November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date.…
November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date.…
November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by…
November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon.…
November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now.…
November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share…
November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on…
November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government…
November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower…
November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection.…
November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year.…
November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the…
November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project.…
November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of…
November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on…
November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. The Insurance Board has instructed the insurance companies to settle such claims by adding Rs 81 million to the fund of Rs 1 billion released by the government for same very purpose.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have instructed the companies to make payments based on the date of claims," said Surya Prasad Silwal, chairman of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the companies have been instructed to start disbursing funds immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the settlement of claims will give a positive message.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It will dispel doubts that those insured might not get the insurance amount,” said Silwal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board initiated the Covid-19 insurance scheme immediately after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">All 20 non-life insurance companies sold this policy to a total of 1,758,000 people. Among them, 165,059 have claimed insurance worth Rs 15.82 billion. So far, the insurance companies have settled claims worth Rs 4.98 billion made by 51,669 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although there is no pandemic insurance in other countries of the world, the board had started Covid-19 insurance as its social responsibility. However, as the number of infected people increased, the companies stopped settling the claims stating that they could not afford it. They also blamed the government for the delay in releasing the amount it had pledged to provide as relief.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the government has already decided to release the amount upon the recommendation of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15997', 'image' => '20221106043837_coronainsuranceee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 16:37:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16255', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Entrepreneurs Demonstrate against Increase in Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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". </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Last week, the FNCCI delegation submitted a memorandum to the Nepal Rastra Bank, seeking its intervention to resolve the issues in the finance sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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 </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15996', 'image' => '20221106031800_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 15:17:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16254', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Protocol for Sending Workers to UK, Japan Ready', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security informed that the government has prepared the protocols for sending workers to those countries and the process of sending workers will begin soon.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Spokesperson of the Ministry Dr Thaneshwar Bhusal said that the protocol will be implemented after the Council of Ministers passes it. He informed that the ministry prepared the criteria for the selection, placement and service facilities of workers going to the UK. Preparations are being made to send 200 nurses to Britain from January 2023 in the first phase. The ministry has prepared a schedule for requesting applications for nurses in this regard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Only nurses who are qualified according to the criteria will be allowed to go to the UK for employment. A labor agreement was signed between Nepal and the UK on August 22 regarding the employment of nurses in the UK. Director General of the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety Umakanta Acharya said that framework for the process of sending nurses to the UK for foreign employment is already prepared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the information, the selection of health workers going to the UK will be done through the department and the UK's Department of Health and Social Care. The two countries agreed on not levying any charges for the nurse selection process and that the costs of the health workers selected for employment will be covered by employers in the UK. Officials of the ministry say that based on the evaluation of the health workers sent in the first phase, more workers will be allowed to go to the UK in the second phase. Nurses who have completed 20 years and are under 45 years of age will be allowed to work in the UK. Nurses with two years of work experience with a license from the Nepal Nursing Council will be given priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the ministry informed that the process of sending workers to Japan will also proceed after the election. Director of the department Dambar Bahadur Sunuwar, who has been looking at Israeli employment in the department, has been given the responsibility of looking into the employment in Japan also. Director General Acharya said that the process of selection of workers is being discussed. In March 2019, Nepal and Japan signed an agreement regarding taking Nepali workers. As of present, an agreement has been reached between the two countries to allow specially trained manpower from Nepal to go to Japan for employment.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15995', 'image' => '20221106014614_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 13:45:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16253', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Imports more than 700,000 Tons of Onion a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. The records of the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee show that the wholesale price of onion, which was Rs 45 per kg in the first week of last October, has now increased by Rs 15 per kg to Rs 60 per kg. Currently, the price of onion has increased due to the 'off season'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the current market price, 417,000 metric tons of onions worth more than Rs 25 billion are consumed in Nepal in a year. As per the data of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development, 289,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21, while 129,000 metric tons had to be imported from abroad to meet the demand. In the same year, 11.5 tons of onions were exported from Nepal. A large part of onion consumed by Nepalis is imported from other countries including India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2019/20, a total of 288,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal, while 160,000 tons were imported to meet the domestic demand. The data of onion import confirms that the government has not paid much attention to increasing the production of onion, which is used in large quantities in the Nepali kitchen. Onion is a crop that can be produced in abundance in Nepal. But looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the area for onion production is also decreasing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2018/19, onion cultivation was done on 20,900 hectares of land. In the years since then, the area of onion cultivation is on gradual decline. According to government data, onions were cultivated only on 20,400 hectares in 2019/20 and 20,300 hectares in 2020/21. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sandeep Subedi, horticulture officer at the Bagmati Province Office of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development admitted that the government has not introduced any big programmes to promote onion production. According to him, although there are good prospects for onion cultivation in Nepal, there is problem with seeds. He said that the seeds currently being used in Nepal are not of high quality and even seeds imported from India are not easily available. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the government had planned to conduct potato and onion mission programme for four years from the fiscal year 2019/20, but that plan has been limited to papers. Even before that, the government had conducted a programme to increase onion production from 2007 to 2012 in Sirha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa and Rupandehi by spending Rs 50 million. However, the programme could not be successful due to irregularities in the purchase and distribution of production materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the central government has not introduced any programme to increase onion production. “We have not brought such programmes after the previous failure. Since the production process of onion seed is sensitive and complicated, it has to be brought from India. However, India does not provide the required amount. Due to lack of seeds, we have not been able to bring a programme to increase production,” said Spokesperson Sanjel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15994', 'image' => '20221106123044_20200916052134_1600205898.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 12:30:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16252', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SEBON Issues Guidelines for IPO Quota to People Involved in Foreign Employment ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON has made provisions for reservation to those in foreign employment so that they would be able to easily invest in the initial public offering. As per the guidelines, this provision has come into effect immediately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This provision has been made for encouraging the Nepalis currently in foreign employment to send the remittances to Nepal through formal channel. It is estimated that the remittance coming via formal channels will increase if provisions of providing reservation for IPO to those Nepalis in foreign employment. The move is expected to release the pressure on the declining foreign currency reserves in the country in recent times. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government took this measure as the money coming through the remittances was being used only on buying consumer goods and was thus going back to where it came from. The board made this provision at the initiatives of the Finance Ministry with the aim of utilizing the money in the productive sectors and in shoring up the national economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the new provision, the organizations issuing IPOs are required to allot 10 percent of the IPOs to those Nepalis who have acquired labour permits for foreign employment. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15993', 'image' => '20221106114548_Sebonnn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 11:45:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16251', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Over 500,000 Tourists Arrive in Nepal in 10 Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track. In the past 10 months, around 500,000 foreign tourists visited Nepal, according to data provided by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The figure is a huge increase as compared to the data of 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic was at its peak. The COVID-19 pandemic had ruined the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country recorded the arrival of over 230,000 tourists in 2020, a sharp drop by a whopping 81 percent against over 1.19 million tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic. Similarly, in 2021, the arrival of foreign tourists further dropped by 34.4 percent to over 150,000 as compared to 2020. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The influx of tourist in 2022 took place between January and October, said the NTB. Over 88,500 tourists visited the country in October alone, and over 61,500 in April, over 58,300 in September, more than 41,300 in August, over 44,400 in July, and more than 46,900 in June. Similarly, over 53,600 tourists visited the country in May, more than 42,000 in March, over 19,700 in February and more than 16,900 in January. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">More than 600,000 tourists are expected to visit Nepal this year with this arrival rate, according to Maniraj Lamichhane, Director of the NTB. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15992', 'image' => '20221106101246_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 10:12:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16250', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Produces Less than 600,000 Metric Tons of Spices in a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data. The data provided by the National Centre for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crops Development shows that 594,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 73,300 hectares of land in all the districts of the seven provinces of Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data prepared by the center only covers cardamom, ginger, garlic, red pepper and dried chilies produced in Nepal. Apart from these, the center said that the production of other types of spices is not significant in Nepal, so they are not included in the data. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the highest production was in the year 2020/21. Before that, 555,000 tons of spices were produced in the year 2019/20 and 543,000 metric tons in the year 2018/19.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Altogether 184,611 metric tons of cardamom, ginger garlic, red pepper and chilies have been produced in 29,962 hectares in Province 1; 53,600 metric tons of spices have been produced in 6,200 hectares of land in Province 2; and 72,100 metric tons of spices have been produced in 8,748 hectares of land in Bagmati province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data, 49,500 metric tons of spices were produced in 6500 hectares of land in Gandaki province, and 138, 000 metric tons were produced from 11838 hectares in Lumbini province. Similarly, it has been found that 35,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 4,000 hectares of land in Karnali province and 61,200 metric tons in 6,100 hectares in Sudurpaschim province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the data shows that there has been some increase in production, it is not enough to meet the demand of the domestic market. In FY 2020/21, a total of 158,600 metric tons of spices were imported. About 15,000 metric tons of spices were exported from Nepal that year. Similarly, in the year 2019/20, altogether 127,800 metric tons of spices were imported and 14,000 metric tons were exported. According to the government data, 700,000 metric tons of spices are consumed in Nepal annually.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15991', 'image' => '20221104020450_Different-types-of-spices-of-the-table-apr18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 14:04:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16249', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Import Additional 22 Megawatts of Energy from Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai confirmed that the Central Electricity Authority of India on October 31 approved the proposal of NEA to export additional energy to India. With this approval, Nepal would now export 386 MW of electricity to India, Spokesperson Bhattarai added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data released by the NEA last month, the power export to Nepal had exceeded one billion units and the latest data are expected to be released soon. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier, the NEA had proposed for the sale of 100.9 MW of power through competitive price in the Day-Ahead Market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NEA had proposed for the export of hydropower produced from Likhukhola ‘A’ (29 MW), Kabeli B-I (25 MW), Maikhola (22 MW), Hewakhola A (15 MW) and Lower Modi I (10 MW). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Nea had also proposed exporting power generated from Mistrikhola, Solukhola, Chilime and other projects. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal has earned nearly Rs 8 billion in the past five months from the export of surplus electricity. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15990', 'image' => '20221104014726_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:46:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16248', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Inland Revenue Department to Intensify Market Monitoring', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This year, the department is preparing to conduct on-site monitoring of 15,000 taxpayers to prevent leakages of revenue.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sources at the department said that the recently held conference on revenue concluded that monitoring should be made effective in order to meet the annual revenue target. Following the conference, the department decided to prioritize market monitoring. The department expects to control revenue leakage through intensive and effective monitoring and increase tax collection by facilitating taxpayers. This year, the department is given a target of collecting revenue of Rs 626 billion. However, the department is facing difficulty in meeting even the monthly target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department announced that it will increase the use of technology and facilitate administrative process to increase tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is a policy to install flow meters in beer manufacturing companies by January of next year and to study installing flow meters in other alcohol producing industries. In terms of tax arrears collection, the department plans to settle 60 percent of the arrears of Rs 48.68 billion at present and to link the records of such arrears maintained in all offices to the electronic system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director of the department Raju Payakurel informed that in the current fiscal year, the department is planning to increase the number of taxpayers by issuing/renewing 200,000 personal permanent account numbers, and 176,000 commercial permanent account numbers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department is also planning to evaluate the progress of its second strategic plan and to formulate a third strategic plan.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, foreign nationals working in Nepal must submit a permanent account number and tax payment certificate when renewing their work permits and visas.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">IRD is also making it mandatory for anyone purchasing four-wheelers to show PAN cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Also, there is a plan to issue persona PAN cards to every individuals while issuing citizenship certificate and national identity cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the same time, the department made an action plan to expand the scope of tax collection by implementing the above mentioned criteria.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department plans to carry out tax inspection and investigation based on the information-based analysis of the revenue risk areas, and to discourage the use of fake invoices, fake excise duty stickers in order to control the revenue leakage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> The department made an action plan from the conference to settle 90 percent of the applications submitted in the fiscal year 2021/22 and at least 50 percent of the applications registered in the current fiscal year for administrative review due to disagreements on income tax, value added tax and excise duty.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15989', 'image' => '20221104014615_market monitoring.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:45:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16247', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Digital Currency within this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. Due to the trend of issuing electronic currency by central banks around the world, NRB also initiated the process of issuing the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB has completed the feasibility study for issuing CBDC and is collecting opinions and suggestions from stakeholders. Officials of NRB say that they are working to issue electronic currency within the current fiscal year by taking into account the opinions and suggestions of the stakeholders. According to an official of NRB’s Currency Management Department, the central bank is under pressure to issue CBDC because the central banks of the world are rapidly issuing such currencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We are working with the goal of issuing them within this year,” said the official.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that it is not possible to determine the timing of issuing CBDC. He added that the feasibility study has been complete and the NRB is still in the process of further study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During last year's monetary policy, NRB aimed to study the potential of digital currency. It also formed a steering committee under the coordination of Deputy Governor Bam Bahadur Mishra to advance the work of CBDC. The committee had submitted the feasibility study report for the CBDC at the end of last fiscal year. NRB published the feasibility study report recently and asked for opinions from stakeholders. It says that stakeholders can make suggestions on the report by the end of January.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report has suggested NRB to proceed with the CBDC project only by building a separate structure and team with the participation of stakeholders. At the initial stage, it is suggested that a small unit can be set up within the Payment System Department or the Information Technology Department of NRB. Similarly, the need to build high-level technology and develop the capacity of NRB to issue CBDC with security of data is also pointed out in the report.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the report has also pointed out the need to carry out feasibility studies, adequate legal arrangements, target setting as well as public awareness work before implementation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Central banks around the world started issuing digital currencies due to the increasing interest of the general public in digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also issued digital currency for the first time on Tuesday. In the first phase of the currency issued as a pilot project, only wholesale transactions are arranged with nine commercial banks. RBI is set to take it to the retail business for the common people only after its success. NRB informed that the use of digital currency will attract the common people to electronic payments and help reduce the expenses incurred in printing and circulation of notes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15988', 'image' => '20221104124812_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 12:47:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16246', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Economic Agendas of Political Parties: How Viable are the Election Manifestos? ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">High inflation, stress on foreign exchange reserve, massive trade deficit caused due to burgeoning imports, low capital expenditure, liquidity crunch and reduced investments on productive sectors are the key challenges of our economy at present. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have also impacted our economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Amid such economic uncertainties, the political parties have unveiled their election manifestos targeting the elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assemblies scheduled for November 20. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economists argue that the election manifestos of the political parties are distributive in nature and populist agendas which have hardly taken into consideration the global economy and Nepal’s current status. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economists have expressed their concerns to the possibilities of plunging the country’s economy into further crises while prioritizing populist programmes by the parties without taking the country’s economic status and financial base into account. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that the political parties have relegated the internal and external challenges hovering in the economy and lacked clear roadmap to implement the announcements made in the manifestos. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“In general, political parties are in competition to bring different projects for development and prosperity. This is positive in itself. But, they are silent on the resource management to implement those projects. Projects are also announced in the election manifestos even by violating fiscal discipline,” according to Dr Khanal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Chandra Mani Adhikari argued that economic issues of the parties are abstract and far away from the ground reality though they are fine theoretically and conceptually. He was of the view that the projects listed in the manifestos are unachievable. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari was of the view that political, economic, social and other views and priorities of all political parties are almost similar.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “Our national documents have also prioritized those issues. But, the implementation side of those priorities does not seem realistic,” Adhikari observed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The election manifestos have not only failed to assess the global economy and Nepal’s situation but also fail to address the general concerns of Nepalis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Control of high inflation, accessible employment opportunity, livelihood and basic infrastructure development issues should have been accorded priority but that is not the case, Adhikari commented. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The manifestos announced by the political parties in the previous elections also suggest that the election agenda are not objective and implementable. Adhikari adds, "Planning should be scientific, objective, and depend on resources for implementation. Rather, the parties are focused on distribution. Many goals presented in the manifesto of 2074BS election have been repeated.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, Professor of economics at Kathmandu University, Achyut Wagle, shared, "All political parties mentioned economic agenda in the election manifesto by ignoring legal aspects. It is sheer competition on scattered issues and programmes. The resources for the economic programmes were not studied." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He also pointed out that the economic agenda are not implemented because of lack of institutional capacity. Wagle also recalled that the election manifestos brought in the last three decades have similar plans and programmes. "Most of the issues are common. Centralized mindset is reflected in the economic agenda though we are a federal country," he underscored. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, lecturer at the Central Department of Economics of Tribhuvan University, Dr Ramesh Poudel, observed that the political parties' election manifestos are not research oriented. “They ignore experience too. They do not show objective reality and problems in the country, but sell cheap dreams,” he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Dr Poudel further said that the political parties failed to enforce the commitments they made in the election manifestos. Rigorous study is needed to make national economy dynamic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The political parties are blaming each other for their failure to realize the past commitments, said economist Khanal, stressing that they must be held accountable to implement the economic programmes they mentioned in the manifestos. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15987', 'image' => '20221104102453_Election_Commission.2e16d0ba.fill-650x500.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 10:24:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16245', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SC Issues Interim Order not to Extend the Term of GMR', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the cabinet decision of July 15 to extend the term of the project by another two years. The term of GMR had expired three years back. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The SC questioned why the cabinet decided to extend the term of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago for a term of two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the board again extended the term by one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Recently, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of the then Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Bishownath Poudel. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15986', 'image' => '20221104095640_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:55:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16244', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Plan to Introduce Tour Packages ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) Banke Chapter announced this during the inauguration of a four-day training on 'Tour Product Development and Ticketing'. The training is being organized in collaboration with the NATTA Center and Livelihood Revival Project for Sustainable Tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Secretary of NATTA, Yuvika Bhandari, said that the training will be fruitful in preparing skilled human resource in the field of tourism, as shortage of skilled human resource in the field of tourism has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. She said such trainings have been started in different places of the country under the plan of Nepal Tourism Board to address the shortage of human resource in the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking on the occasion Mayor of Birgunj Prashant Bista said that tourism can become a strong and permanent base for the country's economy. He expressed the confidence that there will be uniformity in the tour package developed by the tourism entrepreneurs of the three provinces after the training. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">President of NATTA Banke Chapter Ram Sigdel mentioned that the training organized for the first time in Western Nepal will enable tourism businesspersons to create travel packages by managing tickets for tourists going to destinations around the world. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Altogether 30 tour and travel operators from Lumbini, Kanrali and Sudurpaschim provinces are participating in the training. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15985', 'image' => '20221104093420_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16242', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Germany to Enlist Nepal in the List of Assistance Recipient Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday. The meeting focused on various issues of mutual interest including cooperation and bilateral relations between the two countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held at the Ministry of Finance, matters related to the development priority of Nepal and Germany as well as continuation of cooperation were discussed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has announced to enlist Nepal again in the list of the countries receiving bilateral assistance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Finance Minister Sharma thanked the continuous support of Germany in Nepal's economic development enveadours and democratic process as well as in prevention and control of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has been providing support in the areas of sustainable economic development, energy and health of Nepal since a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the International Cooperation Division of the Finance Ministry, Ishwori Aryal, said discussion was also held on the exchange of cooperation in the areas of renewal energy and health. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">German Ambassador to Nepal, Dr Thomas Prinz as well as other members of the visiting German delegation were present on the occasion. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15983', 'image' => '20221103044405_Flag-Pins-Nepal-Germany.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:43:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16241', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Likely to Get Term Extension by One Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway. When the team including the director general of the department visited the site on Monday and Tuesday, they deduced that the work was delayed due to the non-cooperation of the government, construction companies and local municipalities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Due to the three-sided problem, the road could not be leveled on time, and the department indicated that the deadline for completion of the project will be extended by one year. After failing to show satisfactory progress within the stipulated time, the department has sought explanation from the Chinese construction company -- China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited -- within one month. The department had asked the company to submit a reliable basis for not being able to complete the construction in the extended period as well.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During this time, even the department visited the site for inspection. Arjun Jung Thapa, director general of the department, claimed that the construction was delayed due to three main reasons. “It was seen that there was a delay in the work to be done by the Nepal government as well. The local municipality prohibited on buying of construction materials like aggregates, gravel and soil despite paying royalty to the local municipality. In addition, there were problems with the management of the construction company, leading to the delay in completion of wok on time,” said Thapa.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even now, the electric poles on the road that needs to be widened have not been removed. Thapa said that he did not get any help from the local municipality. Stating that the road construction was delayed due to various reasons, he indicated that the deadline will be extended by one year. The company has to expand the road in the next one year because not even a quarter of the work has been completed so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">An agreement was reached between the Department of Roads and the Chinese company to complete the 114 km Narayangadh-Butwal road upgrading work in 3.5 years in January 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the agreement, the road should have been expanded by August 1.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expansion of this road section is estimated to cost around Rs 16 billion. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15982', 'image' => '20221103040428_20220905044250_1662071156.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:03:53', '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' => '16256', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance Board Issues Directive to Settle Covid-19 Claims on the Basis of Application Date', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. The Insurance Board has instructed the insurance companies to settle such claims by adding Rs 81 million to the fund of Rs 1 billion released by the government for same very purpose.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have instructed the companies to make payments based on the date of claims," said Surya Prasad Silwal, chairman of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the companies have been instructed to start disbursing funds immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the settlement of claims will give a positive message.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It will dispel doubts that those insured might not get the insurance amount,” said Silwal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board initiated the Covid-19 insurance scheme immediately after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">All 20 non-life insurance companies sold this policy to a total of 1,758,000 people. Among them, 165,059 have claimed insurance worth Rs 15.82 billion. So far, the insurance companies have settled claims worth Rs 4.98 billion made by 51,669 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although there is no pandemic insurance in other countries of the world, the board had started Covid-19 insurance as its social responsibility. However, as the number of infected people increased, the companies stopped settling the claims stating that they could not afford it. They also blamed the government for the delay in releasing the amount it had pledged to provide as relief.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the government has already decided to release the amount upon the recommendation of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15997', 'image' => '20221106043837_coronainsuranceee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 16:37:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16255', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Entrepreneurs Demonstrate against Increase in Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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". </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Last week, the FNCCI delegation submitted a memorandum to the Nepal Rastra Bank, seeking its intervention to resolve the issues in the finance sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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 </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15996', 'image' => '20221106031800_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 15:17:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16254', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Protocol for Sending Workers to UK, Japan Ready', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security informed that the government has prepared the protocols for sending workers to those countries and the process of sending workers will begin soon.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Spokesperson of the Ministry Dr Thaneshwar Bhusal said that the protocol will be implemented after the Council of Ministers passes it. He informed that the ministry prepared the criteria for the selection, placement and service facilities of workers going to the UK. Preparations are being made to send 200 nurses to Britain from January 2023 in the first phase. The ministry has prepared a schedule for requesting applications for nurses in this regard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Only nurses who are qualified according to the criteria will be allowed to go to the UK for employment. A labor agreement was signed between Nepal and the UK on August 22 regarding the employment of nurses in the UK. Director General of the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety Umakanta Acharya said that framework for the process of sending nurses to the UK for foreign employment is already prepared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the information, the selection of health workers going to the UK will be done through the department and the UK's Department of Health and Social Care. The two countries agreed on not levying any charges for the nurse selection process and that the costs of the health workers selected for employment will be covered by employers in the UK. Officials of the ministry say that based on the evaluation of the health workers sent in the first phase, more workers will be allowed to go to the UK in the second phase. Nurses who have completed 20 years and are under 45 years of age will be allowed to work in the UK. Nurses with two years of work experience with a license from the Nepal Nursing Council will be given priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the ministry informed that the process of sending workers to Japan will also proceed after the election. Director of the department Dambar Bahadur Sunuwar, who has been looking at Israeli employment in the department, has been given the responsibility of looking into the employment in Japan also. Director General Acharya said that the process of selection of workers is being discussed. In March 2019, Nepal and Japan signed an agreement regarding taking Nepali workers. As of present, an agreement has been reached between the two countries to allow specially trained manpower from Nepal to go to Japan for employment.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15995', 'image' => '20221106014614_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 13:45:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16253', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Imports more than 700,000 Tons of Onion a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. The records of the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee show that the wholesale price of onion, which was Rs 45 per kg in the first week of last October, has now increased by Rs 15 per kg to Rs 60 per kg. Currently, the price of onion has increased due to the 'off season'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the current market price, 417,000 metric tons of onions worth more than Rs 25 billion are consumed in Nepal in a year. As per the data of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development, 289,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21, while 129,000 metric tons had to be imported from abroad to meet the demand. In the same year, 11.5 tons of onions were exported from Nepal. A large part of onion consumed by Nepalis is imported from other countries including India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2019/20, a total of 288,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal, while 160,000 tons were imported to meet the domestic demand. The data of onion import confirms that the government has not paid much attention to increasing the production of onion, which is used in large quantities in the Nepali kitchen. Onion is a crop that can be produced in abundance in Nepal. But looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the area for onion production is also decreasing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2018/19, onion cultivation was done on 20,900 hectares of land. In the years since then, the area of onion cultivation is on gradual decline. According to government data, onions were cultivated only on 20,400 hectares in 2019/20 and 20,300 hectares in 2020/21. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sandeep Subedi, horticulture officer at the Bagmati Province Office of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development admitted that the government has not introduced any big programmes to promote onion production. According to him, although there are good prospects for onion cultivation in Nepal, there is problem with seeds. He said that the seeds currently being used in Nepal are not of high quality and even seeds imported from India are not easily available. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the government had planned to conduct potato and onion mission programme for four years from the fiscal year 2019/20, but that plan has been limited to papers. Even before that, the government had conducted a programme to increase onion production from 2007 to 2012 in Sirha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa and Rupandehi by spending Rs 50 million. However, the programme could not be successful due to irregularities in the purchase and distribution of production materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the central government has not introduced any programme to increase onion production. “We have not brought such programmes after the previous failure. Since the production process of onion seed is sensitive and complicated, it has to be brought from India. However, India does not provide the required amount. Due to lack of seeds, we have not been able to bring a programme to increase production,” said Spokesperson Sanjel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15994', 'image' => '20221106123044_20200916052134_1600205898.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 12:30:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16252', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SEBON Issues Guidelines for IPO Quota to People Involved in Foreign Employment ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON has made provisions for reservation to those in foreign employment so that they would be able to easily invest in the initial public offering. As per the guidelines, this provision has come into effect immediately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This provision has been made for encouraging the Nepalis currently in foreign employment to send the remittances to Nepal through formal channel. It is estimated that the remittance coming via formal channels will increase if provisions of providing reservation for IPO to those Nepalis in foreign employment. The move is expected to release the pressure on the declining foreign currency reserves in the country in recent times. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government took this measure as the money coming through the remittances was being used only on buying consumer goods and was thus going back to where it came from. The board made this provision at the initiatives of the Finance Ministry with the aim of utilizing the money in the productive sectors and in shoring up the national economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the new provision, the organizations issuing IPOs are required to allot 10 percent of the IPOs to those Nepalis who have acquired labour permits for foreign employment. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15993', 'image' => '20221106114548_Sebonnn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 11:45:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16251', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Over 500,000 Tourists Arrive in Nepal in 10 Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track. In the past 10 months, around 500,000 foreign tourists visited Nepal, according to data provided by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The figure is a huge increase as compared to the data of 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic was at its peak. The COVID-19 pandemic had ruined the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country recorded the arrival of over 230,000 tourists in 2020, a sharp drop by a whopping 81 percent against over 1.19 million tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic. Similarly, in 2021, the arrival of foreign tourists further dropped by 34.4 percent to over 150,000 as compared to 2020. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The influx of tourist in 2022 took place between January and October, said the NTB. Over 88,500 tourists visited the country in October alone, and over 61,500 in April, over 58,300 in September, more than 41,300 in August, over 44,400 in July, and more than 46,900 in June. Similarly, over 53,600 tourists visited the country in May, more than 42,000 in March, over 19,700 in February and more than 16,900 in January. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">More than 600,000 tourists are expected to visit Nepal this year with this arrival rate, according to Maniraj Lamichhane, Director of the NTB. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15992', 'image' => '20221106101246_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 10:12:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16250', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Produces Less than 600,000 Metric Tons of Spices in a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data. The data provided by the National Centre for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crops Development shows that 594,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 73,300 hectares of land in all the districts of the seven provinces of Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data prepared by the center only covers cardamom, ginger, garlic, red pepper and dried chilies produced in Nepal. Apart from these, the center said that the production of other types of spices is not significant in Nepal, so they are not included in the data. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the highest production was in the year 2020/21. Before that, 555,000 tons of spices were produced in the year 2019/20 and 543,000 metric tons in the year 2018/19.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Altogether 184,611 metric tons of cardamom, ginger garlic, red pepper and chilies have been produced in 29,962 hectares in Province 1; 53,600 metric tons of spices have been produced in 6,200 hectares of land in Province 2; and 72,100 metric tons of spices have been produced in 8,748 hectares of land in Bagmati province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data, 49,500 metric tons of spices were produced in 6500 hectares of land in Gandaki province, and 138, 000 metric tons were produced from 11838 hectares in Lumbini province. Similarly, it has been found that 35,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 4,000 hectares of land in Karnali province and 61,200 metric tons in 6,100 hectares in Sudurpaschim province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the data shows that there has been some increase in production, it is not enough to meet the demand of the domestic market. In FY 2020/21, a total of 158,600 metric tons of spices were imported. About 15,000 metric tons of spices were exported from Nepal that year. Similarly, in the year 2019/20, altogether 127,800 metric tons of spices were imported and 14,000 metric tons were exported. According to the government data, 700,000 metric tons of spices are consumed in Nepal annually.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15991', 'image' => '20221104020450_Different-types-of-spices-of-the-table-apr18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 14:04:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16249', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Import Additional 22 Megawatts of Energy from Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai confirmed that the Central Electricity Authority of India on October 31 approved the proposal of NEA to export additional energy to India. With this approval, Nepal would now export 386 MW of electricity to India, Spokesperson Bhattarai added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data released by the NEA last month, the power export to Nepal had exceeded one billion units and the latest data are expected to be released soon. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier, the NEA had proposed for the sale of 100.9 MW of power through competitive price in the Day-Ahead Market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NEA had proposed for the export of hydropower produced from Likhukhola ‘A’ (29 MW), Kabeli B-I (25 MW), Maikhola (22 MW), Hewakhola A (15 MW) and Lower Modi I (10 MW). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Nea had also proposed exporting power generated from Mistrikhola, Solukhola, Chilime and other projects. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal has earned nearly Rs 8 billion in the past five months from the export of surplus electricity. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15990', 'image' => '20221104014726_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:46:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16248', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Inland Revenue Department to Intensify Market Monitoring', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This year, the department is preparing to conduct on-site monitoring of 15,000 taxpayers to prevent leakages of revenue.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sources at the department said that the recently held conference on revenue concluded that monitoring should be made effective in order to meet the annual revenue target. Following the conference, the department decided to prioritize market monitoring. The department expects to control revenue leakage through intensive and effective monitoring and increase tax collection by facilitating taxpayers. This year, the department is given a target of collecting revenue of Rs 626 billion. However, the department is facing difficulty in meeting even the monthly target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department announced that it will increase the use of technology and facilitate administrative process to increase tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is a policy to install flow meters in beer manufacturing companies by January of next year and to study installing flow meters in other alcohol producing industries. In terms of tax arrears collection, the department plans to settle 60 percent of the arrears of Rs 48.68 billion at present and to link the records of such arrears maintained in all offices to the electronic system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director of the department Raju Payakurel informed that in the current fiscal year, the department is planning to increase the number of taxpayers by issuing/renewing 200,000 personal permanent account numbers, and 176,000 commercial permanent account numbers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department is also planning to evaluate the progress of its second strategic plan and to formulate a third strategic plan.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, foreign nationals working in Nepal must submit a permanent account number and tax payment certificate when renewing their work permits and visas.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">IRD is also making it mandatory for anyone purchasing four-wheelers to show PAN cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Also, there is a plan to issue persona PAN cards to every individuals while issuing citizenship certificate and national identity cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the same time, the department made an action plan to expand the scope of tax collection by implementing the above mentioned criteria.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department plans to carry out tax inspection and investigation based on the information-based analysis of the revenue risk areas, and to discourage the use of fake invoices, fake excise duty stickers in order to control the revenue leakage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> The department made an action plan from the conference to settle 90 percent of the applications submitted in the fiscal year 2021/22 and at least 50 percent of the applications registered in the current fiscal year for administrative review due to disagreements on income tax, value added tax and excise duty.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15989', 'image' => '20221104014615_market monitoring.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:45:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16247', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Digital Currency within this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. Due to the trend of issuing electronic currency by central banks around the world, NRB also initiated the process of issuing the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB has completed the feasibility study for issuing CBDC and is collecting opinions and suggestions from stakeholders. Officials of NRB say that they are working to issue electronic currency within the current fiscal year by taking into account the opinions and suggestions of the stakeholders. According to an official of NRB’s Currency Management Department, the central bank is under pressure to issue CBDC because the central banks of the world are rapidly issuing such currencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We are working with the goal of issuing them within this year,” said the official.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that it is not possible to determine the timing of issuing CBDC. He added that the feasibility study has been complete and the NRB is still in the process of further study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During last year's monetary policy, NRB aimed to study the potential of digital currency. It also formed a steering committee under the coordination of Deputy Governor Bam Bahadur Mishra to advance the work of CBDC. The committee had submitted the feasibility study report for the CBDC at the end of last fiscal year. NRB published the feasibility study report recently and asked for opinions from stakeholders. It says that stakeholders can make suggestions on the report by the end of January.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report has suggested NRB to proceed with the CBDC project only by building a separate structure and team with the participation of stakeholders. At the initial stage, it is suggested that a small unit can be set up within the Payment System Department or the Information Technology Department of NRB. Similarly, the need to build high-level technology and develop the capacity of NRB to issue CBDC with security of data is also pointed out in the report.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the report has also pointed out the need to carry out feasibility studies, adequate legal arrangements, target setting as well as public awareness work before implementation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Central banks around the world started issuing digital currencies due to the increasing interest of the general public in digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also issued digital currency for the first time on Tuesday. In the first phase of the currency issued as a pilot project, only wholesale transactions are arranged with nine commercial banks. RBI is set to take it to the retail business for the common people only after its success. NRB informed that the use of digital currency will attract the common people to electronic payments and help reduce the expenses incurred in printing and circulation of notes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15988', 'image' => '20221104124812_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 12:47:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16246', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Economic Agendas of Political Parties: How Viable are the Election Manifestos? ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">High inflation, stress on foreign exchange reserve, massive trade deficit caused due to burgeoning imports, low capital expenditure, liquidity crunch and reduced investments on productive sectors are the key challenges of our economy at present. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have also impacted our economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Amid such economic uncertainties, the political parties have unveiled their election manifestos targeting the elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assemblies scheduled for November 20. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economists argue that the election manifestos of the political parties are distributive in nature and populist agendas which have hardly taken into consideration the global economy and Nepal’s current status. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economists have expressed their concerns to the possibilities of plunging the country’s economy into further crises while prioritizing populist programmes by the parties without taking the country’s economic status and financial base into account. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that the political parties have relegated the internal and external challenges hovering in the economy and lacked clear roadmap to implement the announcements made in the manifestos. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“In general, political parties are in competition to bring different projects for development and prosperity. This is positive in itself. But, they are silent on the resource management to implement those projects. Projects are also announced in the election manifestos even by violating fiscal discipline,” according to Dr Khanal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Chandra Mani Adhikari argued that economic issues of the parties are abstract and far away from the ground reality though they are fine theoretically and conceptually. He was of the view that the projects listed in the manifestos are unachievable. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari was of the view that political, economic, social and other views and priorities of all political parties are almost similar.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “Our national documents have also prioritized those issues. But, the implementation side of those priorities does not seem realistic,” Adhikari observed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The election manifestos have not only failed to assess the global economy and Nepal’s situation but also fail to address the general concerns of Nepalis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Control of high inflation, accessible employment opportunity, livelihood and basic infrastructure development issues should have been accorded priority but that is not the case, Adhikari commented. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The manifestos announced by the political parties in the previous elections also suggest that the election agenda are not objective and implementable. Adhikari adds, "Planning should be scientific, objective, and depend on resources for implementation. Rather, the parties are focused on distribution. Many goals presented in the manifesto of 2074BS election have been repeated.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, Professor of economics at Kathmandu University, Achyut Wagle, shared, "All political parties mentioned economic agenda in the election manifesto by ignoring legal aspects. It is sheer competition on scattered issues and programmes. The resources for the economic programmes were not studied." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He also pointed out that the economic agenda are not implemented because of lack of institutional capacity. Wagle also recalled that the election manifestos brought in the last three decades have similar plans and programmes. "Most of the issues are common. Centralized mindset is reflected in the economic agenda though we are a federal country," he underscored. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, lecturer at the Central Department of Economics of Tribhuvan University, Dr Ramesh Poudel, observed that the political parties' election manifestos are not research oriented. “They ignore experience too. They do not show objective reality and problems in the country, but sell cheap dreams,” he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Dr Poudel further said that the political parties failed to enforce the commitments they made in the election manifestos. Rigorous study is needed to make national economy dynamic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The political parties are blaming each other for their failure to realize the past commitments, said economist Khanal, stressing that they must be held accountable to implement the economic programmes they mentioned in the manifestos. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15987', 'image' => '20221104102453_Election_Commission.2e16d0ba.fill-650x500.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 10:24:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16245', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SC Issues Interim Order not to Extend the Term of GMR', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the cabinet decision of July 15 to extend the term of the project by another two years. The term of GMR had expired three years back. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The SC questioned why the cabinet decided to extend the term of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago for a term of two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the board again extended the term by one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Recently, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of the then Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Bishownath Poudel. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15986', 'image' => '20221104095640_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:55:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16244', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Plan to Introduce Tour Packages ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) Banke Chapter announced this during the inauguration of a four-day training on 'Tour Product Development and Ticketing'. The training is being organized in collaboration with the NATTA Center and Livelihood Revival Project for Sustainable Tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Secretary of NATTA, Yuvika Bhandari, said that the training will be fruitful in preparing skilled human resource in the field of tourism, as shortage of skilled human resource in the field of tourism has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. She said such trainings have been started in different places of the country under the plan of Nepal Tourism Board to address the shortage of human resource in the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking on the occasion Mayor of Birgunj Prashant Bista said that tourism can become a strong and permanent base for the country's economy. He expressed the confidence that there will be uniformity in the tour package developed by the tourism entrepreneurs of the three provinces after the training. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">President of NATTA Banke Chapter Ram Sigdel mentioned that the training organized for the first time in Western Nepal will enable tourism businesspersons to create travel packages by managing tickets for tourists going to destinations around the world. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Altogether 30 tour and travel operators from Lumbini, Kanrali and Sudurpaschim provinces are participating in the training. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15985', 'image' => '20221104093420_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16242', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Germany to Enlist Nepal in the List of Assistance Recipient Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday. The meeting focused on various issues of mutual interest including cooperation and bilateral relations between the two countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held at the Ministry of Finance, matters related to the development priority of Nepal and Germany as well as continuation of cooperation were discussed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has announced to enlist Nepal again in the list of the countries receiving bilateral assistance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Finance Minister Sharma thanked the continuous support of Germany in Nepal's economic development enveadours and democratic process as well as in prevention and control of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has been providing support in the areas of sustainable economic development, energy and health of Nepal since a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the International Cooperation Division of the Finance Ministry, Ishwori Aryal, said discussion was also held on the exchange of cooperation in the areas of renewal energy and health. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">German Ambassador to Nepal, Dr Thomas Prinz as well as other members of the visiting German delegation were present on the occasion. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15983', 'image' => '20221103044405_Flag-Pins-Nepal-Germany.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:43:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16241', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Likely to Get Term Extension by One Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway. When the team including the director general of the department visited the site on Monday and Tuesday, they deduced that the work was delayed due to the non-cooperation of the government, construction companies and local municipalities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Due to the three-sided problem, the road could not be leveled on time, and the department indicated that the deadline for completion of the project will be extended by one year. After failing to show satisfactory progress within the stipulated time, the department has sought explanation from the Chinese construction company -- China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited -- within one month. The department had asked the company to submit a reliable basis for not being able to complete the construction in the extended period as well.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During this time, even the department visited the site for inspection. Arjun Jung Thapa, director general of the department, claimed that the construction was delayed due to three main reasons. “It was seen that there was a delay in the work to be done by the Nepal government as well. The local municipality prohibited on buying of construction materials like aggregates, gravel and soil despite paying royalty to the local municipality. In addition, there were problems with the management of the construction company, leading to the delay in completion of wok on time,” said Thapa.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even now, the electric poles on the road that needs to be widened have not been removed. Thapa said that he did not get any help from the local municipality. Stating that the road construction was delayed due to various reasons, he indicated that the deadline will be extended by one year. The company has to expand the road in the next one year because not even a quarter of the work has been completed so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">An agreement was reached between the Department of Roads and the Chinese company to complete the 114 km Narayangadh-Butwal road upgrading work in 3.5 years in January 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the agreement, the road should have been expanded by August 1.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expansion of this road section is estimated to cost around Rs 16 billion. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15982', 'image' => '20221103040428_20220905044250_1662071156.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:03:53', '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' => '16256', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance Board Issues Directive to Settle Covid-19 Claims on the Basis of Application Date', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. The Insurance Board has instructed the insurance companies to settle such claims by adding Rs 81 million to the fund of Rs 1 billion released by the government for same very purpose.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have instructed the companies to make payments based on the date of claims," said Surya Prasad Silwal, chairman of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the companies have been instructed to start disbursing funds immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the settlement of claims will give a positive message.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It will dispel doubts that those insured might not get the insurance amount,” said Silwal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board initiated the Covid-19 insurance scheme immediately after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">All 20 non-life insurance companies sold this policy to a total of 1,758,000 people. Among them, 165,059 have claimed insurance worth Rs 15.82 billion. So far, the insurance companies have settled claims worth Rs 4.98 billion made by 51,669 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although there is no pandemic insurance in other countries of the world, the board had started Covid-19 insurance as its social responsibility. However, as the number of infected people increased, the companies stopped settling the claims stating that they could not afford it. They also blamed the government for the delay in releasing the amount it had pledged to provide as relief.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the government has already decided to release the amount upon the recommendation of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15997', 'image' => '20221106043837_coronainsuranceee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 16:37:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16255', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Entrepreneurs Demonstrate against Increase in Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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". </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Last week, the FNCCI delegation submitted a memorandum to the Nepal Rastra Bank, seeking its intervention to resolve the issues in the finance sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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 </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15996', 'image' => '20221106031800_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 15:17:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16254', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Protocol for Sending Workers to UK, Japan Ready', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security informed that the government has prepared the protocols for sending workers to those countries and the process of sending workers will begin soon.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Spokesperson of the Ministry Dr Thaneshwar Bhusal said that the protocol will be implemented after the Council of Ministers passes it. He informed that the ministry prepared the criteria for the selection, placement and service facilities of workers going to the UK. Preparations are being made to send 200 nurses to Britain from January 2023 in the first phase. The ministry has prepared a schedule for requesting applications for nurses in this regard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Only nurses who are qualified according to the criteria will be allowed to go to the UK for employment. A labor agreement was signed between Nepal and the UK on August 22 regarding the employment of nurses in the UK. Director General of the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety Umakanta Acharya said that framework for the process of sending nurses to the UK for foreign employment is already prepared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the information, the selection of health workers going to the UK will be done through the department and the UK's Department of Health and Social Care. The two countries agreed on not levying any charges for the nurse selection process and that the costs of the health workers selected for employment will be covered by employers in the UK. Officials of the ministry say that based on the evaluation of the health workers sent in the first phase, more workers will be allowed to go to the UK in the second phase. Nurses who have completed 20 years and are under 45 years of age will be allowed to work in the UK. Nurses with two years of work experience with a license from the Nepal Nursing Council will be given priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the ministry informed that the process of sending workers to Japan will also proceed after the election. Director of the department Dambar Bahadur Sunuwar, who has been looking at Israeli employment in the department, has been given the responsibility of looking into the employment in Japan also. Director General Acharya said that the process of selection of workers is being discussed. In March 2019, Nepal and Japan signed an agreement regarding taking Nepali workers. As of present, an agreement has been reached between the two countries to allow specially trained manpower from Nepal to go to Japan for employment.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15995', 'image' => '20221106014614_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 13:45:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16253', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Imports more than 700,000 Tons of Onion a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. The records of the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee show that the wholesale price of onion, which was Rs 45 per kg in the first week of last October, has now increased by Rs 15 per kg to Rs 60 per kg. Currently, the price of onion has increased due to the 'off season'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the current market price, 417,000 metric tons of onions worth more than Rs 25 billion are consumed in Nepal in a year. As per the data of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development, 289,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21, while 129,000 metric tons had to be imported from abroad to meet the demand. In the same year, 11.5 tons of onions were exported from Nepal. A large part of onion consumed by Nepalis is imported from other countries including India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2019/20, a total of 288,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal, while 160,000 tons were imported to meet the domestic demand. The data of onion import confirms that the government has not paid much attention to increasing the production of onion, which is used in large quantities in the Nepali kitchen. Onion is a crop that can be produced in abundance in Nepal. But looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the area for onion production is also decreasing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2018/19, onion cultivation was done on 20,900 hectares of land. In the years since then, the area of onion cultivation is on gradual decline. According to government data, onions were cultivated only on 20,400 hectares in 2019/20 and 20,300 hectares in 2020/21. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sandeep Subedi, horticulture officer at the Bagmati Province Office of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development admitted that the government has not introduced any big programmes to promote onion production. According to him, although there are good prospects for onion cultivation in Nepal, there is problem with seeds. He said that the seeds currently being used in Nepal are not of high quality and even seeds imported from India are not easily available. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the government had planned to conduct potato and onion mission programme for four years from the fiscal year 2019/20, but that plan has been limited to papers. Even before that, the government had conducted a programme to increase onion production from 2007 to 2012 in Sirha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa and Rupandehi by spending Rs 50 million. However, the programme could not be successful due to irregularities in the purchase and distribution of production materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the central government has not introduced any programme to increase onion production. “We have not brought such programmes after the previous failure. Since the production process of onion seed is sensitive and complicated, it has to be brought from India. However, India does not provide the required amount. Due to lack of seeds, we have not been able to bring a programme to increase production,” said Spokesperson Sanjel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15994', 'image' => '20221106123044_20200916052134_1600205898.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 12:30:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16252', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SEBON Issues Guidelines for IPO Quota to People Involved in Foreign Employment ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON has made provisions for reservation to those in foreign employment so that they would be able to easily invest in the initial public offering. As per the guidelines, this provision has come into effect immediately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This provision has been made for encouraging the Nepalis currently in foreign employment to send the remittances to Nepal through formal channel. It is estimated that the remittance coming via formal channels will increase if provisions of providing reservation for IPO to those Nepalis in foreign employment. The move is expected to release the pressure on the declining foreign currency reserves in the country in recent times. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government took this measure as the money coming through the remittances was being used only on buying consumer goods and was thus going back to where it came from. The board made this provision at the initiatives of the Finance Ministry with the aim of utilizing the money in the productive sectors and in shoring up the national economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the new provision, the organizations issuing IPOs are required to allot 10 percent of the IPOs to those Nepalis who have acquired labour permits for foreign employment. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15993', 'image' => '20221106114548_Sebonnn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 11:45:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16251', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Over 500,000 Tourists Arrive in Nepal in 10 Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track. In the past 10 months, around 500,000 foreign tourists visited Nepal, according to data provided by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The figure is a huge increase as compared to the data of 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic was at its peak. The COVID-19 pandemic had ruined the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country recorded the arrival of over 230,000 tourists in 2020, a sharp drop by a whopping 81 percent against over 1.19 million tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic. Similarly, in 2021, the arrival of foreign tourists further dropped by 34.4 percent to over 150,000 as compared to 2020. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The influx of tourist in 2022 took place between January and October, said the NTB. Over 88,500 tourists visited the country in October alone, and over 61,500 in April, over 58,300 in September, more than 41,300 in August, over 44,400 in July, and more than 46,900 in June. Similarly, over 53,600 tourists visited the country in May, more than 42,000 in March, over 19,700 in February and more than 16,900 in January. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">More than 600,000 tourists are expected to visit Nepal this year with this arrival rate, according to Maniraj Lamichhane, Director of the NTB. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15992', 'image' => '20221106101246_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 10:12:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16250', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Produces Less than 600,000 Metric Tons of Spices in a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data. The data provided by the National Centre for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crops Development shows that 594,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 73,300 hectares of land in all the districts of the seven provinces of Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data prepared by the center only covers cardamom, ginger, garlic, red pepper and dried chilies produced in Nepal. Apart from these, the center said that the production of other types of spices is not significant in Nepal, so they are not included in the data. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the highest production was in the year 2020/21. Before that, 555,000 tons of spices were produced in the year 2019/20 and 543,000 metric tons in the year 2018/19.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Altogether 184,611 metric tons of cardamom, ginger garlic, red pepper and chilies have been produced in 29,962 hectares in Province 1; 53,600 metric tons of spices have been produced in 6,200 hectares of land in Province 2; and 72,100 metric tons of spices have been produced in 8,748 hectares of land in Bagmati province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data, 49,500 metric tons of spices were produced in 6500 hectares of land in Gandaki province, and 138, 000 metric tons were produced from 11838 hectares in Lumbini province. Similarly, it has been found that 35,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 4,000 hectares of land in Karnali province and 61,200 metric tons in 6,100 hectares in Sudurpaschim province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the data shows that there has been some increase in production, it is not enough to meet the demand of the domestic market. In FY 2020/21, a total of 158,600 metric tons of spices were imported. About 15,000 metric tons of spices were exported from Nepal that year. Similarly, in the year 2019/20, altogether 127,800 metric tons of spices were imported and 14,000 metric tons were exported. According to the government data, 700,000 metric tons of spices are consumed in Nepal annually.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15991', 'image' => '20221104020450_Different-types-of-spices-of-the-table-apr18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 14:04:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16249', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Import Additional 22 Megawatts of Energy from Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai confirmed that the Central Electricity Authority of India on October 31 approved the proposal of NEA to export additional energy to India. With this approval, Nepal would now export 386 MW of electricity to India, Spokesperson Bhattarai added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data released by the NEA last month, the power export to Nepal had exceeded one billion units and the latest data are expected to be released soon. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier, the NEA had proposed for the sale of 100.9 MW of power through competitive price in the Day-Ahead Market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NEA had proposed for the export of hydropower produced from Likhukhola ‘A’ (29 MW), Kabeli B-I (25 MW), Maikhola (22 MW), Hewakhola A (15 MW) and Lower Modi I (10 MW). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Nea had also proposed exporting power generated from Mistrikhola, Solukhola, Chilime and other projects. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal has earned nearly Rs 8 billion in the past five months from the export of surplus electricity. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15990', 'image' => '20221104014726_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:46:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16248', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Inland Revenue Department to Intensify Market Monitoring', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This year, the department is preparing to conduct on-site monitoring of 15,000 taxpayers to prevent leakages of revenue.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sources at the department said that the recently held conference on revenue concluded that monitoring should be made effective in order to meet the annual revenue target. Following the conference, the department decided to prioritize market monitoring. The department expects to control revenue leakage through intensive and effective monitoring and increase tax collection by facilitating taxpayers. This year, the department is given a target of collecting revenue of Rs 626 billion. However, the department is facing difficulty in meeting even the monthly target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department announced that it will increase the use of technology and facilitate administrative process to increase tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is a policy to install flow meters in beer manufacturing companies by January of next year and to study installing flow meters in other alcohol producing industries. In terms of tax arrears collection, the department plans to settle 60 percent of the arrears of Rs 48.68 billion at present and to link the records of such arrears maintained in all offices to the electronic system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director of the department Raju Payakurel informed that in the current fiscal year, the department is planning to increase the number of taxpayers by issuing/renewing 200,000 personal permanent account numbers, and 176,000 commercial permanent account numbers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department is also planning to evaluate the progress of its second strategic plan and to formulate a third strategic plan.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, foreign nationals working in Nepal must submit a permanent account number and tax payment certificate when renewing their work permits and visas.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">IRD is also making it mandatory for anyone purchasing four-wheelers to show PAN cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Also, there is a plan to issue persona PAN cards to every individuals while issuing citizenship certificate and national identity cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the same time, the department made an action plan to expand the scope of tax collection by implementing the above mentioned criteria.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department plans to carry out tax inspection and investigation based on the information-based analysis of the revenue risk areas, and to discourage the use of fake invoices, fake excise duty stickers in order to control the revenue leakage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> The department made an action plan from the conference to settle 90 percent of the applications submitted in the fiscal year 2021/22 and at least 50 percent of the applications registered in the current fiscal year for administrative review due to disagreements on income tax, value added tax and excise duty.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15989', 'image' => '20221104014615_market monitoring.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:45:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16247', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Digital Currency within this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. Due to the trend of issuing electronic currency by central banks around the world, NRB also initiated the process of issuing the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB has completed the feasibility study for issuing CBDC and is collecting opinions and suggestions from stakeholders. Officials of NRB say that they are working to issue electronic currency within the current fiscal year by taking into account the opinions and suggestions of the stakeholders. According to an official of NRB’s Currency Management Department, the central bank is under pressure to issue CBDC because the central banks of the world are rapidly issuing such currencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We are working with the goal of issuing them within this year,” said the official.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that it is not possible to determine the timing of issuing CBDC. He added that the feasibility study has been complete and the NRB is still in the process of further study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During last year's monetary policy, NRB aimed to study the potential of digital currency. It also formed a steering committee under the coordination of Deputy Governor Bam Bahadur Mishra to advance the work of CBDC. The committee had submitted the feasibility study report for the CBDC at the end of last fiscal year. NRB published the feasibility study report recently and asked for opinions from stakeholders. It says that stakeholders can make suggestions on the report by the end of January.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report has suggested NRB to proceed with the CBDC project only by building a separate structure and team with the participation of stakeholders. At the initial stage, it is suggested that a small unit can be set up within the Payment System Department or the Information Technology Department of NRB. Similarly, the need to build high-level technology and develop the capacity of NRB to issue CBDC with security of data is also pointed out in the report.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the report has also pointed out the need to carry out feasibility studies, adequate legal arrangements, target setting as well as public awareness work before implementation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Central banks around the world started issuing digital currencies due to the increasing interest of the general public in digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also issued digital currency for the first time on Tuesday. In the first phase of the currency issued as a pilot project, only wholesale transactions are arranged with nine commercial banks. RBI is set to take it to the retail business for the common people only after its success. NRB informed that the use of digital currency will attract the common people to electronic payments and help reduce the expenses incurred in printing and circulation of notes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15988', 'image' => '20221104124812_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 12:47:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16246', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Economic Agendas of Political Parties: How Viable are the Election Manifestos? ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">High inflation, stress on foreign exchange reserve, massive trade deficit caused due to burgeoning imports, low capital expenditure, liquidity crunch and reduced investments on productive sectors are the key challenges of our economy at present. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have also impacted our economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Amid such economic uncertainties, the political parties have unveiled their election manifestos targeting the elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assemblies scheduled for November 20. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economists argue that the election manifestos of the political parties are distributive in nature and populist agendas which have hardly taken into consideration the global economy and Nepal’s current status. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economists have expressed their concerns to the possibilities of plunging the country’s economy into further crises while prioritizing populist programmes by the parties without taking the country’s economic status and financial base into account. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that the political parties have relegated the internal and external challenges hovering in the economy and lacked clear roadmap to implement the announcements made in the manifestos. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“In general, political parties are in competition to bring different projects for development and prosperity. This is positive in itself. But, they are silent on the resource management to implement those projects. Projects are also announced in the election manifestos even by violating fiscal discipline,” according to Dr Khanal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Chandra Mani Adhikari argued that economic issues of the parties are abstract and far away from the ground reality though they are fine theoretically and conceptually. He was of the view that the projects listed in the manifestos are unachievable. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari was of the view that political, economic, social and other views and priorities of all political parties are almost similar.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “Our national documents have also prioritized those issues. But, the implementation side of those priorities does not seem realistic,” Adhikari observed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The election manifestos have not only failed to assess the global economy and Nepal’s situation but also fail to address the general concerns of Nepalis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Control of high inflation, accessible employment opportunity, livelihood and basic infrastructure development issues should have been accorded priority but that is not the case, Adhikari commented. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The manifestos announced by the political parties in the previous elections also suggest that the election agenda are not objective and implementable. Adhikari adds, "Planning should be scientific, objective, and depend on resources for implementation. Rather, the parties are focused on distribution. Many goals presented in the manifesto of 2074BS election have been repeated.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, Professor of economics at Kathmandu University, Achyut Wagle, shared, "All political parties mentioned economic agenda in the election manifesto by ignoring legal aspects. It is sheer competition on scattered issues and programmes. The resources for the economic programmes were not studied." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He also pointed out that the economic agenda are not implemented because of lack of institutional capacity. Wagle also recalled that the election manifestos brought in the last three decades have similar plans and programmes. "Most of the issues are common. Centralized mindset is reflected in the economic agenda though we are a federal country," he underscored. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, lecturer at the Central Department of Economics of Tribhuvan University, Dr Ramesh Poudel, observed that the political parties' election manifestos are not research oriented. “They ignore experience too. They do not show objective reality and problems in the country, but sell cheap dreams,” he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Dr Poudel further said that the political parties failed to enforce the commitments they made in the election manifestos. Rigorous study is needed to make national economy dynamic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The political parties are blaming each other for their failure to realize the past commitments, said economist Khanal, stressing that they must be held accountable to implement the economic programmes they mentioned in the manifestos. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15987', 'image' => '20221104102453_Election_Commission.2e16d0ba.fill-650x500.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 10:24:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16245', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SC Issues Interim Order not to Extend the Term of GMR', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the cabinet decision of July 15 to extend the term of the project by another two years. The term of GMR had expired three years back. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The SC questioned why the cabinet decided to extend the term of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago for a term of two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the board again extended the term by one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Recently, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of the then Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Bishownath Poudel. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15986', 'image' => '20221104095640_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:55:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16244', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Plan to Introduce Tour Packages ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) Banke Chapter announced this during the inauguration of a four-day training on 'Tour Product Development and Ticketing'. The training is being organized in collaboration with the NATTA Center and Livelihood Revival Project for Sustainable Tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Secretary of NATTA, Yuvika Bhandari, said that the training will be fruitful in preparing skilled human resource in the field of tourism, as shortage of skilled human resource in the field of tourism has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. She said such trainings have been started in different places of the country under the plan of Nepal Tourism Board to address the shortage of human resource in the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking on the occasion Mayor of Birgunj Prashant Bista said that tourism can become a strong and permanent base for the country's economy. He expressed the confidence that there will be uniformity in the tour package developed by the tourism entrepreneurs of the three provinces after the training. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">President of NATTA Banke Chapter Ram Sigdel mentioned that the training organized for the first time in Western Nepal will enable tourism businesspersons to create travel packages by managing tickets for tourists going to destinations around the world. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Altogether 30 tour and travel operators from Lumbini, Kanrali and Sudurpaschim provinces are participating in the training. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15985', 'image' => '20221104093420_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16242', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Germany to Enlist Nepal in the List of Assistance Recipient Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday. The meeting focused on various issues of mutual interest including cooperation and bilateral relations between the two countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held at the Ministry of Finance, matters related to the development priority of Nepal and Germany as well as continuation of cooperation were discussed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has announced to enlist Nepal again in the list of the countries receiving bilateral assistance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Finance Minister Sharma thanked the continuous support of Germany in Nepal's economic development enveadours and democratic process as well as in prevention and control of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has been providing support in the areas of sustainable economic development, energy and health of Nepal since a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the International Cooperation Division of the Finance Ministry, Ishwori Aryal, said discussion was also held on the exchange of cooperation in the areas of renewal energy and health. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">German Ambassador to Nepal, Dr Thomas Prinz as well as other members of the visiting German delegation were present on the occasion. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15983', 'image' => '20221103044405_Flag-Pins-Nepal-Germany.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:43:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16241', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Likely to Get Term Extension by One Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway. When the team including the director general of the department visited the site on Monday and Tuesday, they deduced that the work was delayed due to the non-cooperation of the government, construction companies and local municipalities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Due to the three-sided problem, the road could not be leveled on time, and the department indicated that the deadline for completion of the project will be extended by one year. After failing to show satisfactory progress within the stipulated time, the department has sought explanation from the Chinese construction company -- China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited -- within one month. The department had asked the company to submit a reliable basis for not being able to complete the construction in the extended period as well.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During this time, even the department visited the site for inspection. Arjun Jung Thapa, director general of the department, claimed that the construction was delayed due to three main reasons. “It was seen that there was a delay in the work to be done by the Nepal government as well. The local municipality prohibited on buying of construction materials like aggregates, gravel and soil despite paying royalty to the local municipality. In addition, there were problems with the management of the construction company, leading to the delay in completion of wok on time,” said Thapa.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even now, the electric poles on the road that needs to be widened have not been removed. Thapa said that he did not get any help from the local municipality. Stating that the road construction was delayed due to various reasons, he indicated that the deadline will be extended by one year. The company has to expand the road in the next one year because not even a quarter of the work has been completed so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">An agreement was reached between the Department of Roads and the Chinese company to complete the 114 km Narayangadh-Butwal road upgrading work in 3.5 years in January 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the agreement, the road should have been expanded by August 1.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expansion of this road section is estimated to cost around Rs 16 billion. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15982', 'image' => '20221103040428_20220905044250_1662071156.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:03:53', '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' => '16256', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance Board Issues Directive to Settle Covid-19 Claims on the Basis of Application Date', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Insurance companies have been instructed to settle the claims for Covid-19 insurance based on the application date. The Insurance Board has instructed the insurance companies to settle such claims by adding Rs 81 million to the fund of Rs 1 billion released by the government for same very purpose.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have instructed the companies to make payments based on the date of claims," said Surya Prasad Silwal, chairman of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He said that the companies have been instructed to start disbursing funds immediately. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the settlement of claims will give a positive message.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“It will dispel doubts that those insured might not get the insurance amount,” said Silwal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The board initiated the Covid-19 insurance scheme immediately after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">All 20 non-life insurance companies sold this policy to a total of 1,758,000 people. Among them, 165,059 have claimed insurance worth Rs 15.82 billion. So far, the insurance companies have settled claims worth Rs 4.98 billion made by 51,669 people.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although there is no pandemic insurance in other countries of the world, the board had started Covid-19 insurance as its social responsibility. However, as the number of infected people increased, the companies stopped settling the claims stating that they could not afford it. They also blamed the government for the delay in releasing the amount it had pledged to provide as relief.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, the government has already decided to release the amount upon the recommendation of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15997', 'image' => '20221106043837_coronainsuranceee.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 16:37:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16255', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Entrepreneurs Demonstrate against Increase in Interest Rate ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: Industrialists and entrepreneurs have staged protest against the increase in interest rate by banks. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">"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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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". </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Last week, the FNCCI delegation submitted a memorandum to the Nepal Rastra Bank, seeking its intervention to resolve the issues in the finance sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">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 </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15996', 'image' => '20221106031800_interest-rates-e1541025967190.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 15:17:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16254', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Protocol for Sending Workers to UK, Japan Ready', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: Employment opportunities in Japan and UK, which many Nepalis have been aspiring for a long time, are going to open soon. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security informed that the government has prepared the protocols for sending workers to those countries and the process of sending workers will begin soon.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Deputy Spokesperson of the Ministry Dr Thaneshwar Bhusal said that the protocol will be implemented after the Council of Ministers passes it. He informed that the ministry prepared the criteria for the selection, placement and service facilities of workers going to the UK. Preparations are being made to send 200 nurses to Britain from January 2023 in the first phase. The ministry has prepared a schedule for requesting applications for nurses in this regard.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Only nurses who are qualified according to the criteria will be allowed to go to the UK for employment. A labor agreement was signed between Nepal and the UK on August 22 regarding the employment of nurses in the UK. Director General of the Department of Labour and Occupational Safety Umakanta Acharya said that framework for the process of sending nurses to the UK for foreign employment is already prepared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the information, the selection of health workers going to the UK will be done through the department and the UK's Department of Health and Social Care. The two countries agreed on not levying any charges for the nurse selection process and that the costs of the health workers selected for employment will be covered by employers in the UK. Officials of the ministry say that based on the evaluation of the health workers sent in the first phase, more workers will be allowed to go to the UK in the second phase. Nurses who have completed 20 years and are under 45 years of age will be allowed to work in the UK. Nurses with two years of work experience with a license from the Nepal Nursing Council will be given priority.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the ministry informed that the process of sending workers to Japan will also proceed after the election. Director of the department Dambar Bahadur Sunuwar, who has been looking at Israeli employment in the department, has been given the responsibility of looking into the employment in Japan also. Director General Acharya said that the process of selection of workers is being discussed. In March 2019, Nepal and Japan signed an agreement regarding taking Nepali workers. As of present, an agreement has been reached between the two countries to allow specially trained manpower from Nepal to go to Japan for employment.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15995', 'image' => '20221106014614_foreign emp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 13:45:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16253', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Imports more than 700,000 Tons of Onion a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 6: The price of onion has been increasing in the domestic market of Nepal for a month now. The records of the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee show that the wholesale price of onion, which was Rs 45 per kg in the first week of last October, has now increased by Rs 15 per kg to Rs 60 per kg. Currently, the price of onion has increased due to the 'off season'.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the current market price, 417,000 metric tons of onions worth more than Rs 25 billion are consumed in Nepal in a year. As per the data of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development, 289,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21, while 129,000 metric tons had to be imported from abroad to meet the demand. In the same year, 11.5 tons of onions were exported from Nepal. A large part of onion consumed by Nepalis is imported from other countries including India.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2019/20, a total of 288,000 tons of onions were produced in Nepal, while 160,000 tons were imported to meet the domestic demand. The data of onion import confirms that the government has not paid much attention to increasing the production of onion, which is used in large quantities in the Nepali kitchen. Onion is a crop that can be produced in abundance in Nepal. But looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the area for onion production is also decreasing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the year 2018/19, onion cultivation was done on 20,900 hectares of land. In the years since then, the area of onion cultivation is on gradual decline. According to government data, onions were cultivated only on 20,400 hectares in 2019/20 and 20,300 hectares in 2020/21. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sandeep Subedi, horticulture officer at the Bagmati Province Office of the National Center for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crop Development admitted that the government has not introduced any big programmes to promote onion production. According to him, although there are good prospects for onion cultivation in Nepal, there is problem with seeds. He said that the seeds currently being used in Nepal are not of high quality and even seeds imported from India are not easily available. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the government had planned to conduct potato and onion mission programme for four years from the fiscal year 2019/20, but that plan has been limited to papers. Even before that, the government had conducted a programme to increase onion production from 2007 to 2012 in Sirha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Bara, Parsa and Rupandehi by spending Rs 50 million. However, the programme could not be successful due to irregularities in the purchase and distribution of production materials.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Prakash Kumar Sanjel said that the central government has not introduced any programme to increase onion production. “We have not brought such programmes after the previous failure. Since the production process of onion seed is sensitive and complicated, it has to be brought from India. However, India does not provide the required amount. Due to lack of seeds, we have not been able to bring a programme to increase production,” said Spokesperson Sanjel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15994', 'image' => '20221106123044_20200916052134_1600205898.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 12:30:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16252', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SEBON Issues Guidelines for IPO Quota to People Involved in Foreign Employment ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) has implemented the 'Securities Issuance and Allocation (Sixth Amendment) Guidelines, 2022' with the objective of bringing in those who are currently involved in foreign employment into the folds of the share market. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">SEBON has made provisions for reservation to those in foreign employment so that they would be able to easily invest in the initial public offering. As per the guidelines, this provision has come into effect immediately. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This provision has been made for encouraging the Nepalis currently in foreign employment to send the remittances to Nepal through formal channel. It is estimated that the remittance coming via formal channels will increase if provisions of providing reservation for IPO to those Nepalis in foreign employment. The move is expected to release the pressure on the declining foreign currency reserves in the country in recent times. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government took this measure as the money coming through the remittances was being used only on buying consumer goods and was thus going back to where it came from. The board made this provision at the initiatives of the Finance Ministry with the aim of utilizing the money in the productive sectors and in shoring up the national economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the new provision, the organizations issuing IPOs are required to allot 10 percent of the IPOs to those Nepalis who have acquired labour permits for foreign employment. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15993', 'image' => '20221106114548_Sebonnn.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 11:45:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16251', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Over 500,000 Tourists Arrive in Nepal in 10 Months ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 6: The arrival of foreign tourists in Nepal has gradually returned back on track. In the past 10 months, around 500,000 foreign tourists visited Nepal, according to data provided by the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB). The figure is a huge increase as compared to the data of 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic was at its peak. The COVID-19 pandemic had ruined the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The country recorded the arrival of over 230,000 tourists in 2020, a sharp drop by a whopping 81 percent against over 1.19 million tourists in 2019 just before the pandemic. Similarly, in 2021, the arrival of foreign tourists further dropped by 34.4 percent to over 150,000 as compared to 2020. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The influx of tourist in 2022 took place between January and October, said the NTB. Over 88,500 tourists visited the country in October alone, and over 61,500 in April, over 58,300 in September, more than 41,300 in August, over 44,400 in July, and more than 46,900 in June. Similarly, over 53,600 tourists visited the country in May, more than 42,000 in March, over 19,700 in February and more than 16,900 in January. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">More than 600,000 tourists are expected to visit Nepal this year with this arrival rate, according to Maniraj Lamichhane, Director of the NTB. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-06', 'modified' => '2022-11-06', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15992', 'image' => '20221106101246_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-06 10:12:06', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16250', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Nepal Produces Less than 600,000 Metric Tons of Spices in a Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Almost 600,000 metric tons of spices are produced in Nepal annually, according to government data. The data provided by the National Centre for Potato, Vegetable and Spice Crops Development shows that 594,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 73,300 hectares of land in all the districts of the seven provinces of Nepal in the fiscal year 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The data prepared by the center only covers cardamom, ginger, garlic, red pepper and dried chilies produced in Nepal. Apart from these, the center said that the production of other types of spices is not significant in Nepal, so they are not included in the data. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Looking at the data of the last three years, it seems that the highest production was in the year 2020/21. Before that, 555,000 tons of spices were produced in the year 2019/20 and 543,000 metric tons in the year 2018/19.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Altogether 184,611 metric tons of cardamom, ginger garlic, red pepper and chilies have been produced in 29,962 hectares in Province 1; 53,600 metric tons of spices have been produced in 6,200 hectares of land in Province 2; and 72,100 metric tons of spices have been produced in 8,748 hectares of land in Bagmati province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data, 49,500 metric tons of spices were produced in 6500 hectares of land in Gandaki province, and 138, 000 metric tons were produced from 11838 hectares in Lumbini province. Similarly, it has been found that 35,800 metric tons of spices were produced in 4,000 hectares of land in Karnali province and 61,200 metric tons in 6,100 hectares in Sudurpaschim province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the data shows that there has been some increase in production, it is not enough to meet the demand of the domestic market. In FY 2020/21, a total of 158,600 metric tons of spices were imported. About 15,000 metric tons of spices were exported from Nepal that year. Similarly, in the year 2019/20, altogether 127,800 metric tons of spices were imported and 14,000 metric tons were exported. According to the government data, 700,000 metric tons of spices are consumed in Nepal annually.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15991', 'image' => '20221104020450_Different-types-of-spices-of-the-table-apr18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 14:04:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16249', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'India to Import Additional 22 Megawatts of Energy from Nepal ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: India has approved Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai confirmed that the Central Electricity Authority of India on October 31 approved the proposal of NEA to export additional energy to India. With this approval, Nepal would now export 386 MW of electricity to India, Spokesperson Bhattarai added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the data released by the NEA last month, the power export to Nepal had exceeded one billion units and the latest data are expected to be released soon. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Earlier, the NEA had proposed for the sale of 100.9 MW of power through competitive price in the Day-Ahead Market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The NEA had proposed for the export of hydropower produced from Likhukhola ‘A’ (29 MW), Kabeli B-I (25 MW), Maikhola (22 MW), Hewakhola A (15 MW) and Lower Modi I (10 MW). </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, Nea had also proposed exporting power generated from Mistrikhola, Solukhola, Chilime and other projects. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Nepal has earned nearly Rs 8 billion in the past five months from the export of surplus electricity. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15990', 'image' => '20221104014726_NEA.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:46:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16248', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Inland Revenue Department to Intensify Market Monitoring', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: As the government's income has become insufficient to cover even the current expenses in recent times, the Inland Revenue Department has hinted that it will take aggressive steps to prevent the leakage of revenue and expand the scope of tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">This year, the department is preparing to conduct on-site monitoring of 15,000 taxpayers to prevent leakages of revenue.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sources at the department said that the recently held conference on revenue concluded that monitoring should be made effective in order to meet the annual revenue target. Following the conference, the department decided to prioritize market monitoring. The department expects to control revenue leakage through intensive and effective monitoring and increase tax collection by facilitating taxpayers. This year, the department is given a target of collecting revenue of Rs 626 billion. However, the department is facing difficulty in meeting even the monthly target.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department announced that it will increase the use of technology and facilitate administrative process to increase tax collection. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">There is a policy to install flow meters in beer manufacturing companies by January of next year and to study installing flow meters in other alcohol producing industries. In terms of tax arrears collection, the department plans to settle 60 percent of the arrears of Rs 48.68 billion at present and to link the records of such arrears maintained in all offices to the electronic system.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director of the department Raju Payakurel informed that in the current fiscal year, the department is planning to increase the number of taxpayers by issuing/renewing 200,000 personal permanent account numbers, and 176,000 commercial permanent account numbers. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department is also planning to evaluate the progress of its second strategic plan and to formulate a third strategic plan.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, foreign nationals working in Nepal must submit a permanent account number and tax payment certificate when renewing their work permits and visas.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">IRD is also making it mandatory for anyone purchasing four-wheelers to show PAN cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Also, there is a plan to issue persona PAN cards to every individuals while issuing citizenship certificate and national identity cards.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the same time, the department made an action plan to expand the scope of tax collection by implementing the above mentioned criteria.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department plans to carry out tax inspection and investigation based on the information-based analysis of the revenue risk areas, and to discourage the use of fake invoices, fake excise duty stickers in order to control the revenue leakage.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> The department made an action plan from the conference to settle 90 percent of the applications submitted in the fiscal year 2021/22 and at least 50 percent of the applications registered in the current fiscal year for administrative review due to disagreements on income tax, value added tax and excise duty.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15989', 'image' => '20221104014615_market monitoring.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 13:45:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16247', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB to Issue Digital Currency within this Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 4: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has started preparations to issue its own digital currency within the current fiscal year. Due to the trend of issuing electronic currency by central banks around the world, NRB also initiated the process of issuing the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB has completed the feasibility study for issuing CBDC and is collecting opinions and suggestions from stakeholders. Officials of NRB say that they are working to issue electronic currency within the current fiscal year by taking into account the opinions and suggestions of the stakeholders. According to an official of NRB’s Currency Management Department, the central bank is under pressure to issue CBDC because the central banks of the world are rapidly issuing such currencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We are working with the goal of issuing them within this year,” said the official.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">NRB Spokesperson Dr Gunakar Bhatta says that it is not possible to determine the timing of issuing CBDC. He added that the feasibility study has been complete and the NRB is still in the process of further study.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During last year's monetary policy, NRB aimed to study the potential of digital currency. It also formed a steering committee under the coordination of Deputy Governor Bam Bahadur Mishra to advance the work of CBDC. The committee had submitted the feasibility study report for the CBDC at the end of last fiscal year. NRB published the feasibility study report recently and asked for opinions from stakeholders. It says that stakeholders can make suggestions on the report by the end of January.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The report has suggested NRB to proceed with the CBDC project only by building a separate structure and team with the participation of stakeholders. At the initial stage, it is suggested that a small unit can be set up within the Payment System Department or the Information Technology Department of NRB. Similarly, the need to build high-level technology and develop the capacity of NRB to issue CBDC with security of data is also pointed out in the report.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Likewise, the report has also pointed out the need to carry out feasibility studies, adequate legal arrangements, target setting as well as public awareness work before implementation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Central banks around the world started issuing digital currencies due to the increasing interest of the general public in digital currencies, including cryptocurrencies. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also issued digital currency for the first time on Tuesday. In the first phase of the currency issued as a pilot project, only wholesale transactions are arranged with nine commercial banks. RBI is set to take it to the retail business for the common people only after its success. NRB informed that the use of digital currency will attract the common people to electronic payments and help reduce the expenses incurred in printing and circulation of notes.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15988', 'image' => '20221104124812_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 12:47:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16246', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Economic Agendas of Political Parties: How Viable are the Election Manifestos? ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Government officials and stakeholders have been making public announcements about the deteriorating economic condition of the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">High inflation, stress on foreign exchange reserve, massive trade deficit caused due to burgeoning imports, low capital expenditure, liquidity crunch and reduced investments on productive sectors are the key challenges of our economy at present. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war have also impacted our economy. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Amid such economic uncertainties, the political parties have unveiled their election manifestos targeting the elections to the House of Representatives (HoR) and provincial assemblies scheduled for November 20. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economists argue that the election manifestos of the political parties are distributive in nature and populist agendas which have hardly taken into consideration the global economy and Nepal’s current status. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The economists have expressed their concerns to the possibilities of plunging the country’s economy into further crises while prioritizing populist programmes by the parties without taking the country’s economic status and financial base into account. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Dilliraj Khanal said that the political parties have relegated the internal and external challenges hovering in the economy and lacked clear roadmap to implement the announcements made in the manifestos. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“In general, political parties are in competition to bring different projects for development and prosperity. This is positive in itself. But, they are silent on the resource management to implement those projects. Projects are also announced in the election manifestos even by violating fiscal discipline,” according to Dr Khanal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Economist Dr Chandra Mani Adhikari argued that economic issues of the parties are abstract and far away from the ground reality though they are fine theoretically and conceptually. He was of the view that the projects listed in the manifestos are unachievable. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Adhikari was of the view that political, economic, social and other views and priorities of all political parties are almost similar.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> “Our national documents have also prioritized those issues. But, the implementation side of those priorities does not seem realistic,” Adhikari observed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The election manifestos have not only failed to assess the global economy and Nepal’s situation but also fail to address the general concerns of Nepalis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Control of high inflation, accessible employment opportunity, livelihood and basic infrastructure development issues should have been accorded priority but that is not the case, Adhikari commented. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The manifestos announced by the political parties in the previous elections also suggest that the election agenda are not objective and implementable. Adhikari adds, "Planning should be scientific, objective, and depend on resources for implementation. Rather, the parties are focused on distribution. Many goals presented in the manifesto of 2074BS election have been repeated.” </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, Professor of economics at Kathmandu University, Achyut Wagle, shared, "All political parties mentioned economic agenda in the election manifesto by ignoring legal aspects. It is sheer competition on scattered issues and programmes. The resources for the economic programmes were not studied." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He also pointed out that the economic agenda are not implemented because of lack of institutional capacity. Wagle also recalled that the election manifestos brought in the last three decades have similar plans and programmes. "Most of the issues are common. Centralized mindset is reflected in the economic agenda though we are a federal country," he underscored. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, lecturer at the Central Department of Economics of Tribhuvan University, Dr Ramesh Poudel, observed that the political parties' election manifestos are not research oriented. “They ignore experience too. They do not show objective reality and problems in the country, but sell cheap dreams,” he added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Dr Poudel further said that the political parties failed to enforce the commitments they made in the election manifestos. Rigorous study is needed to make national economy dynamic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The political parties are blaming each other for their failure to realize the past commitments, said economist Khanal, stressing that they must be held accountable to implement the economic programmes they mentioned in the manifestos. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15987', 'image' => '20221104102453_Election_Commission.2e16d0ba.fill-650x500.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 10:24:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16245', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'SC Issues Interim Order not to Extend the Term of GMR', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: The Supreme Court has issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of an Indian company Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), which is the promoter of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the cabinet decision of July 15 to extend the term of the project by another two years. The term of GMR had expired three years back. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The SC questioned why the cabinet decided to extend the term of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago for a term of two years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the board again extended the term by one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Recently, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of the then Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Bishownath Poudel. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15986', 'image' => '20221104095640_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:55:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16244', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Plan to Introduce Tour Packages ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 4: Tourism entrepreneurs of three provinces have decided to work together and introduce tour packages for promotion of tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) Banke Chapter announced this during the inauguration of a four-day training on 'Tour Product Development and Ticketing'. The training is being organized in collaboration with the NATTA Center and Livelihood Revival Project for Sustainable Tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Central Secretary of NATTA, Yuvika Bhandari, said that the training will be fruitful in preparing skilled human resource in the field of tourism, as shortage of skilled human resource in the field of tourism has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. She said such trainings have been started in different places of the country under the plan of Nepal Tourism Board to address the shortage of human resource in the tourism sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking on the occasion Mayor of Birgunj Prashant Bista said that tourism can become a strong and permanent base for the country's economy. He expressed the confidence that there will be uniformity in the tour package developed by the tourism entrepreneurs of the three provinces after the training. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">President of NATTA Banke Chapter Ram Sigdel mentioned that the training organized for the first time in Western Nepal will enable tourism businesspersons to create travel packages by managing tickets for tourists going to destinations around the world. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Altogether 30 tour and travel operators from Lumbini, Kanrali and Sudurpaschim provinces are participating in the training. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-04', 'modified' => '2022-11-04', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15985', 'image' => '20221104093420_20180513122353_tourism.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-04 09:33:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16242', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Germany to Enlist Nepal in the List of Assistance Recipient Countries ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">November 3: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma held discussions with a team led by Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, Barbel Kofler on Wednesday. The meeting focused on various issues of mutual interest including cooperation and bilateral relations between the two countries. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During the meeting held at the Ministry of Finance, matters related to the development priority of Nepal and Germany as well as continuation of cooperation were discussed. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has announced to enlist Nepal again in the list of the countries receiving bilateral assistance. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Finance Minister Sharma thanked the continuous support of Germany in Nepal's economic development enveadours and democratic process as well as in prevention and control of COVID-19. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Germany has been providing support in the areas of sustainable economic development, energy and health of Nepal since a long time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chief of the International Cooperation Division of the Finance Ministry, Ishwori Aryal, said discussion was also held on the exchange of cooperation in the areas of renewal energy and health. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">German Ambassador to Nepal, Dr Thomas Prinz as well as other members of the visiting German delegation were present on the occasion. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15983', 'image' => '20221103044405_Flag-Pins-Nepal-Germany.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:43:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '16241', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Butwal Road Expansion Project Likely to Get Term Extension by One Year', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">November 3: The Department of Roads has concluded that there are three main reasons for the delay in the expansion of the Narayangadh-Butwal section under the East-West Highway. When the team including the director general of the department visited the site on Monday and Tuesday, they deduced that the work was delayed due to the non-cooperation of the government, construction companies and local municipalities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Due to the three-sided problem, the road could not be leveled on time, and the department indicated that the deadline for completion of the project will be extended by one year. After failing to show satisfactory progress within the stipulated time, the department has sought explanation from the Chinese construction company -- China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited -- within one month. The department had asked the company to submit a reliable basis for not being able to complete the construction in the extended period as well.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During this time, even the department visited the site for inspection. Arjun Jung Thapa, director general of the department, claimed that the construction was delayed due to three main reasons. “It was seen that there was a delay in the work to be done by the Nepal government as well. The local municipality prohibited on buying of construction materials like aggregates, gravel and soil despite paying royalty to the local municipality. In addition, there were problems with the management of the construction company, leading to the delay in completion of wok on time,” said Thapa.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Even now, the electric poles on the road that needs to be widened have not been removed. Thapa said that he did not get any help from the local municipality. Stating that the road construction was delayed due to various reasons, he indicated that the deadline will be extended by one year. The company has to expand the road in the next one year because not even a quarter of the work has been completed so far.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">An agreement was reached between the Department of Roads and the Chinese company to complete the 114 km Narayangadh-Butwal road upgrading work in 3.5 years in January 2018. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the agreement, the road should have been expanded by August 1.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The expansion of this road section is estimated to cost around Rs 16 billion. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-11-03', 'modified' => '2022-11-03', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15982', 'image' => '20221103040428_20220905044250_1662071156.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-11-03 16:03:53', '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
