February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on…
February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on…
February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the…
February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill.…
February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's…
February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on…
February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South…
February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW…
February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal…
February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic…
February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian…
February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas…
Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business…
February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data.…
February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some…
Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali…
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History of Commercial Airliners: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Safety performance of 2023 continues to demonstrate that flying is the safest mode of transport,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general said in a statement, adding, “Aviation places its highest priority on safety and that shows in the 2023 performance.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Walsh, jet operations saw no hull losses or fatalities in the review year. The year 2023 also saw the lowest fatality risk and ‘all accident’ rate on record, he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the website of IATA, the fatality risk improved to 0.03 in 2023 from 0.11 in 2022 and 0.11 for the five years, 2019-2023. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">At this level of safety, on average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident, added IATA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">There were 37 million aircraft movements in 2023 (jet and turboprop), an increase of 17% on the previous year, the IATA wrote on its website.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident," IATA said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport, according to AFP.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – <em>Agencies</em></span></span></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">(Updated news with inputs from IATA)</span></span></span></em></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20101', 'image' => '20240229120455_20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 12:04:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '200,000 Plus Taxpayers not Paying Taxes Regularly to KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC officials informed that out of 312,000 taxpayers registered at the KMC, 200,000 are not regularly paying taxes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to KMC’s Revenue Department, the metropolis is preparing to step up ward-level monitoring to bring the defaulting taxpayers under the ambit of tax.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC said that around 100,000 taxpayers are among those showing reluctance to pay rent-related taxes. Similarly, the number of taxpayers who are unwilling to pay business tax, entertainment tax and advertisement tax exceed 100,000, said KMC Revenue Department’s Chief Dhruva Kafle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to him, the KMC is also preparing to bring the unregistered taxpayers of all categories under the scope of tax from this month to increase tax compliance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kafle said that arrears amounting to Rs 2 billion are yet to be recovered from the registered taxpayers of KMC. The dues have not been paid for the last 12 years, KMC sources said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The metropolis had set an annual revenue collection target of Rs 10.80 billion for the current fiscal year. It has so far been able to collect only Rs 5.80 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though its revenue collection status was found satisfactory till the first six months of the fiscal year, KMC's revenue in the last month (mid-January to mid-February, 2024) has dropped compared to other months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20100', 'image' => '20240229115711_QD3B58fDcaeg9xELQr7HHN.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Submits Suggestions on e-Commerce Bill ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. The organisations submitting suggestions include the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), American Chamber of Commerce Nepal, and Nepal Association for Software and IT Services Companies. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A joint delegation of the three organisations visited Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, and Chairperson of the Education, Health and Technology Committee of the Federal Parliament, Bhanu Bhakta Joshi, separately, and submitted the suggestions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The team comprising president of the Information Technology Council of CNI, Ajit Bikram Shah, met Minister Sharma on Tuesday and urged to be clear on major issues including definition of the bill, responsibility of the parties involved in e-commerce, provision of punishment and access to international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, the delegation requested the government to create a conducive environment for large-scale investment in information technology sector by investors based in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Sharma shared that the government was actively involved in formulating necessary laws, including those related to information technology and cyber security. She urged the private sector to prepare projects related to information technology sector to present in the upcoming investment summit and also urged them to provide written suggestions to the government. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20099', 'image' => '20240229112532_785054-ecommerce-istock-020119.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:24:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Students of Ilam Forced to Visit India for Primary Education as Public Schools Remain Closed', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I have already searched for a room near Ribs School in Manebhanjyang, India to educate my granddaughter," he said. With the closure of public schools in lack of students, children from villages of Ilam in India border are compelled to go to study in Indian schools. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Children in villages of northern Ilam, bordering India, are forced to go to Indian schools due to lack of schools. Sonam Sherpa, a resident of Jaubari, said parents have been forced to go to India to educate their kids from primary level due to closure of schools in Jaubari, Meghma, Kalpokhari and other places of highland areas having low population density and settlement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has been over eight years since the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari remained shut. The school operating class from 1 to 5 has remained closed in 2072 BS, reportedly due to inadequate number of students. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At present, around 15 children from this area are studying at Ribs School in Manebhanjyang. Doma Sherpa, who lives in Manebhanjyang to educate her child, said she spends IRs 15,000 to 18,000 a month. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been easier to teach children in our own country, but there is no school, everything has been ruined,” laments Sherpa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Not only Jaubari, Saraswati Primary School at Megma of Maijogmai-2 as well as another primary school at Kalpokhari of Sandakpur-5 and a primary school at Majuwa of Sandakpur-5 have been closed, says Pasang Tshiring Sherpa, former principal of Rastriya Primary School, Jaubari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Sherpa, Nepali children do not even know about Nepal's nationality and self-respect while studying in India. The closed schools have become dilapidated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Armed Police Force (APF) had been stationed at the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari some time ago. The armed forces have constructed their own building near the school. So far, the concerned bodies have not shown any interest in running schools in the border areas. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20098', 'image' => '20240228013838_scool.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA said "2023 saw the lowest fatality risk and 'all accident' rate on record."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The low crash rate came despite the number of flights last year rising 17 percent to 37.7 million, the IATA said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – AFP/RSS</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => 'aviation, history, IATA, international, flights, accident, plane, crash, fatal, Nepal, Yeti, safe, commercial, military', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20097', 'image' => '20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 19:43:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'WTO Approves Services Trade Rules', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The set of rules will streamline authorisation requirements and ease procedural hurdles faced by businesses, according to a press release.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">It will help reduce the costs of global services trade by more than $119 billion every year, it added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The integration into the WTO implies all 164 members have approved, given the body's rules requiring full consensus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Reaching this outcome...and integrating it into the WTO has not been an easy pass," EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said during the WTO's 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We faced opposition from two WTO members" but a "spirit of compromise" eventually cleared hurdles, he said without naming any country.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, meanwhile, thanked "India and South Africa for finding a way forward," calling services the "future of trade."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Global services exports are valued at more than $6.5 trillion, representing 23 percent of total world trade, according to the EU.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest WTO agreement applies to 71 member states who signed the initiative but businesses from other member states can also benefit.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">China, the United States and the EU are among the 71 signatories. India and South Africa have not signed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Costa Rica, which led the negotiations on the initiative, called it "a significant milestone" for member states and the WTO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“This is the first WTO result in the field of services in more than 25 years. A real success story for this organization," said Costa Rica's foreign trade minister Manuel Tovar. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20096', 'image' => '20240228013732_20240227105611_wtov2-01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:36:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Announces PPAs for Hydropower Projects up to 10 MW', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a notice on Tuesday, the NEA said it has opened PPAs for run-of-river and semi-reservoir hydropower projects up to 10 MW. The NEA has urged the hydropower projects to submit relevant documents to the Department of Electricity Development for the PPA.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The 96th meeting of the Board of Directors of the NEA on February 7 had decided to remove the quota system for hydropower projects up to 10 megawatts and to open PPAs on the ‘take or pay’ basis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Officials of the NEA have said that even when the capacity is increased by up to 25 percent, the PPA will not be subject to the PPA limit. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NEA has concluded that the limit of PPAs set on the basis of a production mix of up to 10 megawatts is not applicable in order to maximize the use of local natural resources and to encourage domestic investors in the hydropower sector.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20093', 'image' => '20240228013546_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:34:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Operating Nine New Substations since the Start of Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has also constructed and put into operation 33 and 11 kilovolt (KV) and 400 volt lines to supply electricity from the grid substations to the distribution substations and to supply electricity from the distribution substations to the consumers. In addition, distribution transformers have also been installed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">From mid-July till now, nine distribution substations of 33/11 kV capacity have been completed and put into operation. This has improved the electricity supply in the substation construction area and also reduced the leakage, the NEA claimed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, said that the construction of distribution lines and substations is being carried out across the country to provide reliable, quality, sufficient and safe electricity to the consumers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We are extensively expanding and strengthening the distribution system to electrify the places without electricity and to improve the supply to the places with access to electricity," Executive Director Ghising said, adding, "The demand for reliable and high-quality electricity supply in the country's major cities and industrial areas including the federal capital Kathmandu Valley will increase by 2050. We have progressed the construction of transmission and distribution lines and substations that can carry high-level reliable electrical load in a phased manner.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Ghising said they have started the upgrading and strengthening of transmission and distribution lines and substations that are currently in operation and the construction of new transmission lines and substations for this very purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has installed 33-11 KV Chisapani substation for power supply in the western region of Ilam and Panchthar, Danjavan substation for power supply in Bagmati and Bakaiya Rural Municipality of Makwanpur, Darbang Substation for power supply in Mangala, Malika and Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality of Myagdi and Bojhpokhri substation has been constructed and put into operation for power supply in Bullingtar Rural Municipality of Nawalparasi (Bardghat-Susta East). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The substations were built through the investment of the Government of Nepal and NEA under the subsidized distribution system strengthening and expansion project of the Asian Development Bank. Under the project, the construction of 25 new substations and the upgrading of 12 substations and construction of the distribution network is currently underway. Out of the 25 substations, the construction of five is in the final stage, while the upgrading of the substations has been completed.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20091', 'image' => '20240228121836_substationed.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20363', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Illegal Imports of Onions Increasing after Imposition of VAT', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen claim that legal import of onions has stopped after the government adopted a policy of charging 13 percent VAT on potatoes and onions through the budget for the current fiscal year (FY). The supply of potatoes is covered by domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government also levies 9 percent customs duty and 1.5 percent advance income tax on the import of potatoes and onions. Importers of potatoes and onions in Birgunj held a press conference on Tuesday and said that government’s policy has increased the illegal import of onions. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rajesh Kumar Kalwar claimed that the supply of potatoes is fulfilled by domestic production but onions are being imported illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since the cost of illegal import is less than the revenue to be paid to the customs office, certain groups are actively involved in the unauthorized import of such goods in the border areas. Businessmen say that illegal imports have increased as they have to pay a total of 27 percent of taxes including customs duty, VAT and income tax for legally importing potatoes and onions.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Importers say that those importing onions and potatoes have to pay an extra 10 to 15 percent of the total cost for transporting the vegetables the Indian market to the bordering towns of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Moreover, the import of onions have come to a complete halt after the Indian government imposed a ban on exports from last December to March. India will lift the export ban by fixing a quota after March 31. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Munna Kumar Rai, another importer, claimed that there will be no legal import until VAT is removed. Madhav Rajpal, vice president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the government’s revenue is dying up instead of increasing due to its own policy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Even though the policy of import control for self-reliance of domestic products is correct, unauthorized imports have increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“As a result, the government has lost revenue in one hand while the businessmen involved in legal imports are in trouble," said Vice President Rajpal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal is mostly dependent on imports to meet the market demand for onions. The annual consumption of onions in Nepal is 401,000 tons, but the country produces only 169,000 tons of onions, according to government figures. Importers say that the country has to import onions to meet the demand.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">About 3.8 million tons of potatoes are consumed in Nepal every year, while the country still imports 400,000 tons of potatoes annually, according to the businessmen. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rakesh Kumar Kalwar says that the price of onion in Nepal's border market is up to Rs 10 more expensive than in the Indian market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Traders say that illegally imported onions in Nepal are delivered from border areas to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Narayangadh and other cities. They claim that the illegal traders are running such business by influencing the local police, administration and government agencies responsible of revenue leakage control.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prem Prasad Devkota, chief investigation officer of the Revenue Investigation Office, Pathalaiya, said that they have increased surveillance after they noticed illegal import of onion. According to Devkota, the office has collected Rs 765, 000 in fine from illegal importers as of mid-February.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20090', 'image' => '20240228115036_20170411040236_onion.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 11:49:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20361', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 'Efforts on to Repatriate Nepali Nationals Recruited in Russian Military' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister shared this at a meeting held at the ministry on Tuesday with the relatives of the Nepali citizens who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been better if they had joined legally. They adopted illegal measure for joining. Whatever the ways they adopted, the state has the responsibility towards them," Minister Saud said, adding, "The government is ever responsible to its citizens. The government will leave no stone unturned to return them. I have been honestly putting my efforts for the same." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Saud had called the members of the families of those recruited in the Russian Army for discussion at the ministry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Moscow-based Nepali Embassy have exerted all-out efforts to the possible extent to safely repatriate those recruited in the Russian Army, arrange their treatment and rescue and bring back the bodies of those killed in the war zone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"In order for the safe return of the Nepali nationals, the government is continually in correspondence with the Russian side by mobilizing Kathmandu-based Russian Embassy, Moscow-based Nepali Embassy and other measures," the minister added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Minister informed that the respective families have so far filed applications at the Department of Consular Services about 244 people, including those deceased and remained out of contact, seeking cooperation for safe repatriation of those who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister urged the families of the concerned Nepali nationals to register their applications at the Department of Consular Services about those recruited in the Russian Army. It would help the government to identify the status of Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian Army, he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, the minister shared the efforts made with the embassies of Russia and India to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Russian side has positively responded to some issues raised by Nepal government about its nationals recruited in the Russian Army and the issue of providing compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured has made progress. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20089', 'image' => '20240228095631_20240203103517_20240112111355_20220719459a988fb97e63ab3ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 09:55:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20362', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Patan Issues Interim Order not to Implement KMC's Notice ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of Patan High Court Judge Munendra Prasad Awasthi issued the interim order not to implement the notice of Kathmandu Metropolitan City to immediately vacate the Bhatbhateni building operated on Lalita Niwas land in Baluwatar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The High Court issued the interim order in the name of entrepreneur Gurung and his relative Sarala Ghale Gurung. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A writ petition was filed at the High Court demanding order of prohibition after KMC issued a notice to vacate all structures of Bhatbhanteni. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20088', 'image' => '20240228104642_high.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 10:45:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20360', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ''Money-Laundering Prevention Bill to be Amended to Check Illicit Transactions' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dhanraj Gurung defended the government’s move saying that the bill to amend some laws relating to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Business Environment Promotion has been presented in the parliament for checking illicit transactions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Responding to queries raised during in-principle discussion in Tuesday’s meeting of the National Assembly’s Legislation Management Committee, Minister Gurung said the bill has been put forward for amendment process since illicit financial flows have direct bearing on the national economy. He added that the government also decided to amend the bill by taking into consideration the recommendations made by development partners. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister further shared that other related laws are also to be amended to make the prevention of money laundering law effective. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20087', 'image' => '20240227064657_202309op-Richest-People-scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 18:46:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20358', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Lacks Sufficient Stock of Food Grains', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. Farmers across the country produced 57,24,234 metric tons of rice this year. Ironically, when the country set an all-time high record in rice production this year, the government’s warehouses have insufficient amount of food stored for contingency</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the existing regulations, the government must have a stock of 33,000 metric tons of food grains for immediate supply in the event of a food crisis that might occur due to natural calamities or any other reasons. However, the state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) Limited currently has only about 8,000 metric tons of food in stock. The FMTC does not have adequate stock of food grains as it failed to purchase paddy and rice according to its target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, FMTC had set a target of purchasing 50,200 metric tons of rice. The government had allocated a budget of Rs 1.74 billion for this purpose. Even though the FMTC started purchasing paddy on time, it has only managed to buy about 5,000 metric tons as of mid-February this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FMTC has also failed to purchase rice as per its target. As a result, there has been a further decline in the food stock, the company said. According to the chief executive officer of the company, Mohan Prakash Chand, the company issued separate tender bids to purchase 29,000 and 20,000 metric tons of rice after it was unable to purchase rice as per the target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, no one responded to the tender. Chand argued that no one came to participate in the tender due to India's ban on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a businessmen, importers are not interested in the tender bids called by the FMTC as the price of rice will become expensive due to India's restrictions on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We would have responded to the tender if it was possible to import rice from India without any hindrance,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had started the process of importing 1 million metric tons of paddy and 1 million metric tons of rice from India last July. “India agreed to supply only 95,000 metric tons of rice," says the businessman, "Even if we participate in the tender, we will be importing rice under the same quota. Of late, India has been changing its export policy frequently. How can we participate in the tender in such a situation?”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20086', 'image' => '20240227022743_paddyyy-transformed.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:26:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20359', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Governor Urges Banks to Focus on Strengthening the Institution Instead of Making Profit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During an interaction program organized by the Nepal Bankers Association on 'Latest situation of Nepal's banking system' on Monday, Sunil KC, president of the association presented a paper and mentioned that the distributable profit of banks is negative, bad loans are high and the return on capital is also decreasing. Responding to his remarks, Governor Adhikari said that the central bank is in the process of reforming the financial sector and it will be difficult for some time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Reforms may be painful for some time, the growth rate has also been negative during major reforms," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that the policy of central bank takes effect in the long term and it is not fair for someone to quickly criticize the NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Recalling that there was opposition when the CD ratio was implemented in the past, he said, "Now that's the reason why banks have been strong."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He added that the bankers themselves protested when the central bank implemented the CD ratio to stop the flow of credit when it was increasing, and added, "Now, there has been no problem even with the withdrawal of Rs 27 billion from NIC Asia Bank. If the CD ratio had not been implemented, the situation would have been different."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the analysis of the NRB governor, there is a problem at present because banks provided excessive loans in the past.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Questions were raised in past regarding over-financing," he said. “There wouldn’t have been any problem if the banks had disbursed the loans by considering the paying capacity of the borrowers,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, he said that there is no need to panic as the credit risk system is tight and most of the loans are based on mortgages.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">At present, there is a foreign currency reserve that can cover 14 months of imports, said the governor. The governor claimed that the cooperatives and informal economy occupies a large part and when that sector is in trouble, the banks are affected. He said that the cooperatives and informal economy flourished because the services of the banks could not reach the lower classes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that due to the problems in the cooperatives, the bank's loan recovery was also affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The current society does not understand the sensitivity of the banking sector and banks are being accused of feudalism, moneylending and usury, said the governor. When I became the governor, the profit of the banks was Rs 70 billion when the portfolio was Rs 3200 billion. Now the profit is not even Rs 70 billion when the portfolio is Rs 5000 billion.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He alleged that the groups with vested interest wants to make the banking sector a failure and urged all to be cautious.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20085', 'image' => '20240227025642_20230412061029_collage (70).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:56:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20357', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NAC Starts Surkhet-Kalikot Flights', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province.', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p><br /> <span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">February 27: Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province. NAC’s aircraft with call sign 9N-ABU took off from Surkhet to Kalikot on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The plane took off from Surkhet airport at 11 am and landed at Sunthrali airport in Kalikot at 11:20 am. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sudan Kirati had inaugurated the Sunthrali Airport in Kalikot.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The state-owned airline company informed that it will now operate flights to Kalikot as well as Humla, Jumla, Mugu and Dolpa from its base in Surkhet. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The NAC informed that it will operate flights to other districts of Karnali region in the near future.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20084', 'image' => '20240227020240_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:01:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History of Commercial Airliners: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Safety performance of 2023 continues to demonstrate that flying is the safest mode of transport,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general said in a statement, adding, “Aviation places its highest priority on safety and that shows in the 2023 performance.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Walsh, jet operations saw no hull losses or fatalities in the review year. The year 2023 also saw the lowest fatality risk and ‘all accident’ rate on record, he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the website of IATA, the fatality risk improved to 0.03 in 2023 from 0.11 in 2022 and 0.11 for the five years, 2019-2023. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">At this level of safety, on average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident, added IATA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">There were 37 million aircraft movements in 2023 (jet and turboprop), an increase of 17% on the previous year, the IATA wrote on its website.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident," IATA said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport, according to AFP.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – <em>Agencies</em></span></span></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">(Updated news with inputs from IATA)</span></span></span></em></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20101', 'image' => '20240229120455_20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 12:04:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '200,000 Plus Taxpayers not Paying Taxes Regularly to KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC officials informed that out of 312,000 taxpayers registered at the KMC, 200,000 are not regularly paying taxes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to KMC’s Revenue Department, the metropolis is preparing to step up ward-level monitoring to bring the defaulting taxpayers under the ambit of tax.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC said that around 100,000 taxpayers are among those showing reluctance to pay rent-related taxes. Similarly, the number of taxpayers who are unwilling to pay business tax, entertainment tax and advertisement tax exceed 100,000, said KMC Revenue Department’s Chief Dhruva Kafle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to him, the KMC is also preparing to bring the unregistered taxpayers of all categories under the scope of tax from this month to increase tax compliance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kafle said that arrears amounting to Rs 2 billion are yet to be recovered from the registered taxpayers of KMC. The dues have not been paid for the last 12 years, KMC sources said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The metropolis had set an annual revenue collection target of Rs 10.80 billion for the current fiscal year. It has so far been able to collect only Rs 5.80 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though its revenue collection status was found satisfactory till the first six months of the fiscal year, KMC's revenue in the last month (mid-January to mid-February, 2024) has dropped compared to other months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20100', 'image' => '20240229115711_QD3B58fDcaeg9xELQr7HHN.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Submits Suggestions on e-Commerce Bill ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. The organisations submitting suggestions include the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), American Chamber of Commerce Nepal, and Nepal Association for Software and IT Services Companies. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A joint delegation of the three organisations visited Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, and Chairperson of the Education, Health and Technology Committee of the Federal Parliament, Bhanu Bhakta Joshi, separately, and submitted the suggestions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The team comprising president of the Information Technology Council of CNI, Ajit Bikram Shah, met Minister Sharma on Tuesday and urged to be clear on major issues including definition of the bill, responsibility of the parties involved in e-commerce, provision of punishment and access to international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, the delegation requested the government to create a conducive environment for large-scale investment in information technology sector by investors based in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Sharma shared that the government was actively involved in formulating necessary laws, including those related to information technology and cyber security. She urged the private sector to prepare projects related to information technology sector to present in the upcoming investment summit and also urged them to provide written suggestions to the government. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20099', 'image' => '20240229112532_785054-ecommerce-istock-020119.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:24:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Students of Ilam Forced to Visit India for Primary Education as Public Schools Remain Closed', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I have already searched for a room near Ribs School in Manebhanjyang, India to educate my granddaughter," he said. With the closure of public schools in lack of students, children from villages of Ilam in India border are compelled to go to study in Indian schools. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Children in villages of northern Ilam, bordering India, are forced to go to Indian schools due to lack of schools. Sonam Sherpa, a resident of Jaubari, said parents have been forced to go to India to educate their kids from primary level due to closure of schools in Jaubari, Meghma, Kalpokhari and other places of highland areas having low population density and settlement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has been over eight years since the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari remained shut. The school operating class from 1 to 5 has remained closed in 2072 BS, reportedly due to inadequate number of students. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At present, around 15 children from this area are studying at Ribs School in Manebhanjyang. Doma Sherpa, who lives in Manebhanjyang to educate her child, said she spends IRs 15,000 to 18,000 a month. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been easier to teach children in our own country, but there is no school, everything has been ruined,” laments Sherpa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Not only Jaubari, Saraswati Primary School at Megma of Maijogmai-2 as well as another primary school at Kalpokhari of Sandakpur-5 and a primary school at Majuwa of Sandakpur-5 have been closed, says Pasang Tshiring Sherpa, former principal of Rastriya Primary School, Jaubari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Sherpa, Nepali children do not even know about Nepal's nationality and self-respect while studying in India. The closed schools have become dilapidated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Armed Police Force (APF) had been stationed at the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari some time ago. The armed forces have constructed their own building near the school. So far, the concerned bodies have not shown any interest in running schools in the border areas. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20098', 'image' => '20240228013838_scool.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA said "2023 saw the lowest fatality risk and 'all accident' rate on record."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The low crash rate came despite the number of flights last year rising 17 percent to 37.7 million, the IATA said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – AFP/RSS</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => 'aviation, history, IATA, international, flights, accident, plane, crash, fatal, Nepal, Yeti, safe, commercial, military', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20097', 'image' => '20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 19:43:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'WTO Approves Services Trade Rules', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The set of rules will streamline authorisation requirements and ease procedural hurdles faced by businesses, according to a press release.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">It will help reduce the costs of global services trade by more than $119 billion every year, it added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The integration into the WTO implies all 164 members have approved, given the body's rules requiring full consensus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Reaching this outcome...and integrating it into the WTO has not been an easy pass," EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said during the WTO's 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We faced opposition from two WTO members" but a "spirit of compromise" eventually cleared hurdles, he said without naming any country.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, meanwhile, thanked "India and South Africa for finding a way forward," calling services the "future of trade."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Global services exports are valued at more than $6.5 trillion, representing 23 percent of total world trade, according to the EU.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest WTO agreement applies to 71 member states who signed the initiative but businesses from other member states can also benefit.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">China, the United States and the EU are among the 71 signatories. India and South Africa have not signed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Costa Rica, which led the negotiations on the initiative, called it "a significant milestone" for member states and the WTO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“This is the first WTO result in the field of services in more than 25 years. A real success story for this organization," said Costa Rica's foreign trade minister Manuel Tovar. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20096', 'image' => '20240228013732_20240227105611_wtov2-01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:36:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Announces PPAs for Hydropower Projects up to 10 MW', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a notice on Tuesday, the NEA said it has opened PPAs for run-of-river and semi-reservoir hydropower projects up to 10 MW. The NEA has urged the hydropower projects to submit relevant documents to the Department of Electricity Development for the PPA.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The 96th meeting of the Board of Directors of the NEA on February 7 had decided to remove the quota system for hydropower projects up to 10 megawatts and to open PPAs on the ‘take or pay’ basis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Officials of the NEA have said that even when the capacity is increased by up to 25 percent, the PPA will not be subject to the PPA limit. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NEA has concluded that the limit of PPAs set on the basis of a production mix of up to 10 megawatts is not applicable in order to maximize the use of local natural resources and to encourage domestic investors in the hydropower sector.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20093', 'image' => '20240228013546_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:34:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Operating Nine New Substations since the Start of Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has also constructed and put into operation 33 and 11 kilovolt (KV) and 400 volt lines to supply electricity from the grid substations to the distribution substations and to supply electricity from the distribution substations to the consumers. In addition, distribution transformers have also been installed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">From mid-July till now, nine distribution substations of 33/11 kV capacity have been completed and put into operation. This has improved the electricity supply in the substation construction area and also reduced the leakage, the NEA claimed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, said that the construction of distribution lines and substations is being carried out across the country to provide reliable, quality, sufficient and safe electricity to the consumers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We are extensively expanding and strengthening the distribution system to electrify the places without electricity and to improve the supply to the places with access to electricity," Executive Director Ghising said, adding, "The demand for reliable and high-quality electricity supply in the country's major cities and industrial areas including the federal capital Kathmandu Valley will increase by 2050. We have progressed the construction of transmission and distribution lines and substations that can carry high-level reliable electrical load in a phased manner.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Ghising said they have started the upgrading and strengthening of transmission and distribution lines and substations that are currently in operation and the construction of new transmission lines and substations for this very purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has installed 33-11 KV Chisapani substation for power supply in the western region of Ilam and Panchthar, Danjavan substation for power supply in Bagmati and Bakaiya Rural Municipality of Makwanpur, Darbang Substation for power supply in Mangala, Malika and Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality of Myagdi and Bojhpokhri substation has been constructed and put into operation for power supply in Bullingtar Rural Municipality of Nawalparasi (Bardghat-Susta East). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The substations were built through the investment of the Government of Nepal and NEA under the subsidized distribution system strengthening and expansion project of the Asian Development Bank. Under the project, the construction of 25 new substations and the upgrading of 12 substations and construction of the distribution network is currently underway. Out of the 25 substations, the construction of five is in the final stage, while the upgrading of the substations has been completed.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20091', 'image' => '20240228121836_substationed.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20363', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Illegal Imports of Onions Increasing after Imposition of VAT', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen claim that legal import of onions has stopped after the government adopted a policy of charging 13 percent VAT on potatoes and onions through the budget for the current fiscal year (FY). The supply of potatoes is covered by domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government also levies 9 percent customs duty and 1.5 percent advance income tax on the import of potatoes and onions. Importers of potatoes and onions in Birgunj held a press conference on Tuesday and said that government’s policy has increased the illegal import of onions. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rajesh Kumar Kalwar claimed that the supply of potatoes is fulfilled by domestic production but onions are being imported illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since the cost of illegal import is less than the revenue to be paid to the customs office, certain groups are actively involved in the unauthorized import of such goods in the border areas. Businessmen say that illegal imports have increased as they have to pay a total of 27 percent of taxes including customs duty, VAT and income tax for legally importing potatoes and onions.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Importers say that those importing onions and potatoes have to pay an extra 10 to 15 percent of the total cost for transporting the vegetables the Indian market to the bordering towns of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Moreover, the import of onions have come to a complete halt after the Indian government imposed a ban on exports from last December to March. India will lift the export ban by fixing a quota after March 31. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Munna Kumar Rai, another importer, claimed that there will be no legal import until VAT is removed. Madhav Rajpal, vice president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the government’s revenue is dying up instead of increasing due to its own policy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Even though the policy of import control for self-reliance of domestic products is correct, unauthorized imports have increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“As a result, the government has lost revenue in one hand while the businessmen involved in legal imports are in trouble," said Vice President Rajpal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal is mostly dependent on imports to meet the market demand for onions. The annual consumption of onions in Nepal is 401,000 tons, but the country produces only 169,000 tons of onions, according to government figures. Importers say that the country has to import onions to meet the demand.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">About 3.8 million tons of potatoes are consumed in Nepal every year, while the country still imports 400,000 tons of potatoes annually, according to the businessmen. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rakesh Kumar Kalwar says that the price of onion in Nepal's border market is up to Rs 10 more expensive than in the Indian market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Traders say that illegally imported onions in Nepal are delivered from border areas to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Narayangadh and other cities. They claim that the illegal traders are running such business by influencing the local police, administration and government agencies responsible of revenue leakage control.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prem Prasad Devkota, chief investigation officer of the Revenue Investigation Office, Pathalaiya, said that they have increased surveillance after they noticed illegal import of onion. According to Devkota, the office has collected Rs 765, 000 in fine from illegal importers as of mid-February.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20090', 'image' => '20240228115036_20170411040236_onion.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 11:49:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20361', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 'Efforts on to Repatriate Nepali Nationals Recruited in Russian Military' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister shared this at a meeting held at the ministry on Tuesday with the relatives of the Nepali citizens who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been better if they had joined legally. They adopted illegal measure for joining. Whatever the ways they adopted, the state has the responsibility towards them," Minister Saud said, adding, "The government is ever responsible to its citizens. The government will leave no stone unturned to return them. I have been honestly putting my efforts for the same." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Saud had called the members of the families of those recruited in the Russian Army for discussion at the ministry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Moscow-based Nepali Embassy have exerted all-out efforts to the possible extent to safely repatriate those recruited in the Russian Army, arrange their treatment and rescue and bring back the bodies of those killed in the war zone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"In order for the safe return of the Nepali nationals, the government is continually in correspondence with the Russian side by mobilizing Kathmandu-based Russian Embassy, Moscow-based Nepali Embassy and other measures," the minister added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Minister informed that the respective families have so far filed applications at the Department of Consular Services about 244 people, including those deceased and remained out of contact, seeking cooperation for safe repatriation of those who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister urged the families of the concerned Nepali nationals to register their applications at the Department of Consular Services about those recruited in the Russian Army. It would help the government to identify the status of Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian Army, he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, the minister shared the efforts made with the embassies of Russia and India to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Russian side has positively responded to some issues raised by Nepal government about its nationals recruited in the Russian Army and the issue of providing compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured has made progress. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20089', 'image' => '20240228095631_20240203103517_20240112111355_20220719459a988fb97e63ab3ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 09:55:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20362', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Patan Issues Interim Order not to Implement KMC's Notice ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of Patan High Court Judge Munendra Prasad Awasthi issued the interim order not to implement the notice of Kathmandu Metropolitan City to immediately vacate the Bhatbhateni building operated on Lalita Niwas land in Baluwatar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The High Court issued the interim order in the name of entrepreneur Gurung and his relative Sarala Ghale Gurung. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A writ petition was filed at the High Court demanding order of prohibition after KMC issued a notice to vacate all structures of Bhatbhanteni. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20088', 'image' => '20240228104642_high.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 10:45:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20360', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ''Money-Laundering Prevention Bill to be Amended to Check Illicit Transactions' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dhanraj Gurung defended the government’s move saying that the bill to amend some laws relating to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Business Environment Promotion has been presented in the parliament for checking illicit transactions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Responding to queries raised during in-principle discussion in Tuesday’s meeting of the National Assembly’s Legislation Management Committee, Minister Gurung said the bill has been put forward for amendment process since illicit financial flows have direct bearing on the national economy. He added that the government also decided to amend the bill by taking into consideration the recommendations made by development partners. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister further shared that other related laws are also to be amended to make the prevention of money laundering law effective. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20087', 'image' => '20240227064657_202309op-Richest-People-scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 18:46:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20358', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Lacks Sufficient Stock of Food Grains', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. Farmers across the country produced 57,24,234 metric tons of rice this year. Ironically, when the country set an all-time high record in rice production this year, the government’s warehouses have insufficient amount of food stored for contingency</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the existing regulations, the government must have a stock of 33,000 metric tons of food grains for immediate supply in the event of a food crisis that might occur due to natural calamities or any other reasons. However, the state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) Limited currently has only about 8,000 metric tons of food in stock. The FMTC does not have adequate stock of food grains as it failed to purchase paddy and rice according to its target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, FMTC had set a target of purchasing 50,200 metric tons of rice. The government had allocated a budget of Rs 1.74 billion for this purpose. Even though the FMTC started purchasing paddy on time, it has only managed to buy about 5,000 metric tons as of mid-February this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FMTC has also failed to purchase rice as per its target. As a result, there has been a further decline in the food stock, the company said. According to the chief executive officer of the company, Mohan Prakash Chand, the company issued separate tender bids to purchase 29,000 and 20,000 metric tons of rice after it was unable to purchase rice as per the target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, no one responded to the tender. Chand argued that no one came to participate in the tender due to India's ban on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a businessmen, importers are not interested in the tender bids called by the FMTC as the price of rice will become expensive due to India's restrictions on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We would have responded to the tender if it was possible to import rice from India without any hindrance,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had started the process of importing 1 million metric tons of paddy and 1 million metric tons of rice from India last July. “India agreed to supply only 95,000 metric tons of rice," says the businessman, "Even if we participate in the tender, we will be importing rice under the same quota. Of late, India has been changing its export policy frequently. How can we participate in the tender in such a situation?”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20086', 'image' => '20240227022743_paddyyy-transformed.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:26:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20359', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Governor Urges Banks to Focus on Strengthening the Institution Instead of Making Profit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During an interaction program organized by the Nepal Bankers Association on 'Latest situation of Nepal's banking system' on Monday, Sunil KC, president of the association presented a paper and mentioned that the distributable profit of banks is negative, bad loans are high and the return on capital is also decreasing. Responding to his remarks, Governor Adhikari said that the central bank is in the process of reforming the financial sector and it will be difficult for some time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Reforms may be painful for some time, the growth rate has also been negative during major reforms," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that the policy of central bank takes effect in the long term and it is not fair for someone to quickly criticize the NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Recalling that there was opposition when the CD ratio was implemented in the past, he said, "Now that's the reason why banks have been strong."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He added that the bankers themselves protested when the central bank implemented the CD ratio to stop the flow of credit when it was increasing, and added, "Now, there has been no problem even with the withdrawal of Rs 27 billion from NIC Asia Bank. If the CD ratio had not been implemented, the situation would have been different."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the analysis of the NRB governor, there is a problem at present because banks provided excessive loans in the past.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Questions were raised in past regarding over-financing," he said. “There wouldn’t have been any problem if the banks had disbursed the loans by considering the paying capacity of the borrowers,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, he said that there is no need to panic as the credit risk system is tight and most of the loans are based on mortgages.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">At present, there is a foreign currency reserve that can cover 14 months of imports, said the governor. The governor claimed that the cooperatives and informal economy occupies a large part and when that sector is in trouble, the banks are affected. He said that the cooperatives and informal economy flourished because the services of the banks could not reach the lower classes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that due to the problems in the cooperatives, the bank's loan recovery was also affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The current society does not understand the sensitivity of the banking sector and banks are being accused of feudalism, moneylending and usury, said the governor. When I became the governor, the profit of the banks was Rs 70 billion when the portfolio was Rs 3200 billion. Now the profit is not even Rs 70 billion when the portfolio is Rs 5000 billion.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He alleged that the groups with vested interest wants to make the banking sector a failure and urged all to be cautious.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20085', 'image' => '20240227025642_20230412061029_collage (70).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:56:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20357', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NAC Starts Surkhet-Kalikot Flights', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province.', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p><br /> <span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">February 27: Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province. NAC’s aircraft with call sign 9N-ABU took off from Surkhet to Kalikot on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The plane took off from Surkhet airport at 11 am and landed at Sunthrali airport in Kalikot at 11:20 am. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sudan Kirati had inaugurated the Sunthrali Airport in Kalikot.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The state-owned airline company informed that it will now operate flights to Kalikot as well as Humla, Jumla, Mugu and Dolpa from its base in Surkhet. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The NAC informed that it will operate flights to other districts of Karnali region in the near future.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20084', 'image' => '20240227020240_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:01:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History of Commercial Airliners: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Safety performance of 2023 continues to demonstrate that flying is the safest mode of transport,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general said in a statement, adding, “Aviation places its highest priority on safety and that shows in the 2023 performance.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Walsh, jet operations saw no hull losses or fatalities in the review year. The year 2023 also saw the lowest fatality risk and ‘all accident’ rate on record, he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the website of IATA, the fatality risk improved to 0.03 in 2023 from 0.11 in 2022 and 0.11 for the five years, 2019-2023. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">At this level of safety, on average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident, added IATA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">There were 37 million aircraft movements in 2023 (jet and turboprop), an increase of 17% on the previous year, the IATA wrote on its website.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident," IATA said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport, according to AFP.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – <em>Agencies</em></span></span></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">(Updated news with inputs from IATA)</span></span></span></em></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20101', 'image' => '20240229120455_20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 12:04:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '200,000 Plus Taxpayers not Paying Taxes Regularly to KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC officials informed that out of 312,000 taxpayers registered at the KMC, 200,000 are not regularly paying taxes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to KMC’s Revenue Department, the metropolis is preparing to step up ward-level monitoring to bring the defaulting taxpayers under the ambit of tax.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC said that around 100,000 taxpayers are among those showing reluctance to pay rent-related taxes. Similarly, the number of taxpayers who are unwilling to pay business tax, entertainment tax and advertisement tax exceed 100,000, said KMC Revenue Department’s Chief Dhruva Kafle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to him, the KMC is also preparing to bring the unregistered taxpayers of all categories under the scope of tax from this month to increase tax compliance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kafle said that arrears amounting to Rs 2 billion are yet to be recovered from the registered taxpayers of KMC. The dues have not been paid for the last 12 years, KMC sources said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The metropolis had set an annual revenue collection target of Rs 10.80 billion for the current fiscal year. It has so far been able to collect only Rs 5.80 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though its revenue collection status was found satisfactory till the first six months of the fiscal year, KMC's revenue in the last month (mid-January to mid-February, 2024) has dropped compared to other months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20100', 'image' => '20240229115711_QD3B58fDcaeg9xELQr7HHN.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Submits Suggestions on e-Commerce Bill ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. The organisations submitting suggestions include the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), American Chamber of Commerce Nepal, and Nepal Association for Software and IT Services Companies. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A joint delegation of the three organisations visited Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, and Chairperson of the Education, Health and Technology Committee of the Federal Parliament, Bhanu Bhakta Joshi, separately, and submitted the suggestions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The team comprising president of the Information Technology Council of CNI, Ajit Bikram Shah, met Minister Sharma on Tuesday and urged to be clear on major issues including definition of the bill, responsibility of the parties involved in e-commerce, provision of punishment and access to international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, the delegation requested the government to create a conducive environment for large-scale investment in information technology sector by investors based in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Sharma shared that the government was actively involved in formulating necessary laws, including those related to information technology and cyber security. She urged the private sector to prepare projects related to information technology sector to present in the upcoming investment summit and also urged them to provide written suggestions to the government. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20099', 'image' => '20240229112532_785054-ecommerce-istock-020119.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:24:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Students of Ilam Forced to Visit India for Primary Education as Public Schools Remain Closed', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I have already searched for a room near Ribs School in Manebhanjyang, India to educate my granddaughter," he said. With the closure of public schools in lack of students, children from villages of Ilam in India border are compelled to go to study in Indian schools. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Children in villages of northern Ilam, bordering India, are forced to go to Indian schools due to lack of schools. Sonam Sherpa, a resident of Jaubari, said parents have been forced to go to India to educate their kids from primary level due to closure of schools in Jaubari, Meghma, Kalpokhari and other places of highland areas having low population density and settlement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has been over eight years since the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari remained shut. The school operating class from 1 to 5 has remained closed in 2072 BS, reportedly due to inadequate number of students. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At present, around 15 children from this area are studying at Ribs School in Manebhanjyang. Doma Sherpa, who lives in Manebhanjyang to educate her child, said she spends IRs 15,000 to 18,000 a month. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been easier to teach children in our own country, but there is no school, everything has been ruined,” laments Sherpa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Not only Jaubari, Saraswati Primary School at Megma of Maijogmai-2 as well as another primary school at Kalpokhari of Sandakpur-5 and a primary school at Majuwa of Sandakpur-5 have been closed, says Pasang Tshiring Sherpa, former principal of Rastriya Primary School, Jaubari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Sherpa, Nepali children do not even know about Nepal's nationality and self-respect while studying in India. The closed schools have become dilapidated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Armed Police Force (APF) had been stationed at the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari some time ago. The armed forces have constructed their own building near the school. So far, the concerned bodies have not shown any interest in running schools in the border areas. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20098', 'image' => '20240228013838_scool.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA said "2023 saw the lowest fatality risk and 'all accident' rate on record."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The low crash rate came despite the number of flights last year rising 17 percent to 37.7 million, the IATA said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – AFP/RSS</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => 'aviation, history, IATA, international, flights, accident, plane, crash, fatal, Nepal, Yeti, safe, commercial, military', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20097', 'image' => '20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 19:43:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'WTO Approves Services Trade Rules', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The set of rules will streamline authorisation requirements and ease procedural hurdles faced by businesses, according to a press release.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">It will help reduce the costs of global services trade by more than $119 billion every year, it added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The integration into the WTO implies all 164 members have approved, given the body's rules requiring full consensus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Reaching this outcome...and integrating it into the WTO has not been an easy pass," EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said during the WTO's 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We faced opposition from two WTO members" but a "spirit of compromise" eventually cleared hurdles, he said without naming any country.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, meanwhile, thanked "India and South Africa for finding a way forward," calling services the "future of trade."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Global services exports are valued at more than $6.5 trillion, representing 23 percent of total world trade, according to the EU.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest WTO agreement applies to 71 member states who signed the initiative but businesses from other member states can also benefit.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">China, the United States and the EU are among the 71 signatories. India and South Africa have not signed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Costa Rica, which led the negotiations on the initiative, called it "a significant milestone" for member states and the WTO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“This is the first WTO result in the field of services in more than 25 years. A real success story for this organization," said Costa Rica's foreign trade minister Manuel Tovar. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20096', 'image' => '20240228013732_20240227105611_wtov2-01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:36:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Announces PPAs for Hydropower Projects up to 10 MW', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a notice on Tuesday, the NEA said it has opened PPAs for run-of-river and semi-reservoir hydropower projects up to 10 MW. The NEA has urged the hydropower projects to submit relevant documents to the Department of Electricity Development for the PPA.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The 96th meeting of the Board of Directors of the NEA on February 7 had decided to remove the quota system for hydropower projects up to 10 megawatts and to open PPAs on the ‘take or pay’ basis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Officials of the NEA have said that even when the capacity is increased by up to 25 percent, the PPA will not be subject to the PPA limit. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NEA has concluded that the limit of PPAs set on the basis of a production mix of up to 10 megawatts is not applicable in order to maximize the use of local natural resources and to encourage domestic investors in the hydropower sector.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20093', 'image' => '20240228013546_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:34:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Operating Nine New Substations since the Start of Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has also constructed and put into operation 33 and 11 kilovolt (KV) and 400 volt lines to supply electricity from the grid substations to the distribution substations and to supply electricity from the distribution substations to the consumers. In addition, distribution transformers have also been installed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">From mid-July till now, nine distribution substations of 33/11 kV capacity have been completed and put into operation. This has improved the electricity supply in the substation construction area and also reduced the leakage, the NEA claimed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, said that the construction of distribution lines and substations is being carried out across the country to provide reliable, quality, sufficient and safe electricity to the consumers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We are extensively expanding and strengthening the distribution system to electrify the places without electricity and to improve the supply to the places with access to electricity," Executive Director Ghising said, adding, "The demand for reliable and high-quality electricity supply in the country's major cities and industrial areas including the federal capital Kathmandu Valley will increase by 2050. We have progressed the construction of transmission and distribution lines and substations that can carry high-level reliable electrical load in a phased manner.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Ghising said they have started the upgrading and strengthening of transmission and distribution lines and substations that are currently in operation and the construction of new transmission lines and substations for this very purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has installed 33-11 KV Chisapani substation for power supply in the western region of Ilam and Panchthar, Danjavan substation for power supply in Bagmati and Bakaiya Rural Municipality of Makwanpur, Darbang Substation for power supply in Mangala, Malika and Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality of Myagdi and Bojhpokhri substation has been constructed and put into operation for power supply in Bullingtar Rural Municipality of Nawalparasi (Bardghat-Susta East). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The substations were built through the investment of the Government of Nepal and NEA under the subsidized distribution system strengthening and expansion project of the Asian Development Bank. Under the project, the construction of 25 new substations and the upgrading of 12 substations and construction of the distribution network is currently underway. Out of the 25 substations, the construction of five is in the final stage, while the upgrading of the substations has been completed.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20091', 'image' => '20240228121836_substationed.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20363', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Illegal Imports of Onions Increasing after Imposition of VAT', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen claim that legal import of onions has stopped after the government adopted a policy of charging 13 percent VAT on potatoes and onions through the budget for the current fiscal year (FY). The supply of potatoes is covered by domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government also levies 9 percent customs duty and 1.5 percent advance income tax on the import of potatoes and onions. Importers of potatoes and onions in Birgunj held a press conference on Tuesday and said that government’s policy has increased the illegal import of onions. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rajesh Kumar Kalwar claimed that the supply of potatoes is fulfilled by domestic production but onions are being imported illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since the cost of illegal import is less than the revenue to be paid to the customs office, certain groups are actively involved in the unauthorized import of such goods in the border areas. Businessmen say that illegal imports have increased as they have to pay a total of 27 percent of taxes including customs duty, VAT and income tax for legally importing potatoes and onions.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Importers say that those importing onions and potatoes have to pay an extra 10 to 15 percent of the total cost for transporting the vegetables the Indian market to the bordering towns of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Moreover, the import of onions have come to a complete halt after the Indian government imposed a ban on exports from last December to March. India will lift the export ban by fixing a quota after March 31. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Munna Kumar Rai, another importer, claimed that there will be no legal import until VAT is removed. Madhav Rajpal, vice president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the government’s revenue is dying up instead of increasing due to its own policy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Even though the policy of import control for self-reliance of domestic products is correct, unauthorized imports have increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“As a result, the government has lost revenue in one hand while the businessmen involved in legal imports are in trouble," said Vice President Rajpal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal is mostly dependent on imports to meet the market demand for onions. The annual consumption of onions in Nepal is 401,000 tons, but the country produces only 169,000 tons of onions, according to government figures. Importers say that the country has to import onions to meet the demand.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">About 3.8 million tons of potatoes are consumed in Nepal every year, while the country still imports 400,000 tons of potatoes annually, according to the businessmen. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rakesh Kumar Kalwar says that the price of onion in Nepal's border market is up to Rs 10 more expensive than in the Indian market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Traders say that illegally imported onions in Nepal are delivered from border areas to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Narayangadh and other cities. They claim that the illegal traders are running such business by influencing the local police, administration and government agencies responsible of revenue leakage control.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prem Prasad Devkota, chief investigation officer of the Revenue Investigation Office, Pathalaiya, said that they have increased surveillance after they noticed illegal import of onion. According to Devkota, the office has collected Rs 765, 000 in fine from illegal importers as of mid-February.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20090', 'image' => '20240228115036_20170411040236_onion.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 11:49:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20361', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 'Efforts on to Repatriate Nepali Nationals Recruited in Russian Military' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister shared this at a meeting held at the ministry on Tuesday with the relatives of the Nepali citizens who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been better if they had joined legally. They adopted illegal measure for joining. Whatever the ways they adopted, the state has the responsibility towards them," Minister Saud said, adding, "The government is ever responsible to its citizens. The government will leave no stone unturned to return them. I have been honestly putting my efforts for the same." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Saud had called the members of the families of those recruited in the Russian Army for discussion at the ministry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Moscow-based Nepali Embassy have exerted all-out efforts to the possible extent to safely repatriate those recruited in the Russian Army, arrange their treatment and rescue and bring back the bodies of those killed in the war zone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"In order for the safe return of the Nepali nationals, the government is continually in correspondence with the Russian side by mobilizing Kathmandu-based Russian Embassy, Moscow-based Nepali Embassy and other measures," the minister added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Minister informed that the respective families have so far filed applications at the Department of Consular Services about 244 people, including those deceased and remained out of contact, seeking cooperation for safe repatriation of those who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister urged the families of the concerned Nepali nationals to register their applications at the Department of Consular Services about those recruited in the Russian Army. It would help the government to identify the status of Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian Army, he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, the minister shared the efforts made with the embassies of Russia and India to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Russian side has positively responded to some issues raised by Nepal government about its nationals recruited in the Russian Army and the issue of providing compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured has made progress. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20089', 'image' => '20240228095631_20240203103517_20240112111355_20220719459a988fb97e63ab3ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 09:55:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20362', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Patan Issues Interim Order not to Implement KMC's Notice ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of Patan High Court Judge Munendra Prasad Awasthi issued the interim order not to implement the notice of Kathmandu Metropolitan City to immediately vacate the Bhatbhateni building operated on Lalita Niwas land in Baluwatar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The High Court issued the interim order in the name of entrepreneur Gurung and his relative Sarala Ghale Gurung. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A writ petition was filed at the High Court demanding order of prohibition after KMC issued a notice to vacate all structures of Bhatbhanteni. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20088', 'image' => '20240228104642_high.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 10:45:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20360', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ''Money-Laundering Prevention Bill to be Amended to Check Illicit Transactions' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dhanraj Gurung defended the government’s move saying that the bill to amend some laws relating to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Business Environment Promotion has been presented in the parliament for checking illicit transactions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Responding to queries raised during in-principle discussion in Tuesday’s meeting of the National Assembly’s Legislation Management Committee, Minister Gurung said the bill has been put forward for amendment process since illicit financial flows have direct bearing on the national economy. He added that the government also decided to amend the bill by taking into consideration the recommendations made by development partners. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister further shared that other related laws are also to be amended to make the prevention of money laundering law effective. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20087', 'image' => '20240227064657_202309op-Richest-People-scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 18:46:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20358', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Lacks Sufficient Stock of Food Grains', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. Farmers across the country produced 57,24,234 metric tons of rice this year. Ironically, when the country set an all-time high record in rice production this year, the government’s warehouses have insufficient amount of food stored for contingency</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the existing regulations, the government must have a stock of 33,000 metric tons of food grains for immediate supply in the event of a food crisis that might occur due to natural calamities or any other reasons. However, the state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) Limited currently has only about 8,000 metric tons of food in stock. The FMTC does not have adequate stock of food grains as it failed to purchase paddy and rice according to its target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, FMTC had set a target of purchasing 50,200 metric tons of rice. The government had allocated a budget of Rs 1.74 billion for this purpose. Even though the FMTC started purchasing paddy on time, it has only managed to buy about 5,000 metric tons as of mid-February this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FMTC has also failed to purchase rice as per its target. As a result, there has been a further decline in the food stock, the company said. According to the chief executive officer of the company, Mohan Prakash Chand, the company issued separate tender bids to purchase 29,000 and 20,000 metric tons of rice after it was unable to purchase rice as per the target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, no one responded to the tender. Chand argued that no one came to participate in the tender due to India's ban on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a businessmen, importers are not interested in the tender bids called by the FMTC as the price of rice will become expensive due to India's restrictions on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We would have responded to the tender if it was possible to import rice from India without any hindrance,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had started the process of importing 1 million metric tons of paddy and 1 million metric tons of rice from India last July. “India agreed to supply only 95,000 metric tons of rice," says the businessman, "Even if we participate in the tender, we will be importing rice under the same quota. Of late, India has been changing its export policy frequently. How can we participate in the tender in such a situation?”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20086', 'image' => '20240227022743_paddyyy-transformed.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:26:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20359', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Governor Urges Banks to Focus on Strengthening the Institution Instead of Making Profit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During an interaction program organized by the Nepal Bankers Association on 'Latest situation of Nepal's banking system' on Monday, Sunil KC, president of the association presented a paper and mentioned that the distributable profit of banks is negative, bad loans are high and the return on capital is also decreasing. Responding to his remarks, Governor Adhikari said that the central bank is in the process of reforming the financial sector and it will be difficult for some time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Reforms may be painful for some time, the growth rate has also been negative during major reforms," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that the policy of central bank takes effect in the long term and it is not fair for someone to quickly criticize the NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Recalling that there was opposition when the CD ratio was implemented in the past, he said, "Now that's the reason why banks have been strong."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He added that the bankers themselves protested when the central bank implemented the CD ratio to stop the flow of credit when it was increasing, and added, "Now, there has been no problem even with the withdrawal of Rs 27 billion from NIC Asia Bank. If the CD ratio had not been implemented, the situation would have been different."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the analysis of the NRB governor, there is a problem at present because banks provided excessive loans in the past.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Questions were raised in past regarding over-financing," he said. “There wouldn’t have been any problem if the banks had disbursed the loans by considering the paying capacity of the borrowers,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, he said that there is no need to panic as the credit risk system is tight and most of the loans are based on mortgages.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">At present, there is a foreign currency reserve that can cover 14 months of imports, said the governor. The governor claimed that the cooperatives and informal economy occupies a large part and when that sector is in trouble, the banks are affected. He said that the cooperatives and informal economy flourished because the services of the banks could not reach the lower classes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that due to the problems in the cooperatives, the bank's loan recovery was also affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The current society does not understand the sensitivity of the banking sector and banks are being accused of feudalism, moneylending and usury, said the governor. When I became the governor, the profit of the banks was Rs 70 billion when the portfolio was Rs 3200 billion. Now the profit is not even Rs 70 billion when the portfolio is Rs 5000 billion.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He alleged that the groups with vested interest wants to make the banking sector a failure and urged all to be cautious.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20085', 'image' => '20240227025642_20230412061029_collage (70).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:56:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20357', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NAC Starts Surkhet-Kalikot Flights', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province.', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p><br /> <span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">February 27: Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province. NAC’s aircraft with call sign 9N-ABU took off from Surkhet to Kalikot on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The plane took off from Surkhet airport at 11 am and landed at Sunthrali airport in Kalikot at 11:20 am. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sudan Kirati had inaugurated the Sunthrali Airport in Kalikot.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The state-owned airline company informed that it will now operate flights to Kalikot as well as Humla, Jumla, Mugu and Dolpa from its base in Surkhet. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The NAC informed that it will operate flights to other districts of Karnali region in the near future.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20084', 'image' => '20240227020240_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:01:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History of Commercial Airliners: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Safety performance of 2023 continues to demonstrate that flying is the safest mode of transport,” Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general said in a statement, adding, “Aviation places its highest priority on safety and that shows in the 2023 performance.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to Walsh, jet operations saw no hull losses or fatalities in the review year. The year 2023 also saw the lowest fatality risk and ‘all accident’ rate on record, he added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">According to the website of IATA, the fatality risk improved to 0.03 in 2023 from 0.11 in 2022 and 0.11 for the five years, 2019-2023. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">At this level of safety, on average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident, added IATA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">There were 37 million aircraft movements in 2023 (jet and turboprop), an increase of 17% on the previous year, the IATA wrote on its website.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident," IATA said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport, according to AFP.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – <em>Agencies</em></span></span></span></p> <p><em><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">(Updated news with inputs from IATA)</span></span></span></em></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20101', 'image' => '20240229120455_20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 12:04:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '200,000 Plus Taxpayers not Paying Taxes Regularly to KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said that around 200,000 taxpayers are not regularly paying taxes to the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC officials informed that out of 312,000 taxpayers registered at the KMC, 200,000 are not regularly paying taxes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to KMC’s Revenue Department, the metropolis is preparing to step up ward-level monitoring to bring the defaulting taxpayers under the ambit of tax.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">KMC said that around 100,000 taxpayers are among those showing reluctance to pay rent-related taxes. Similarly, the number of taxpayers who are unwilling to pay business tax, entertainment tax and advertisement tax exceed 100,000, said KMC Revenue Department’s Chief Dhruva Kafle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to him, the KMC is also preparing to bring the unregistered taxpayers of all categories under the scope of tax from this month to increase tax compliance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Kafle said that arrears amounting to Rs 2 billion are yet to be recovered from the registered taxpayers of KMC. The dues have not been paid for the last 12 years, KMC sources said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The metropolis had set an annual revenue collection target of Rs 10.80 billion for the current fiscal year. It has so far been able to collect only Rs 5.80 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Though its revenue collection status was found satisfactory till the first six months of the fiscal year, KMC's revenue in the last month (mid-January to mid-February, 2024) has dropped compared to other months. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20100', 'image' => '20240229115711_QD3B58fDcaeg9xELQr7HHN.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:56:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Submits Suggestions on e-Commerce Bill ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 29: Private sector organisations have submitted suggestions for the amendment to the e-commerce bill. The organisations submitting suggestions include the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), American Chamber of Commerce Nepal, and Nepal Association for Software and IT Services Companies. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A joint delegation of the three organisations visited Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, and Chairperson of the Education, Health and Technology Committee of the Federal Parliament, Bhanu Bhakta Joshi, separately, and submitted the suggestions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The team comprising president of the Information Technology Council of CNI, Ajit Bikram Shah, met Minister Sharma on Tuesday and urged to be clear on major issues including definition of the bill, responsibility of the parties involved in e-commerce, provision of punishment and access to international market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, the delegation requested the government to create a conducive environment for large-scale investment in information technology sector by investors based in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Sharma shared that the government was actively involved in formulating necessary laws, including those related to information technology and cyber security. She urged the private sector to prepare projects related to information technology sector to present in the upcoming investment summit and also urged them to provide written suggestions to the government. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-29', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20099', 'image' => '20240229112532_785054-ecommerce-istock-020119.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-29 11:24:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Students of Ilam Forced to Visit India for Primary Education as Public Schools Remain Closed', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Nim Lamu, 68, of Sandakpur Rural Municipality-5, Kalpokhari, is on the verge of going to India for her granddaughter's education. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"I have already searched for a room near Ribs School in Manebhanjyang, India to educate my granddaughter," he said. With the closure of public schools in lack of students, children from villages of Ilam in India border are compelled to go to study in Indian schools. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Children in villages of northern Ilam, bordering India, are forced to go to Indian schools due to lack of schools. Sonam Sherpa, a resident of Jaubari, said parents have been forced to go to India to educate their kids from primary level due to closure of schools in Jaubari, Meghma, Kalpokhari and other places of highland areas having low population density and settlement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has been over eight years since the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari remained shut. The school operating class from 1 to 5 has remained closed in 2072 BS, reportedly due to inadequate number of students. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At present, around 15 children from this area are studying at Ribs School in Manebhanjyang. Doma Sherpa, who lives in Manebhanjyang to educate her child, said she spends IRs 15,000 to 18,000 a month. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been easier to teach children in our own country, but there is no school, everything has been ruined,” laments Sherpa. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Not only Jaubari, Saraswati Primary School at Megma of Maijogmai-2 as well as another primary school at Kalpokhari of Sandakpur-5 and a primary school at Majuwa of Sandakpur-5 have been closed, says Pasang Tshiring Sherpa, former principal of Rastriya Primary School, Jaubari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Sherpa, Nepali children do not even know about Nepal's nationality and self-respect while studying in India. The closed schools have become dilapidated. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Armed Police Force (APF) had been stationed at the Rastriya Primary School in Jaubari some time ago. The armed forces have constructed their own building near the school. So far, the concerned bodies have not shown any interest in running schools in the border areas. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20098', 'image' => '20240228013838_scool.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => '2023 was the Safest Year in Aviation History: IATA', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Last year was the safest ever for commercial air travel, despite a massive rebound in passenger flights, AFP reported citing an airline industry group on Wednesday.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the news based on IATA’s annual report, the only fatal accident of a passenger plane was the crash of an ATR turboprop operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines during a domestic flight, killing 72 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it counted another 29 accidents in 2023 that did not involve fatalities or loss of the plane.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In 2022, there was a total of 42 accidents, of which five were fatal and took 158 lives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA counts a non-fatal accident as an event that causes damage of at least $1 million or equal to 10 percent of the plane's value. IATA statistics do not cover business, military, private, maintenance or training flights, AFP reported.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA said "2023 saw the lowest fatality risk and 'all accident' rate on record."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"On average a person would have to travel by air every day for 103,239 years to experience a fatal accident."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The low crash rate came despite the number of flights last year rising 17 percent to 37.7 million, the IATA said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The IATA represents some 320 airlines comprising 83 percent of global air traffic.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Even if flying is among the safest activities a person can do, there is always room to improve," said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, citing "two high profile accidents in the first month of 2024."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In January, a Japan Airlines A350 Airbus was safely evacuated after bursting into flames at a Tokyo airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the United States, a panel blew off the fuselage of a Boeing 737 MAX during an Alaska Airlines flight, again without any serious injuries. – AFP/RSS</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-29', 'keywords' => 'aviation, history, IATA, international, flights, accident, plane, crash, fatal, Nepal, Yeti, safe, commercial, military', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20097', 'image' => '20240228074350_941437-01-02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 19:43:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'WTO Approves Services Trade Rules', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: The World Trade Organization Tuesday enshrined new rules facilitating trade in services between more than 70 member states, the European Union's trade commissioner said, despite initial objections from India and South Africa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The set of rules will streamline authorisation requirements and ease procedural hurdles faced by businesses, according to a press release.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">It will help reduce the costs of global services trade by more than $119 billion every year, it added.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The integration into the WTO implies all 164 members have approved, given the body's rules requiring full consensus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"Reaching this outcome...and integrating it into the WTO has not been an easy pass," EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said during the WTO's 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We faced opposition from two WTO members" but a "spirit of compromise" eventually cleared hurdles, he said without naming any country.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, meanwhile, thanked "India and South Africa for finding a way forward," calling services the "future of trade."</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Global services exports are valued at more than $6.5 trillion, representing 23 percent of total world trade, according to the EU.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The latest WTO agreement applies to 71 member states who signed the initiative but businesses from other member states can also benefit.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">China, the United States and the EU are among the 71 signatories. India and South Africa have not signed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Costa Rica, which led the negotiations on the initiative, called it "a significant milestone" for member states and the WTO.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">“This is the first WTO result in the field of services in more than 25 years. A real success story for this organization," said Costa Rica's foreign trade minister Manuel Tovar. – AFP/RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20096', 'image' => '20240228013732_20240227105611_wtov2-01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:36:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Announces PPAs for Hydropower Projects up to 10 MW', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects up to 10 MW capacity.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a notice on Tuesday, the NEA said it has opened PPAs for run-of-river and semi-reservoir hydropower projects up to 10 MW. The NEA has urged the hydropower projects to submit relevant documents to the Department of Electricity Development for the PPA.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The 96th meeting of the Board of Directors of the NEA on February 7 had decided to remove the quota system for hydropower projects up to 10 megawatts and to open PPAs on the ‘take or pay’ basis.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Officials of the NEA have said that even when the capacity is increased by up to 25 percent, the PPA will not be subject to the PPA limit. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The NEA has concluded that the limit of PPAs set on the basis of a production mix of up to 10 megawatts is not applicable in order to maximize the use of local natural resources and to encourage domestic investors in the hydropower sector.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20093', 'image' => '20240228013546_hydro.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 13:34:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NEA Operating Nine New Substations since the Start of Current Fiscal Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">February 28: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has completed the construction of nine substations for electricity distribution and put them into operation since mid-July of the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has also constructed and put into operation 33 and 11 kilovolt (KV) and 400 volt lines to supply electricity from the grid substations to the distribution substations and to supply electricity from the distribution substations to the consumers. In addition, distribution transformers have also been installed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">From mid-July till now, nine distribution substations of 33/11 kV capacity have been completed and put into operation. This has improved the electricity supply in the substation construction area and also reduced the leakage, the NEA claimed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, said that the construction of distribution lines and substations is being carried out across the country to provide reliable, quality, sufficient and safe electricity to the consumers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">"We are extensively expanding and strengthening the distribution system to electrify the places without electricity and to improve the supply to the places with access to electricity," Executive Director Ghising said, adding, "The demand for reliable and high-quality electricity supply in the country's major cities and industrial areas including the federal capital Kathmandu Valley will increase by 2050. We have progressed the construction of transmission and distribution lines and substations that can carry high-level reliable electrical load in a phased manner.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Ghising said they have started the upgrading and strengthening of transmission and distribution lines and substations that are currently in operation and the construction of new transmission lines and substations for this very purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The NEA has installed 33-11 KV Chisapani substation for power supply in the western region of Ilam and Panchthar, Danjavan substation for power supply in Bagmati and Bakaiya Rural Municipality of Makwanpur, Darbang Substation for power supply in Mangala, Malika and Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality of Myagdi and Bojhpokhri substation has been constructed and put into operation for power supply in Bullingtar Rural Municipality of Nawalparasi (Bardghat-Susta East). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">The substations were built through the investment of the Government of Nepal and NEA under the subsidized distribution system strengthening and expansion project of the Asian Development Bank. Under the project, the construction of 25 new substations and the upgrading of 12 substations and construction of the distribution network is currently underway. Out of the 25 substations, the construction of five is in the final stage, while the upgrading of the substations has been completed.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20091', 'image' => '20240228121836_substationed.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 12:18:08', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20363', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Illegal Imports of Onions Increasing after Imposition of VAT', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 28: Illegal imports of onions and potatoes have increased after the government increased the tax on the vegetables to promote domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessmen claim that legal import of onions has stopped after the government adopted a policy of charging 13 percent VAT on potatoes and onions through the budget for the current fiscal year (FY). The supply of potatoes is covered by domestic production.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government also levies 9 percent customs duty and 1.5 percent advance income tax on the import of potatoes and onions. Importers of potatoes and onions in Birgunj held a press conference on Tuesday and said that government’s policy has increased the illegal import of onions. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rajesh Kumar Kalwar claimed that the supply of potatoes is fulfilled by domestic production but onions are being imported illegally.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since the cost of illegal import is less than the revenue to be paid to the customs office, certain groups are actively involved in the unauthorized import of such goods in the border areas. Businessmen say that illegal imports have increased as they have to pay a total of 27 percent of taxes including customs duty, VAT and income tax for legally importing potatoes and onions.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Importers say that those importing onions and potatoes have to pay an extra 10 to 15 percent of the total cost for transporting the vegetables the Indian market to the bordering towns of Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Moreover, the import of onions have come to a complete halt after the Indian government imposed a ban on exports from last December to March. India will lift the export ban by fixing a quota after March 31. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Munna Kumar Rai, another importer, claimed that there will be no legal import until VAT is removed. Madhav Rajpal, vice president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that the government’s revenue is dying up instead of increasing due to its own policy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Even though the policy of import control for self-reliance of domestic products is correct, unauthorized imports have increased. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“As a result, the government has lost revenue in one hand while the businessmen involved in legal imports are in trouble," said Vice President Rajpal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Nepal is mostly dependent on imports to meet the market demand for onions. The annual consumption of onions in Nepal is 401,000 tons, but the country produces only 169,000 tons of onions, according to government figures. Importers say that the country has to import onions to meet the demand.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">About 3.8 million tons of potatoes are consumed in Nepal every year, while the country still imports 400,000 tons of potatoes annually, according to the businessmen. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Businessman Rakesh Kumar Kalwar says that the price of onion in Nepal's border market is up to Rs 10 more expensive than in the Indian market.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Traders say that illegally imported onions in Nepal are delivered from border areas to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Narayangadh and other cities. They claim that the illegal traders are running such business by influencing the local police, administration and government agencies responsible of revenue leakage control.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Prem Prasad Devkota, chief investigation officer of the Revenue Investigation Office, Pathalaiya, said that they have increased surveillance after they noticed illegal import of onion. According to Devkota, the office has collected Rs 765, 000 in fine from illegal importers as of mid-February.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20090', 'image' => '20240228115036_20170411040236_onion.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 11:49:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20361', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 'Efforts on to Repatriate Nepali Nationals Recruited in Russian Military' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud has said efforts were underway to repatriate the Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister shared this at a meeting held at the ministry on Tuesday with the relatives of the Nepali citizens who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"It would have been better if they had joined legally. They adopted illegal measure for joining. Whatever the ways they adopted, the state has the responsibility towards them," Minister Saud said, adding, "The government is ever responsible to its citizens. The government will leave no stone unturned to return them. I have been honestly putting my efforts for the same." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Saud had called the members of the families of those recruited in the Russian Army for discussion at the ministry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Government of Nepal, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Moscow-based Nepali Embassy have exerted all-out efforts to the possible extent to safely repatriate those recruited in the Russian Army, arrange their treatment and rescue and bring back the bodies of those killed in the war zone. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"In order for the safe return of the Nepali nationals, the government is continually in correspondence with the Russian side by mobilizing Kathmandu-based Russian Embassy, Moscow-based Nepali Embassy and other measures," the minister added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">At the meeting, the Foreign Affairs Minister informed that the respective families have so far filed applications at the Department of Consular Services about 244 people, including those deceased and remained out of contact, seeking cooperation for safe repatriation of those who joined the Russian military. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister urged the families of the concerned Nepali nationals to register their applications at the Department of Consular Services about those recruited in the Russian Army. It would help the government to identify the status of Nepali nationals recruited in the Russian Army, he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Also on the occasion, the minister shared the efforts made with the embassies of Russia and India to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that the Russian side has positively responded to some issues raised by Nepal government about its nationals recruited in the Russian Army and the issue of providing compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured has made progress. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20089', 'image' => '20240228095631_20240203103517_20240112111355_20220719459a988fb97e63ab3ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 09:55:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20362', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Patan Issues Interim Order not to Implement KMC's Notice ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">February 28: High Court Patan has issued an interim order not to implement the notice to immediately vacate the building of Bhatbhateni Developers Pvt Ltd operated by entrepreneur Min Bahadur Gurung on Lalita Niwas land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of Patan High Court Judge Munendra Prasad Awasthi issued the interim order not to implement the notice of Kathmandu Metropolitan City to immediately vacate the Bhatbhateni building operated on Lalita Niwas land in Baluwatar. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The High Court issued the interim order in the name of entrepreneur Gurung and his relative Sarala Ghale Gurung. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A writ petition was filed at the High Court demanding order of prohibition after KMC issued a notice to vacate all structures of Bhatbhanteni. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-28', 'modified' => '2024-02-28', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20088', 'image' => '20240228104642_high.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-28 10:45:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20360', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ''Money-Laundering Prevention Bill to be Amended to Check Illicit Transactions' ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Feb 27: The government has proposed amending the bill related to money laundering and business promotion.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dhanraj Gurung defended the government’s move saying that the bill to amend some laws relating to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Business Environment Promotion has been presented in the parliament for checking illicit transactions. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Responding to queries raised during in-principle discussion in Tuesday’s meeting of the National Assembly’s Legislation Management Committee, Minister Gurung said the bill has been put forward for amendment process since illicit financial flows have direct bearing on the national economy. He added that the government also decided to amend the bill by taking into consideration the recommendations made by development partners. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister further shared that other related laws are also to be amended to make the prevention of money laundering law effective. -- RSS</span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20087', 'image' => '20240227064657_202309op-Richest-People-scaled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 18:46:26', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20358', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Lacks Sufficient Stock of Food Grains', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: Rice production in Nepal increased by 4.33 percent this year compared to the previous fiscal year, according to government data. Farmers across the country produced 57,24,234 metric tons of rice this year. Ironically, when the country set an all-time high record in rice production this year, the government’s warehouses have insufficient amount of food stored for contingency</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the existing regulations, the government must have a stock of 33,000 metric tons of food grains for immediate supply in the event of a food crisis that might occur due to natural calamities or any other reasons. However, the state-owned Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) Limited currently has only about 8,000 metric tons of food in stock. The FMTC does not have adequate stock of food grains as it failed to purchase paddy and rice according to its target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">This year, FMTC had set a target of purchasing 50,200 metric tons of rice. The government had allocated a budget of Rs 1.74 billion for this purpose. Even though the FMTC started purchasing paddy on time, it has only managed to buy about 5,000 metric tons as of mid-February this year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">FMTC has also failed to purchase rice as per its target. As a result, there has been a further decline in the food stock, the company said. According to the chief executive officer of the company, Mohan Prakash Chand, the company issued separate tender bids to purchase 29,000 and 20,000 metric tons of rice after it was unable to purchase rice as per the target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, no one responded to the tender. Chand argued that no one came to participate in the tender due to India's ban on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to a businessmen, importers are not interested in the tender bids called by the FMTC as the price of rice will become expensive due to India's restrictions on rice exports.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We would have responded to the tender if it was possible to import rice from India without any hindrance,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had started the process of importing 1 million metric tons of paddy and 1 million metric tons of rice from India last July. “India agreed to supply only 95,000 metric tons of rice," says the businessman, "Even if we participate in the tender, we will be importing rice under the same quota. Of late, India has been changing its export policy frequently. How can we participate in the tender in such a situation?”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20086', 'image' => '20240227022743_paddyyy-transformed.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:26:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20359', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Governor Urges Banks to Focus on Strengthening the Institution Instead of Making Profit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">February 27: At a time when the distributable profits of banks are decreasing due to the economic slowdown, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Maha Prasad Adhikari has urged bankers to make the institution strong and sustainable even if they have to deal with low returns for some time.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During an interaction program organized by the Nepal Bankers Association on 'Latest situation of Nepal's banking system' on Monday, Sunil KC, president of the association presented a paper and mentioned that the distributable profit of banks is negative, bad loans are high and the return on capital is also decreasing. Responding to his remarks, Governor Adhikari said that the central bank is in the process of reforming the financial sector and it will be difficult for some time. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">"Reforms may be painful for some time, the growth rate has also been negative during major reforms," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that the policy of central bank takes effect in the long term and it is not fair for someone to quickly criticize the NRB.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Recalling that there was opposition when the CD ratio was implemented in the past, he said, "Now that's the reason why banks have been strong."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He added that the bankers themselves protested when the central bank implemented the CD ratio to stop the flow of credit when it was increasing, and added, "Now, there has been no problem even with the withdrawal of Rs 27 billion from NIC Asia Bank. If the CD ratio had not been implemented, the situation would have been different."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As per the analysis of the NRB governor, there is a problem at present because banks provided excessive loans in the past.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Questions were raised in past regarding over-financing," he said. “There wouldn’t have been any problem if the banks had disbursed the loans by considering the paying capacity of the borrowers,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">However, he said that there is no need to panic as the credit risk system is tight and most of the loans are based on mortgages.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">At present, there is a foreign currency reserve that can cover 14 months of imports, said the governor. The governor claimed that the cooperatives and informal economy occupies a large part and when that sector is in trouble, the banks are affected. He said that the cooperatives and informal economy flourished because the services of the banks could not reach the lower classes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Governor Adhikari said that due to the problems in the cooperatives, the bank's loan recovery was also affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The current society does not understand the sensitivity of the banking sector and banks are being accused of feudalism, moneylending and usury, said the governor. When I became the governor, the profit of the banks was Rs 70 billion when the portfolio was Rs 3200 billion. Now the profit is not even Rs 70 billion when the portfolio is Rs 5000 billion.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">He alleged that the groups with vested interest wants to make the banking sector a failure and urged all to be cautious.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20085', 'image' => '20240227025642_20230412061029_collage (70).jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:56:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '20357', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NAC Starts Surkhet-Kalikot Flights', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province.', 'content' => '<p> </p> <p><br /> <span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">February 27: Nepal Airlines Corporation has started Surkhet-Kalikot-Surkhet flights in its effort to serve the locals of remote areas of Karnali Province. NAC’s aircraft with call sign 9N-ABU took off from Surkhet to Kalikot on Monday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The plane took off from Surkhet airport at 11 am and landed at Sunthrali airport in Kalikot at 11:20 am. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sudan Kirati had inaugurated the Sunthrali Airport in Kalikot.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The state-owned airline company informed that it will now operate flights to Kalikot as well as Humla, Jumla, Mugu and Dolpa from its base in Surkhet. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"ekmukta","serif"">The NAC informed that it will operate flights to other districts of Karnali region in the near future.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2024-02-27', 'modified' => '2024-02-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '20084', 'image' => '20240227020240_Untitled.jpg', 'article_date' => '2024-02-27 14:01:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
