April 6: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has once again increased the prices of petroleum products effective from Tuesday midnight (April…
April 6: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has once again increased the prices of petroleum products effective from Tuesday midnight (April…
April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export…
April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5.…
April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May…
April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation.…
April 5: The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and…
April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in…
April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap,…
April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including…
April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick…
April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from…
April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation…
April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara,…
April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal.…
April 4: The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in…
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It had also fixed the price of diesel and kerosene at Rs 138 per litre after increasing the price by Rs 5 per litre.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NOC has also increased the price of cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas) by Rs 25 per cylinder. The price of LPG had remained constant since the last 5 months while the prices of other petroleum products were increased time and again by the NOC under various pretexts. A cylinder of cooking gas will now cost Rs 1600 for the consumers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the NOC has also increased the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) for domestic flights from Rs 151 per litre to Rs 156 per litre.</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"">This is the tenth time that the NOC has increased the prices of petroleum products in the last nine months. The prices have been rising constantly since August 2021, when the price of petrol was just Rs 130 per litre. </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 NOC has been stating that it has been bearing losses even after increasing the fuel prices. The NOC revises the price every fortnight after receiving a new list from the Indian Oil Corporation. Lately, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused a rise in fuel prices in the international market.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14795', 'image' => '20220406103104_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:28:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15053', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Minister Sharma in Favour of making Dry Port an Export Hub ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The remittance and import-based economy is risky for Nepal, Minister Sharma said, stressing the dry port should be developed a centre point for exporting goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a programme organized following the inauguration of the dry port by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday, Finance Minister Sharma said the dry port should be strategically used to increase export of food items and agro-based goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Minister also highlighted the need of moving towards self-dependence by converting labour and natural resources into capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further expressed the readiness on part of the government to collaborate with private sector and cooperatives for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the data related to import and export on the occasion, he said Nepal's import has been estimated to be around Rs 1,308 billion as of mid-March 2022 and this has increased by 38 per cent in comparison to last year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared the country's exports stand at Rs 147 billion in the last eight months which is a slightly better than in in the previous year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister added that COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war have added serious challenges to the country's economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As of mid-March, the country's foreign exchange reserves were equivalent to Rs 940 billion, he said, adding the reserves were enough to manage import of goods for at least six months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14794', 'image' => '20220406100345_20220406080457_ROS_KTM-9164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:03:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15051', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Deuba Inaugurates Chobhar Dry Port', 'sub_title' => 'The new facility expected to develop Kathmandu as a major trade hub ', 'summary' => 'April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. The dry port was constructed to facilitate the country's international trade. </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"">Inaugurating the Dry Port, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed confidence that the construction of Nepal's first dry port on the outskirts of the capital is a milestone in developing the federal capital Kathmandu as an international trade hub. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the dry port would play a special role in facilitating export-based trade and availability of a one-stop service including customs screening and quarantine to reduce the cost of foreign trade and also to help the administrative process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba further claimed that the dry port would promote export by facilitating trade and enhancing transparency. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dry port is expected to further ease foreign trade through Kathmandu and make the trade of goods and services competitive and effective by reducing costs involved in export. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that administrative hassles are still prevalent especially in the transportation of goods in Nepal's foreign trade, PM Deuba said such a high-quality trade infrastructure would help lessen the hassles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba said trade deficit could be reduced by increasing the export of Nepal-made goods in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The PM assured that his government was committed to create a conducive environment for industrial development and to attract foreign investment. He added that various programmes were introduced for reforms at policy-level and procedural level to achieve the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the PM spoke of the need to simplify and reduce the existing procedural hassles in foreign trade and said he was ready to collaborate with the private sector to promote trade. (With inputs from RSS) </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14793', 'image' => '20220406100418_ROS_KTM-9311.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 08:04:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15050', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Expenditure of Local Election Likely to Cross Rs 40 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13. With 38 days left for the election, experts have analyzed the impact of election on the economy from various angles. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of around Rs 9 billion to the Election Commission (EC). The ministry has also given approval to the Ministry of Home Affairs to spend around Rs 10 billion. The Home Ministry will deploy temporary police in polling stations across the country for election security and pay them from the allocated budget. These two government bodies will spend around Rs 19 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shaligram Poudel, spokesperson of the EC, the amount will be spent on voter education, printing and transportation of ballot papers, election observation and salaries and allowances of polling staff. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">A high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance estimates that Rs 30 to 40 billion will be spent on local level elections including the expenses of the Election Commission and the Home Ministry. Not only the government, but the political parties and the candidates also spend money for the election campaigns. The EC has issued a code of conduct that does not allow a candidate to spend more than Rs 300,000. However, Gopinath Mainali, former secretary of the EC, says that this code of conduct is not applicable in practice. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The code of conduct is just for the sake of formality. Since the commission appoints officials on from political parties, no action will be taken even if the parties and candidates violate the code of conduct," he said. Former Secretary Mainali is of the view that the electoral economy has both positive and negative aspects. According to him, the parties spend a few billion rupees on propaganda and publicity. Even the NGOs and INGOs can spend on voter education. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that apart from the problem of increasing budget deficit and reducing development expenditure, there is a risk of inflation when a lot of money flows into the economy all of a sudden. He said that the election would create short-term employment. However, Khanal is of the view that the election has not had a significant impact on the overall economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He sees the election as a threat that is likely to increase liquidity crisis, increase consumption, increase imports and put pressure on foreign exchange reserves. "Increased economic activity has some positive effects on gross domestic product (GDP). However, according to the rules of economics, exports have a positive effect on the economy and imports have a negative effect," he said. Khanal believes that the election will not have much impact on domestic production but it will not have much impact on the economy as imports will increase. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Election Commission, in the previous election, there was a provision of keeping a deposit of Rs 1,500 when registering for the candidacy of chief of municipality and rural municipality. There is a provision of to exempt half the deposit amount for women, Dalits and people from the minority groups or poor candidates. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The commission has arranged deposits of Rs 1,000 for ward chairperson and Rs 500 for ward members. If a candidate gets less than 10 percent of the total votes, the deposit will be confiscated. There is a rule that the confiscated amount should be deposited in the state coffers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14792', 'image' => '20220405032610_EC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:25:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15049', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Government Refuses Issuing License to Private Sector for Electricity Trade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has stopped the process stating that there is no such provision in the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation had prepared guidelines and procedures in this regard and submitted them to the Ministry of Law and Finance for approval. However, the Ministry of Law sent back the file saying that there is no legal provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. In the meantime, the process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity was stopped immediately.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Law argued that any provision that is not included in the prevailing laws cannot be implemented by formulating procedures. Due to this, the process of issuing electricity trade licenses to the private sector was halted immediately, said Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal, spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is no provision in the prevailing laws to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, the private sector has been seeking permission for the electricity trade. The Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN) has set up a company called Nepal Power Exchange Limited to trade electricity. The company has also signed an agreement with Indian electricity trading company Manikaran to provide 500 MW of electricity by next year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Given these issues, the Ministry of Energy had prepared a procedure to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, after the Ministry of Law imposed the ban, the issue has become complicated.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal said that the private sector would be allowed to trade electricity even through an ordinance. She said this while addressing the Himalayan Hydro Expo held in Kathmandu on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Electricity Act under consideration in the parliament has a provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the obstruction of parliament, it is not likely to be passed immediately. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Bhusal said that if an ordinance is introduced, the private sector will be given a license to trade electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We are in favor of allowing the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the lack of legislation, there were some immediate problems,” she said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Therefore, if we bring an ordinance, we will give the license,” she assured. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of IPPAN, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said that there was no need to think about this issue. "The issue raised by the energy minister is serious. But for us, the license is more important than that,” he added. "</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has stopped 215 river flow projects of 9000 MW capacity. Energy producers of the private sector say that the PPA of those projects can be done if they get a license from the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14791', 'image' => '20220405030752_1649136566.1627125046.upper_tamakoshi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:06:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15048', 'article_category_id' => '244', 'title' => 'Industrialists, Businessmen Say Prime Minister's India Visit was Productive ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 5: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They believe that the prime minister's visit that took place amidst a myriad of problems in the trade and business sector between the two close South Asian neighbours due to the absence of dialogue at the highest political level since the last few years has helped enhance mutual understanding. Also the significant agreements in the electricity and transportation sectors are expected make important contribution to the economic development of Nepal in days to come. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the three-day official visit has paved the way for the governments of both the countries for increasing Indian investments in Nepal and facilitating exports towards India. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In an interaction with Indian businessmen during his visit, PM Deuba encouraged the Indian investors, industrialists and businessmen to invest in the energy, infrastructure and tourism sectors claiming that Nepal has suitable environment for investment. Prime Minister Deuba said that the official visit would help strengthen mutual relations between the two countries and hold discussions on matters of bilateral economic cooperation. He expressed the belief that Nepal-India ties would gain new height with his visit. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, he called on the private sector to participate in the nation's development, saying the time has come for all Nepalis to once again come together for charting out a road map for a prosperous nation by keeping the broader economic and social interests of Nepal at the centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Addressing the programme organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in New Delhi, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) president Shekhar Golchha, who was a member in the Prime Minister's entourage, said there is immense possibility for investment by Indian industrialists and businessmen in the hydropower, tourism, production-based sector and information technology areas among the service sectors of Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He added that Nepal's private sector would facilitate in increasing Indian investment. Golchha underscored that the multinational companies investing in Nepal were making decent earning. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">CII President TV Narendran said, “Now Nepal is one of the attractive destinations for Indian investors. Few years back, Nepal was enduring internal conflict, political instability and electricity crisis and COVID-19 crisis in the past two years had its implications on the building of investment-friendly atmosphere. But there is no such situation now.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> According to him, India visit by the Nepal’s Prime Minister has inspired Indian business community to increase investment in 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"">The programme was attended by around 30 multinational companies in India where CEO’s of around 15 companies expressed their concerns and shared their experiences about the investment potentialities in Nepal. They said Nepal offers opportunities for investment in big projects relating to IT, infrastructure and hydropower. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the office-bearers of FNCCI and CII, Indian investors put their queries about promotion of cooperation in investment, implementation of the joint-projects and Nepal-India investment and trade facilitation among others. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">FNCCI senior vice president Chandra Dhakal said Nepal could reap benefits from progress that India achieved from Modi’s ‘visionary’ leadership. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “No nation could achieve prosperity in absence of cooperation between the public and private sectors,” he said, expressing hope that creation of investment-friendly environment at home would attract foreign investment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Investment potential has been increasing in Nepal’s tourism sector and existing tourism infrastructure will be insufficient in the next two years,” he said, adding that investment in tourism sector has become easier due to the policy adopted by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This visit of the PM has achieved a breakthrough in hydropower, a sector which has been struggling to yield results for 40 to 50 years, argued hydropower entrepreneur Gyanendra Lal Pradhan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Willingness of India to purchase energy from Nepal would help the country find the market for its energy, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Nepal having traditional relations with India was searching for ways to increase its export to India, Indian business community stressed the need for India to facilitate Nepal's export to the neighbouring country and third countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, they discussed issues ranging from carrying out infrastructural reforms at the transit points between the two countries to removing non-tariff barriers and of establishing a lab to check quality of agricultural products and validating lab tests of the products by both the countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"India should help Nepal to reduce our trade imbalance by increasing the exports of goods," said Mahesh Jaju, Chairperson of the Jaju Group. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14790', 'image' => '20220405024309_1649061430.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:42:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15047', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce Kicks Off', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu. The program, that kicked off on April 4 will run till April 6, Wednesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The three-day training program kicked off with two plenary sessions on “E-tourism marketing,” and “Handicraft and Agriculture: Leveraging Digital Technology Opportunities”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Inaugurating the program, Minister of Urban Development Ram Kumari Jhakri launched a manual entitled “Beginner’s manual on Digital Marketing and E-commerce”. On the occasion Minister Jhakri stressed on empowering women socially and economically. She also expressed her confidence that this training program would help women in digitalization of their business. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, president of South Asian Women Development Forum, Pramila Acharya Rijal informed that, since the inception of UNESCAP and SAWDF partnership project on “E-commerce Capacity Building for Women-led SMEs in South Asia”, more than 1500 women entrepreneurs have been trained in South Asia, with more than 200 Nepali women entrepreneurs benefitting from this project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Dr Rajan Sudesh Ratna, deputy head of ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office, New Delhi, India, the “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” has been instrumental in bridging the digital divide and will help in a stronger participation of women entrepreneurs in the digitization business in South Asia.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The training aims to share experiences of successful e-commerce and digital marketing women entrepreneurs, and train them on ways to register and link their businesses to e-commerce and digital marketing platforms, the organisers said. Furthermore, they are also organising the event to help women entrepreneurs build a network and provide an opportunity to display their product and services to fellow participants. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14789', 'image' => '20220405022549_Training-of-women-entrepreneurs-04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:24:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15046', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022 Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu. According to the organizers, the expo which kicked off on Saturday provided an additional impetus for the development and expansion of the country's energy sector.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expo was organized in a joint effort by the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) and Expo and Event Management Services Pvt. Ltd. The main sponsor of the expo was NMB Bank. The British Embassy and the Canadian High Commission were country partners of the expo, which was coordinated by the Indian Embassy in Nepal. Similarly, organizations including IFC also sponsored the expo, with additional assistance from Nepal Electricity Authority, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Nepal Bankers Association and Federation of Contractors’ Association Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the closing session of the expo, IPPAN requested the government to hand over the sale, distribution and export of domestically produced electricity to the private sector. Chairman of IPPAN Krishna Prasad Acharya made such a demand to Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal. Minister for Energy Pampha Bhusal said that the energy sector is the main basis of economic development and the government has taken steps to develop it. Similarly, she announced to open power purchase agreement (PPA) only after the market was assured.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the expo, 6 interactions related to hydropower were conducted every day. Companies and concerned authorities from China, India, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Brazil and other countries participated in the expo.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14788', 'image' => '20220405012340_1649118001.Clipboard07.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 13:22:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15045', 'article_category_id' => '220', 'title' => 'Central Bank Instructs Commercial Banks not to open LCs for Luxury Items', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Officials of the central bank on Monday summoned the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all 27 commercial banks and issued such instruction verbally. The central bank decided to issue such instruction due to the continuous decline in foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to informed sources, NRB does not have enough foreign exchange to support the imports of even six months. CEO of a commercial bank said that the NRB has instructed them unofficially to not open LCs for imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Now we will follow the instructions given by the central bank,” said the CEO requesting anonymity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB cannot issue a formal instruction to stop LC. That is why the central bank called the CEOs of all the commercial banks and issued the unofficial instruction. Central Bank officials say that opening of LC can be resumed after the situation improves. NRB also asked the commercial banks to bring the CD ratio below 90 percent. NRB has already made arrangements to keep cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dev Kumar Dhakal, head of the Supervision Department of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha, head of the Research Department, and Ramu Poudel, head of the Foreign Exchange Department and CEOs of the commercial Bank held discussions over the issue on Monday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14787', 'image' => '20220405124512_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 12:44:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15044', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Flights to Remote Districts of Karnali Diverted to Tourism Destinations', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">With the increase in arrival of foreign tourists, the airline companies providing regular services to districts like Humla, Mugu, Jumla and Dolpa have allegedly diverted their flights to eastern districts where the influx of tourists is high during the peak season.</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 stakeholders, Tara Air, Summit Air and Sita Air have reduced the number of regular flights to the remote districts of Karnali Province that are yet to be connected to the road network. This has caused inconvenience to the people of the remote districts of Karnali who rely on air service due to poor condition of roads. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though the people of southern Humla have access to road transportation service to travel in and out of the district, the people of Sarkegad, Kharpunath, Simkot and northern Namkha rural municipality face problems due to the flight diversion, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to RSS, the district headquarters Simkot is yet to be connected with the national road network. Authorities at Simkot Airport informed said flights have been diverted since Sunday leaving passengers stranded at the airport.</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"">Passengers awaiting for flight to Simkot from Nepalgunj and Surkhet complained that the flight diversion had lengthened their stay and made the travel unnecessarily expensive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The private airline companies have focused on tourist flights at Lukla, Pokhara and Jomsom, RSS further said. The people of Humla complained that they are not in the priority of airline service providers during the tourist season.</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"">“They violated the rule requiring at least one flight for Humla in a season,” RSS quoted a passenger as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conducts only limited number of flights along the Nepalgunj-Humla route and the people complain of ‘undue influence’ in issuing air tickets.</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 passengers accuse NAC employees in Nepalgunj of favouritism while issuing tickets to their relatives and also act upon the phone calls from people in power for the distribution of air tickets. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14786', 'image' => '20220405110412_Simokot-Airport-in-Humla.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 11:03:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15043', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'BFIs Struggling to Acquire Loans from Abroad', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, banks have acquired only a minimal amount of loan during this period. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bankers say it is difficult to acquire loan from foreign banks because the country doesn’t have credit rating and the loan becomes expensive due to the fluctuation in rate of dollar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Acquiring loans from foreign banks is a good alternative to resolve the liquidity crisis,” says Vice President of Nepal Bankers’ Association Sunil KC, who is also the CEO of NMB Bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“However, foreign banks don’t trust us because we lack country rating,” added KC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">So far, around a dozen banks have sought permission from the central bank to acquire loans worth Rs 30 billion in total from foreign banks. Out of that amount, around Rs 10 billion has already entered the banking system of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Around half a dozen BFIs including a microfinance company have acquired foreign loans so far. Majority of those loans were provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank Group. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Besides loan from IFC, some BFIs have also acquired loans from Switzerland, Germany, Dubai and Singapore.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that the BFIs are struggling to acquire foreign loans as there is a provision to invest such loans in infrastructure and development projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Loans from abroad need to be invested in development projects. Such loans are expensive and therefore BFIs are facing difficulty in taking such loans and investing them in development projects,” said Bhatta.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14785', 'image' => '20220404080256_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 20:02:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15042', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supply of Petroleum Products Eases after a Pact between NOC and Dealers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government-owned petrol stations across the country were jam-packed this weekend after the private petrol stations refused to collect up petroleum products from the NOC demanding hike in commission.</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 Nepal Petroleum Dealers' National Association had launched a protest last week against the NOC for not increasing the commission received by private petrol stations, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. The dealers argued that they incurred huge losses due to the rising prices of petroleum products in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Following the agreement, supply of petroleum products in the market has eased since Sunday morning (April 4), RSS further reported. The NOC said it delivered 1,600 kiloliters of petrol and 1,100 kiloliters of diesel to the market.</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"">As per the agreement, a decision on the commission amounts and the supply of LP gas would be taken within seven days while the other demands of the association would be addressed by May 29, informed NOC Spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyay. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14784', 'image' => '20220404054538_nocc.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 17:44:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15041', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Multinational Companies to Build 2 Blocks in Simara SEZ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara. The Special Economic Zone Authority is preparing to bring a foreign company to build infrastructure on 200 bigahs of land in block B and C of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Block A of the SEZ has already been completed. SEZ Executive Director Chandika Prasad Bhatta informed that they are preparing to propose to multinational companies from China, India and other countries to build the infrastructure required for B and C blocks of the SEZ. The SEZ will have a total of 5 blocks.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On Sunday, SEZ and Nepal Infrastructure Bank Limited (NIFRA) reached an agreement to invest in the construction of infrastructure in those blocks of Simara SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"We will bring private sector and multinational companies for the construction of SEZ under public-private partnership concept," Bhatta said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhatta said that it was necessary to bring in new investors and foreign companies to create export-oriented environment as per the objective of SEZ. So far, only the government has been investing in the infrastructure to be built in the SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Accordingly, the government has invested Rs 3 billion in the construction of drinking water, electricity, administrative building, sewerage, roads and other infrastructure in block A of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The SEZs have been set up with the main objective of promoting trade and export.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14783', 'image' => '20220405012430_1649031704.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 16:46:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15038', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Transportation Fare up by 15 Percent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. The Department of Transport Management has increased the fares for long distance route by 10 to 15 percent as per a ministerial-level decision taken by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport had decided to increase the fare of inter-provincial public transportation on Thursday. Based on the same decision, the department issued a notice on Sunday informing that public transportation fares in hill and terai regions have been fixed depending upon the geography of the area. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The fares for cargo vehicles have been increased by 13 percent in the hill region and by 15 percent in the terai region, the department informed. Meanwhile, the fare of passenger vehicles has been increased by 10 percent. Director of the department, Namaraj Ghimire said that the fares have been adjusted based on the increased rates of fuels in the international market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“The transportation fares will be adjusted automatically if the prices of fuel fluctuate by 5 percent,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Central Federation of Public Transport, Bharat Nepal stated that the transport entrepreneurs have partially agreed with the government’s decision of adjustment of public transportation fares. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We presented a memorandum to the ministry for increasing the fares by 16 to 26 percent based on the increase in rates of fuels. But the government decided to increase the fares by just 15 percent and we are dissatisfied with it,” said Nepal, adding, “We are happy with the implementation of the automated fare system that we have been demanding time and again.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14782', 'image' => '20220404020507_public transport.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:04:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15040', 'article_category_id' => '229', 'title' => 'Shinta Mani Hotel Chain Enters Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has taken over the management of Moksha Hotel, a famous hotel in Mustang. Moksha Hotel is currently being run under Sherpa Hospitality Group. It is stated that now the Shinta Mani Hotel will manage this resort. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has been operating luxury hotels in various places of the world. Shinta Mani is a famous brand operating luxirious hotels in forests and the wild. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A bilateral agreement has been reached for the Shinta Mani Hotel to handle the management of the Moksha Hotel (resort) from coming October. Moksha Hotel was constructed with an investment of Rs 1.10 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">American architect Bill Bensley is credited with starting the Shinta Mani Hotel brand. He said his venture has become successful in the jungle tourism in Cambodia and believes that it will be successful in Nepal as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is stated that works have been started with the objective of promoting Jomsom as a major vacation destination for the tourists from all over the world. --RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14781', 'image' => '20220404023153_images.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:30:46', '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' => '15054', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Hikes Fuel Prices Again', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 6: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has once again increased the prices of petroleum products effective from Tuesday midnight (April 5).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 6: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has once again increased the prices of petroleum products effective from Tuesday midnight (April 5).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The state-owned oil monopoly has increased the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene each by Rs 5 per litre.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the revised price list of NOC, petrol will now cost Rs 160 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 143 per litre. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prior to this, NOC had fixed the price of petrol at Rs 155 per litre almost three weeks ago on March 16. It had also fixed the price of diesel and kerosene at Rs 138 per litre after increasing the price by Rs 5 per litre.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NOC has also increased the price of cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas) by Rs 25 per cylinder. The price of LPG had remained constant since the last 5 months while the prices of other petroleum products were increased time and again by the NOC under various pretexts. A cylinder of cooking gas will now cost Rs 1600 for the consumers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the NOC has also increased the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) for domestic flights from Rs 151 per litre to Rs 156 per litre.</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"">This is the tenth time that the NOC has increased the prices of petroleum products in the last nine months. The prices have been rising constantly since August 2021, when the price of petrol was just Rs 130 per litre. </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 NOC has been stating that it has been bearing losses even after increasing the fuel prices. The NOC revises the price every fortnight after receiving a new list from the Indian Oil Corporation. Lately, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused a rise in fuel prices in the international market.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14795', 'image' => '20220406103104_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:28:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15053', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Minister Sharma in Favour of making Dry Port an Export Hub ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The remittance and import-based economy is risky for Nepal, Minister Sharma said, stressing the dry port should be developed a centre point for exporting goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a programme organized following the inauguration of the dry port by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday, Finance Minister Sharma said the dry port should be strategically used to increase export of food items and agro-based goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Minister also highlighted the need of moving towards self-dependence by converting labour and natural resources into capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further expressed the readiness on part of the government to collaborate with private sector and cooperatives for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the data related to import and export on the occasion, he said Nepal's import has been estimated to be around Rs 1,308 billion as of mid-March 2022 and this has increased by 38 per cent in comparison to last year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared the country's exports stand at Rs 147 billion in the last eight months which is a slightly better than in in the previous year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister added that COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war have added serious challenges to the country's economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As of mid-March, the country's foreign exchange reserves were equivalent to Rs 940 billion, he said, adding the reserves were enough to manage import of goods for at least six months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14794', 'image' => '20220406100345_20220406080457_ROS_KTM-9164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:03:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15051', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Deuba Inaugurates Chobhar Dry Port', 'sub_title' => 'The new facility expected to develop Kathmandu as a major trade hub ', 'summary' => 'April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. The dry port was constructed to facilitate the country's international trade. </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"">Inaugurating the Dry Port, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed confidence that the construction of Nepal's first dry port on the outskirts of the capital is a milestone in developing the federal capital Kathmandu as an international trade hub. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the dry port would play a special role in facilitating export-based trade and availability of a one-stop service including customs screening and quarantine to reduce the cost of foreign trade and also to help the administrative process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba further claimed that the dry port would promote export by facilitating trade and enhancing transparency. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dry port is expected to further ease foreign trade through Kathmandu and make the trade of goods and services competitive and effective by reducing costs involved in export. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that administrative hassles are still prevalent especially in the transportation of goods in Nepal's foreign trade, PM Deuba said such a high-quality trade infrastructure would help lessen the hassles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba said trade deficit could be reduced by increasing the export of Nepal-made goods in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The PM assured that his government was committed to create a conducive environment for industrial development and to attract foreign investment. He added that various programmes were introduced for reforms at policy-level and procedural level to achieve the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the PM spoke of the need to simplify and reduce the existing procedural hassles in foreign trade and said he was ready to collaborate with the private sector to promote trade. (With inputs from RSS) </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14793', 'image' => '20220406100418_ROS_KTM-9311.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 08:04:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15050', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Expenditure of Local Election Likely to Cross Rs 40 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13. With 38 days left for the election, experts have analyzed the impact of election on the economy from various angles. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of around Rs 9 billion to the Election Commission (EC). The ministry has also given approval to the Ministry of Home Affairs to spend around Rs 10 billion. The Home Ministry will deploy temporary police in polling stations across the country for election security and pay them from the allocated budget. These two government bodies will spend around Rs 19 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shaligram Poudel, spokesperson of the EC, the amount will be spent on voter education, printing and transportation of ballot papers, election observation and salaries and allowances of polling staff. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">A high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance estimates that Rs 30 to 40 billion will be spent on local level elections including the expenses of the Election Commission and the Home Ministry. Not only the government, but the political parties and the candidates also spend money for the election campaigns. The EC has issued a code of conduct that does not allow a candidate to spend more than Rs 300,000. However, Gopinath Mainali, former secretary of the EC, says that this code of conduct is not applicable in practice. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The code of conduct is just for the sake of formality. Since the commission appoints officials on from political parties, no action will be taken even if the parties and candidates violate the code of conduct," he said. Former Secretary Mainali is of the view that the electoral economy has both positive and negative aspects. According to him, the parties spend a few billion rupees on propaganda and publicity. Even the NGOs and INGOs can spend on voter education. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that apart from the problem of increasing budget deficit and reducing development expenditure, there is a risk of inflation when a lot of money flows into the economy all of a sudden. He said that the election would create short-term employment. However, Khanal is of the view that the election has not had a significant impact on the overall economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He sees the election as a threat that is likely to increase liquidity crisis, increase consumption, increase imports and put pressure on foreign exchange reserves. "Increased economic activity has some positive effects on gross domestic product (GDP). However, according to the rules of economics, exports have a positive effect on the economy and imports have a negative effect," he said. Khanal believes that the election will not have much impact on domestic production but it will not have much impact on the economy as imports will increase. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Election Commission, in the previous election, there was a provision of keeping a deposit of Rs 1,500 when registering for the candidacy of chief of municipality and rural municipality. There is a provision of to exempt half the deposit amount for women, Dalits and people from the minority groups or poor candidates. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The commission has arranged deposits of Rs 1,000 for ward chairperson and Rs 500 for ward members. If a candidate gets less than 10 percent of the total votes, the deposit will be confiscated. There is a rule that the confiscated amount should be deposited in the state coffers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14792', 'image' => '20220405032610_EC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:25:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15049', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Government Refuses Issuing License to Private Sector for Electricity Trade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has stopped the process stating that there is no such provision in the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation had prepared guidelines and procedures in this regard and submitted them to the Ministry of Law and Finance for approval. However, the Ministry of Law sent back the file saying that there is no legal provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. In the meantime, the process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity was stopped immediately.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Law argued that any provision that is not included in the prevailing laws cannot be implemented by formulating procedures. Due to this, the process of issuing electricity trade licenses to the private sector was halted immediately, said Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal, spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is no provision in the prevailing laws to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, the private sector has been seeking permission for the electricity trade. The Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN) has set up a company called Nepal Power Exchange Limited to trade electricity. The company has also signed an agreement with Indian electricity trading company Manikaran to provide 500 MW of electricity by next year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Given these issues, the Ministry of Energy had prepared a procedure to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, after the Ministry of Law imposed the ban, the issue has become complicated.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal said that the private sector would be allowed to trade electricity even through an ordinance. She said this while addressing the Himalayan Hydro Expo held in Kathmandu on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Electricity Act under consideration in the parliament has a provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the obstruction of parliament, it is not likely to be passed immediately. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Bhusal said that if an ordinance is introduced, the private sector will be given a license to trade electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We are in favor of allowing the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the lack of legislation, there were some immediate problems,” she said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Therefore, if we bring an ordinance, we will give the license,” she assured. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of IPPAN, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said that there was no need to think about this issue. "The issue raised by the energy minister is serious. But for us, the license is more important than that,” he added. "</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has stopped 215 river flow projects of 9000 MW capacity. Energy producers of the private sector say that the PPA of those projects can be done if they get a license from the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14791', 'image' => '20220405030752_1649136566.1627125046.upper_tamakoshi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:06:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15048', 'article_category_id' => '244', 'title' => 'Industrialists, Businessmen Say Prime Minister's India Visit was Productive ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 5: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They believe that the prime minister's visit that took place amidst a myriad of problems in the trade and business sector between the two close South Asian neighbours due to the absence of dialogue at the highest political level since the last few years has helped enhance mutual understanding. Also the significant agreements in the electricity and transportation sectors are expected make important contribution to the economic development of Nepal in days to come. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the three-day official visit has paved the way for the governments of both the countries for increasing Indian investments in Nepal and facilitating exports towards India. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In an interaction with Indian businessmen during his visit, PM Deuba encouraged the Indian investors, industrialists and businessmen to invest in the energy, infrastructure and tourism sectors claiming that Nepal has suitable environment for investment. Prime Minister Deuba said that the official visit would help strengthen mutual relations between the two countries and hold discussions on matters of bilateral economic cooperation. He expressed the belief that Nepal-India ties would gain new height with his visit. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, he called on the private sector to participate in the nation's development, saying the time has come for all Nepalis to once again come together for charting out a road map for a prosperous nation by keeping the broader economic and social interests of Nepal at the centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Addressing the programme organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in New Delhi, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) president Shekhar Golchha, who was a member in the Prime Minister's entourage, said there is immense possibility for investment by Indian industrialists and businessmen in the hydropower, tourism, production-based sector and information technology areas among the service sectors of Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He added that Nepal's private sector would facilitate in increasing Indian investment. Golchha underscored that the multinational companies investing in Nepal were making decent earning. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">CII President TV Narendran said, “Now Nepal is one of the attractive destinations for Indian investors. Few years back, Nepal was enduring internal conflict, political instability and electricity crisis and COVID-19 crisis in the past two years had its implications on the building of investment-friendly atmosphere. But there is no such situation now.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> According to him, India visit by the Nepal’s Prime Minister has inspired Indian business community to increase investment in 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"">The programme was attended by around 30 multinational companies in India where CEO’s of around 15 companies expressed their concerns and shared their experiences about the investment potentialities in Nepal. They said Nepal offers opportunities for investment in big projects relating to IT, infrastructure and hydropower. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the office-bearers of FNCCI and CII, Indian investors put their queries about promotion of cooperation in investment, implementation of the joint-projects and Nepal-India investment and trade facilitation among others. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">FNCCI senior vice president Chandra Dhakal said Nepal could reap benefits from progress that India achieved from Modi’s ‘visionary’ leadership. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “No nation could achieve prosperity in absence of cooperation between the public and private sectors,” he said, expressing hope that creation of investment-friendly environment at home would attract foreign investment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Investment potential has been increasing in Nepal’s tourism sector and existing tourism infrastructure will be insufficient in the next two years,” he said, adding that investment in tourism sector has become easier due to the policy adopted by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This visit of the PM has achieved a breakthrough in hydropower, a sector which has been struggling to yield results for 40 to 50 years, argued hydropower entrepreneur Gyanendra Lal Pradhan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Willingness of India to purchase energy from Nepal would help the country find the market for its energy, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Nepal having traditional relations with India was searching for ways to increase its export to India, Indian business community stressed the need for India to facilitate Nepal's export to the neighbouring country and third countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, they discussed issues ranging from carrying out infrastructural reforms at the transit points between the two countries to removing non-tariff barriers and of establishing a lab to check quality of agricultural products and validating lab tests of the products by both the countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"India should help Nepal to reduce our trade imbalance by increasing the exports of goods," said Mahesh Jaju, Chairperson of the Jaju Group. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14790', 'image' => '20220405024309_1649061430.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:42:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15047', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce Kicks Off', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu. The program, that kicked off on April 4 will run till April 6, Wednesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The three-day training program kicked off with two plenary sessions on “E-tourism marketing,” and “Handicraft and Agriculture: Leveraging Digital Technology Opportunities”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Inaugurating the program, Minister of Urban Development Ram Kumari Jhakri launched a manual entitled “Beginner’s manual on Digital Marketing and E-commerce”. On the occasion Minister Jhakri stressed on empowering women socially and economically. She also expressed her confidence that this training program would help women in digitalization of their business. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, president of South Asian Women Development Forum, Pramila Acharya Rijal informed that, since the inception of UNESCAP and SAWDF partnership project on “E-commerce Capacity Building for Women-led SMEs in South Asia”, more than 1500 women entrepreneurs have been trained in South Asia, with more than 200 Nepali women entrepreneurs benefitting from this project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Dr Rajan Sudesh Ratna, deputy head of ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office, New Delhi, India, the “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” has been instrumental in bridging the digital divide and will help in a stronger participation of women entrepreneurs in the digitization business in South Asia.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The training aims to share experiences of successful e-commerce and digital marketing women entrepreneurs, and train them on ways to register and link their businesses to e-commerce and digital marketing platforms, the organisers said. Furthermore, they are also organising the event to help women entrepreneurs build a network and provide an opportunity to display their product and services to fellow participants. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14789', 'image' => '20220405022549_Training-of-women-entrepreneurs-04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:24:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15046', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022 Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu. According to the organizers, the expo which kicked off on Saturday provided an additional impetus for the development and expansion of the country's energy sector.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expo was organized in a joint effort by the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) and Expo and Event Management Services Pvt. Ltd. The main sponsor of the expo was NMB Bank. The British Embassy and the Canadian High Commission were country partners of the expo, which was coordinated by the Indian Embassy in Nepal. Similarly, organizations including IFC also sponsored the expo, with additional assistance from Nepal Electricity Authority, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Nepal Bankers Association and Federation of Contractors’ Association Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the closing session of the expo, IPPAN requested the government to hand over the sale, distribution and export of domestically produced electricity to the private sector. Chairman of IPPAN Krishna Prasad Acharya made such a demand to Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal. Minister for Energy Pampha Bhusal said that the energy sector is the main basis of economic development and the government has taken steps to develop it. Similarly, she announced to open power purchase agreement (PPA) only after the market was assured.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the expo, 6 interactions related to hydropower were conducted every day. Companies and concerned authorities from China, India, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Brazil and other countries participated in the expo.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14788', 'image' => '20220405012340_1649118001.Clipboard07.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 13:22:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15045', 'article_category_id' => '220', 'title' => 'Central Bank Instructs Commercial Banks not to open LCs for Luxury Items', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Officials of the central bank on Monday summoned the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all 27 commercial banks and issued such instruction verbally. The central bank decided to issue such instruction due to the continuous decline in foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to informed sources, NRB does not have enough foreign exchange to support the imports of even six months. CEO of a commercial bank said that the NRB has instructed them unofficially to not open LCs for imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Now we will follow the instructions given by the central bank,” said the CEO requesting anonymity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB cannot issue a formal instruction to stop LC. That is why the central bank called the CEOs of all the commercial banks and issued the unofficial instruction. Central Bank officials say that opening of LC can be resumed after the situation improves. NRB also asked the commercial banks to bring the CD ratio below 90 percent. NRB has already made arrangements to keep cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dev Kumar Dhakal, head of the Supervision Department of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha, head of the Research Department, and Ramu Poudel, head of the Foreign Exchange Department and CEOs of the commercial Bank held discussions over the issue on Monday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14787', 'image' => '20220405124512_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 12:44:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15044', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Flights to Remote Districts of Karnali Diverted to Tourism Destinations', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">With the increase in arrival of foreign tourists, the airline companies providing regular services to districts like Humla, Mugu, Jumla and Dolpa have allegedly diverted their flights to eastern districts where the influx of tourists is high during the peak season.</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 stakeholders, Tara Air, Summit Air and Sita Air have reduced the number of regular flights to the remote districts of Karnali Province that are yet to be connected to the road network. This has caused inconvenience to the people of the remote districts of Karnali who rely on air service due to poor condition of roads. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though the people of southern Humla have access to road transportation service to travel in and out of the district, the people of Sarkegad, Kharpunath, Simkot and northern Namkha rural municipality face problems due to the flight diversion, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to RSS, the district headquarters Simkot is yet to be connected with the national road network. Authorities at Simkot Airport informed said flights have been diverted since Sunday leaving passengers stranded at the airport.</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"">Passengers awaiting for flight to Simkot from Nepalgunj and Surkhet complained that the flight diversion had lengthened their stay and made the travel unnecessarily expensive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The private airline companies have focused on tourist flights at Lukla, Pokhara and Jomsom, RSS further said. The people of Humla complained that they are not in the priority of airline service providers during the tourist season.</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"">“They violated the rule requiring at least one flight for Humla in a season,” RSS quoted a passenger as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conducts only limited number of flights along the Nepalgunj-Humla route and the people complain of ‘undue influence’ in issuing air tickets.</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 passengers accuse NAC employees in Nepalgunj of favouritism while issuing tickets to their relatives and also act upon the phone calls from people in power for the distribution of air tickets. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14786', 'image' => '20220405110412_Simokot-Airport-in-Humla.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 11:03:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15043', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'BFIs Struggling to Acquire Loans from Abroad', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, banks have acquired only a minimal amount of loan during this period. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bankers say it is difficult to acquire loan from foreign banks because the country doesn’t have credit rating and the loan becomes expensive due to the fluctuation in rate of dollar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Acquiring loans from foreign banks is a good alternative to resolve the liquidity crisis,” says Vice President of Nepal Bankers’ Association Sunil KC, who is also the CEO of NMB Bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“However, foreign banks don’t trust us because we lack country rating,” added KC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">So far, around a dozen banks have sought permission from the central bank to acquire loans worth Rs 30 billion in total from foreign banks. Out of that amount, around Rs 10 billion has already entered the banking system of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Around half a dozen BFIs including a microfinance company have acquired foreign loans so far. Majority of those loans were provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank Group. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Besides loan from IFC, some BFIs have also acquired loans from Switzerland, Germany, Dubai and Singapore.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that the BFIs are struggling to acquire foreign loans as there is a provision to invest such loans in infrastructure and development projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Loans from abroad need to be invested in development projects. Such loans are expensive and therefore BFIs are facing difficulty in taking such loans and investing them in development projects,” said Bhatta.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14785', 'image' => '20220404080256_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 20:02:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15042', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supply of Petroleum Products Eases after a Pact between NOC and Dealers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government-owned petrol stations across the country were jam-packed this weekend after the private petrol stations refused to collect up petroleum products from the NOC demanding hike in commission.</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 Nepal Petroleum Dealers' National Association had launched a protest last week against the NOC for not increasing the commission received by private petrol stations, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. The dealers argued that they incurred huge losses due to the rising prices of petroleum products in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Following the agreement, supply of petroleum products in the market has eased since Sunday morning (April 4), RSS further reported. The NOC said it delivered 1,600 kiloliters of petrol and 1,100 kiloliters of diesel to the market.</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"">As per the agreement, a decision on the commission amounts and the supply of LP gas would be taken within seven days while the other demands of the association would be addressed by May 29, informed NOC Spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyay. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14784', 'image' => '20220404054538_nocc.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 17:44:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15041', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Multinational Companies to Build 2 Blocks in Simara SEZ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara. The Special Economic Zone Authority is preparing to bring a foreign company to build infrastructure on 200 bigahs of land in block B and C of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Block A of the SEZ has already been completed. SEZ Executive Director Chandika Prasad Bhatta informed that they are preparing to propose to multinational companies from China, India and other countries to build the infrastructure required for B and C blocks of the SEZ. The SEZ will have a total of 5 blocks.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On Sunday, SEZ and Nepal Infrastructure Bank Limited (NIFRA) reached an agreement to invest in the construction of infrastructure in those blocks of Simara SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"We will bring private sector and multinational companies for the construction of SEZ under public-private partnership concept," Bhatta said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhatta said that it was necessary to bring in new investors and foreign companies to create export-oriented environment as per the objective of SEZ. So far, only the government has been investing in the infrastructure to be built in the SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Accordingly, the government has invested Rs 3 billion in the construction of drinking water, electricity, administrative building, sewerage, roads and other infrastructure in block A of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The SEZs have been set up with the main objective of promoting trade and export.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14783', 'image' => '20220405012430_1649031704.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 16:46:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15038', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Transportation Fare up by 15 Percent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. The Department of Transport Management has increased the fares for long distance route by 10 to 15 percent as per a ministerial-level decision taken by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport had decided to increase the fare of inter-provincial public transportation on Thursday. Based on the same decision, the department issued a notice on Sunday informing that public transportation fares in hill and terai regions have been fixed depending upon the geography of the area. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The fares for cargo vehicles have been increased by 13 percent in the hill region and by 15 percent in the terai region, the department informed. Meanwhile, the fare of passenger vehicles has been increased by 10 percent. Director of the department, Namaraj Ghimire said that the fares have been adjusted based on the increased rates of fuels in the international market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“The transportation fares will be adjusted automatically if the prices of fuel fluctuate by 5 percent,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Central Federation of Public Transport, Bharat Nepal stated that the transport entrepreneurs have partially agreed with the government’s decision of adjustment of public transportation fares. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We presented a memorandum to the ministry for increasing the fares by 16 to 26 percent based on the increase in rates of fuels. But the government decided to increase the fares by just 15 percent and we are dissatisfied with it,” said Nepal, adding, “We are happy with the implementation of the automated fare system that we have been demanding time and again.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14782', 'image' => '20220404020507_public transport.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:04:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15040', 'article_category_id' => '229', 'title' => 'Shinta Mani Hotel Chain Enters Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has taken over the management of Moksha Hotel, a famous hotel in Mustang. Moksha Hotel is currently being run under Sherpa Hospitality Group. It is stated that now the Shinta Mani Hotel will manage this resort. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has been operating luxury hotels in various places of the world. Shinta Mani is a famous brand operating luxirious hotels in forests and the wild. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A bilateral agreement has been reached for the Shinta Mani Hotel to handle the management of the Moksha Hotel (resort) from coming October. Moksha Hotel was constructed with an investment of Rs 1.10 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">American architect Bill Bensley is credited with starting the Shinta Mani Hotel brand. He said his venture has become successful in the jungle tourism in Cambodia and believes that it will be successful in Nepal as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is stated that works have been started with the objective of promoting Jomsom as a major vacation destination for the tourists from all over the world. --RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14781', 'image' => '20220404023153_images.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:30:46', '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' => '15054', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Hikes Fuel Prices Again', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 6: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has once again increased the prices of petroleum products effective from Tuesday midnight (April 5).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 6: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has once again increased the prices of petroleum products effective from Tuesday midnight (April 5).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The state-owned oil monopoly has increased the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene each by Rs 5 per litre.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the revised price list of NOC, petrol will now cost Rs 160 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 143 per litre. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prior to this, NOC had fixed the price of petrol at Rs 155 per litre almost three weeks ago on March 16. It had also fixed the price of diesel and kerosene at Rs 138 per litre after increasing the price by Rs 5 per litre.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NOC has also increased the price of cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas) by Rs 25 per cylinder. The price of LPG had remained constant since the last 5 months while the prices of other petroleum products were increased time and again by the NOC under various pretexts. A cylinder of cooking gas will now cost Rs 1600 for the consumers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the NOC has also increased the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) for domestic flights from Rs 151 per litre to Rs 156 per litre.</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"">This is the tenth time that the NOC has increased the prices of petroleum products in the last nine months. The prices have been rising constantly since August 2021, when the price of petrol was just Rs 130 per litre. </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 NOC has been stating that it has been bearing losses even after increasing the fuel prices. The NOC revises the price every fortnight after receiving a new list from the Indian Oil Corporation. Lately, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused a rise in fuel prices in the international market.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14795', 'image' => '20220406103104_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:28:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15053', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Minister Sharma in Favour of making Dry Port an Export Hub ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The remittance and import-based economy is risky for Nepal, Minister Sharma said, stressing the dry port should be developed a centre point for exporting goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a programme organized following the inauguration of the dry port by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday, Finance Minister Sharma said the dry port should be strategically used to increase export of food items and agro-based goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Minister also highlighted the need of moving towards self-dependence by converting labour and natural resources into capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further expressed the readiness on part of the government to collaborate with private sector and cooperatives for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the data related to import and export on the occasion, he said Nepal's import has been estimated to be around Rs 1,308 billion as of mid-March 2022 and this has increased by 38 per cent in comparison to last year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared the country's exports stand at Rs 147 billion in the last eight months which is a slightly better than in in the previous year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister added that COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war have added serious challenges to the country's economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As of mid-March, the country's foreign exchange reserves were equivalent to Rs 940 billion, he said, adding the reserves were enough to manage import of goods for at least six months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14794', 'image' => '20220406100345_20220406080457_ROS_KTM-9164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:03:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15051', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Deuba Inaugurates Chobhar Dry Port', 'sub_title' => 'The new facility expected to develop Kathmandu as a major trade hub ', 'summary' => 'April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. The dry port was constructed to facilitate the country's international trade. </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"">Inaugurating the Dry Port, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed confidence that the construction of Nepal's first dry port on the outskirts of the capital is a milestone in developing the federal capital Kathmandu as an international trade hub. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the dry port would play a special role in facilitating export-based trade and availability of a one-stop service including customs screening and quarantine to reduce the cost of foreign trade and also to help the administrative process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba further claimed that the dry port would promote export by facilitating trade and enhancing transparency. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dry port is expected to further ease foreign trade through Kathmandu and make the trade of goods and services competitive and effective by reducing costs involved in export. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that administrative hassles are still prevalent especially in the transportation of goods in Nepal's foreign trade, PM Deuba said such a high-quality trade infrastructure would help lessen the hassles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba said trade deficit could be reduced by increasing the export of Nepal-made goods in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The PM assured that his government was committed to create a conducive environment for industrial development and to attract foreign investment. He added that various programmes were introduced for reforms at policy-level and procedural level to achieve the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the PM spoke of the need to simplify and reduce the existing procedural hassles in foreign trade and said he was ready to collaborate with the private sector to promote trade. (With inputs from RSS) </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14793', 'image' => '20220406100418_ROS_KTM-9311.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 08:04:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15050', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Expenditure of Local Election Likely to Cross Rs 40 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13. With 38 days left for the election, experts have analyzed the impact of election on the economy from various angles. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of around Rs 9 billion to the Election Commission (EC). The ministry has also given approval to the Ministry of Home Affairs to spend around Rs 10 billion. The Home Ministry will deploy temporary police in polling stations across the country for election security and pay them from the allocated budget. These two government bodies will spend around Rs 19 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shaligram Poudel, spokesperson of the EC, the amount will be spent on voter education, printing and transportation of ballot papers, election observation and salaries and allowances of polling staff. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">A high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance estimates that Rs 30 to 40 billion will be spent on local level elections including the expenses of the Election Commission and the Home Ministry. Not only the government, but the political parties and the candidates also spend money for the election campaigns. The EC has issued a code of conduct that does not allow a candidate to spend more than Rs 300,000. However, Gopinath Mainali, former secretary of the EC, says that this code of conduct is not applicable in practice. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The code of conduct is just for the sake of formality. Since the commission appoints officials on from political parties, no action will be taken even if the parties and candidates violate the code of conduct," he said. Former Secretary Mainali is of the view that the electoral economy has both positive and negative aspects. According to him, the parties spend a few billion rupees on propaganda and publicity. Even the NGOs and INGOs can spend on voter education. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that apart from the problem of increasing budget deficit and reducing development expenditure, there is a risk of inflation when a lot of money flows into the economy all of a sudden. He said that the election would create short-term employment. However, Khanal is of the view that the election has not had a significant impact on the overall economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He sees the election as a threat that is likely to increase liquidity crisis, increase consumption, increase imports and put pressure on foreign exchange reserves. "Increased economic activity has some positive effects on gross domestic product (GDP). However, according to the rules of economics, exports have a positive effect on the economy and imports have a negative effect," he said. Khanal believes that the election will not have much impact on domestic production but it will not have much impact on the economy as imports will increase. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Election Commission, in the previous election, there was a provision of keeping a deposit of Rs 1,500 when registering for the candidacy of chief of municipality and rural municipality. There is a provision of to exempt half the deposit amount for women, Dalits and people from the minority groups or poor candidates. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The commission has arranged deposits of Rs 1,000 for ward chairperson and Rs 500 for ward members. If a candidate gets less than 10 percent of the total votes, the deposit will be confiscated. There is a rule that the confiscated amount should be deposited in the state coffers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14792', 'image' => '20220405032610_EC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:25:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15049', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Government Refuses Issuing License to Private Sector for Electricity Trade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has stopped the process stating that there is no such provision in the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation had prepared guidelines and procedures in this regard and submitted them to the Ministry of Law and Finance for approval. However, the Ministry of Law sent back the file saying that there is no legal provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. In the meantime, the process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity was stopped immediately.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Law argued that any provision that is not included in the prevailing laws cannot be implemented by formulating procedures. Due to this, the process of issuing electricity trade licenses to the private sector was halted immediately, said Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal, spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is no provision in the prevailing laws to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, the private sector has been seeking permission for the electricity trade. The Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN) has set up a company called Nepal Power Exchange Limited to trade electricity. The company has also signed an agreement with Indian electricity trading company Manikaran to provide 500 MW of electricity by next year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Given these issues, the Ministry of Energy had prepared a procedure to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, after the Ministry of Law imposed the ban, the issue has become complicated.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal said that the private sector would be allowed to trade electricity even through an ordinance. She said this while addressing the Himalayan Hydro Expo held in Kathmandu on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Electricity Act under consideration in the parliament has a provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the obstruction of parliament, it is not likely to be passed immediately. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Bhusal said that if an ordinance is introduced, the private sector will be given a license to trade electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We are in favor of allowing the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the lack of legislation, there were some immediate problems,” she said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Therefore, if we bring an ordinance, we will give the license,” she assured. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of IPPAN, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said that there was no need to think about this issue. "The issue raised by the energy minister is serious. But for us, the license is more important than that,” he added. "</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has stopped 215 river flow projects of 9000 MW capacity. Energy producers of the private sector say that the PPA of those projects can be done if they get a license from the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14791', 'image' => '20220405030752_1649136566.1627125046.upper_tamakoshi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:06:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15048', 'article_category_id' => '244', 'title' => 'Industrialists, Businessmen Say Prime Minister's India Visit was Productive ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 5: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They believe that the prime minister's visit that took place amidst a myriad of problems in the trade and business sector between the two close South Asian neighbours due to the absence of dialogue at the highest political level since the last few years has helped enhance mutual understanding. Also the significant agreements in the electricity and transportation sectors are expected make important contribution to the economic development of Nepal in days to come. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the three-day official visit has paved the way for the governments of both the countries for increasing Indian investments in Nepal and facilitating exports towards India. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In an interaction with Indian businessmen during his visit, PM Deuba encouraged the Indian investors, industrialists and businessmen to invest in the energy, infrastructure and tourism sectors claiming that Nepal has suitable environment for investment. Prime Minister Deuba said that the official visit would help strengthen mutual relations between the two countries and hold discussions on matters of bilateral economic cooperation. He expressed the belief that Nepal-India ties would gain new height with his visit. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, he called on the private sector to participate in the nation's development, saying the time has come for all Nepalis to once again come together for charting out a road map for a prosperous nation by keeping the broader economic and social interests of Nepal at the centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Addressing the programme organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in New Delhi, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) president Shekhar Golchha, who was a member in the Prime Minister's entourage, said there is immense possibility for investment by Indian industrialists and businessmen in the hydropower, tourism, production-based sector and information technology areas among the service sectors of Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He added that Nepal's private sector would facilitate in increasing Indian investment. Golchha underscored that the multinational companies investing in Nepal were making decent earning. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">CII President TV Narendran said, “Now Nepal is one of the attractive destinations for Indian investors. Few years back, Nepal was enduring internal conflict, political instability and electricity crisis and COVID-19 crisis in the past two years had its implications on the building of investment-friendly atmosphere. But there is no such situation now.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> According to him, India visit by the Nepal’s Prime Minister has inspired Indian business community to increase investment in 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"">The programme was attended by around 30 multinational companies in India where CEO’s of around 15 companies expressed their concerns and shared their experiences about the investment potentialities in Nepal. They said Nepal offers opportunities for investment in big projects relating to IT, infrastructure and hydropower. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the office-bearers of FNCCI and CII, Indian investors put their queries about promotion of cooperation in investment, implementation of the joint-projects and Nepal-India investment and trade facilitation among others. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">FNCCI senior vice president Chandra Dhakal said Nepal could reap benefits from progress that India achieved from Modi’s ‘visionary’ leadership. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “No nation could achieve prosperity in absence of cooperation between the public and private sectors,” he said, expressing hope that creation of investment-friendly environment at home would attract foreign investment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Investment potential has been increasing in Nepal’s tourism sector and existing tourism infrastructure will be insufficient in the next two years,” he said, adding that investment in tourism sector has become easier due to the policy adopted by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This visit of the PM has achieved a breakthrough in hydropower, a sector which has been struggling to yield results for 40 to 50 years, argued hydropower entrepreneur Gyanendra Lal Pradhan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Willingness of India to purchase energy from Nepal would help the country find the market for its energy, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Nepal having traditional relations with India was searching for ways to increase its export to India, Indian business community stressed the need for India to facilitate Nepal's export to the neighbouring country and third countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, they discussed issues ranging from carrying out infrastructural reforms at the transit points between the two countries to removing non-tariff barriers and of establishing a lab to check quality of agricultural products and validating lab tests of the products by both the countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"India should help Nepal to reduce our trade imbalance by increasing the exports of goods," said Mahesh Jaju, Chairperson of the Jaju Group. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14790', 'image' => '20220405024309_1649061430.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:42:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15047', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce Kicks Off', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu. The program, that kicked off on April 4 will run till April 6, Wednesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The three-day training program kicked off with two plenary sessions on “E-tourism marketing,” and “Handicraft and Agriculture: Leveraging Digital Technology Opportunities”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Inaugurating the program, Minister of Urban Development Ram Kumari Jhakri launched a manual entitled “Beginner’s manual on Digital Marketing and E-commerce”. On the occasion Minister Jhakri stressed on empowering women socially and economically. She also expressed her confidence that this training program would help women in digitalization of their business. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, president of South Asian Women Development Forum, Pramila Acharya Rijal informed that, since the inception of UNESCAP and SAWDF partnership project on “E-commerce Capacity Building for Women-led SMEs in South Asia”, more than 1500 women entrepreneurs have been trained in South Asia, with more than 200 Nepali women entrepreneurs benefitting from this project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Dr Rajan Sudesh Ratna, deputy head of ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office, New Delhi, India, the “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” has been instrumental in bridging the digital divide and will help in a stronger participation of women entrepreneurs in the digitization business in South Asia.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The training aims to share experiences of successful e-commerce and digital marketing women entrepreneurs, and train them on ways to register and link their businesses to e-commerce and digital marketing platforms, the organisers said. Furthermore, they are also organising the event to help women entrepreneurs build a network and provide an opportunity to display their product and services to fellow participants. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14789', 'image' => '20220405022549_Training-of-women-entrepreneurs-04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:24:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15046', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022 Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu. According to the organizers, the expo which kicked off on Saturday provided an additional impetus for the development and expansion of the country's energy sector.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expo was organized in a joint effort by the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) and Expo and Event Management Services Pvt. Ltd. The main sponsor of the expo was NMB Bank. The British Embassy and the Canadian High Commission were country partners of the expo, which was coordinated by the Indian Embassy in Nepal. Similarly, organizations including IFC also sponsored the expo, with additional assistance from Nepal Electricity Authority, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Nepal Bankers Association and Federation of Contractors’ Association Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the closing session of the expo, IPPAN requested the government to hand over the sale, distribution and export of domestically produced electricity to the private sector. Chairman of IPPAN Krishna Prasad Acharya made such a demand to Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal. Minister for Energy Pampha Bhusal said that the energy sector is the main basis of economic development and the government has taken steps to develop it. Similarly, she announced to open power purchase agreement (PPA) only after the market was assured.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the expo, 6 interactions related to hydropower were conducted every day. Companies and concerned authorities from China, India, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Brazil and other countries participated in the expo.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14788', 'image' => '20220405012340_1649118001.Clipboard07.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 13:22:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15045', 'article_category_id' => '220', 'title' => 'Central Bank Instructs Commercial Banks not to open LCs for Luxury Items', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Officials of the central bank on Monday summoned the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all 27 commercial banks and issued such instruction verbally. The central bank decided to issue such instruction due to the continuous decline in foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to informed sources, NRB does not have enough foreign exchange to support the imports of even six months. CEO of a commercial bank said that the NRB has instructed them unofficially to not open LCs for imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Now we will follow the instructions given by the central bank,” said the CEO requesting anonymity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB cannot issue a formal instruction to stop LC. That is why the central bank called the CEOs of all the commercial banks and issued the unofficial instruction. Central Bank officials say that opening of LC can be resumed after the situation improves. NRB also asked the commercial banks to bring the CD ratio below 90 percent. NRB has already made arrangements to keep cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dev Kumar Dhakal, head of the Supervision Department of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha, head of the Research Department, and Ramu Poudel, head of the Foreign Exchange Department and CEOs of the commercial Bank held discussions over the issue on Monday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14787', 'image' => '20220405124512_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 12:44:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15044', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Flights to Remote Districts of Karnali Diverted to Tourism Destinations', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">With the increase in arrival of foreign tourists, the airline companies providing regular services to districts like Humla, Mugu, Jumla and Dolpa have allegedly diverted their flights to eastern districts where the influx of tourists is high during the peak season.</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 stakeholders, Tara Air, Summit Air and Sita Air have reduced the number of regular flights to the remote districts of Karnali Province that are yet to be connected to the road network. This has caused inconvenience to the people of the remote districts of Karnali who rely on air service due to poor condition of roads. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though the people of southern Humla have access to road transportation service to travel in and out of the district, the people of Sarkegad, Kharpunath, Simkot and northern Namkha rural municipality face problems due to the flight diversion, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to RSS, the district headquarters Simkot is yet to be connected with the national road network. Authorities at Simkot Airport informed said flights have been diverted since Sunday leaving passengers stranded at the airport.</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"">Passengers awaiting for flight to Simkot from Nepalgunj and Surkhet complained that the flight diversion had lengthened their stay and made the travel unnecessarily expensive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The private airline companies have focused on tourist flights at Lukla, Pokhara and Jomsom, RSS further said. The people of Humla complained that they are not in the priority of airline service providers during the tourist season.</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"">“They violated the rule requiring at least one flight for Humla in a season,” RSS quoted a passenger as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conducts only limited number of flights along the Nepalgunj-Humla route and the people complain of ‘undue influence’ in issuing air tickets.</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 passengers accuse NAC employees in Nepalgunj of favouritism while issuing tickets to their relatives and also act upon the phone calls from people in power for the distribution of air tickets. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14786', 'image' => '20220405110412_Simokot-Airport-in-Humla.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 11:03:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15043', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'BFIs Struggling to Acquire Loans from Abroad', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, banks have acquired only a minimal amount of loan during this period. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bankers say it is difficult to acquire loan from foreign banks because the country doesn’t have credit rating and the loan becomes expensive due to the fluctuation in rate of dollar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Acquiring loans from foreign banks is a good alternative to resolve the liquidity crisis,” says Vice President of Nepal Bankers’ Association Sunil KC, who is also the CEO of NMB Bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“However, foreign banks don’t trust us because we lack country rating,” added KC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">So far, around a dozen banks have sought permission from the central bank to acquire loans worth Rs 30 billion in total from foreign banks. Out of that amount, around Rs 10 billion has already entered the banking system of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Around half a dozen BFIs including a microfinance company have acquired foreign loans so far. Majority of those loans were provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank Group. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Besides loan from IFC, some BFIs have also acquired loans from Switzerland, Germany, Dubai and Singapore.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that the BFIs are struggling to acquire foreign loans as there is a provision to invest such loans in infrastructure and development projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Loans from abroad need to be invested in development projects. Such loans are expensive and therefore BFIs are facing difficulty in taking such loans and investing them in development projects,” said Bhatta.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14785', 'image' => '20220404080256_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 20:02:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15042', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supply of Petroleum Products Eases after a Pact between NOC and Dealers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government-owned petrol stations across the country were jam-packed this weekend after the private petrol stations refused to collect up petroleum products from the NOC demanding hike in commission.</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 Nepal Petroleum Dealers' National Association had launched a protest last week against the NOC for not increasing the commission received by private petrol stations, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. The dealers argued that they incurred huge losses due to the rising prices of petroleum products in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Following the agreement, supply of petroleum products in the market has eased since Sunday morning (April 4), RSS further reported. The NOC said it delivered 1,600 kiloliters of petrol and 1,100 kiloliters of diesel to the market.</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"">As per the agreement, a decision on the commission amounts and the supply of LP gas would be taken within seven days while the other demands of the association would be addressed by May 29, informed NOC Spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyay. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14784', 'image' => '20220404054538_nocc.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 17:44:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15041', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Multinational Companies to Build 2 Blocks in Simara SEZ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara. The Special Economic Zone Authority is preparing to bring a foreign company to build infrastructure on 200 bigahs of land in block B and C of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Block A of the SEZ has already been completed. SEZ Executive Director Chandika Prasad Bhatta informed that they are preparing to propose to multinational companies from China, India and other countries to build the infrastructure required for B and C blocks of the SEZ. The SEZ will have a total of 5 blocks.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On Sunday, SEZ and Nepal Infrastructure Bank Limited (NIFRA) reached an agreement to invest in the construction of infrastructure in those blocks of Simara SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"We will bring private sector and multinational companies for the construction of SEZ under public-private partnership concept," Bhatta said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhatta said that it was necessary to bring in new investors and foreign companies to create export-oriented environment as per the objective of SEZ. So far, only the government has been investing in the infrastructure to be built in the SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Accordingly, the government has invested Rs 3 billion in the construction of drinking water, electricity, administrative building, sewerage, roads and other infrastructure in block A of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The SEZs have been set up with the main objective of promoting trade and export.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14783', 'image' => '20220405012430_1649031704.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 16:46:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15038', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Transportation Fare up by 15 Percent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. The Department of Transport Management has increased the fares for long distance route by 10 to 15 percent as per a ministerial-level decision taken by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport had decided to increase the fare of inter-provincial public transportation on Thursday. Based on the same decision, the department issued a notice on Sunday informing that public transportation fares in hill and terai regions have been fixed depending upon the geography of the area. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The fares for cargo vehicles have been increased by 13 percent in the hill region and by 15 percent in the terai region, the department informed. Meanwhile, the fare of passenger vehicles has been increased by 10 percent. Director of the department, Namaraj Ghimire said that the fares have been adjusted based on the increased rates of fuels in the international market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“The transportation fares will be adjusted automatically if the prices of fuel fluctuate by 5 percent,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Central Federation of Public Transport, Bharat Nepal stated that the transport entrepreneurs have partially agreed with the government’s decision of adjustment of public transportation fares. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We presented a memorandum to the ministry for increasing the fares by 16 to 26 percent based on the increase in rates of fuels. But the government decided to increase the fares by just 15 percent and we are dissatisfied with it,” said Nepal, adding, “We are happy with the implementation of the automated fare system that we have been demanding time and again.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14782', 'image' => '20220404020507_public transport.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:04:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15040', 'article_category_id' => '229', 'title' => 'Shinta Mani Hotel Chain Enters Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has taken over the management of Moksha Hotel, a famous hotel in Mustang. Moksha Hotel is currently being run under Sherpa Hospitality Group. It is stated that now the Shinta Mani Hotel will manage this resort. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has been operating luxury hotels in various places of the world. Shinta Mani is a famous brand operating luxirious hotels in forests and the wild. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A bilateral agreement has been reached for the Shinta Mani Hotel to handle the management of the Moksha Hotel (resort) from coming October. Moksha Hotel was constructed with an investment of Rs 1.10 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">American architect Bill Bensley is credited with starting the Shinta Mani Hotel brand. He said his venture has become successful in the jungle tourism in Cambodia and believes that it will be successful in Nepal as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is stated that works have been started with the objective of promoting Jomsom as a major vacation destination for the tourists from all over the world. --RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14781', 'image' => '20220404023153_images.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:30:46', '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
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It had also fixed the price of diesel and kerosene at Rs 138 per litre after increasing the price by Rs 5 per litre.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NOC has also increased the price of cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas) by Rs 25 per cylinder. The price of LPG had remained constant since the last 5 months while the prices of other petroleum products were increased time and again by the NOC under various pretexts. A cylinder of cooking gas will now cost Rs 1600 for the consumers.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the NOC has also increased the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) for domestic flights from Rs 151 per litre to Rs 156 per litre.</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"">This is the tenth time that the NOC has increased the prices of petroleum products in the last nine months. The prices have been rising constantly since August 2021, when the price of petrol was just Rs 130 per litre. </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 NOC has been stating that it has been bearing losses even after increasing the fuel prices. The NOC revises the price every fortnight after receiving a new list from the Indian Oil Corporation. Lately, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused a rise in fuel prices in the international market.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14795', 'image' => '20220406103104_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:28:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15053', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Finance Minister Sharma in Favour of making Dry Port an Export Hub ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma underlined the urgency of making resolution to develop the dry port as an export centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The remittance and import-based economy is risky for Nepal, Minister Sharma said, stressing the dry port should be developed a centre point for exporting goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At a programme organized following the inauguration of the dry port by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Tuesday, Finance Minister Sharma said the dry port should be strategically used to increase export of food items and agro-based goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Finance Minister also highlighted the need of moving towards self-dependence by converting labour and natural resources into capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further expressed the readiness on part of the government to collaborate with private sector and cooperatives for the same. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the data related to import and export on the occasion, he said Nepal's import has been estimated to be around Rs 1,308 billion as of mid-March 2022 and this has increased by 38 per cent in comparison to last year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared the country's exports stand at Rs 147 billion in the last eight months which is a slightly better than in in the previous year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister added that COVID-19 pandemic followed by Russia-Ukraine war have added serious challenges to the country's economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As of mid-March, the country's foreign exchange reserves were equivalent to Rs 940 billion, he said, adding the reserves were enough to manage import of goods for at least six months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14794', 'image' => '20220406100345_20220406080457_ROS_KTM-9164.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 10:03:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15051', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Deuba Inaugurates Chobhar Dry Port', 'sub_title' => 'The new facility expected to develop Kathmandu as a major trade hub ', 'summary' => 'April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 6: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated the Chobhar dry port amidst a programme on Tuesday, April 5. The dry port was constructed to facilitate the country's international trade. </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"">Inaugurating the Dry Port, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed confidence that the construction of Nepal's first dry port on the outskirts of the capital is a milestone in developing the federal capital Kathmandu as an international trade hub. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He said that the dry port would play a special role in facilitating export-based trade and availability of a one-stop service including customs screening and quarantine to reduce the cost of foreign trade and also to help the administrative process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba further claimed that the dry port would promote export by facilitating trade and enhancing transparency. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dry port is expected to further ease foreign trade through Kathmandu and make the trade of goods and services competitive and effective by reducing costs involved in export. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that administrative hassles are still prevalent especially in the transportation of goods in Nepal's foreign trade, PM Deuba said such a high-quality trade infrastructure would help lessen the hassles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">PM Deuba said trade deficit could be reduced by increasing the export of Nepal-made goods in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The PM assured that his government was committed to create a conducive environment for industrial development and to attract foreign investment. He added that various programmes were introduced for reforms at policy-level and procedural level to achieve the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the PM spoke of the need to simplify and reduce the existing procedural hassles in foreign trade and said he was ready to collaborate with the private sector to promote trade. (With inputs from RSS) </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-06', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14793', 'image' => '20220406100418_ROS_KTM-9311.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-06 08:04:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15050', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Expenditure of Local Election Likely to Cross Rs 40 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The government is holding election in all 753 local levels on May 13. With 38 days left for the election, experts have analyzed the impact of election on the economy from various angles. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of around Rs 9 billion to the Election Commission (EC). The ministry has also given approval to the Ministry of Home Affairs to spend around Rs 10 billion. The Home Ministry will deploy temporary police in polling stations across the country for election security and pay them from the allocated budget. These two government bodies will spend around Rs 19 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Shaligram Poudel, spokesperson of the EC, the amount will be spent on voter education, printing and transportation of ballot papers, election observation and salaries and allowances of polling staff. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">A high-ranking official of the Ministry of Finance estimates that Rs 30 to 40 billion will be spent on local level elections including the expenses of the Election Commission and the Home Ministry. Not only the government, but the political parties and the candidates also spend money for the election campaigns. The EC has issued a code of conduct that does not allow a candidate to spend more than Rs 300,000. However, Gopinath Mainali, former secretary of the EC, says that this code of conduct is not applicable in practice. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The code of conduct is just for the sake of formality. Since the commission appoints officials on from political parties, no action will be taken even if the parties and candidates violate the code of conduct," he said. Former Secretary Mainali is of the view that the electoral economy has both positive and negative aspects. According to him, the parties spend a few billion rupees on propaganda and publicity. Even the NGOs and INGOs can spend on voter education. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that apart from the problem of increasing budget deficit and reducing development expenditure, there is a risk of inflation when a lot of money flows into the economy all of a sudden. He said that the election would create short-term employment. However, Khanal is of the view that the election has not had a significant impact on the overall economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He sees the election as a threat that is likely to increase liquidity crisis, increase consumption, increase imports and put pressure on foreign exchange reserves. "Increased economic activity has some positive effects on gross domestic product (GDP). However, according to the rules of economics, exports have a positive effect on the economy and imports have a negative effect," he said. Khanal believes that the election will not have much impact on domestic production but it will not have much impact on the economy as imports will increase. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the Election Commission, in the previous election, there was a provision of keeping a deposit of Rs 1,500 when registering for the candidacy of chief of municipality and rural municipality. There is a provision of to exempt half the deposit amount for women, Dalits and people from the minority groups or poor candidates. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The commission has arranged deposits of Rs 1,000 for ward chairperson and Rs 500 for ward members. If a candidate gets less than 10 percent of the total votes, the deposit will be confiscated. There is a rule that the confiscated amount should be deposited in the state coffers. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14792', 'image' => '20220405032610_EC.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:25:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15049', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Government Refuses Issuing License to Private Sector for Electricity Trade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity has been halted due to lack of legislation. The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has stopped the process stating that there is no such provision in the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation had prepared guidelines and procedures in this regard and submitted them to the Ministry of Law and Finance for approval. However, the Ministry of Law sent back the file saying that there is no legal provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. In the meantime, the process of allowing the private sector to trade electricity was stopped immediately.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Law argued that any provision that is not included in the prevailing laws cannot be implemented by formulating procedures. Due to this, the process of issuing electricity trade licenses to the private sector was halted immediately, said Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal, spokesperson of the Ministry of Energy.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is no provision in the prevailing laws to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, the private sector has been seeking permission for the electricity trade. The Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN) has set up a company called Nepal Power Exchange Limited to trade electricity. The company has also signed an agreement with Indian electricity trading company Manikaran to provide 500 MW of electricity by next year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Given these issues, the Ministry of Energy had prepared a procedure to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, after the Ministry of Law imposed the ban, the issue has become complicated.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal said that the private sector would be allowed to trade electricity even through an ordinance. She said this while addressing the Himalayan Hydro Expo held in Kathmandu on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Electricity Act under consideration in the parliament has a provision to allow the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the obstruction of parliament, it is not likely to be passed immediately. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Minister Bhusal said that if an ordinance is introduced, the private sector will be given a license to trade electricity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We are in favor of allowing the private sector to trade electricity. However, due to the lack of legislation, there were some immediate problems,” she said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Therefore, if we bring an ordinance, we will give the license,” she assured. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairman of IPPAN, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said that there was no need to think about this issue. "The issue raised by the energy minister is serious. But for us, the license is more important than that,” he added. "</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At present, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has stopped 215 river flow projects of 9000 MW capacity. Energy producers of the private sector say that the PPA of those projects can be done if they get a license from the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14791', 'image' => '20220405030752_1649136566.1627125046.upper_tamakoshi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 15:06:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15048', 'article_category_id' => '244', 'title' => 'Industrialists, Businessmen Say Prime Minister's India Visit was Productive ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 5: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The industrialists and businessmen of Nepal and India have claimed that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's three-day visit to India has been highly productive and successful. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They believe that the prime minister's visit that took place amidst a myriad of problems in the trade and business sector between the two close South Asian neighbours due to the absence of dialogue at the highest political level since the last few years has helped enhance mutual understanding. Also the significant agreements in the electricity and transportation sectors are expected make important contribution to the economic development of Nepal in days to come. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the three-day official visit has paved the way for the governments of both the countries for increasing Indian investments in Nepal and facilitating exports towards India. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In an interaction with Indian businessmen during his visit, PM Deuba encouraged the Indian investors, industrialists and businessmen to invest in the energy, infrastructure and tourism sectors claiming that Nepal has suitable environment for investment. Prime Minister Deuba said that the official visit would help strengthen mutual relations between the two countries and hold discussions on matters of bilateral economic cooperation. He expressed the belief that Nepal-India ties would gain new height with his visit. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, he called on the private sector to participate in the nation's development, saying the time has come for all Nepalis to once again come together for charting out a road map for a prosperous nation by keeping the broader economic and social interests of Nepal at the centre. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Addressing the programme organized by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in New Delhi, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) president Shekhar Golchha, who was a member in the Prime Minister's entourage, said there is immense possibility for investment by Indian industrialists and businessmen in the hydropower, tourism, production-based sector and information technology areas among the service sectors of Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He added that Nepal's private sector would facilitate in increasing Indian investment. Golchha underscored that the multinational companies investing in Nepal were making decent earning. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">CII President TV Narendran said, “Now Nepal is one of the attractive destinations for Indian investors. Few years back, Nepal was enduring internal conflict, political instability and electricity crisis and COVID-19 crisis in the past two years had its implications on the building of investment-friendly atmosphere. But there is no such situation now.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> According to him, India visit by the Nepal’s Prime Minister has inspired Indian business community to increase investment in 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"">The programme was attended by around 30 multinational companies in India where CEO’s of around 15 companies expressed their concerns and shared their experiences about the investment potentialities in Nepal. They said Nepal offers opportunities for investment in big projects relating to IT, infrastructure and hydropower. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a discussion between the office-bearers of FNCCI and CII, Indian investors put their queries about promotion of cooperation in investment, implementation of the joint-projects and Nepal-India investment and trade facilitation among others. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">FNCCI senior vice president Chandra Dhakal said Nepal could reap benefits from progress that India achieved from Modi’s ‘visionary’ leadership. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “No nation could achieve prosperity in absence of cooperation between the public and private sectors,” he said, expressing hope that creation of investment-friendly environment at home would attract foreign investment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“Investment potential has been increasing in Nepal’s tourism sector and existing tourism infrastructure will be insufficient in the next two years,” he said, adding that investment in tourism sector has become easier due to the policy adopted by the government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This visit of the PM has achieved a breakthrough in hydropower, a sector which has been struggling to yield results for 40 to 50 years, argued hydropower entrepreneur Gyanendra Lal Pradhan. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Willingness of India to purchase energy from Nepal would help the country find the market for its energy, he said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Stating that Nepal having traditional relations with India was searching for ways to increase its export to India, Indian business community stressed the need for India to facilitate Nepal's export to the neighbouring country and third countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting, they discussed issues ranging from carrying out infrastructural reforms at the transit points between the two countries to removing non-tariff barriers and of establishing a lab to check quality of agricultural products and validating lab tests of the products by both the countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"India should help Nepal to reduce our trade imbalance by increasing the exports of goods," said Mahesh Jaju, Chairperson of the Jaju Group. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14790', 'image' => '20220405024309_1649061430.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:42:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15047', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce Kicks Off', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4, Kathmandu: The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF) are jointly organizing a program on “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” in Kathmandu. The program, that kicked off on April 4 will run till April 6, Wednesday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The three-day training program kicked off with two plenary sessions on “E-tourism marketing,” and “Handicraft and Agriculture: Leveraging Digital Technology Opportunities”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Inaugurating the program, Minister of Urban Development Ram Kumari Jhakri launched a manual entitled “Beginner’s manual on Digital Marketing and E-commerce”. On the occasion Minister Jhakri stressed on empowering women socially and economically. She also expressed her confidence that this training program would help women in digitalization of their business. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Similarly, president of South Asian Women Development Forum, Pramila Acharya Rijal informed that, since the inception of UNESCAP and SAWDF partnership project on “E-commerce Capacity Building for Women-led SMEs in South Asia”, more than 1500 women entrepreneurs have been trained in South Asia, with more than 200 Nepali women entrepreneurs benefitting from this project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Dr Rajan Sudesh Ratna, deputy head of ESCAP South and South-West Asia Office, New Delhi, India, the “Training of Women Entrepreneurs on Expanding Business through E-commerce and Digital Marketing” has been instrumental in bridging the digital divide and will help in a stronger participation of women entrepreneurs in the digitization business in South Asia.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The training aims to share experiences of successful e-commerce and digital marketing women entrepreneurs, and train them on ways to register and link their businesses to e-commerce and digital marketing platforms, the organisers said. Furthermore, they are also organising the event to help women entrepreneurs build a network and provide an opportunity to display their product and services to fellow participants. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14789', 'image' => '20220405022549_Training-of-women-entrepreneurs-04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 14:24:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15046', 'article_category_id' => '224', 'title' => 'Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022 Concludes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: The third edition of “Himalayan Hydro Expo 2022” concluded on Monday at the Exhibition Hall in Bhrikutimandap, Kathmandu. According to the organizers, the expo which kicked off on Saturday provided an additional impetus for the development and expansion of the country's energy sector.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expo was organized in a joint effort by the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) and Expo and Event Management Services Pvt. Ltd. The main sponsor of the expo was NMB Bank. The British Embassy and the Canadian High Commission were country partners of the expo, which was coordinated by the Indian Embassy in Nepal. Similarly, organizations including IFC also sponsored the expo, with additional assistance from Nepal Electricity Authority, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Nepal Bankers Association and Federation of Contractors’ Association Nepal.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the closing session of the expo, IPPAN requested the government to hand over the sale, distribution and export of domestically produced electricity to the private sector. Chairman of IPPAN Krishna Prasad Acharya made such a demand to Energy Minister Pampha Bhusal. Minister for Energy Pampha Bhusal said that the energy sector is the main basis of economic development and the government has taken steps to develop it. Similarly, she announced to open power purchase agreement (PPA) only after the market was assured.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During the expo, 6 interactions related to hydropower were conducted every day. Companies and concerned authorities from China, India, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Brazil and other countries participated in the expo.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14788', 'image' => '20220405012340_1649118001.Clipboard07.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 13:22:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15045', 'article_category_id' => '220', 'title' => 'Central Bank Instructs Commercial Banks not to open LCs for Luxury Items', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 5: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has unofficially instructed commercial banks to avoid opening letter of credit (LC) for the imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Officials of the central bank on Monday summoned the chief executive officers (CEOs) of all 27 commercial banks and issued such instruction verbally. The central bank decided to issue such instruction due to the continuous decline in foreign exchange reserves.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to informed sources, NRB does not have enough foreign exchange to support the imports of even six months. CEO of a commercial bank said that the NRB has instructed them unofficially to not open LCs for imports of luxury items including vehicles. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Now we will follow the instructions given by the central bank,” said the CEO requesting anonymity.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB cannot issue a formal instruction to stop LC. That is why the central bank called the CEOs of all the commercial banks and issued the unofficial instruction. Central Bank officials say that opening of LC can be resumed after the situation improves. NRB also asked the commercial banks to bring the CD ratio below 90 percent. NRB has already made arrangements to keep cash margin for opening LCs to import dozens of items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dev Kumar Dhakal, head of the Supervision Department of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha, head of the Research Department, and Ramu Poudel, head of the Foreign Exchange Department and CEOs of the commercial Bank held discussions over the issue on Monday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14787', 'image' => '20220405124512_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 12:44:27', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15044', 'article_category_id' => '228', 'title' => 'Flights to Remote Districts of Karnali Diverted to Tourism Destinations', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 5: Scheduled flights to and from remote areas of Karnali Province have been diverted to tourism hot-spots since the past few days as private airline companies have reportedly shifted their focus towards tourism destinations to earn quick money. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">With the increase in arrival of foreign tourists, the airline companies providing regular services to districts like Humla, Mugu, Jumla and Dolpa have allegedly diverted their flights to eastern districts where the influx of tourists is high during the peak season.</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 stakeholders, Tara Air, Summit Air and Sita Air have reduced the number of regular flights to the remote districts of Karnali Province that are yet to be connected to the road network. This has caused inconvenience to the people of the remote districts of Karnali who rely on air service due to poor condition of roads. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though the people of southern Humla have access to road transportation service to travel in and out of the district, the people of Sarkegad, Kharpunath, Simkot and northern Namkha rural municipality face problems due to the flight diversion, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to RSS, the district headquarters Simkot is yet to be connected with the national road network. Authorities at Simkot Airport informed said flights have been diverted since Sunday leaving passengers stranded at the airport.</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"">Passengers awaiting for flight to Simkot from Nepalgunj and Surkhet complained that the flight diversion had lengthened their stay and made the travel unnecessarily expensive. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The private airline companies have focused on tourist flights at Lukla, Pokhara and Jomsom, RSS further said. The people of Humla complained that they are not in the priority of airline service providers during the tourist season.</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"">“They violated the rule requiring at least one flight for Humla in a season,” RSS quoted a passenger as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conducts only limited number of flights along the Nepalgunj-Humla route and the people complain of ‘undue influence’ in issuing air tickets.</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 passengers accuse NAC employees in Nepalgunj of favouritism while issuing tickets to their relatives and also act upon the phone calls from people in power for the distribution of air tickets. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-05', 'modified' => '2022-04-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14786', 'image' => '20220405110412_Simokot-Airport-in-Humla.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-05 11:03:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15043', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'BFIs Struggling to Acquire Loans from Abroad', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: Banks are struggling to bring loans from foreign banks at a time when the financial system of the country is facing liquidity crunch. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had granted permission to the country’s banks four years ago to acquire loans from abroad.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, banks have acquired only a minimal amount of loan during this period. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bankers say it is difficult to acquire loan from foreign banks because the country doesn’t have credit rating and the loan becomes expensive due to the fluctuation in rate of dollar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Acquiring loans from foreign banks is a good alternative to resolve the liquidity crisis,” says Vice President of Nepal Bankers’ Association Sunil KC, who is also the CEO of NMB Bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“However, foreign banks don’t trust us because we lack country rating,” added KC.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">So far, around a dozen banks have sought permission from the central bank to acquire loans worth Rs 30 billion in total from foreign banks. Out of that amount, around Rs 10 billion has already entered the banking system of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Around half a dozen BFIs including a microfinance company have acquired foreign loans so far. Majority of those loans were provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) under the World Bank Group. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Besides loan from IFC, some BFIs have also acquired loans from Switzerland, Germany, Dubai and Singapore.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that the BFIs are struggling to acquire foreign loans as there is a provision to invest such loans in infrastructure and development projects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Loans from abroad need to be invested in development projects. Such loans are expensive and therefore BFIs are facing difficulty in taking such loans and investing them in development projects,” said Bhatta.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14785', 'image' => '20220404080256_Banks - Copy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 20:02:14', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15042', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supply of Petroleum Products Eases after a Pact between NOC and Dealers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">April 4: Supply of petroleum products in the market has eased following an agreement between the protesting petroleum dealers and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Government-owned petrol stations across the country were jam-packed this weekend after the private petrol stations refused to collect up petroleum products from the NOC demanding hike in commission.</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 Nepal Petroleum Dealers' National Association had launched a protest last week against the NOC for not increasing the commission received by private petrol stations, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. The dealers argued that they incurred huge losses due to the rising prices of petroleum products in the international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Following the agreement, supply of petroleum products in the market has eased since Sunday morning (April 4), RSS further reported. The NOC said it delivered 1,600 kiloliters of petrol and 1,100 kiloliters of diesel to the market.</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"">As per the agreement, a decision on the commission amounts and the supply of LP gas would be taken within seven days while the other demands of the association would be addressed by May 29, informed NOC Spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyay. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14784', 'image' => '20220404054538_nocc.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 17:44:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15041', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Multinational Companies to Build 2 Blocks in Simara SEZ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">April 4: Preparations are underway to bring a multinational company to invest in construction of infrastructure of two blocks of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Simara, Bara. The Special Economic Zone Authority is preparing to bring a foreign company to build infrastructure on 200 bigahs of land in block B and C of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Block A of the SEZ has already been completed. SEZ Executive Director Chandika Prasad Bhatta informed that they are preparing to propose to multinational companies from China, India and other countries to build the infrastructure required for B and C blocks of the SEZ. The SEZ will have a total of 5 blocks.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On Sunday, SEZ and Nepal Infrastructure Bank Limited (NIFRA) reached an agreement to invest in the construction of infrastructure in those blocks of Simara SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"We will bring private sector and multinational companies for the construction of SEZ under public-private partnership concept," Bhatta said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Bhatta said that it was necessary to bring in new investors and foreign companies to create export-oriented environment as per the objective of SEZ. So far, only the government has been investing in the infrastructure to be built in the SEZ. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Accordingly, the government has invested Rs 3 billion in the construction of drinking water, electricity, administrative building, sewerage, roads and other infrastructure in block A of Simara SEZ.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The SEZs have been set up with the main objective of promoting trade and export.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-05', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14783', 'image' => '20220405012430_1649031704.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 16:46:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15038', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Public Transportation Fare up by 15 Percent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">April 4: Public transportation fare has increased by 15 percent in Nepal. The Department of Transport Management has increased the fares for long distance route by 10 to 15 percent as per a ministerial-level decision taken by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport had decided to increase the fare of inter-provincial public transportation on Thursday. Based on the same decision, the department issued a notice on Sunday informing that public transportation fares in hill and terai regions have been fixed depending upon the geography of the area. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The fares for cargo vehicles have been increased by 13 percent in the hill region and by 15 percent in the terai region, the department informed. Meanwhile, the fare of passenger vehicles has been increased by 10 percent. Director of the department, Namaraj Ghimire said that the fares have been adjusted based on the increased rates of fuels in the international market. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“The transportation fares will be adjusted automatically if the prices of fuel fluctuate by 5 percent,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Central Federation of Public Transport, Bharat Nepal stated that the transport entrepreneurs have partially agreed with the government’s decision of adjustment of public transportation fares. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We presented a memorandum to the ministry for increasing the fares by 16 to 26 percent based on the increase in rates of fuels. But the government decided to increase the fares by just 15 percent and we are dissatisfied with it,” said Nepal, adding, “We are happy with the implementation of the automated fare system that we have been demanding time and again.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14782', 'image' => '20220404020507_public transport.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:04:31', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15040', 'article_category_id' => '229', 'title' => 'Shinta Mani Hotel Chain Enters Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'April 4: The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">April 4: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The international chain hotel brand, Shinta Mani Hotel, is going to operate its service in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has taken over the management of Moksha Hotel, a famous hotel in Mustang. Moksha Hotel is currently being run under Sherpa Hospitality Group. It is stated that now the Shinta Mani Hotel will manage this resort. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Shinta Mani Hotel has been operating luxury hotels in various places of the world. Shinta Mani is a famous brand operating luxirious hotels in forests and the wild. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A bilateral agreement has been reached for the Shinta Mani Hotel to handle the management of the Moksha Hotel (resort) from coming October. Moksha Hotel was constructed with an investment of Rs 1.10 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">American architect Bill Bensley is credited with starting the Shinta Mani Hotel brand. He said his venture has become successful in the jungle tourism in Cambodia and believes that it will be successful in Nepal as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It is stated that works have been started with the objective of promoting Jomsom as a major vacation destination for the tourists from all over the world. --RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-04-04', 'modified' => '2022-04-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '14781', 'image' => '20220404023153_images.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-04-04 14:30:46', '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
