November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks.    
They held a symbolic protest putting forth various demands including provision for a fixed interest rate, lowering the premium increased due to base rate, and decreasing the service-charge taken by banks and financial institutions.    
Stating that their problems have increased due to various reasons including rise in interest rate, they demonstrated at Maitighar Mandala on Saturday to draw the attention of bodies concerned, said Vice-President of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Dinesh Shrestha.    
"Entrepreneurs and industrialists facing problems joined the protest programme spontaneously. We hoped that the attention of the bodies concerned will be drawn towards our demand," shared Shrestha.
The symbolic protest was joined by FNCCI provincial and district chapters and thematic committees, according to Shrestha who shared with the RSS that they planned to shut the district-based industries and enterprises from Sunday as the continuity of the protest.    
The participants displayed placards with messages such as "we need banking services, but increasing interest rate is becoming unaffordable; we face challenges to sustain business due to a high interest rate; the sustainability of industry, trade is a must to support nation's economy".    
Last week, the FNCCI delegation submitted a memorandum to the Nepal Rastra Bank, seeking its intervention to resolve the issues in the finance sector.    
They demanded for the central bank's role in managing liquidity crisis as well as stability of interest rate, price stability and the management of external sector. Besides, they want the central bank not to implement the amendments in the Current Capital Loan Guidelines, to ensure extra time for the payment of loan and interest, undertake a detailed study about the amendment to credit-deposit ratio, and take efforts to increase the capital expenditure among others. -- RSS