years of Systematic Documentation and Registration of Land', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba made such remarks on Thursday during a programme organized by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation on the occasion of 100 years of systematic documentation and registration of land in the country. He directed the subordinate bodies to address the complaints on land administration on time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba was in favour of promoting good governance in land administration service by ensuring quality survey and credible management of data. PM Deuba added that records of land and security of historic archives should be prioritized. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed happiness over the online system of land transaction and access to personal data relating to land developed by the ministry. He also suggested other government bodies to promote such practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The written records or the registration of land plots and houses had begun exactly a 100 years ago in Nepal since 1st Baisakh, 1979 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba further reminded that the government was providing lands to the poor Dalits in a bid to ensure social justice and equality guaranteed by the constitution of Nepal. The constitution has ensured such rights to landless squatters, freed-Haliyas and Kamaiyas. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed concerns that arable lands were left unused on the one hand and agricultural production was dwindling on the other, contributing to widening trade loss, and food insecurity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Haphazard use of land has worsened the impacts of climate change, said Deuba adding that unchecked plotting of agricultural land has caused haphazard urbanization while settlements are facing risks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Prime Minister also expressed concern over encroachment of public, and lands belonging to the Guthi trusts.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> During the occasion, PM Deuba shared that the National Land Commission was formed by the government to resolve the problems faced by the landless squatters, landless Dalit and unmanaged settlements. (<em>With inputs from RSS</em>) </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14848', 'image' => '20220415075711_Ministry-ofland).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 07:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15105', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '689 Climbers Acquire Permits for Climbing Various Peaks for Spring Season ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. These expedition teams have 689 members. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the government collected royalties of over Rs 373 million as of April 13 by issuing the permits. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The expedition teams obtaining permissions for scaling 19 peaks including Mt Everest comprise people from 65 different countries including Nepal. Among them, 250 climbers including 194 males and 56 females from 45 countries will be attempting to scale the world's highest peak. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has collected royalties worth over Rs 310 million alone from permits issued to the climbers to scale Mt Everest.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Tourism (DoT) is hopeful that the expedition teams will climb mountains this year as the threat from COVID-19 has declined significantly and the climate is favourble for climbing. It may be noted that 45 expedition teams had climbed mountains in the spring of 2021 amid threat of Covid-19, giving a big boost to the tourism industry battered by the pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tourism entrepreneurs say they are somehow optimistic about the good indicators seen in the tourism sector with the decline in COVID-19 cases. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Outgoing chair of Nepal Mountaineering Association and noted tourism entrepreneur Aang Chhiring Sherpa said that the number of tourists is rising fradually.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Although the number of climbers is relatively less this year than the previous year, it seems Nepal's mountain tourism is attracting more foreign climbers and it is indeed a noteworthy. The number is gradually rising," RSS quoted Shrepa as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><strong><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">How many climbers climbing which peak </span></span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Both Nepali and foreign climbers are continuously setting out for this season's expedition to scale Mt Everest after taking the permit. So far 250 climbers belonging to 31 expedition teams have alone acquired permission for climbing Mt Everest (8848.86 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 64 climbers of nine expedition teams have acquired permission to climb Mt Lhotse (8516 metres), 65 climbers from six teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Amadablam (6814 metres) and 38 mountaineers of five expedition teams have got permission to climb Mt Kanchanjangha (8586 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, 38 mountaineers belonging to five groups have taken permission for climbing Mt Nuptse (7855 metres), 26 climbers of four groups have acquired permission to climb Mt Annapurna (8091 metres), two expedition teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8167 metres), two teams for climbing Milung Chuli, and three mountaineering teams for climbing Bhemdong, Gangapurna and Thapa Peak, the Mountaineering Section of the DoT stated in a press release. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14847', 'image' => '20220414091903_maxresdefault.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 21:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15104', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Public Transport Fare Increased in Bagmati Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley. The Transport Ministry of Bagmati Province hiked the fare for taxi and public transportation effective from Thursday, April 14. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Public transportation fare has been raised by Rs 2 for up to 10 kilometres and Rs 3 for more than 10 kilometres. The new fare for up to five kilometres is Rs 20, for up to ten kilometers is Rs 25, for up to fifteen kilometres Rs 30, for up to twenty kilometres is Rs 33 and more than 20 kilometres Rs 38. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the taxi fare has been increased to Rs 10 per 200 metres or Rs 50 per kilometre while waiting charge is Rs 1.20. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Waiting has been limited to maximum 30 minutes. The ministry has also stated that the transportation fare within the province will again be adjusted accordingly if the price of fuel were to rise or fall by more than five per cent from the rate on which the latest fare adjustment has been made. -- RSS </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14846', 'image' => '20220414085442_public transportation.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 20:53:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15103', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Energy Sector Made Significant Progress in 2078 but Challenges Persist', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs. Despite countless challenges, the energy and hydropower sector of Nepal made a significant progress in the year 2078 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders believe that achievements made in the energy sector in the review year would have long-term implications. Most notably, India has agreed to allow Nepal to trade electricity in its open market through competitive bidding. This, according to the stakeholders, is a historic achievement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regional market is essential to sell the electricity generated in Nepal. Nepal is already at a stage where its surplus energy gets wasted during the monsoon. In this sense, a regional market for the energy sector of Nepal is of utmost importance. In such a situation, India not only opened its energy market to Nepal but also gave the green signal to Nepal Electricity Authority to sell 364 megawatts of electricity to India. This is a significant achievement, says Kumar Pandey, former chairman of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The energy which is to be produced in Nepal does not have a prospective market within the country. In such a situation, a regional market is vital for us,” said Pandey, adding, “India has granted Nepal permission to sell its electricity in its market. This is a significant achievement of the energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The operation of 456-MW Upper Tama Koshi Hydropower Project is another significant achievement of the energy sector in 2078.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Besides Upper Tama Koshi, many other hydropower projects came into operation during last year. This has made Nepal almost self-sufficient in energy. There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot more to do,” added Pandey.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another achievement is the resumption of Nepal-India Energy Summit which was stalled since the last two years due to Covid-19. The decisions taken during the summit has helped in the development of Nepal’s energy sector. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also prioritized the agenda of energy sector during his recent state visit to India. Nepal and India unveiled a common vision paper for collaboration in the energy sector during the PM’s visit. The vision paper states that the energy trade will focus on regional market that includes Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal (BBIN).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">There were also some good news regarding foreign investment in the energy sector during the review year. Foreign investment in this sector was not much encouraging in the last few years but the energy sector saw commitment of Rs 1.59 billion in 2078, which is more than the commitment received in the previous year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2077, foreign investors pledged to invest only Rs 5.8 million in the energy sector of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The energy sector has had to face problems ranging from natural disasters to liquidity crisis, increase in insurance premium rate, increase in interest rate among others.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Due to the liquidity crisis in the banking system, hydropower projects seeking loans have had to pay high interest rates. The cost of project including operational cost has increased due to the increase in interest rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">IPPAN Chairman Krishna Prasad Acharya said that the energy sector witnessed some discouraging events despite some significant achievements.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that the energy sector has yet to fully recover from the impact of coronavirus. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The impact of coronavirus which started in 2076 BS is still evident till this year. As a result, many hydropower projects have not been able to start construction. Even the under-construction projects had to stall the works,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Things have improved only since February,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another setback is the inordinate delay in granting power purchase agreement for run-over-river (ROR) projects to sell electricity. The government has been providing survey license to the private sector to undertake such projects but is reluctant to purchase electricity produced by the private sector stating that the laws allow them to purchase only a certain portion of energy produced by ROR projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government promised to allow the private sector to trade electricity and also grant permission for PPA. However, both the promises were not fulfilled,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14845', 'image' => '20220414045734_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 16:56:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15102', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Chamber of Industry Morang Warns of Imminent Economic Crisis', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. The chamber also warned that the overall economic indicators were pointing towards an imminent crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Suyash Pyakurel, chairman of the chamber, said that the liquidity crisis in the financial sector since a long time, rising interest rates, the Ukraine crisis, rising prices in international markets and the internal situation in the country are all leading the overall economy towards a crisis. Stating that there is no effective coordination among the regulatory bodies when it comes to management of liquidity, foreign exchange reserves and facilitation of import and export, he emphasized on the need to be aware of the ongoing situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing a statement, the Chamber of Industry Morang demanded the government to find a possible solution to the crisis by removing the misunderstanding between the intergovernmental bodies. The chamber also stated that it is ready to provide assistance from the private sector to bring the crisis-oriented economy back on track.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14844', 'image' => '20220414025529_Chamber of industries morang new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 14:54:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15101', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Cargo Trucks Stopped at India Border Start Arriving in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.</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"">Hundreds of cargo vehicles were stopped across the Biratnagar border after the Central Customs Department of India imposed new rules on goods supplied to Nepal from India.</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"">More than 300 cargo vehicles were stopped at the Jogbani area on the Indian side of the border across Biratnagar after Indian customs suspected that the goods being supplied to Nepal from India for industrial and commercial purposes could be used to make weapons or explosives.</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"">Devaki Sharma, president of the Biratnagar Customs Agents Association, said, "Many cargo vehicles were stopped towards the Indian side. Those cargo have started coming since Tuesday.”</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"">Vehicles carrying various chemicals, vitamins and herbs, medical powders, medical chemicals, vaccines, insulin, and animal vaccines were stopped by India. Likewise, the Indian side banned adhesive gum and turpentine class items, PVC sets, plastic materials, glass and glassware, zinc, nickel, sulfur, and iron window doors.</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 customs office, industrial machinery, electrical goods, motor parts, and medical equipment were also stopped. The customs agents' association said that the company, industry, or firm supplying goods to Nepal should now onwards fill a form stating the purpose for which the goods are being exported. The goods are then subject to approval by the Indian customs.</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 chairperson Sharma, after the imposition of the new rules by India, the agents of Biratnagar Customs approached the Assistant Commissioner of Jogbani Customs, Ashok Das, to facilitate export. As per a circular issued by the Central Customs Department of India, the export of goods has been tightened. Chief of the Biratnagar Customs, Tara Prasad Sapkota, said that the team facilitated the import after receiving information that the goods coming to Nepal were stopped in India.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14843', 'image' => '20220414125654_ICP Biratnagar.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 12:55:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15100', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'President Extends Best Wishes on the Occasion of New Year', 'sub_title' => 'President Calls for Promoting Entrepreneurship and Domestic Products to Decrease Trade Imbalance', 'summary' => 'April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In her message on the occasion, President Bhandari wished for peace, prosperity, good health and progress of all the Nepalis. President Bhandari spoke of the need to learn from the tough experiences of the past and move ahead accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The president also called for promoting entrepreneurship and production of domestic products to decrease the rising trade imbalance as well as to create self-reliant economy through national capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She was of the view that policies and programmes aimed at creating jobs and opportunities to engage a staggering number of youths of Nepal aspiring for foreign employment should be implemented at the earliest. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Head of the State also appealed to the three-tier government to be active towards realizing sustainable development goals. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the upcoming Nepali year is going to be the year of election, President Bhandari argued that it is our common responsibility to conduct the May 13 local level election in a free, impartial and fearless environment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"May the upcoming New Year 2079 BS inspire to create civilized, well-cultured and just society while filling all the Nepalis with zest and zeal," the message stated. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14842', 'image' => '20220414081219_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 08:11:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15099', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '‘Economy has not Spiraled out of Control’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claims.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claim. The reports of both the ministry and the central bank show that the economy is under stress but the situation has not gone out of control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to NRB, although inflation has increased of late other indicators are under control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The latest data of the central bank shows that </span></span>the country’s gross foreign exchange reserves decreased 16.3 percent to Rs 1171 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1399.03 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation Report of NRB</span></span>, of the total foreign exchange reserves, reserves held by NRB decreased 18.2 percent to Rs 1018.05 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1244.63 billion in mid-July 2021. Likewise, reserves held by banks and financial institutions (except NRB) decreased 0.9 percent to Rs 152.95 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 154.39 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Based on the imports of eight months of 2021/22, the foreign exchange reserves of the banking sector is sufficient to cover the prospective merchandise imports of 7.4 months, and merchandise and services imports of 6.7 months, the report further states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Former NRB Governor Dr Chiranjivi Nepal believes that the situation has not gone out of control. Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Tuesday, Dr Nepal said that the situation will normalize soon.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">On the other hand, the consumer price inflation stood at 7.14 percent in the eighth month of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to economist Chandra Mani Bhandari, price hike is the result of both internal and external factors. He says that the impact of Russia-Ukraine war has increased prices of petroleum products across the world resulting in inflation which has also affected Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the NRB report, Nepal’s current account remained at a deficit of Rs 462.93 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Such a deficit was Rs 151.42 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">During the review period, capital transfer decreased 41.2 percent to Rs 7 billion and net foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 60.0 percent to Rs 16.30 billion, the report said. In the same period of the previous year, capital transfer and net FDI amounted to Rs 11.91 billion and Rs 10.18 billion respectively.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Likewise, the Balance of Payments (BOP) remained at a deficit of Rs 258.64 billion in the review period against a surplus of Rs 68.01 billion in the same period of the previous year. In the US Dollar terms, the BOP remained at a deficit of 2.17 billion in the review period against a surplus of 565.8 million in the same period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the central bank’s report, total trade deficit increased 34.5 percent to Rs 1160.99 billion during the eight months of 2021/22. Such a deficit had increased 1.6 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-13', 'modified' => '2022-04-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14841', 'image' => '20220413044135_NRBnew.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-13 16:40:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15113', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate Direct Flights to Saudi Arabia from April 22 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers. </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 cost of air travel is expected to become affordable for the aspiring Nepali workers with the operation of flights by the national flag carrier to Saudi Arabia, one of the major labour destination countries of Nepal. </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"">With the operation of flights, Nepali workers will have to pay Rs 37,000 for a one-way ticket to Riyad. Passengers have been paying more than Rs 63,000 at present to travel to nearby Doha via private airliner in economy class with discount. </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"">According to the Executive Chairperson of Nepal Airlines Yubraj Adhikari, the state-owned airlines company will be exploring additional destinations and would expand its services gradually. NAC has already received flight permits to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NAC will operate two flights a week between Kathmandu and Riyadh and the number of flights will be expanded to three times a week after studying the situation, NAC said. </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"">NAC officials including Executive Chairperson Adhikari had visited Saudi Arabia two months ago to seek flight permission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">For the time being, the one-way ticket for Kathmandu-Riyad flight will cost Rs 37,000, confirmed NA Spokesperson Archana Khadka. </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 inaugural flight would be conducted by a wide-body aircraft of NAC which plans to operate both wide-body and narrow-body aircraft for the flights later on. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-17', 'modified' => '2022-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14855', 'image' => '20220417083329_Nepal-Airlines-NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-17 08:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15112', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fall Armyworms Affect Maize Plantation across the Country', 'sub_title' => 'Government Bodies Unaware of the Situation', 'summary' => 'April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country. However, the government has not taken concrete steps for its prevention and control. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on the other hand is unaware of this situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre, the outbreak of fall armyworms is on the rise in Kathmandu Valley, Terai, hills and some Himalayan districts as well. Authorities at the concerned ministry have not taken any initiative to control and prevent the pest. The Centre for Pesticide Management and the Ministry of Agriculture do not have exact information on the extent of damage caused by the pest infestation so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the outbreak of worms is prevalent all over the country, the districts with high temperatures like Banke, Bardia, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu in western Terai and Sunsari, Rautahat and Siraha in the eastern Terai are facing greater impact of the worm infestation. According to the Agriculture Knowledge Center Banke, the outbreak has spread to maize planted over 3,550 hectares in Banke and about 7,000 hectares in Bardiya. The centre estimated that the worm outbreak may have spread to 700 hectares in Kailali and Dang.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Bhuwaneshwor Yadav, a representative farmer from Sunsari, the outbreak has spread to about 800-900 hectares of crops in Sunsari as well. Yadav said, “No concrete steps have been taken for prevention and control by the agricultural knowledge center or even the local level. On the one hand, farmers do not know how to control it, what medicine to use, while on the other hand, all government bodies are unaware of the outbreak.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the damage report of some districts is kept by the Agriculture Knowledge Center, the data of most of the districts is not available with the concerned local and central government. Sahadev Humagain, head of the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center said there were reports of worm outbreaks in various districts of the country but the body responsible for controlling and collecting data did not send details of the damage. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said, “Once the exact details of the damage are known, control efforts will be initiated and technicians will be dispatched. However, nothing can be done from the center alone as the bodies responsible at the local level remain unaware of the situation.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It has been three years since the American armyworms first entered Nepal. It hides from sunrise till sunset and destroys corn leaves, stalks, kernels and later the entire plant at night. As the worm has completely adapted to the environment in a short period of time, it is not possible to eradicate it completely. Humagain said that no initiative has been taken for the control so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Agriculture is unaware that the farmers who were affected by the unseasonal rainfall last October are now being attacked by the fall armyworms. Ministry spokesperson Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the ministry has not received any report from the concerned bodies so far. It is a well-known fact that outbreaks are common and frequent during this time of year. However, he said that the ministry had not made any plan as no major damage was reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Scientists say that this worm, which was seen in West Africa in 2016, can travel up to 100 kilometers in one night. About three years ago, this insect was first seen in various states of India for the first time in Asia. Later, it reportedly entered Nepal through Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14854', 'image' => '20220415030136_maize armyworn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 15:00:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15111', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs to get Loan Facility for Export ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">By amending the Industrial Enterprises Act 2076, a provision has been made for women entrepreneurs to get a minimum of Rs 500,000 to maximum of Rs 5 million loan depending on the type of industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government published the revised Industrial Enterprise Act in the Nepal Gazette on April 4, 2022 by including the new provision. This has opened the door for women entrepreneurs to get loans for export. Although the previous arrangement also had provision for such loans, the limit of loan amount was not fixed depending on the nature of the industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the amended regulations published in the Nepal Gazette, women entrepreneurs will get export credit on the basis of the financial condition of the business. The amended act states that in order to get a loan for export, at least 30 percent of the total production of the last fiscal year has to be exported. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The amended regulations have set a credit limit for women entrepreneurs for additional facilities. According to the new regulations, small entrepreneurs will get export loans of Rs 500,000, cottage industry Rs 1.5 million, small entrepreneurs Rs 2 million, medium entrepreneurs Rs 3 million and large entrepreneurs Rs 5 million. The loan will be provided through the banking system. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sarada Rijal, a woman entrepreneur, said that the revised system would encourage women entrepreneurs to venture out, especially in export-oriented industries. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government has also invested in the industrial villages targeting women she said that this policy would further encourage women entrepreneurs. According to her, a women’s industrial village is also being made in Panchkhal of Kavre. The process of setting up the village started after the government announced the plan to open an industrial village in all seven provinces.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Entrepreneurs say that the industrial village to develop women entrepreneurship and the current export credit policy will help women entrepreneurs. They stressed on the need to make the process of getting loans simple and easy for women entrepreneurs, who are still finding it difficult to get access to business loans. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14853', 'image' => '20220415021513_women.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 14:14:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15110', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '2078 Marred by Liquidity Crisis ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. As economic activities picked up pace immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, banks and financial institutions aggressively pushed for credit expansion. However, as deposit collection did not grow as compared to the credit flow of banks, there was a liquidity crisis in the banking system. As a result, at the end of the year, the new credit flow of banks and financial institutions has almost stopped. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deposits in banks increased by Rs 4.43 billion from Rs 4.45 trillion in 2077 to Rs 4.91 trillion in 2078. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, credit flow increased by Rs 678.77 billion from Rs 4.022 trillion to Rs 4.78 trillion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The main reason for the liquidity crisis in banks and financial institutions was the change in policy of NRB. The NRB removed the provision of maintaining 85 percent capital, loan and deposit (CCD) ratio in the banks through the monetary policy of the current Fiscal Year (FY 2078/79) and implemented the provision of maintaining 90 percent credit-deposit (CD) ratio. Due to this reason, the ability of banks to expand credit flow decreased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, as most of the credit was provided for imports, the country's foreign exchange earnings, remittances, tourism and other sectors were affected, and the deposits could not increase. Due to this, the financial sector is facing liquidity crisis in the market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Dispute between finance minister and governor</strong> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The year 2078 will also be remembered for the suspension of Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. With the tension between Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari boiling during the announcement of monetary policy for the current FY, the ministry has started an investigation against the governor for not cooperating with the government. The governor has been suspended since the investigation began. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has been criticized for taking political action against the governor who was seeking economic reform. Due to the dispute between the finance minister and the governor, the leadership of NRB is now in the hands of the acting Governor. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Cash margin for LC</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the credit flow of banks and financial institutions increased, it shifted to the unproductive sector, which in turn posed a challenge to the financial sector. Due to this pressure, NRB tightened its grip on equity loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The central bank has discouraged investment in real estate and transportation sectors by increasing the risk burden of these loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the central bank, which has implemented provision of 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to reduce the import of goods under 47 different types of harmonic codes, has verbally instructed the banks not to open LCs until the situation improves. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14852', 'image' => '20220415125258_Liquidity.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:52:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15109', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector Faced Numerous Problems in 2078', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. Last year, neither the weather was favourable for the farmers nor the government was able to bring any encouraging programmes. Moreover, most of the programmes announced were not implemented properly. Outbreaks of armyworms were reported in maize planted in 67 districts earlier this year. The government made efforts to prevent and control the problem, but it was not effective enough to satisfy the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dairy farmers and businessmen suffered greatly due to not being able to sell stock of powdered milk and butter worth more than Rs 3 billion at the beginning of the year as a consequence of Covid-19 pandemic and prohibitory orders. The challenges faced by the dairy business still persisted at the end of the year 2078, despite the government increasing the price of milk and milk products. While milk was surplus at the beginning of the year, there was a shortage of milk by the end of the year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Prahlad Dahal, general secretary of the Nepal Dairy Association, there is a shortage of 300,000 liters of milk in the market currently as many farmers gave up on dairy business due to the pandemic. According to him, the risk of foreign milk products gaining market has increased after the decline in milk production in the domestic market. Although farmers were excited when the government increased the price of milk by Rs 10 per liter after many years, now the middlemen are making more profit than the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Just like the previous years, farmers faced shortage of chemical fertilizers in 2078 as well. Farmers in most of the districts could not get fertilizer during the main planting season. The government-owned Salt Trading Corporation failed to distribute fertilizers evenly despite having sufficient stock. Last March, the government decided to import 935,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer for the next five years through G2G deal with the Government of India. However, there are doubts about its implementation. As the farming season is approaching, the contracted companies have not been able to import fertilizers even after the expiration of the contract period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Farmers were also affected by natural calamities in 2078. The unseasonal rainfall from October 16 to 20 destroyed paddy crop planted in 111,069 hectares of land across the country. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 42,113 metric tons of paddy worth Rs 11.87 billion were destroyed at that time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the 'Agriculture for Food' campaign, also says that there were more negative impacts than positive ones for Nepali farmers and the overall agricultural sector in the year 2078 BS. According to him, it is unfortunate that the decision of the government to provide relief of Rs 5.52 billion to the affected farmers has yet to be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The unseasonal rainfall caused a loss of over Rs 50 million to the flower business which was declared 90 percent self-sufficient. But the flower producers complained that the government has not addressed the issue so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, less than a year after the declaration of self-reliance, the poultry industry reached a state of crisis. Poultry farmers faced problems like rising prices of raw materials and medicines in the international market, recurring bird flu and epidemics such as Ranikhet, which even led to closure of some hatchery industries after most of the farmers stopped raising chickens. The price of meat went up to around Rs 400 per kg due to the decline in poultry production. Farmers complained that the government has not taken any active initiative to prevent and control the spread of bird flu in 14 districts so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Towards the end of the year, there was a good news for the agricultural sector. Impactors Women's Development Society, a group of 16 young women, developed a mobile app called 'Saathi' which identifies and solves various problems encountered in agriculture through the use of artificial intelligence.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14851', 'image' => '20220415123059_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:30:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15108', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Production of Mid-Marshyangdi Hydropower Station Increases due to Rainfall', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pawan Basnet, head of the station, informed that the power generation started increasing due to the rise in water level in Marsyangdi River following occasional rainfall in recent days and the melting of snow. He said that only 26/27 MW of electricity was being generated since December, but now, the production has reached 58 to 60 MW. In the previous years, electricity generation used to show an increase only in May.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the station, if the production shows an increase in the same manner, it will be able to generate electricity at full capacity within April. Construction of the project started in 2000 and completed in 2008. The hydropower station was constructed at a cost of Rs 27.20 billion.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14850', 'image' => '20220415121145_marsyangdi590_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:10:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15107', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Banks' Interest on Loans hits Double Digit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report states that the interest on loans increased due to the increase in interest on deposits as well as the increasing operational cost of the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest rate on loans of banks in the month of Falgun (mid-February to mid-March) was 10.5 percent, the report states adding that the interest on loans reached double digit in the month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest on loans was 8.48 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year. The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing the interest on deposits to attract customers following the liquidity crunch in the banking system. As a result, the interest on loans also increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The interest on deposits have almost doubled in the current fiscal year. According to the central bank, the average interest on deposits was 4.76 percent in the first month of the current fiscal year (mid-July to mid-August) which increased to 8.73 percent in the eighth month ie Falgun (mid-February to mid-March).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing interest on deposits to attract customers since mid-October to mid-November. The central bank had to intervene due to such competition among the banks. Issuing a circular on October 19, the central bank instructed the banks not to change interest rate more than 10 percent at a time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel says that the interest rate remained under control due to the central bank’s intervention.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Had the central bank not issued such directive, the interest on loans would have reached 18 percent by now,” said Pokharel, adding, “The interest rates on deposits as well as loans remained under control due to the NRB’s intervention.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Commercial banks are trying to keep the interest rate stable following a gentleman’s agreement among members of Nepal Bankers’ Association, an umbrella body of the CEOs of commercial banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks had decided to increase the interest on loans by 10 percent in mid-February. But the bankers agreed to maintain the same rate for at least two months. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The maximum interest on deposits at present is 11.3 percent on fixed deposits. Banks can increase the interest on fixed deposits by an additional one percentage point in case the deposit is collected through remittance.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14849', 'image' => '20220415114234_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 11:41:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15106', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks 100 Years of Systematic Documentation and Registration of Land', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba made such remarks on Thursday during a programme organized by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation on the occasion of 100 years of systematic documentation and registration of land in the country. He directed the subordinate bodies to address the complaints on land administration on time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba was in favour of promoting good governance in land administration service by ensuring quality survey and credible management of data. PM Deuba added that records of land and security of historic archives should be prioritized. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed happiness over the online system of land transaction and access to personal data relating to land developed by the ministry. He also suggested other government bodies to promote such practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The written records or the registration of land plots and houses had begun exactly a 100 years ago in Nepal since 1st Baisakh, 1979 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba further reminded that the government was providing lands to the poor Dalits in a bid to ensure social justice and equality guaranteed by the constitution of Nepal. The constitution has ensured such rights to landless squatters, freed-Haliyas and Kamaiyas. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed concerns that arable lands were left unused on the one hand and agricultural production was dwindling on the other, contributing to widening trade loss, and food insecurity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Haphazard use of land has worsened the impacts of climate change, said Deuba adding that unchecked plotting of agricultural land has caused haphazard urbanization while settlements are facing risks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Prime Minister also expressed concern over encroachment of public, and lands belonging to the Guthi trusts.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> During the occasion, PM Deuba shared that the National Land Commission was formed by the government to resolve the problems faced by the landless squatters, landless Dalit and unmanaged settlements. (<em>With inputs from RSS</em>) </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14848', 'image' => '20220415075711_Ministry-ofland).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 07:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15105', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '689 Climbers Acquire Permits for Climbing Various Peaks for Spring Season ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. These expedition teams have 689 members. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the government collected royalties of over Rs 373 million as of April 13 by issuing the permits. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The expedition teams obtaining permissions for scaling 19 peaks including Mt Everest comprise people from 65 different countries including Nepal. Among them, 250 climbers including 194 males and 56 females from 45 countries will be attempting to scale the world's highest peak. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has collected royalties worth over Rs 310 million alone from permits issued to the climbers to scale Mt Everest.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Tourism (DoT) is hopeful that the expedition teams will climb mountains this year as the threat from COVID-19 has declined significantly and the climate is favourble for climbing. It may be noted that 45 expedition teams had climbed mountains in the spring of 2021 amid threat of Covid-19, giving a big boost to the tourism industry battered by the pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tourism entrepreneurs say they are somehow optimistic about the good indicators seen in the tourism sector with the decline in COVID-19 cases. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Outgoing chair of Nepal Mountaineering Association and noted tourism entrepreneur Aang Chhiring Sherpa said that the number of tourists is rising fradually.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Although the number of climbers is relatively less this year than the previous year, it seems Nepal's mountain tourism is attracting more foreign climbers and it is indeed a noteworthy. The number is gradually rising," RSS quoted Shrepa as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><strong><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">How many climbers climbing which peak </span></span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Both Nepali and foreign climbers are continuously setting out for this season's expedition to scale Mt Everest after taking the permit. So far 250 climbers belonging to 31 expedition teams have alone acquired permission for climbing Mt Everest (8848.86 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 64 climbers of nine expedition teams have acquired permission to climb Mt Lhotse (8516 metres), 65 climbers from six teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Amadablam (6814 metres) and 38 mountaineers of five expedition teams have got permission to climb Mt Kanchanjangha (8586 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, 38 mountaineers belonging to five groups have taken permission for climbing Mt Nuptse (7855 metres), 26 climbers of four groups have acquired permission to climb Mt Annapurna (8091 metres), two expedition teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8167 metres), two teams for climbing Milung Chuli, and three mountaineering teams for climbing Bhemdong, Gangapurna and Thapa Peak, the Mountaineering Section of the DoT stated in a press release. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14847', 'image' => '20220414091903_maxresdefault.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 21:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15104', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Public Transport Fare Increased in Bagmati Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley. The Transport Ministry of Bagmati Province hiked the fare for taxi and public transportation effective from Thursday, April 14. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Public transportation fare has been raised by Rs 2 for up to 10 kilometres and Rs 3 for more than 10 kilometres. The new fare for up to five kilometres is Rs 20, for up to ten kilometers is Rs 25, for up to fifteen kilometres Rs 30, for up to twenty kilometres is Rs 33 and more than 20 kilometres Rs 38. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the taxi fare has been increased to Rs 10 per 200 metres or Rs 50 per kilometre while waiting charge is Rs 1.20. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Waiting has been limited to maximum 30 minutes. The ministry has also stated that the transportation fare within the province will again be adjusted accordingly if the price of fuel were to rise or fall by more than five per cent from the rate on which the latest fare adjustment has been made. -- RSS </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14846', 'image' => '20220414085442_public transportation.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 20:53:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15103', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Energy Sector Made Significant Progress in 2078 but Challenges Persist', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs. Despite countless challenges, the energy and hydropower sector of Nepal made a significant progress in the year 2078 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders believe that achievements made in the energy sector in the review year would have long-term implications. Most notably, India has agreed to allow Nepal to trade electricity in its open market through competitive bidding. This, according to the stakeholders, is a historic achievement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regional market is essential to sell the electricity generated in Nepal. Nepal is already at a stage where its surplus energy gets wasted during the monsoon. In this sense, a regional market for the energy sector of Nepal is of utmost importance. In such a situation, India not only opened its energy market to Nepal but also gave the green signal to Nepal Electricity Authority to sell 364 megawatts of electricity to India. This is a significant achievement, says Kumar Pandey, former chairman of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The energy which is to be produced in Nepal does not have a prospective market within the country. In such a situation, a regional market is vital for us,” said Pandey, adding, “India has granted Nepal permission to sell its electricity in its market. This is a significant achievement of the energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The operation of 456-MW Upper Tama Koshi Hydropower Project is another significant achievement of the energy sector in 2078.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Besides Upper Tama Koshi, many other hydropower projects came into operation during last year. This has made Nepal almost self-sufficient in energy. There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot more to do,” added Pandey.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another achievement is the resumption of Nepal-India Energy Summit which was stalled since the last two years due to Covid-19. The decisions taken during the summit has helped in the development of Nepal’s energy sector. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also prioritized the agenda of energy sector during his recent state visit to India. Nepal and India unveiled a common vision paper for collaboration in the energy sector during the PM’s visit. The vision paper states that the energy trade will focus on regional market that includes Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal (BBIN).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">There were also some good news regarding foreign investment in the energy sector during the review year. Foreign investment in this sector was not much encouraging in the last few years but the energy sector saw commitment of Rs 1.59 billion in 2078, which is more than the commitment received in the previous year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2077, foreign investors pledged to invest only Rs 5.8 million in the energy sector of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The energy sector has had to face problems ranging from natural disasters to liquidity crisis, increase in insurance premium rate, increase in interest rate among others.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Due to the liquidity crisis in the banking system, hydropower projects seeking loans have had to pay high interest rates. The cost of project including operational cost has increased due to the increase in interest rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">IPPAN Chairman Krishna Prasad Acharya said that the energy sector witnessed some discouraging events despite some significant achievements.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that the energy sector has yet to fully recover from the impact of coronavirus. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The impact of coronavirus which started in 2076 BS is still evident till this year. As a result, many hydropower projects have not been able to start construction. Even the under-construction projects had to stall the works,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Things have improved only since February,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another setback is the inordinate delay in granting power purchase agreement for run-over-river (ROR) projects to sell electricity. The government has been providing survey license to the private sector to undertake such projects but is reluctant to purchase electricity produced by the private sector stating that the laws allow them to purchase only a certain portion of energy produced by ROR projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government promised to allow the private sector to trade electricity and also grant permission for PPA. However, both the promises were not fulfilled,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14845', 'image' => '20220414045734_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 16:56:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15102', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Chamber of Industry Morang Warns of Imminent Economic Crisis', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. The chamber also warned that the overall economic indicators were pointing towards an imminent crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Suyash Pyakurel, chairman of the chamber, said that the liquidity crisis in the financial sector since a long time, rising interest rates, the Ukraine crisis, rising prices in international markets and the internal situation in the country are all leading the overall economy towards a crisis. Stating that there is no effective coordination among the regulatory bodies when it comes to management of liquidity, foreign exchange reserves and facilitation of import and export, he emphasized on the need to be aware of the ongoing situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing a statement, the Chamber of Industry Morang demanded the government to find a possible solution to the crisis by removing the misunderstanding between the intergovernmental bodies. The chamber also stated that it is ready to provide assistance from the private sector to bring the crisis-oriented economy back on track.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14844', 'image' => '20220414025529_Chamber of industries morang new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 14:54:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15101', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Cargo Trucks Stopped at India Border Start Arriving in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.</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"">Hundreds of cargo vehicles were stopped across the Biratnagar border after the Central Customs Department of India imposed new rules on goods supplied to Nepal from India.</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"">More than 300 cargo vehicles were stopped at the Jogbani area on the Indian side of the border across Biratnagar after Indian customs suspected that the goods being supplied to Nepal from India for industrial and commercial purposes could be used to make weapons or explosives.</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"">Devaki Sharma, president of the Biratnagar Customs Agents Association, said, "Many cargo vehicles were stopped towards the Indian side. Those cargo have started coming since Tuesday.”</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"">Vehicles carrying various chemicals, vitamins and herbs, medical powders, medical chemicals, vaccines, insulin, and animal vaccines were stopped by India. Likewise, the Indian side banned adhesive gum and turpentine class items, PVC sets, plastic materials, glass and glassware, zinc, nickel, sulfur, and iron window doors.</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 customs office, industrial machinery, electrical goods, motor parts, and medical equipment were also stopped. The customs agents' association said that the company, industry, or firm supplying goods to Nepal should now onwards fill a form stating the purpose for which the goods are being exported. The goods are then subject to approval by the Indian customs.</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 chairperson Sharma, after the imposition of the new rules by India, the agents of Biratnagar Customs approached the Assistant Commissioner of Jogbani Customs, Ashok Das, to facilitate export. As per a circular issued by the Central Customs Department of India, the export of goods has been tightened. Chief of the Biratnagar Customs, Tara Prasad Sapkota, said that the team facilitated the import after receiving information that the goods coming to Nepal were stopped in India.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14843', 'image' => '20220414125654_ICP Biratnagar.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 12:55:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15100', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'President Extends Best Wishes on the Occasion of New Year', 'sub_title' => 'President Calls for Promoting Entrepreneurship and Domestic Products to Decrease Trade Imbalance', 'summary' => 'April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In her message on the occasion, President Bhandari wished for peace, prosperity, good health and progress of all the Nepalis. President Bhandari spoke of the need to learn from the tough experiences of the past and move ahead accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The president also called for promoting entrepreneurship and production of domestic products to decrease the rising trade imbalance as well as to create self-reliant economy through national capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She was of the view that policies and programmes aimed at creating jobs and opportunities to engage a staggering number of youths of Nepal aspiring for foreign employment should be implemented at the earliest. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Head of the State also appealed to the three-tier government to be active towards realizing sustainable development goals. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the upcoming Nepali year is going to be the year of election, President Bhandari argued that it is our common responsibility to conduct the May 13 local level election in a free, impartial and fearless environment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"May the upcoming New Year 2079 BS inspire to create civilized, well-cultured and just society while filling all the Nepalis with zest and zeal," the message stated. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14842', 'image' => '20220414081219_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 08:11:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15099', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '‘Economy has not Spiraled out of Control’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claims.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claim. The reports of both the ministry and the central bank show that the economy is under stress but the situation has not gone out of control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to NRB, although inflation has increased of late other indicators are under control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The latest data of the central bank shows that </span></span>the country’s gross foreign exchange reserves decreased 16.3 percent to Rs 1171 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1399.03 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation Report of NRB</span></span>, of the total foreign exchange reserves, reserves held by NRB decreased 18.2 percent to Rs 1018.05 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1244.63 billion in mid-July 2021. Likewise, reserves held by banks and financial institutions (except NRB) decreased 0.9 percent to Rs 152.95 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 154.39 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Based on the imports of eight months of 2021/22, the foreign exchange reserves of the banking sector is sufficient to cover the prospective merchandise imports of 7.4 months, and merchandise and services imports of 6.7 months, the report further states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Former NRB Governor Dr Chiranjivi Nepal believes that the situation has not gone out of control. Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Tuesday, Dr Nepal said that the situation will normalize soon.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">On the other hand, the consumer price inflation stood at 7.14 percent in the eighth month of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to economist Chandra Mani Bhandari, price hike is the result of both internal and external factors. He says that the impact of Russia-Ukraine war has increased prices of petroleum products across the world resulting in inflation which has also affected Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the NRB report, Nepal’s current account remained at a deficit of Rs 462.93 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Such a deficit was Rs 151.42 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">During the review period, capital transfer decreased 41.2 percent to Rs 7 billion and net foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 60.0 percent to Rs 16.30 billion, the report said. In the same period of the previous year, capital transfer and net FDI amounted to Rs 11.91 billion and Rs 10.18 billion respectively.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Likewise, the Balance of Payments (BOP) remained at a deficit of Rs 258.64 billion in the review period against a surplus of Rs 68.01 billion in the same period of the previous year. In the US Dollar terms, the BOP remained at a deficit of 2.17 billion in the review period against a surplus of 565.8 million in the same period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the central bank’s report, total trade deficit increased 34.5 percent to Rs 1160.99 billion during the eight months of 2021/22. Such a deficit had increased 1.6 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-13', 'modified' => '2022-04-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14841', 'image' => '20220413044135_NRBnew.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-13 16:40:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, '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' => '15113', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate Direct Flights to Saudi Arabia from April 22 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers. </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 cost of air travel is expected to become affordable for the aspiring Nepali workers with the operation of flights by the national flag carrier to Saudi Arabia, one of the major labour destination countries of Nepal. </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"">With the operation of flights, Nepali workers will have to pay Rs 37,000 for a one-way ticket to Riyad. Passengers have been paying more than Rs 63,000 at present to travel to nearby Doha via private airliner in economy class with discount. </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"">According to the Executive Chairperson of Nepal Airlines Yubraj Adhikari, the state-owned airlines company will be exploring additional destinations and would expand its services gradually. NAC has already received flight permits to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NAC will operate two flights a week between Kathmandu and Riyadh and the number of flights will be expanded to three times a week after studying the situation, NAC said. </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"">NAC officials including Executive Chairperson Adhikari had visited Saudi Arabia two months ago to seek flight permission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">For the time being, the one-way ticket for Kathmandu-Riyad flight will cost Rs 37,000, confirmed NA Spokesperson Archana Khadka. </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 inaugural flight would be conducted by a wide-body aircraft of NAC which plans to operate both wide-body and narrow-body aircraft for the flights later on. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-17', 'modified' => '2022-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14855', 'image' => '20220417083329_Nepal-Airlines-NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-17 08:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15112', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fall Armyworms Affect Maize Plantation across the Country', 'sub_title' => 'Government Bodies Unaware of the Situation', 'summary' => 'April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country. However, the government has not taken concrete steps for its prevention and control. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on the other hand is unaware of this situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre, the outbreak of fall armyworms is on the rise in Kathmandu Valley, Terai, hills and some Himalayan districts as well. Authorities at the concerned ministry have not taken any initiative to control and prevent the pest. The Centre for Pesticide Management and the Ministry of Agriculture do not have exact information on the extent of damage caused by the pest infestation so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the outbreak of worms is prevalent all over the country, the districts with high temperatures like Banke, Bardia, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu in western Terai and Sunsari, Rautahat and Siraha in the eastern Terai are facing greater impact of the worm infestation. According to the Agriculture Knowledge Center Banke, the outbreak has spread to maize planted over 3,550 hectares in Banke and about 7,000 hectares in Bardiya. The centre estimated that the worm outbreak may have spread to 700 hectares in Kailali and Dang.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Bhuwaneshwor Yadav, a representative farmer from Sunsari, the outbreak has spread to about 800-900 hectares of crops in Sunsari as well. Yadav said, “No concrete steps have been taken for prevention and control by the agricultural knowledge center or even the local level. On the one hand, farmers do not know how to control it, what medicine to use, while on the other hand, all government bodies are unaware of the outbreak.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the damage report of some districts is kept by the Agriculture Knowledge Center, the data of most of the districts is not available with the concerned local and central government. Sahadev Humagain, head of the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center said there were reports of worm outbreaks in various districts of the country but the body responsible for controlling and collecting data did not send details of the damage. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said, “Once the exact details of the damage are known, control efforts will be initiated and technicians will be dispatched. However, nothing can be done from the center alone as the bodies responsible at the local level remain unaware of the situation.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It has been three years since the American armyworms first entered Nepal. It hides from sunrise till sunset and destroys corn leaves, stalks, kernels and later the entire plant at night. As the worm has completely adapted to the environment in a short period of time, it is not possible to eradicate it completely. Humagain said that no initiative has been taken for the control so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Agriculture is unaware that the farmers who were affected by the unseasonal rainfall last October are now being attacked by the fall armyworms. Ministry spokesperson Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the ministry has not received any report from the concerned bodies so far. It is a well-known fact that outbreaks are common and frequent during this time of year. However, he said that the ministry had not made any plan as no major damage was reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Scientists say that this worm, which was seen in West Africa in 2016, can travel up to 100 kilometers in one night. About three years ago, this insect was first seen in various states of India for the first time in Asia. Later, it reportedly entered Nepal through Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14854', 'image' => '20220415030136_maize armyworn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 15:00:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15111', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs to get Loan Facility for Export ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">By amending the Industrial Enterprises Act 2076, a provision has been made for women entrepreneurs to get a minimum of Rs 500,000 to maximum of Rs 5 million loan depending on the type of industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government published the revised Industrial Enterprise Act in the Nepal Gazette on April 4, 2022 by including the new provision. This has opened the door for women entrepreneurs to get loans for export. Although the previous arrangement also had provision for such loans, the limit of loan amount was not fixed depending on the nature of the industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the amended regulations published in the Nepal Gazette, women entrepreneurs will get export credit on the basis of the financial condition of the business. The amended act states that in order to get a loan for export, at least 30 percent of the total production of the last fiscal year has to be exported. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The amended regulations have set a credit limit for women entrepreneurs for additional facilities. According to the new regulations, small entrepreneurs will get export loans of Rs 500,000, cottage industry Rs 1.5 million, small entrepreneurs Rs 2 million, medium entrepreneurs Rs 3 million and large entrepreneurs Rs 5 million. The loan will be provided through the banking system. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sarada Rijal, a woman entrepreneur, said that the revised system would encourage women entrepreneurs to venture out, especially in export-oriented industries. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government has also invested in the industrial villages targeting women she said that this policy would further encourage women entrepreneurs. According to her, a women’s industrial village is also being made in Panchkhal of Kavre. The process of setting up the village started after the government announced the plan to open an industrial village in all seven provinces.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Entrepreneurs say that the industrial village to develop women entrepreneurship and the current export credit policy will help women entrepreneurs. They stressed on the need to make the process of getting loans simple and easy for women entrepreneurs, who are still finding it difficult to get access to business loans. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14853', 'image' => '20220415021513_women.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 14:14:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15110', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '2078 Marred by Liquidity Crisis ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. As economic activities picked up pace immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, banks and financial institutions aggressively pushed for credit expansion. However, as deposit collection did not grow as compared to the credit flow of banks, there was a liquidity crisis in the banking system. As a result, at the end of the year, the new credit flow of banks and financial institutions has almost stopped. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deposits in banks increased by Rs 4.43 billion from Rs 4.45 trillion in 2077 to Rs 4.91 trillion in 2078. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, credit flow increased by Rs 678.77 billion from Rs 4.022 trillion to Rs 4.78 trillion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The main reason for the liquidity crisis in banks and financial institutions was the change in policy of NRB. The NRB removed the provision of maintaining 85 percent capital, loan and deposit (CCD) ratio in the banks through the monetary policy of the current Fiscal Year (FY 2078/79) and implemented the provision of maintaining 90 percent credit-deposit (CD) ratio. Due to this reason, the ability of banks to expand credit flow decreased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, as most of the credit was provided for imports, the country's foreign exchange earnings, remittances, tourism and other sectors were affected, and the deposits could not increase. Due to this, the financial sector is facing liquidity crisis in the market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Dispute between finance minister and governor</strong> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The year 2078 will also be remembered for the suspension of Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. With the tension between Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari boiling during the announcement of monetary policy for the current FY, the ministry has started an investigation against the governor for not cooperating with the government. The governor has been suspended since the investigation began. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has been criticized for taking political action against the governor who was seeking economic reform. Due to the dispute between the finance minister and the governor, the leadership of NRB is now in the hands of the acting Governor. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Cash margin for LC</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the credit flow of banks and financial institutions increased, it shifted to the unproductive sector, which in turn posed a challenge to the financial sector. Due to this pressure, NRB tightened its grip on equity loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The central bank has discouraged investment in real estate and transportation sectors by increasing the risk burden of these loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the central bank, which has implemented provision of 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to reduce the import of goods under 47 different types of harmonic codes, has verbally instructed the banks not to open LCs until the situation improves. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14852', 'image' => '20220415125258_Liquidity.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:52:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15109', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector Faced Numerous Problems in 2078', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. Last year, neither the weather was favourable for the farmers nor the government was able to bring any encouraging programmes. Moreover, most of the programmes announced were not implemented properly. Outbreaks of armyworms were reported in maize planted in 67 districts earlier this year. The government made efforts to prevent and control the problem, but it was not effective enough to satisfy the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dairy farmers and businessmen suffered greatly due to not being able to sell stock of powdered milk and butter worth more than Rs 3 billion at the beginning of the year as a consequence of Covid-19 pandemic and prohibitory orders. The challenges faced by the dairy business still persisted at the end of the year 2078, despite the government increasing the price of milk and milk products. While milk was surplus at the beginning of the year, there was a shortage of milk by the end of the year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Prahlad Dahal, general secretary of the Nepal Dairy Association, there is a shortage of 300,000 liters of milk in the market currently as many farmers gave up on dairy business due to the pandemic. According to him, the risk of foreign milk products gaining market has increased after the decline in milk production in the domestic market. Although farmers were excited when the government increased the price of milk by Rs 10 per liter after many years, now the middlemen are making more profit than the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Just like the previous years, farmers faced shortage of chemical fertilizers in 2078 as well. Farmers in most of the districts could not get fertilizer during the main planting season. The government-owned Salt Trading Corporation failed to distribute fertilizers evenly despite having sufficient stock. Last March, the government decided to import 935,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer for the next five years through G2G deal with the Government of India. However, there are doubts about its implementation. As the farming season is approaching, the contracted companies have not been able to import fertilizers even after the expiration of the contract period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Farmers were also affected by natural calamities in 2078. The unseasonal rainfall from October 16 to 20 destroyed paddy crop planted in 111,069 hectares of land across the country. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 42,113 metric tons of paddy worth Rs 11.87 billion were destroyed at that time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the 'Agriculture for Food' campaign, also says that there were more negative impacts than positive ones for Nepali farmers and the overall agricultural sector in the year 2078 BS. According to him, it is unfortunate that the decision of the government to provide relief of Rs 5.52 billion to the affected farmers has yet to be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The unseasonal rainfall caused a loss of over Rs 50 million to the flower business which was declared 90 percent self-sufficient. But the flower producers complained that the government has not addressed the issue so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, less than a year after the declaration of self-reliance, the poultry industry reached a state of crisis. Poultry farmers faced problems like rising prices of raw materials and medicines in the international market, recurring bird flu and epidemics such as Ranikhet, which even led to closure of some hatchery industries after most of the farmers stopped raising chickens. The price of meat went up to around Rs 400 per kg due to the decline in poultry production. Farmers complained that the government has not taken any active initiative to prevent and control the spread of bird flu in 14 districts so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Towards the end of the year, there was a good news for the agricultural sector. Impactors Women's Development Society, a group of 16 young women, developed a mobile app called 'Saathi' which identifies and solves various problems encountered in agriculture through the use of artificial intelligence.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14851', 'image' => '20220415123059_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:30:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15108', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Production of Mid-Marshyangdi Hydropower Station Increases due to Rainfall', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pawan Basnet, head of the station, informed that the power generation started increasing due to the rise in water level in Marsyangdi River following occasional rainfall in recent days and the melting of snow. He said that only 26/27 MW of electricity was being generated since December, but now, the production has reached 58 to 60 MW. In the previous years, electricity generation used to show an increase only in May.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the station, if the production shows an increase in the same manner, it will be able to generate electricity at full capacity within April. Construction of the project started in 2000 and completed in 2008. The hydropower station was constructed at a cost of Rs 27.20 billion.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14850', 'image' => '20220415121145_marsyangdi590_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:10:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15107', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Banks' Interest on Loans hits Double Digit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report states that the interest on loans increased due to the increase in interest on deposits as well as the increasing operational cost of the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest rate on loans of banks in the month of Falgun (mid-February to mid-March) was 10.5 percent, the report states adding that the interest on loans reached double digit in the month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest on loans was 8.48 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year. The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing the interest on deposits to attract customers following the liquidity crunch in the banking system. As a result, the interest on loans also increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The interest on deposits have almost doubled in the current fiscal year. According to the central bank, the average interest on deposits was 4.76 percent in the first month of the current fiscal year (mid-July to mid-August) which increased to 8.73 percent in the eighth month ie Falgun (mid-February to mid-March).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing interest on deposits to attract customers since mid-October to mid-November. The central bank had to intervene due to such competition among the banks. Issuing a circular on October 19, the central bank instructed the banks not to change interest rate more than 10 percent at a time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel says that the interest rate remained under control due to the central bank’s intervention.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Had the central bank not issued such directive, the interest on loans would have reached 18 percent by now,” said Pokharel, adding, “The interest rates on deposits as well as loans remained under control due to the NRB’s intervention.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Commercial banks are trying to keep the interest rate stable following a gentleman’s agreement among members of Nepal Bankers’ Association, an umbrella body of the CEOs of commercial banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks had decided to increase the interest on loans by 10 percent in mid-February. But the bankers agreed to maintain the same rate for at least two months. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The maximum interest on deposits at present is 11.3 percent on fixed deposits. Banks can increase the interest on fixed deposits by an additional one percentage point in case the deposit is collected through remittance.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14849', 'image' => '20220415114234_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 11:41:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15106', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks 100 Years of Systematic Documentation and Registration of Land', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba made such remarks on Thursday during a programme organized by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation on the occasion of 100 years of systematic documentation and registration of land in the country. He directed the subordinate bodies to address the complaints on land administration on time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba was in favour of promoting good governance in land administration service by ensuring quality survey and credible management of data. PM Deuba added that records of land and security of historic archives should be prioritized. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed happiness over the online system of land transaction and access to personal data relating to land developed by the ministry. He also suggested other government bodies to promote such practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The written records or the registration of land plots and houses had begun exactly a 100 years ago in Nepal since 1st Baisakh, 1979 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba further reminded that the government was providing lands to the poor Dalits in a bid to ensure social justice and equality guaranteed by the constitution of Nepal. The constitution has ensured such rights to landless squatters, freed-Haliyas and Kamaiyas. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed concerns that arable lands were left unused on the one hand and agricultural production was dwindling on the other, contributing to widening trade loss, and food insecurity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Haphazard use of land has worsened the impacts of climate change, said Deuba adding that unchecked plotting of agricultural land has caused haphazard urbanization while settlements are facing risks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Prime Minister also expressed concern over encroachment of public, and lands belonging to the Guthi trusts.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> During the occasion, PM Deuba shared that the National Land Commission was formed by the government to resolve the problems faced by the landless squatters, landless Dalit and unmanaged settlements. (<em>With inputs from RSS</em>) </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14848', 'image' => '20220415075711_Ministry-ofland).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 07:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15105', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '689 Climbers Acquire Permits for Climbing Various Peaks for Spring Season ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. These expedition teams have 689 members. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the government collected royalties of over Rs 373 million as of April 13 by issuing the permits. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The expedition teams obtaining permissions for scaling 19 peaks including Mt Everest comprise people from 65 different countries including Nepal. Among them, 250 climbers including 194 males and 56 females from 45 countries will be attempting to scale the world's highest peak. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has collected royalties worth over Rs 310 million alone from permits issued to the climbers to scale Mt Everest.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Tourism (DoT) is hopeful that the expedition teams will climb mountains this year as the threat from COVID-19 has declined significantly and the climate is favourble for climbing. It may be noted that 45 expedition teams had climbed mountains in the spring of 2021 amid threat of Covid-19, giving a big boost to the tourism industry battered by the pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tourism entrepreneurs say they are somehow optimistic about the good indicators seen in the tourism sector with the decline in COVID-19 cases. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Outgoing chair of Nepal Mountaineering Association and noted tourism entrepreneur Aang Chhiring Sherpa said that the number of tourists is rising fradually.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Although the number of climbers is relatively less this year than the previous year, it seems Nepal's mountain tourism is attracting more foreign climbers and it is indeed a noteworthy. The number is gradually rising," RSS quoted Shrepa as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><strong><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">How many climbers climbing which peak </span></span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Both Nepali and foreign climbers are continuously setting out for this season's expedition to scale Mt Everest after taking the permit. So far 250 climbers belonging to 31 expedition teams have alone acquired permission for climbing Mt Everest (8848.86 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 64 climbers of nine expedition teams have acquired permission to climb Mt Lhotse (8516 metres), 65 climbers from six teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Amadablam (6814 metres) and 38 mountaineers of five expedition teams have got permission to climb Mt Kanchanjangha (8586 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, 38 mountaineers belonging to five groups have taken permission for climbing Mt Nuptse (7855 metres), 26 climbers of four groups have acquired permission to climb Mt Annapurna (8091 metres), two expedition teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8167 metres), two teams for climbing Milung Chuli, and three mountaineering teams for climbing Bhemdong, Gangapurna and Thapa Peak, the Mountaineering Section of the DoT stated in a press release. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14847', 'image' => '20220414091903_maxresdefault.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 21:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15104', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Public Transport Fare Increased in Bagmati Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley. The Transport Ministry of Bagmati Province hiked the fare for taxi and public transportation effective from Thursday, April 14. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Public transportation fare has been raised by Rs 2 for up to 10 kilometres and Rs 3 for more than 10 kilometres. The new fare for up to five kilometres is Rs 20, for up to ten kilometers is Rs 25, for up to fifteen kilometres Rs 30, for up to twenty kilometres is Rs 33 and more than 20 kilometres Rs 38. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the taxi fare has been increased to Rs 10 per 200 metres or Rs 50 per kilometre while waiting charge is Rs 1.20. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Waiting has been limited to maximum 30 minutes. The ministry has also stated that the transportation fare within the province will again be adjusted accordingly if the price of fuel were to rise or fall by more than five per cent from the rate on which the latest fare adjustment has been made. -- RSS </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14846', 'image' => '20220414085442_public transportation.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 20:53:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15103', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Energy Sector Made Significant Progress in 2078 but Challenges Persist', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs. Despite countless challenges, the energy and hydropower sector of Nepal made a significant progress in the year 2078 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders believe that achievements made in the energy sector in the review year would have long-term implications. Most notably, India has agreed to allow Nepal to trade electricity in its open market through competitive bidding. This, according to the stakeholders, is a historic achievement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regional market is essential to sell the electricity generated in Nepal. Nepal is already at a stage where its surplus energy gets wasted during the monsoon. In this sense, a regional market for the energy sector of Nepal is of utmost importance. In such a situation, India not only opened its energy market to Nepal but also gave the green signal to Nepal Electricity Authority to sell 364 megawatts of electricity to India. This is a significant achievement, says Kumar Pandey, former chairman of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The energy which is to be produced in Nepal does not have a prospective market within the country. In such a situation, a regional market is vital for us,” said Pandey, adding, “India has granted Nepal permission to sell its electricity in its market. This is a significant achievement of the energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The operation of 456-MW Upper Tama Koshi Hydropower Project is another significant achievement of the energy sector in 2078.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Besides Upper Tama Koshi, many other hydropower projects came into operation during last year. This has made Nepal almost self-sufficient in energy. There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot more to do,” added Pandey.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another achievement is the resumption of Nepal-India Energy Summit which was stalled since the last two years due to Covid-19. The decisions taken during the summit has helped in the development of Nepal’s energy sector. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also prioritized the agenda of energy sector during his recent state visit to India. Nepal and India unveiled a common vision paper for collaboration in the energy sector during the PM’s visit. The vision paper states that the energy trade will focus on regional market that includes Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal (BBIN).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">There were also some good news regarding foreign investment in the energy sector during the review year. Foreign investment in this sector was not much encouraging in the last few years but the energy sector saw commitment of Rs 1.59 billion in 2078, which is more than the commitment received in the previous year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2077, foreign investors pledged to invest only Rs 5.8 million in the energy sector of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The energy sector has had to face problems ranging from natural disasters to liquidity crisis, increase in insurance premium rate, increase in interest rate among others.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Due to the liquidity crisis in the banking system, hydropower projects seeking loans have had to pay high interest rates. The cost of project including operational cost has increased due to the increase in interest rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">IPPAN Chairman Krishna Prasad Acharya said that the energy sector witnessed some discouraging events despite some significant achievements.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that the energy sector has yet to fully recover from the impact of coronavirus. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The impact of coronavirus which started in 2076 BS is still evident till this year. As a result, many hydropower projects have not been able to start construction. Even the under-construction projects had to stall the works,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Things have improved only since February,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another setback is the inordinate delay in granting power purchase agreement for run-over-river (ROR) projects to sell electricity. The government has been providing survey license to the private sector to undertake such projects but is reluctant to purchase electricity produced by the private sector stating that the laws allow them to purchase only a certain portion of energy produced by ROR projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government promised to allow the private sector to trade electricity and also grant permission for PPA. However, both the promises were not fulfilled,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14845', 'image' => '20220414045734_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 16:56:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15102', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Chamber of Industry Morang Warns of Imminent Economic Crisis', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. The chamber also warned that the overall economic indicators were pointing towards an imminent crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Suyash Pyakurel, chairman of the chamber, said that the liquidity crisis in the financial sector since a long time, rising interest rates, the Ukraine crisis, rising prices in international markets and the internal situation in the country are all leading the overall economy towards a crisis. Stating that there is no effective coordination among the regulatory bodies when it comes to management of liquidity, foreign exchange reserves and facilitation of import and export, he emphasized on the need to be aware of the ongoing situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing a statement, the Chamber of Industry Morang demanded the government to find a possible solution to the crisis by removing the misunderstanding between the intergovernmental bodies. The chamber also stated that it is ready to provide assistance from the private sector to bring the crisis-oriented economy back on track.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14844', 'image' => '20220414025529_Chamber of industries morang new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 14:54:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15101', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Cargo Trucks Stopped at India Border Start Arriving in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.</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"">Hundreds of cargo vehicles were stopped across the Biratnagar border after the Central Customs Department of India imposed new rules on goods supplied to Nepal from India.</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"">More than 300 cargo vehicles were stopped at the Jogbani area on the Indian side of the border across Biratnagar after Indian customs suspected that the goods being supplied to Nepal from India for industrial and commercial purposes could be used to make weapons or explosives.</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"">Devaki Sharma, president of the Biratnagar Customs Agents Association, said, "Many cargo vehicles were stopped towards the Indian side. Those cargo have started coming since Tuesday.”</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"">Vehicles carrying various chemicals, vitamins and herbs, medical powders, medical chemicals, vaccines, insulin, and animal vaccines were stopped by India. Likewise, the Indian side banned adhesive gum and turpentine class items, PVC sets, plastic materials, glass and glassware, zinc, nickel, sulfur, and iron window doors.</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 customs office, industrial machinery, electrical goods, motor parts, and medical equipment were also stopped. The customs agents' association said that the company, industry, or firm supplying goods to Nepal should now onwards fill a form stating the purpose for which the goods are being exported. The goods are then subject to approval by the Indian customs.</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 chairperson Sharma, after the imposition of the new rules by India, the agents of Biratnagar Customs approached the Assistant Commissioner of Jogbani Customs, Ashok Das, to facilitate export. As per a circular issued by the Central Customs Department of India, the export of goods has been tightened. Chief of the Biratnagar Customs, Tara Prasad Sapkota, said that the team facilitated the import after receiving information that the goods coming to Nepal were stopped in India.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14843', 'image' => '20220414125654_ICP Biratnagar.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 12:55:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15100', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'President Extends Best Wishes on the Occasion of New Year', 'sub_title' => 'President Calls for Promoting Entrepreneurship and Domestic Products to Decrease Trade Imbalance', 'summary' => 'April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In her message on the occasion, President Bhandari wished for peace, prosperity, good health and progress of all the Nepalis. President Bhandari spoke of the need to learn from the tough experiences of the past and move ahead accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The president also called for promoting entrepreneurship and production of domestic products to decrease the rising trade imbalance as well as to create self-reliant economy through national capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She was of the view that policies and programmes aimed at creating jobs and opportunities to engage a staggering number of youths of Nepal aspiring for foreign employment should be implemented at the earliest. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Head of the State also appealed to the three-tier government to be active towards realizing sustainable development goals. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the upcoming Nepali year is going to be the year of election, President Bhandari argued that it is our common responsibility to conduct the May 13 local level election in a free, impartial and fearless environment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"May the upcoming New Year 2079 BS inspire to create civilized, well-cultured and just society while filling all the Nepalis with zest and zeal," the message stated. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14842', 'image' => '20220414081219_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 08:11:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15099', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '‘Economy has not Spiraled out of Control’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claims.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claim. The reports of both the ministry and the central bank show that the economy is under stress but the situation has not gone out of control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to NRB, although inflation has increased of late other indicators are under control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The latest data of the central bank shows that </span></span>the country’s gross foreign exchange reserves decreased 16.3 percent to Rs 1171 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1399.03 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation Report of NRB</span></span>, of the total foreign exchange reserves, reserves held by NRB decreased 18.2 percent to Rs 1018.05 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1244.63 billion in mid-July 2021. Likewise, reserves held by banks and financial institutions (except NRB) decreased 0.9 percent to Rs 152.95 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 154.39 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Based on the imports of eight months of 2021/22, the foreign exchange reserves of the banking sector is sufficient to cover the prospective merchandise imports of 7.4 months, and merchandise and services imports of 6.7 months, the report further states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Former NRB Governor Dr Chiranjivi Nepal believes that the situation has not gone out of control. Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Tuesday, Dr Nepal said that the situation will normalize soon.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">On the other hand, the consumer price inflation stood at 7.14 percent in the eighth month of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to economist Chandra Mani Bhandari, price hike is the result of both internal and external factors. He says that the impact of Russia-Ukraine war has increased prices of petroleum products across the world resulting in inflation which has also affected Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the NRB report, Nepal’s current account remained at a deficit of Rs 462.93 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Such a deficit was Rs 151.42 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">During the review period, capital transfer decreased 41.2 percent to Rs 7 billion and net foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 60.0 percent to Rs 16.30 billion, the report said. In the same period of the previous year, capital transfer and net FDI amounted to Rs 11.91 billion and Rs 10.18 billion respectively.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Likewise, the Balance of Payments (BOP) remained at a deficit of Rs 258.64 billion in the review period against a surplus of Rs 68.01 billion in the same period of the previous year. In the US Dollar terms, the BOP remained at a deficit of 2.17 billion in the review period against a surplus of 565.8 million in the same period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the central bank’s report, total trade deficit increased 34.5 percent to Rs 1160.99 billion during the eight months of 2021/22. Such a deficit had increased 1.6 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-13', 'modified' => '2022-04-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14841', 'image' => '20220413044135_NRBnew.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-13 16:40:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, '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
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]file not found!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' => '15113', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Nepal Airlines to Operate Direct Flights to Saudi Arabia from April 22 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 17: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is scheduled to conduct direct flights from Kathmandu to Riyadh of Saudi Arabia from April 22 to the respite of Nepali migrant workers. </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 cost of air travel is expected to become affordable for the aspiring Nepali workers with the operation of flights by the national flag carrier to Saudi Arabia, one of the major labour destination countries of Nepal. </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"">With the operation of flights, Nepali workers will have to pay Rs 37,000 for a one-way ticket to Riyad. Passengers have been paying more than Rs 63,000 at present to travel to nearby Doha via private airliner in economy class with discount. </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"">According to the Executive Chairperson of Nepal Airlines Yubraj Adhikari, the state-owned airlines company will be exploring additional destinations and would expand its services gradually. NAC has already received flight permits to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NAC will operate two flights a week between Kathmandu and Riyadh and the number of flights will be expanded to three times a week after studying the situation, NAC said. </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"">NAC officials including Executive Chairperson Adhikari had visited Saudi Arabia two months ago to seek flight permission. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">For the time being, the one-way ticket for Kathmandu-Riyad flight will cost Rs 37,000, confirmed NA Spokesperson Archana Khadka. </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 inaugural flight would be conducted by a wide-body aircraft of NAC which plans to operate both wide-body and narrow-body aircraft for the flights later on. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-17', 'modified' => '2022-04-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14855', 'image' => '20220417083329_Nepal-Airlines-NAC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-17 08:32:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15112', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fall Armyworms Affect Maize Plantation across the Country', 'sub_title' => 'Government Bodies Unaware of the Situation', 'summary' => 'April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: Outbreaks of fall armyworm have damaged maize planted by farmers across the country. However, the government has not taken concrete steps for its prevention and control. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development on the other hand is unaware of this situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Centre, the outbreak of fall armyworms is on the rise in Kathmandu Valley, Terai, hills and some Himalayan districts as well. Authorities at the concerned ministry have not taken any initiative to control and prevent the pest. The Centre for Pesticide Management and the Ministry of Agriculture do not have exact information on the extent of damage caused by the pest infestation so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the outbreak of worms is prevalent all over the country, the districts with high temperatures like Banke, Bardia, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu in western Terai and Sunsari, Rautahat and Siraha in the eastern Terai are facing greater impact of the worm infestation. According to the Agriculture Knowledge Center Banke, the outbreak has spread to maize planted over 3,550 hectares in Banke and about 7,000 hectares in Bardiya. The centre estimated that the worm outbreak may have spread to 700 hectares in Kailali and Dang.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Bhuwaneshwor Yadav, a representative farmer from Sunsari, the outbreak has spread to about 800-900 hectares of crops in Sunsari as well. Yadav said, “No concrete steps have been taken for prevention and control by the agricultural knowledge center or even the local level. On the one hand, farmers do not know how to control it, what medicine to use, while on the other hand, all government bodies are unaware of the outbreak.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the damage report of some districts is kept by the Agriculture Knowledge Center, the data of most of the districts is not available with the concerned local and central government. Sahadev Humagain, head of the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center said there were reports of worm outbreaks in various districts of the country but the body responsible for controlling and collecting data did not send details of the damage. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said, “Once the exact details of the damage are known, control efforts will be initiated and technicians will be dispatched. However, nothing can be done from the center alone as the bodies responsible at the local level remain unaware of the situation.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It has been three years since the American armyworms first entered Nepal. It hides from sunrise till sunset and destroys corn leaves, stalks, kernels and later the entire plant at night. As the worm has completely adapted to the environment in a short period of time, it is not possible to eradicate it completely. Humagain said that no initiative has been taken for the control so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Agriculture is unaware that the farmers who were affected by the unseasonal rainfall last October are now being attacked by the fall armyworms. Ministry spokesperson Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the ministry has not received any report from the concerned bodies so far. It is a well-known fact that outbreaks are common and frequent during this time of year. However, he said that the ministry had not made any plan as no major damage was reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Scientists say that this worm, which was seen in West Africa in 2016, can travel up to 100 kilometers in one night. About three years ago, this insect was first seen in various states of India for the first time in Asia. Later, it reportedly entered Nepal through Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and China.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14854', 'image' => '20220415030136_maize armyworn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 15:00:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15111', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Women Entrepreneurs to get Loan Facility for Export ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The government has made arrangements to provide loans for exports to women entrepreneurs who have not been able to get loans from banks and financial institutions for their business. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">By amending the Industrial Enterprises Act 2076, a provision has been made for women entrepreneurs to get a minimum of Rs 500,000 to maximum of Rs 5 million loan depending on the type of industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government published the revised Industrial Enterprise Act in the Nepal Gazette on April 4, 2022 by including the new provision. This has opened the door for women entrepreneurs to get loans for export. Although the previous arrangement also had provision for such loans, the limit of loan amount was not fixed depending on the nature of the industry. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the amended regulations published in the Nepal Gazette, women entrepreneurs will get export credit on the basis of the financial condition of the business. The amended act states that in order to get a loan for export, at least 30 percent of the total production of the last fiscal year has to be exported. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The amended regulations have set a credit limit for women entrepreneurs for additional facilities. According to the new regulations, small entrepreneurs will get export loans of Rs 500,000, cottage industry Rs 1.5 million, small entrepreneurs Rs 2 million, medium entrepreneurs Rs 3 million and large entrepreneurs Rs 5 million. The loan will be provided through the banking system. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sarada Rijal, a woman entrepreneur, said that the revised system would encourage women entrepreneurs to venture out, especially in export-oriented industries. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government has also invested in the industrial villages targeting women she said that this policy would further encourage women entrepreneurs. According to her, a women’s industrial village is also being made in Panchkhal of Kavre. The process of setting up the village started after the government announced the plan to open an industrial village in all seven provinces.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Entrepreneurs say that the industrial village to develop women entrepreneurship and the current export credit policy will help women entrepreneurs. They stressed on the need to make the process of getting loans simple and easy for women entrepreneurs, who are still finding it difficult to get access to business loans. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14853', 'image' => '20220415021513_women.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 14:14:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15110', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '2078 Marred by Liquidity Crisis ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The year 2078 was a year marred by liquidity crisis (investable capital) for the financial sector. As economic activities picked up pace immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic subsided, banks and financial institutions aggressively pushed for credit expansion. However, as deposit collection did not grow as compared to the credit flow of banks, there was a liquidity crisis in the banking system. As a result, at the end of the year, the new credit flow of banks and financial institutions has almost stopped. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deposits in banks increased by Rs 4.43 billion from Rs 4.45 trillion in 2077 to Rs 4.91 trillion in 2078. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, credit flow increased by Rs 678.77 billion from Rs 4.022 trillion to Rs 4.78 trillion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The main reason for the liquidity crisis in banks and financial institutions was the change in policy of NRB. The NRB removed the provision of maintaining 85 percent capital, loan and deposit (CCD) ratio in the banks through the monetary policy of the current Fiscal Year (FY 2078/79) and implemented the provision of maintaining 90 percent credit-deposit (CD) ratio. Due to this reason, the ability of banks to expand credit flow decreased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, as most of the credit was provided for imports, the country's foreign exchange earnings, remittances, tourism and other sectors were affected, and the deposits could not increase. Due to this, the financial sector is facing liquidity crisis in the market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Dispute between finance minister and governor</strong> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The year 2078 will also be remembered for the suspension of Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari. With the tension between Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari boiling during the announcement of monetary policy for the current FY, the ministry has started an investigation against the governor for not cooperating with the government. The governor has been suspended since the investigation began. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has been criticized for taking political action against the governor who was seeking economic reform. Due to the dispute between the finance minister and the governor, the leadership of NRB is now in the hands of the acting Governor. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><strong>Cash margin for LC</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the credit flow of banks and financial institutions increased, it shifted to the unproductive sector, which in turn posed a challenge to the financial sector. Due to this pressure, NRB tightened its grip on equity loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The central bank has discouraged investment in real estate and transportation sectors by increasing the risk burden of these loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, the central bank, which has implemented provision of 100 percent cash margin for opening LCs to reduce the import of goods under 47 different types of harmonic codes, has verbally instructed the banks not to open LCs until the situation improves. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14852', 'image' => '20220415125258_Liquidity.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:52:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15109', 'article_category_id' => '277', 'title' => 'Agriculture Sector Faced Numerous Problems in 2078', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: In the year 2078, the agricultural sector of Nepal faced many ups and downs. Last year, neither the weather was favourable for the farmers nor the government was able to bring any encouraging programmes. Moreover, most of the programmes announced were not implemented properly. Outbreaks of armyworms were reported in maize planted in 67 districts earlier this year. The government made efforts to prevent and control the problem, but it was not effective enough to satisfy the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dairy farmers and businessmen suffered greatly due to not being able to sell stock of powdered milk and butter worth more than Rs 3 billion at the beginning of the year as a consequence of Covid-19 pandemic and prohibitory orders. The challenges faced by the dairy business still persisted at the end of the year 2078, despite the government increasing the price of milk and milk products. While milk was surplus at the beginning of the year, there was a shortage of milk by the end of the year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Prahlad Dahal, general secretary of the Nepal Dairy Association, there is a shortage of 300,000 liters of milk in the market currently as many farmers gave up on dairy business due to the pandemic. According to him, the risk of foreign milk products gaining market has increased after the decline in milk production in the domestic market. Although farmers were excited when the government increased the price of milk by Rs 10 per liter after many years, now the middlemen are making more profit than the farmers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Just like the previous years, farmers faced shortage of chemical fertilizers in 2078 as well. Farmers in most of the districts could not get fertilizer during the main planting season. The government-owned Salt Trading Corporation failed to distribute fertilizers evenly despite having sufficient stock. Last March, the government decided to import 935,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer for the next five years through G2G deal with the Government of India. However, there are doubts about its implementation. As the farming season is approaching, the contracted companies have not been able to import fertilizers even after the expiration of the contract period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Farmers were also affected by natural calamities in 2078. The unseasonal rainfall from October 16 to 20 destroyed paddy crop planted in 111,069 hectares of land across the country. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 42,113 metric tons of paddy worth Rs 11.87 billion were destroyed at that time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the 'Agriculture for Food' campaign, also says that there were more negative impacts than positive ones for Nepali farmers and the overall agricultural sector in the year 2078 BS. According to him, it is unfortunate that the decision of the government to provide relief of Rs 5.52 billion to the affected farmers has yet to be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The unseasonal rainfall caused a loss of over Rs 50 million to the flower business which was declared 90 percent self-sufficient. But the flower producers complained that the government has not addressed the issue so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, less than a year after the declaration of self-reliance, the poultry industry reached a state of crisis. Poultry farmers faced problems like rising prices of raw materials and medicines in the international market, recurring bird flu and epidemics such as Ranikhet, which even led to closure of some hatchery industries after most of the farmers stopped raising chickens. The price of meat went up to around Rs 400 per kg due to the decline in poultry production. Farmers complained that the government has not taken any active initiative to prevent and control the spread of bird flu in 14 districts so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Towards the end of the year, there was a good news for the agricultural sector. Impactors Women's Development Society, a group of 16 young women, developed a mobile app called 'Saathi' which identifies and solves various problems encountered in agriculture through the use of artificial intelligence.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14851', 'image' => '20220415123059_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:30:02', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15108', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Production of Mid-Marshyangdi Hydropower Station Increases due to Rainfall', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 15: The production of the 70 MW mid-Marsyangdi Hydropower Station located at Besishahar-1 in Lamjung has increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pawan Basnet, head of the station, informed that the power generation started increasing due to the rise in water level in Marsyangdi River following occasional rainfall in recent days and the melting of snow. He said that only 26/27 MW of electricity was being generated since December, but now, the production has reached 58 to 60 MW. In the previous years, electricity generation used to show an increase only in May.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the station, if the production shows an increase in the same manner, it will be able to generate electricity at full capacity within April. Construction of the project started in 2000 and completed in 2008. The hydropower station was constructed at a cost of Rs 27.20 billion.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14850', 'image' => '20220415121145_marsyangdi590_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 12:10:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15107', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Banks' Interest on Loans hits Double Digit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: The interest rate of banks and financial institutions on loans has reached double digit, according to a report published by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The report states that the interest on loans increased due to the increase in interest on deposits as well as the increasing operational cost of the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest rate on loans of banks in the month of Falgun (mid-February to mid-March) was 10.5 percent, the report states adding that the interest on loans reached double digit in the month of Magh (mid-January to mid-February).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The average interest on loans was 8.48 percent during the first month of the current fiscal year. The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing the interest on deposits to attract customers following the liquidity crunch in the banking system. As a result, the interest on loans also increased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The interest on deposits have almost doubled in the current fiscal year. According to the central bank, the average interest on deposits was 4.76 percent in the first month of the current fiscal year (mid-July to mid-August) which increased to 8.73 percent in the eighth month ie Falgun (mid-February to mid-March).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks were involved in an unhealthy competition of increasing interest on deposits to attract customers since mid-October to mid-November. The central bank had to intervene due to such competition among the banks. Issuing a circular on October 19, the central bank instructed the banks not to change interest rate more than 10 percent at a time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB’s Deputy Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Pokharel says that the interest rate remained under control due to the central bank’s intervention.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Had the central bank not issued such directive, the interest on loans would have reached 18 percent by now,” said Pokharel, adding, “The interest rates on deposits as well as loans remained under control due to the NRB’s intervention.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Commercial banks are trying to keep the interest rate stable following a gentleman’s agreement among members of Nepal Bankers’ Association, an umbrella body of the CEOs of commercial banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The banks had decided to increase the interest on loans by 10 percent in mid-February. But the bankers agreed to maintain the same rate for at least two months. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The maximum interest on deposits at present is 11.3 percent on fixed deposits. Banks can increase the interest on fixed deposits by an additional one percentage point in case the deposit is collected through remittance.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14849', 'image' => '20220415114234_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 11:41:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15106', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Marks 100 Years of Systematic Documentation and Registration of Land', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 15: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for making land registration and records fair, automated and transparent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba made such remarks on Thursday during a programme organized by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation on the occasion of 100 years of systematic documentation and registration of land in the country. He directed the subordinate bodies to address the complaints on land administration on time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba was in favour of promoting good governance in land administration service by ensuring quality survey and credible management of data. PM Deuba added that records of land and security of historic archives should be prioritized. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed happiness over the online system of land transaction and access to personal data relating to land developed by the ministry. He also suggested other government bodies to promote such practices. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The written records or the registration of land plots and houses had begun exactly a 100 years ago in Nepal since 1st Baisakh, 1979 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba further reminded that the government was providing lands to the poor Dalits in a bid to ensure social justice and equality guaranteed by the constitution of Nepal. The constitution has ensured such rights to landless squatters, freed-Haliyas and Kamaiyas. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">PM Deuba expressed concerns that arable lands were left unused on the one hand and agricultural production was dwindling on the other, contributing to widening trade loss, and food insecurity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Haphazard use of land has worsened the impacts of climate change, said Deuba adding that unchecked plotting of agricultural land has caused haphazard urbanization while settlements are facing risks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The Prime Minister also expressed concern over encroachment of public, and lands belonging to the Guthi trusts.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> During the occasion, PM Deuba shared that the National Land Commission was formed by the government to resolve the problems faced by the landless squatters, landless Dalit and unmanaged settlements. (<em>With inputs from RSS</em>) </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-15', 'modified' => '2022-04-15', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14848', 'image' => '20220415075711_Ministry-ofland).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-15 07:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15105', 'article_category_id' => '239', 'title' => '689 Climbers Acquire Permits for Climbing Various Peaks for Spring Season ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: A total of 84 mountaineering teams have obtained permits to climb mountains and peaks in Nepal for this spring season. These expedition teams have 689 members. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the government collected royalties of over Rs 373 million as of April 13 by issuing the permits. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The expedition teams obtaining permissions for scaling 19 peaks including Mt Everest comprise people from 65 different countries including Nepal. Among them, 250 climbers including 194 males and 56 females from 45 countries will be attempting to scale the world's highest peak. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has collected royalties worth over Rs 310 million alone from permits issued to the climbers to scale Mt Everest.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Tourism (DoT) is hopeful that the expedition teams will climb mountains this year as the threat from COVID-19 has declined significantly and the climate is favourble for climbing. It may be noted that 45 expedition teams had climbed mountains in the spring of 2021 amid threat of Covid-19, giving a big boost to the tourism industry battered by the pandemic. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tourism entrepreneurs say they are somehow optimistic about the good indicators seen in the tourism sector with the decline in COVID-19 cases. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Outgoing chair of Nepal Mountaineering Association and noted tourism entrepreneur Aang Chhiring Sherpa said that the number of tourists is rising fradually.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"Although the number of climbers is relatively less this year than the previous year, it seems Nepal's mountain tourism is attracting more foreign climbers and it is indeed a noteworthy. The number is gradually rising," RSS quoted Shrepa as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><strong><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">How many climbers climbing which peak </span></span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Both Nepali and foreign climbers are continuously setting out for this season's expedition to scale Mt Everest after taking the permit. So far 250 climbers belonging to 31 expedition teams have alone acquired permission for climbing Mt Everest (8848.86 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, 64 climbers of nine expedition teams have acquired permission to climb Mt Lhotse (8516 metres), 65 climbers from six teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Amadablam (6814 metres) and 38 mountaineers of five expedition teams have got permission to climb Mt Kanchanjangha (8586 metres). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, 38 mountaineers belonging to five groups have taken permission for climbing Mt Nuptse (7855 metres), 26 climbers of four groups have acquired permission to climb Mt Annapurna (8091 metres), two expedition teams have taken permission for climbing Mt Dhaulagiri (8167 metres), two teams for climbing Milung Chuli, and three mountaineering teams for climbing Bhemdong, Gangapurna and Thapa Peak, the Mountaineering Section of the DoT stated in a press release. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14847', 'image' => '20220414091903_maxresdefault.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 21:18:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15104', 'article_category_id' => '270', 'title' => 'Public Transport Fare Increased in Bagmati Province ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: The public transportation fare has been increased in Bagmati Province including the Kathmandu Valley. The Transport Ministry of Bagmati Province hiked the fare for taxi and public transportation effective from Thursday, April 14. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Public transportation fare has been raised by Rs 2 for up to 10 kilometres and Rs 3 for more than 10 kilometres. The new fare for up to five kilometres is Rs 20, for up to ten kilometers is Rs 25, for up to fifteen kilometres Rs 30, for up to twenty kilometres is Rs 33 and more than 20 kilometres Rs 38. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Similarly, the taxi fare has been increased to Rs 10 per 200 metres or Rs 50 per kilometre while waiting charge is Rs 1.20. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Waiting has been limited to maximum 30 minutes. The ministry has also stated that the transportation fare within the province will again be adjusted accordingly if the price of fuel were to rise or fall by more than five per cent from the rate on which the latest fare adjustment has been made. -- RSS </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14846', 'image' => '20220414085442_public transportation.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 20:53:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15103', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Energy Sector Made Significant Progress in 2078 but Challenges Persist', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 14: Nepal’s energy sector had not been able to achieve anything substantial in its 110-year history until the recent developments started showing some promising signs. Despite countless challenges, the energy and hydropower sector of Nepal made a significant progress in the year 2078 BS.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stakeholders believe that achievements made in the energy sector in the review year would have long-term implications. Most notably, India has agreed to allow Nepal to trade electricity in its open market through competitive bidding. This, according to the stakeholders, is a historic achievement.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Regional market is essential to sell the electricity generated in Nepal. Nepal is already at a stage where its surplus energy gets wasted during the monsoon. In this sense, a regional market for the energy sector of Nepal is of utmost importance. In such a situation, India not only opened its energy market to Nepal but also gave the green signal to Nepal Electricity Authority to sell 364 megawatts of electricity to India. This is a significant achievement, says Kumar Pandey, former chairman of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The energy which is to be produced in Nepal does not have a prospective market within the country. In such a situation, a regional market is vital for us,” said Pandey, adding, “India has granted Nepal permission to sell its electricity in its market. This is a significant achievement of the energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The operation of 456-MW Upper Tama Koshi Hydropower Project is another significant achievement of the energy sector in 2078.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Besides Upper Tama Koshi, many other hydropower projects came into operation during last year. This has made Nepal almost self-sufficient in energy. There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot more to do,” added Pandey.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another achievement is the resumption of Nepal-India Energy Summit which was stalled since the last two years due to Covid-19. The decisions taken during the summit has helped in the development of Nepal’s energy sector. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba also prioritized the agenda of energy sector during his recent state visit to India. Nepal and India unveiled a common vision paper for collaboration in the energy sector during the PM’s visit. The vision paper states that the energy trade will focus on regional market that includes Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal (BBIN).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">There were also some good news regarding foreign investment in the energy sector during the review year. Foreign investment in this sector was not much encouraging in the last few years but the energy sector saw commitment of Rs 1.59 billion in 2078, which is more than the commitment received in the previous year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2077, foreign investors pledged to invest only Rs 5.8 million in the energy sector of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The energy sector has had to face problems ranging from natural disasters to liquidity crisis, increase in insurance premium rate, increase in interest rate among others.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Due to the liquidity crisis in the banking system, hydropower projects seeking loans have had to pay high interest rates. The cost of project including operational cost has increased due to the increase in interest rate.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">IPPAN Chairman Krishna Prasad Acharya said that the energy sector witnessed some discouraging events despite some significant achievements.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He said that the energy sector has yet to fully recover from the impact of coronavirus. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The impact of coronavirus which started in 2076 BS is still evident till this year. As a result, many hydropower projects have not been able to start construction. Even the under-construction projects had to stall the works,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Things have improved only since February,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Another setback is the inordinate delay in granting power purchase agreement for run-over-river (ROR) projects to sell electricity. The government has been providing survey license to the private sector to undertake such projects but is reluctant to purchase electricity produced by the private sector stating that the laws allow them to purchase only a certain portion of energy produced by ROR projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government promised to allow the private sector to trade electricity and also grant permission for PPA. However, both the promises were not fulfilled,” said Acharya.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14845', 'image' => '20220414045734_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 16:56:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15102', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => 'Chamber of Industry Morang Warns of Imminent Economic Crisis', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: The Chamber of Industry Morang has expressed concern that the country's economy can head towards crisis if the regulatory bodies fail to coordinate with each other. The chamber also warned that the overall economic indicators were pointing towards an imminent crisis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Suyash Pyakurel, chairman of the chamber, said that the liquidity crisis in the financial sector since a long time, rising interest rates, the Ukraine crisis, rising prices in international markets and the internal situation in the country are all leading the overall economy towards a crisis. Stating that there is no effective coordination among the regulatory bodies when it comes to management of liquidity, foreign exchange reserves and facilitation of import and export, he emphasized on the need to be aware of the ongoing situation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing a statement, the Chamber of Industry Morang demanded the government to find a possible solution to the crisis by removing the misunderstanding between the intergovernmental bodies. The chamber also stated that it is ready to provide assistance from the private sector to bring the crisis-oriented economy back on track.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14844', 'image' => '20220414025529_Chamber of industries morang new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 14:54:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15101', 'article_category_id' => '268', 'title' => 'Cargo Trucks Stopped at India Border Start Arriving in Nepal', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 14: Trucks and containers with goods stopped at the border by Indian customs have started entering Nepal through Biratnagar customs from Tuesday evening.</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"">Hundreds of cargo vehicles were stopped across the Biratnagar border after the Central Customs Department of India imposed new rules on goods supplied to Nepal from India.</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"">More than 300 cargo vehicles were stopped at the Jogbani area on the Indian side of the border across Biratnagar after Indian customs suspected that the goods being supplied to Nepal from India for industrial and commercial purposes could be used to make weapons or explosives.</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"">Devaki Sharma, president of the Biratnagar Customs Agents Association, said, "Many cargo vehicles were stopped towards the Indian side. Those cargo have started coming since Tuesday.”</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"">Vehicles carrying various chemicals, vitamins and herbs, medical powders, medical chemicals, vaccines, insulin, and animal vaccines were stopped by India. Likewise, the Indian side banned adhesive gum and turpentine class items, PVC sets, plastic materials, glass and glassware, zinc, nickel, sulfur, and iron window doors.</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 customs office, industrial machinery, electrical goods, motor parts, and medical equipment were also stopped. The customs agents' association said that the company, industry, or firm supplying goods to Nepal should now onwards fill a form stating the purpose for which the goods are being exported. The goods are then subject to approval by the Indian customs.</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 chairperson Sharma, after the imposition of the new rules by India, the agents of Biratnagar Customs approached the Assistant Commissioner of Jogbani Customs, Ashok Das, to facilitate export. As per a circular issued by the Central Customs Department of India, the export of goods has been tightened. Chief of the Biratnagar Customs, Tara Prasad Sapkota, said that the team facilitated the import after receiving information that the goods coming to Nepal were stopped in India.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14843', 'image' => '20220414125654_ICP Biratnagar.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 12:55:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15100', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'President Extends Best Wishes on the Occasion of New Year', 'sub_title' => 'President Calls for Promoting Entrepreneurship and Domestic Products to Decrease Trade Imbalance', 'summary' => 'April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 14: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has extended best wishes to all Nepalis at home and abroad on the occasion of the Nepalese New Year 2079 BS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In her message on the occasion, President Bhandari wished for peace, prosperity, good health and progress of all the Nepalis. President Bhandari spoke of the need to learn from the tough experiences of the past and move ahead accordingly. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The president also called for promoting entrepreneurship and production of domestic products to decrease the rising trade imbalance as well as to create self-reliant economy through national capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She was of the view that policies and programmes aimed at creating jobs and opportunities to engage a staggering number of youths of Nepal aspiring for foreign employment should be implemented at the earliest. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Head of the State also appealed to the three-tier government to be active towards realizing sustainable development goals. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that the upcoming Nepali year is going to be the year of election, President Bhandari argued that it is our common responsibility to conduct the May 13 local level election in a free, impartial and fearless environment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"May the upcoming New Year 2079 BS inspire to create civilized, well-cultured and just society while filling all the Nepalis with zest and zeal," the message stated. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-14', 'modified' => '2022-04-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14842', 'image' => '20220414081219_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-14 08:11:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15099', 'article_category_id' => '274', 'title' => '‘Economy has not Spiraled out of Control’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claims.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">April 13: A day after the Ministry of Finance claimed that the country’s economy was not deteriorating as much as it had been hyped, Nepal Rastra Bank on Tuesday published data to back the claim. The reports of both the ministry and the central bank show that the economy is under stress but the situation has not gone out of control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to NRB, although inflation has increased of late other indicators are under control.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">The latest data of the central bank shows that </span></span>the country’s gross foreign exchange reserves decreased 16.3 percent to Rs 1171 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1399.03 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the Current Macroeconomic and Financial Situation Report of NRB</span></span>, of the total foreign exchange reserves, reserves held by NRB decreased 18.2 percent to Rs 1018.05 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 1244.63 billion in mid-July 2021. Likewise, reserves held by banks and financial institutions (except NRB) decreased 0.9 percent to Rs 152.95 billion in mid-March 2022 from Rs 154.39 billion in mid-July 2021. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Based on the imports of eight months of 2021/22, the foreign exchange reserves of the banking sector is sufficient to cover the prospective merchandise imports of 7.4 months, and merchandise and services imports of 6.7 months, the report further states.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Former NRB Governor Dr Chiranjivi Nepal believes that the situation has not gone out of control. Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Tuesday, Dr Nepal said that the situation will normalize soon.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">On the other hand, the consumer price inflation stood at 7.14 percent in the eighth month of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to economist Chandra Mani Bhandari, price hike is the result of both internal and external factors. He says that the impact of Russia-Ukraine war has increased prices of petroleum products across the world resulting in inflation which has also affected Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the NRB report, Nepal’s current account remained at a deficit of Rs 462.93 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. Such a deficit was Rs 151.42 billion in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">During the review period, capital transfer decreased 41.2 percent to Rs 7 billion and net foreign direct investment (FDI) increased 60.0 percent to Rs 16.30 billion, the report said. In the same period of the previous year, capital transfer and net FDI amounted to Rs 11.91 billion and Rs 10.18 billion respectively.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Likewise, the Balance of Payments (BOP) remained at a deficit of Rs 258.64 billion in the review period against a surplus of Rs 68.01 billion in the same period of the previous year. In the US Dollar terms, the BOP remained at a deficit of 2.17 billion in the review period against a surplus of 565.8 million in the same period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:13.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">According to the central bank’s report, total trade deficit increased 34.5 percent to Rs 1160.99 billion during the eight months of 2021/22. Such a deficit had increased 1.6 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-13', 'modified' => '2022-04-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14841', 'image' => '20220413044135_NRBnew.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-13 16:40:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, '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
