July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in…
July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in…
July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at…
July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country.…
July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain…
July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski…
July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'.…
July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned…
July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum…
July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in…
July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more…
July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety…
July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury…
July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the…
July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal…
July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The ministry said it has decided to form a panel of experts to locate an appropriate site for the construction of an airport to in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The civil aviation's regulatory body CAAN decided to form the panel which would get final shape after approval from the cabinet meeting within a few days. The construction of the Nijgadh International Airport would be forwarded based on the study report presented by the committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a meeting of the International Relations Committee of the federal parliament held on Monday, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha shared that the airport would be constructed with least environmental damage based on the experts' recommendation in line with the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cost of the Nijgadh International Airport, the much-hyped national pride project, is estimated to be around Rs 120 billion in the preliminary phase. So far, as much as 8,050 hectares of land has been acquired and around Rs 3 billion spent for the project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The International Relations Committee Chairperson Pabitra Niraula Kharel said the project should be advanced without further delay since it is vital for Nepal's development and economic prosperity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She also said the committee would take its decision after holding consultations with the Minister for Law and Justice by internalising the full text of the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said the SC has paved the way for the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport and now the ministry and line agencies should proceed without further delay. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Director General of CAAN Pradip Adhikari shared about administrative and other decisions taken in this regard. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting, lawmakers Bhim Bahadur Rawal, Surendra Kumar Karki, Dev Prakash Timalsina, Chand Tara Kumari, Pushpa Kumari Karn Kayastha, Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Mohan Baniya and Renuka Gurung shared common views stating that the airport was appropriate from all perspectives thus a state-of-the-art airport in Nijgadh should be constructed as soon as possible. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-19', 'modified' => '2022-07-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15384', 'image' => '20220719082541_20220605082424_Environment (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-19 08:25:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15642', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon Break Likely to End from Tuesday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present. Light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to take place in some places of hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, there will be partly to generally cloudy weather throughout the country tonight (July 18) and light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to occur in some places of the hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country. There are chances of heavy rainfall in one or two places of Sudur Paschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division's analysis, currently the axis of monsoon trough is located towards the south from the normal position. The country is witnessing a rise in temperature for the past few days. It said that the shifting of monsoon trough towards the south from the normal position caused a monsoon break, leading to the temperature rise. </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"">Meteorologist Hira Bhatarai said this year more heat has been felt in hill regions including the Kathmandu Valley than in previous years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Bhattarai, the monsoon trough is likely to move back towards Nepal from Tuesday with the possibility of rainfall, giving some respite from the heat. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15383', 'image' => '20220718075009_image_750x_62a32cee152ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 19:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15640', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government’s Capital Expenditure Weakest in a Decade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. The country witnessed budget announcement by two finance ministers in just one fiscal year while the pace of development could not gain momentum due to the incompetence of the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The then finance minister Bishnu Poudel had announced a budget through ordinance on May 29, 2021 for the last fiscal year which concluded on July 16. However, a mandamus order by the Supreme Court to reinstate the parliament dissolved by the then government led by KP Sharma Oli led to the downfall of Oli government. Then, a new government’s finance minister Janardan Sharma introduced a replacement budget stating that the government would spend 10 percent of the allocated capital budget every month. However, the government failed to work as per its commitment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Office of the Auditor General, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 378.9 billion for capital expenditure in the fiscal year 2021/22 but was able to spend only 216.37 billion which is 57.23 percent of the allocated budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Data released by the Office of the Auditor General has revealed that the government spent as much as Rs 79 billion in the last month (mid-June to mid-July) of the last fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure which was Rs 137 billion in mid-June increased to Rs 216 billion in mid-July. The government was under pressure to spend towards the end of the fiscal year as it did not pay much attention in spending budget in the starting period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The capital expenditure of the government in the last fiscal year was the weakest in the past decade except for the spending during the Covid-19 period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure in FY 2013/14 was 75 percent which increased to 84 percent in FY 2016/17 before plunging to 74 percent (FY 2014/15) and 58 percent (FY 2015/16). The government’s capital expenditure then increased to 86 percent in the next fiscal year (FY 2018/19). It then dropped to 46 percent during the pandemic era in FY 2019/20 before rising to 64 percent in FY 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has always failed in spending budget. Although the government signs work execution agreements with the officials who spend budget, such agreements have hardly yielded any results. The government has stopped signing such agreements after the onset of Covid-19 due to which the work execution of the government officials have been affected due to lack of evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr Pushparaj Kandel terms the government’s failure to spend capital budget as its ‘incompetence’. He argues that the capital budget could not be spent because the government failed to create a conducive environment for spending the budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Kandel, the development works have slumped due to various reasons including the transfer of civil servants , government’s lack of interest to control inflation and its failure to take the construction entrepreneurs in confidence.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Auditor General Navaraj Dhungana blames political instability, inflation and construction holiday announced by the contractors as the main reasons for the poor spending of capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Dhungana, although the government amended the Public Procurement Act, it did so quite late thereby affecting the construction works. The construction entrepreneurs are yet to collect Rs 5 billion from the Department of Roads and Rs 20 billion from other government agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s policy is also to blame for the poor capital spending. The government has been amending the Public Procurement Regulation time and again to address the problems of construction entrepreneurs but this has created instability. The government amended the reculation for the 12<sup>th</sup> time just last month. The same regulation has been amended 7 times in the last 3 years.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15382', 'image' => '20220718041402_capital expenditure.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 16:02:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15641', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Extends Term of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by 2 Years', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.</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"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial management of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, informed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.</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"">A meeting of the Investment Board on June 6 had recommended the government to extend the term of the project. The Indian company had written a letter to the Investment Board seeking two years’ time for financial management. The government has selected GMR for the project in 2008.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15381', 'image' => '20220718050715_upper karnali.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 17:05:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15639', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'New Tourism Infrastructures Added along Mardi Trekking Route', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In a bid to provide facilities for domestic and foreign tourists, tourism infrastructures have been constructed along the route from Pokhara metropolis-25, Melbot to Astam of Machhapuchhre rural municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Physical Infrastructures such as trekking route, park and railing were developed under the 'one electoral constituency, one tourism infrastructure' of the Gandaki province last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">There is a plan to develop a trekking route from Melbot to Astam, Dhital, Dhampus, Pritam Deurali and Dhital Lwang and Ghalel Kalimati en route to Mardi mountain. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It may be noted that the Gandaki province government had allocated a budget of Rs 2.5 million last year. It was spent for the development of tourism infrastructure and different physical structures, informed coordinator of Melbot-Astam-Dhital-Dhampus-Mardi mountain route construction committee Biswo Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that a 300-meter slate-placed path, 311-meter railing side wall, four waiting stands and ponds were constructed in the route.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15380', 'image' => '20220718030551_fishtail-seen-from-mardi-himal-base-camp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 15:04:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15638', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Contributors of Social Security Fund to get Home Loan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has approved the 'Contributors Credit Guidelines 2079' making the contributors eligible to take such loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the guidelines prepared by the fund and approved by the Ministry of Labor, there is a provision that the fund to give loans to the contributors to build a new house, add a floor to the house under their ownership, renovate the house, buy a unit in joint housing and also to buy a new house.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the guidelines, the contributors who have contributed to the fund for at least 36 months and have at least 2 years left to retire based on their age and service period will be given a lump sum for this purpose. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While approving the house loan, the amount approved should not exceed the amount determined by the mortgage evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For this, the loan will be given in accordance to one of the three in which the loan amount is the least.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the first method, Rs 7.5 million rupees will be given on the basis of the mortgage value, in the second method, an amount equal to the salary of the contributor for 15 years will be provided and in the third method, an amount equivalent to the salary of the remaining period until the contributor reaches the age of 60 years will be provided.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the guidelines also has provision for the contributors’ educational allowance. Educational leave is arranged for contributors who have contributed for at least 36 months to the fund and who have at least two years remaining before compulsory retirement based on age or length of service. It is mentioned in the guidelines that such allowance can be provided to the contributor or his/her husband, wife, son, daughter for the purpose of higher education in educational institutions in the country or abroad. Such amount shall be either Rs 3.5 million or the actual expenditure demanded by the concerned educational institution, whichever is less.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The student's admission fee, monthly, examination, hostel or accommodation expenses, other fees specified by the relevant educational institution, educational material expenses, and travel and insurance expenses will be included in the said amount. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Arrangements have made so that the educational allowance taken by the contributor can be reapplied if he/she repays it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive director of the fund, Kapilmani Gyawali, informed that the contributors who have contributed regularly for 36 months to the fund, will be provided the service via online from mid-July itself.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15379', 'image' => '20220718013538_Home Loan_2.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 13:31:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15637', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Extension of Ban on Import of Goods Increases Smuggling: Importers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed in a press conference held at the ministry on Sunday that the cabinet meeting on July 17 decided to extend the ban on imports of the luxury items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on July 16 restricting the import of the ten banned items until August 30. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry has stated that it has imposed a complete ban on the import of those items from July 17 to August 30 using the authority given by Subsection (1) of Section 3 of the Export-Import (Control) Act, 2013. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, the ministry had published a notice in the Nepal Gazette dated April 26 and banned the import of 10 different items till the end of last fiscal year (July 16). The latest move of the government has extended the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This time, the government has taken stronger measures while extending the import ban. Earlier, the government had banned the import of motorcycles above 250 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 600. Now, importers can't import motorcycles above 150 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 300. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Other prohibited items include chips, all types of liquor (except industrial raw materials), cigarettes and tobacco products (except industrial raw materials), diamonds (except industrial raw materials), colour televisions, jeeps, cars and vans, all types of toys. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government had banned the import of these items as foreign exchange reserves were dwindling.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Importers have warned that this ban will increase unauthorized trade. The Nepal Foreign Trade Association issued a statement a few days ago and requested not to extend the ban until August 30. The association claims that even if legal imports are stopped, illegal imports will grow.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Senior vice president of the association, Vinod Sethia, claims that all goods banned by the government except motor vehicles are entering Nepal through the open border in the south. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Motor vehicles have been stopped only because they cannot be brought here and driven without registration. Apart from that, the import of any other item has not been stopped," said Sethia. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"They are being imported through illegal channels,” he added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Automobiles Association, also expressed his displeasure over the extension of the restrictions on the import of vehicles. Thapa expressed his displeasure by writing a status on his Facebook page saying that the import of goods necessary for the employees to reach the office, to run industries and businesses, to transport food is listed as a luxury item and has been banned as unproductive goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15378', 'image' => '20220718115901_tobacco.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 11:58:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15636', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Provide Rs 7 Billion Loan to NOC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to provide the amount to the state-owned NOC to pay its dues to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).</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""> Addressing a news conference organized at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Sunday to unveil the decisions of the Council of Ministers, government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide the amount to NOC as it was running short of money to pay to the IOC. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Council of Ministers also decided to provide Rs 598.68 million collected from infrastructure tax to the NOC. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15377', 'image' => '20220718081006_845791-fuel-istock-070819.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 08:09:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15635', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance of Medicinal Herbs Comes into Effect ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has made arrangement to provide 80 percent grant for insuring farmlands used for producing medicinal herbs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government made such arrangement after the Insurance Board issued the Agriculture, Livestock and Medicinal Herb Insurance Directive 2077 on Friday. The directive has come into effect from the first day of the current fiscal year (ie July 17).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced insurance scheme for medicinal herb farming from the new fiscal year. As per the budget announcement, the Insurance Board issued the new directive after amending the old directive that was in use. The new directive has provision for the government to provide grand for insurance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had been providing 80 percent grant on insurance premium for agriculture farming, which has now been extended to cover medicinal herbs as well, said Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government has adopted a policy to provide grant on insurance coverage for medicinal herbs from the new fiscal year. As per the policy, we also amended the Agriculture and Livestock Directive to accommodate the new provision,” said Poudel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Insurance companies can insure medicinal herbs from July 17 onward. There will also be a provision for grant but such grant is not applicable for the insurance policy prepared by the insurance companies themselves,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Insurance Board said that the insurance companies can issue short-term insurance policies that do not cover government grant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The insurance companies will have to mandatorily provide insurance scheme for agriculture, livestock and medicinal herbs in the designated districts. The companies will not be allowed to deny insurance scheme for medicinal herbs in those districts. They will also have to open their branch offices near the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in those districts from now on.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the board, this arrangement has made to make the work more convenient.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As far as the livestock insurance is concerned, the insurance rate has to be determined based on the policy, market price, invoice price, and local customs price. In agriculture and herbal insurance, the insurance rate must be established based on the data and cost provided by the insurance document, the relevant office of the Nepal government or the provincial government, or the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While determining the insurance rate based on the cost of crops, it must be done based on the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. For this, the board has said it will soon prepare the data, including the cost and expenditure in the geographical areas of the seven provinces and the farmers' price of the produced goods. After that, the board says that insurance should be maintained on the same basis. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The directive also mentions that a complaint can be filed with the board if the insurance company does not cooperate in issuing the insurance policy even if the customer provides all the required documents.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15376', 'image' => '20220717051146_RajendraPaneru_Kanchanpur_RSS_30.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 17:10:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15634', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Garbage Classification in KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) had issued a notice a month ago asking the residents of Kathmandu to classify wastes produced at their home into biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage. KMC Mayor Balendra Sah had reached the doorsteps of the locals to make them aware of this cause. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This drive has been launched in all 32 wards of the city. The KMC has fixed the day for picking wastes from the city. From now on, biodegradable waste will be collected on Sunday and Wednesday and non-biodegradable garbage on Tuesday and Friday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The arrangements in the landfill site will be made accordingly, said the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Those flouting the directive by the KMC to segregate waste will be fined Rs 500 each. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC has also urged the local residents to use biodegradable waste as fertiliser. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15375', 'image' => '20220717044224_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 16:41:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15633', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'When will the EU Remove Nepali Airlines from its Flight Safety Blacklist?', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts believe that there is no reason for the EU to keep Nepal in the blacklist as Nepal has made significant improvements in aviation safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Budhisagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said that there is no point in keeping Nepal in the flight safety blacklist as Nepal's air safety rate is of international standard. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We do not see any basis for the EU to ban Nepali airlines. We have done our work to improve flight safety and will continue to do so. Therefore, there is no need for the EU to keep it in the blacklist,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Joint Secretary Lamichhane, who is also the head of the Ministry's Civil Aviation Division, expressed his belief that Nepal will soon be removed from the EU's flight safety list as Nepal's flight safety rate is above average in the world.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Ministry of Tourism, efforts are being made with the EU to lift the ban due to the progress made by Nepal in air safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">ICAO's recent audit has shown that Nepal's aviation sector has made significant progress. In the flight safety audit, the world's average flight safety rate is 67, and the Asia Pacific rate is 63 per cent. For the first time in the history of air travel, Nepal has scored 70.1 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since 2014, the European Commission under the EU has put Nepal on the flight safety blacklist, showing security concerns over Nepal's airspace. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) removed Nepal from its list of Serious Security Concerns (SSC) in July 2017.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15374', 'image' => '20220717011757_20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 13:17:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15631', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ban on Import of 10 Types of Goods gets Continuity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items. </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"">Earlier, the government had decided to impose the ban on such items until the end of last fiscal year (July 16) but has now decided to extend the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government reportedly took such decision due to the liquidity crisis and to maintain its foreign exchange reserves that were fast depleting due to high amount of imports.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, published a notice in the Nepal Gazettee on July 16, stating that the ban on the import of the ten products has been given continuity, the state-owned national news agency reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the RSS, the products that have been banned in the country include snacks such as Kurkure, Kurmure, Lays among others as well as all types of alcoholic drinks (except industrial raw materials), cigarette and tobacco products (excepting industrial raw materials), diamond (except industrial raw materials), smart phones costing more than US$ 300, colour television, jeep, car and van, motorcycle, all kinds of dolls and playing cards. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Prior to this, the ministry had imposed a ban on the import of these goods until July 16 through a similar notice issued in the Nepal Gazette on April 26. </span><br /> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15372', 'image' => '20220717124909_nada.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:48:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15630', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Nepal Plan Gains Momentum', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country. During this period, significant success has been achieved especially in the field of ICT by completing the 'Digital Nepal' plan put forward by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Information and Broadcasting Department has started providing all its service through online medium from July 3. The department has been providing online services such as BRLMS, DMS, Information Management System and Cash SMS. The department started the information management system under the online service from last year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general of the department, informed that all the works of the department including issuance of press representative certificate, renewal of identity card, registration and renewal of online media, management of records of newspapers and journalists and management and distribution of public information are done through the online system. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the last fiscal year, the department distributed 2,092 press passes and renewed 2,557 press passes through online system. Hamal says that 3,463 online registrations were done, with 662 registrations and 677 renewals in the last fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Dr. Baikuntha Aryal informed that 90 percent of the services of the Ministry of Communication are provided online for the purpose of fulfilling the plan of Digital Nepal. In Nepal, where the digital journey started with the use of computers for the national census in the year 1971, now has a 100 percent access to mobile phones and 60 percent Internet access.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government continued policy, legal and structural reforms for the overall development of the information and communication sector. In this 1 year period, National Cyber Security Strategy 2078, National Broadcasting (Eleventh Amendment) Regulations 2078, Radio Communication (License) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations 2078 and Film (Production, Exhibition and Distribution) (Seventh Amendment) Regulations 2078 were approved and implemented by the Council of Ministers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued the National Information Technology Development Committee (Formation) (Third Amendment) Order 2078, approved guidelines for the construction and management of government offices' websites, and issued guidelines for new technologies including Citizen Apps (Operation and Management) 2078 and 5G.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Uttar Kumar Khatri, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, informed that the 'Digital Nepal Framework 2076' is in the implementation phase.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Under the framework, we are now running software called automation and we are working through the Internet, email. Comments are also made from here. Not only that, but now we have also received the support of the World Bank,” said Khatri.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the Ministry of Communication, comments, letters, correspondence, employee leave, attendance, etc. are now done in the digital system under the integrated work management system. Spokesperson Khatri also informed that it will be applied to other ministries and offices within the Singha Durbar from mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15371', 'image' => '20220717122522_1658013512.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:24:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Labour Minister Stresses on In-depth Study to Address the Problems of Informal Sector Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the Central Labour Advisory Council held at the labour ministry on Friday, Minister Kunwar pointed out that there are many problems faced by the informal sector workers and it is necessary to identify them in a subtle way.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that since labour is a subject related to everyone, the concerned agencies should take initiatives to better understand the problems of workers and solve them. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Everyone does the work. Some people work comfortably without touching stones and soil, while others work hard even by immersing themselves in soil. But all those who work hard are not given importance. Those who are working hard in the informal sector should be properly evaluated. It is necessary to bring them under the scope of social security and pay attention to justice,” said the minister.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Pointing out the need of labour commission like other commissions, he stressed on the need for an extensive discussion on this issue.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He emphasized that the laws, rules and regulations made to ensure the rights of the workers should also be amended according to the time. Similarly, he said that there are many problems in foreign employment and added that he is discussing about promoting employment in the country with concerned agencies. According to Minister Kunwar, since there are many workers in the informal sector, the government will work accordingly to solve their problems. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Deepak Kafle, member secretary of the advisory council and secretary of the Labor Relations and Social Security Division under the ministry, informed that the Central Labour Advisory Council is consulting with the government on labour related issues and making decisions on various issues related to the labor sector. The council has 21 members headed by the Minister for Labour and includes 6 secretaries from various ministries, 5 from employers, 5 from trade unions and other relevant bodies.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15370', 'image' => '20220717112343_stitch_0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 11:22:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Meets 88 Percent Target in Revenue Collection ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The data from the Office of Auditor General shows that the revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year is worth Rs 1,035 billion and it is 87.7 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the office, the government had set a target of collecting tax revenue of around Rs 1,068 billion in the current fiscal year and the collection till date stands at over Rs 957 billion and this is 89.65 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the collection towards the non-tax revenue is Rs 77.19 billion against the target of around Rs 113 billion and this is 69.23 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government expects to gain Rs 5,992 billion from the foreign grants and the collection is so far over Rs 1,388 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new fiscal year is commencing on July 17 and in this brief period, some figures may increase in the tax and non-tax revenue collections. The overall revenue collection is so far 88.41 of the target, the report said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government expenditures in the current fiscal is 78.22 percent of the total target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had set a target of spending around Rs 1,633 billion while the expenditures till date stands a little more than Rs 1,277 billion. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-15', 'modified' => '2022-07-15', 'keywords' => 'revenue collection, target, fiscal year, government, Nepal', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15369', 'image' => '20220715062344_new_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-15 18:22:47', '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' => '15643', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Form Experts' Panel to Construct Nijgadh Airport', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in Nijgadh. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The ministry said it has decided to form a panel of experts to locate an appropriate site for the construction of an airport to in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The civil aviation's regulatory body CAAN decided to form the panel which would get final shape after approval from the cabinet meeting within a few days. The construction of the Nijgadh International Airport would be forwarded based on the study report presented by the committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a meeting of the International Relations Committee of the federal parliament held on Monday, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha shared that the airport would be constructed with least environmental damage based on the experts' recommendation in line with the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cost of the Nijgadh International Airport, the much-hyped national pride project, is estimated to be around Rs 120 billion in the preliminary phase. So far, as much as 8,050 hectares of land has been acquired and around Rs 3 billion spent for the project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The International Relations Committee Chairperson Pabitra Niraula Kharel said the project should be advanced without further delay since it is vital for Nepal's development and economic prosperity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She also said the committee would take its decision after holding consultations with the Minister for Law and Justice by internalising the full text of the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said the SC has paved the way for the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport and now the ministry and line agencies should proceed without further delay. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Director General of CAAN Pradip Adhikari shared about administrative and other decisions taken in this regard. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting, lawmakers Bhim Bahadur Rawal, Surendra Kumar Karki, Dev Prakash Timalsina, Chand Tara Kumari, Pushpa Kumari Karn Kayastha, Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Mohan Baniya and Renuka Gurung shared common views stating that the airport was appropriate from all perspectives thus a state-of-the-art airport in Nijgadh should be constructed as soon as possible. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-19', 'modified' => '2022-07-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15384', 'image' => '20220719082541_20220605082424_Environment (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-19 08:25:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15642', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon Break Likely to End from Tuesday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present. Light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to take place in some places of hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, there will be partly to generally cloudy weather throughout the country tonight (July 18) and light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to occur in some places of the hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country. There are chances of heavy rainfall in one or two places of Sudur Paschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division's analysis, currently the axis of monsoon trough is located towards the south from the normal position. The country is witnessing a rise in temperature for the past few days. It said that the shifting of monsoon trough towards the south from the normal position caused a monsoon break, leading to the temperature rise. </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"">Meteorologist Hira Bhatarai said this year more heat has been felt in hill regions including the Kathmandu Valley than in previous years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Bhattarai, the monsoon trough is likely to move back towards Nepal from Tuesday with the possibility of rainfall, giving some respite from the heat. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15383', 'image' => '20220718075009_image_750x_62a32cee152ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 19:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15640', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government’s Capital Expenditure Weakest in a Decade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. The country witnessed budget announcement by two finance ministers in just one fiscal year while the pace of development could not gain momentum due to the incompetence of the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The then finance minister Bishnu Poudel had announced a budget through ordinance on May 29, 2021 for the last fiscal year which concluded on July 16. However, a mandamus order by the Supreme Court to reinstate the parliament dissolved by the then government led by KP Sharma Oli led to the downfall of Oli government. Then, a new government’s finance minister Janardan Sharma introduced a replacement budget stating that the government would spend 10 percent of the allocated capital budget every month. However, the government failed to work as per its commitment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Office of the Auditor General, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 378.9 billion for capital expenditure in the fiscal year 2021/22 but was able to spend only 216.37 billion which is 57.23 percent of the allocated budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Data released by the Office of the Auditor General has revealed that the government spent as much as Rs 79 billion in the last month (mid-June to mid-July) of the last fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure which was Rs 137 billion in mid-June increased to Rs 216 billion in mid-July. The government was under pressure to spend towards the end of the fiscal year as it did not pay much attention in spending budget in the starting period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The capital expenditure of the government in the last fiscal year was the weakest in the past decade except for the spending during the Covid-19 period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure in FY 2013/14 was 75 percent which increased to 84 percent in FY 2016/17 before plunging to 74 percent (FY 2014/15) and 58 percent (FY 2015/16). The government’s capital expenditure then increased to 86 percent in the next fiscal year (FY 2018/19). It then dropped to 46 percent during the pandemic era in FY 2019/20 before rising to 64 percent in FY 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has always failed in spending budget. Although the government signs work execution agreements with the officials who spend budget, such agreements have hardly yielded any results. The government has stopped signing such agreements after the onset of Covid-19 due to which the work execution of the government officials have been affected due to lack of evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr Pushparaj Kandel terms the government’s failure to spend capital budget as its ‘incompetence’. He argues that the capital budget could not be spent because the government failed to create a conducive environment for spending the budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Kandel, the development works have slumped due to various reasons including the transfer of civil servants , government’s lack of interest to control inflation and its failure to take the construction entrepreneurs in confidence.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Auditor General Navaraj Dhungana blames political instability, inflation and construction holiday announced by the contractors as the main reasons for the poor spending of capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Dhungana, although the government amended the Public Procurement Act, it did so quite late thereby affecting the construction works. The construction entrepreneurs are yet to collect Rs 5 billion from the Department of Roads and Rs 20 billion from other government agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s policy is also to blame for the poor capital spending. The government has been amending the Public Procurement Regulation time and again to address the problems of construction entrepreneurs but this has created instability. The government amended the reculation for the 12<sup>th</sup> time just last month. The same regulation has been amended 7 times in the last 3 years.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15382', 'image' => '20220718041402_capital expenditure.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 16:02:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15641', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Extends Term of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by 2 Years', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.</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"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial management of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, informed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.</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"">A meeting of the Investment Board on June 6 had recommended the government to extend the term of the project. The Indian company had written a letter to the Investment Board seeking two years’ time for financial management. The government has selected GMR for the project in 2008.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15381', 'image' => '20220718050715_upper karnali.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 17:05:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15639', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'New Tourism Infrastructures Added along Mardi Trekking Route', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In a bid to provide facilities for domestic and foreign tourists, tourism infrastructures have been constructed along the route from Pokhara metropolis-25, Melbot to Astam of Machhapuchhre rural municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Physical Infrastructures such as trekking route, park and railing were developed under the 'one electoral constituency, one tourism infrastructure' of the Gandaki province last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">There is a plan to develop a trekking route from Melbot to Astam, Dhital, Dhampus, Pritam Deurali and Dhital Lwang and Ghalel Kalimati en route to Mardi mountain. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It may be noted that the Gandaki province government had allocated a budget of Rs 2.5 million last year. It was spent for the development of tourism infrastructure and different physical structures, informed coordinator of Melbot-Astam-Dhital-Dhampus-Mardi mountain route construction committee Biswo Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that a 300-meter slate-placed path, 311-meter railing side wall, four waiting stands and ponds were constructed in the route.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15380', 'image' => '20220718030551_fishtail-seen-from-mardi-himal-base-camp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 15:04:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15638', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Contributors of Social Security Fund to get Home Loan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has approved the 'Contributors Credit Guidelines 2079' making the contributors eligible to take such loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the guidelines prepared by the fund and approved by the Ministry of Labor, there is a provision that the fund to give loans to the contributors to build a new house, add a floor to the house under their ownership, renovate the house, buy a unit in joint housing and also to buy a new house.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the guidelines, the contributors who have contributed to the fund for at least 36 months and have at least 2 years left to retire based on their age and service period will be given a lump sum for this purpose. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While approving the house loan, the amount approved should not exceed the amount determined by the mortgage evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For this, the loan will be given in accordance to one of the three in which the loan amount is the least.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the first method, Rs 7.5 million rupees will be given on the basis of the mortgage value, in the second method, an amount equal to the salary of the contributor for 15 years will be provided and in the third method, an amount equivalent to the salary of the remaining period until the contributor reaches the age of 60 years will be provided.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the guidelines also has provision for the contributors’ educational allowance. Educational leave is arranged for contributors who have contributed for at least 36 months to the fund and who have at least two years remaining before compulsory retirement based on age or length of service. It is mentioned in the guidelines that such allowance can be provided to the contributor or his/her husband, wife, son, daughter for the purpose of higher education in educational institutions in the country or abroad. Such amount shall be either Rs 3.5 million or the actual expenditure demanded by the concerned educational institution, whichever is less.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The student's admission fee, monthly, examination, hostel or accommodation expenses, other fees specified by the relevant educational institution, educational material expenses, and travel and insurance expenses will be included in the said amount. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Arrangements have made so that the educational allowance taken by the contributor can be reapplied if he/she repays it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive director of the fund, Kapilmani Gyawali, informed that the contributors who have contributed regularly for 36 months to the fund, will be provided the service via online from mid-July itself.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15379', 'image' => '20220718013538_Home Loan_2.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 13:31:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15637', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Extension of Ban on Import of Goods Increases Smuggling: Importers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed in a press conference held at the ministry on Sunday that the cabinet meeting on July 17 decided to extend the ban on imports of the luxury items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on July 16 restricting the import of the ten banned items until August 30. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry has stated that it has imposed a complete ban on the import of those items from July 17 to August 30 using the authority given by Subsection (1) of Section 3 of the Export-Import (Control) Act, 2013. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, the ministry had published a notice in the Nepal Gazette dated April 26 and banned the import of 10 different items till the end of last fiscal year (July 16). The latest move of the government has extended the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This time, the government has taken stronger measures while extending the import ban. Earlier, the government had banned the import of motorcycles above 250 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 600. Now, importers can't import motorcycles above 150 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 300. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Other prohibited items include chips, all types of liquor (except industrial raw materials), cigarettes and tobacco products (except industrial raw materials), diamonds (except industrial raw materials), colour televisions, jeeps, cars and vans, all types of toys. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government had banned the import of these items as foreign exchange reserves were dwindling.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Importers have warned that this ban will increase unauthorized trade. The Nepal Foreign Trade Association issued a statement a few days ago and requested not to extend the ban until August 30. The association claims that even if legal imports are stopped, illegal imports will grow.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Senior vice president of the association, Vinod Sethia, claims that all goods banned by the government except motor vehicles are entering Nepal through the open border in the south. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Motor vehicles have been stopped only because they cannot be brought here and driven without registration. Apart from that, the import of any other item has not been stopped," said Sethia. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"They are being imported through illegal channels,” he added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Automobiles Association, also expressed his displeasure over the extension of the restrictions on the import of vehicles. Thapa expressed his displeasure by writing a status on his Facebook page saying that the import of goods necessary for the employees to reach the office, to run industries and businesses, to transport food is listed as a luxury item and has been banned as unproductive goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15378', 'image' => '20220718115901_tobacco.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 11:58:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15636', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Provide Rs 7 Billion Loan to NOC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to provide the amount to the state-owned NOC to pay its dues to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).</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""> Addressing a news conference organized at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Sunday to unveil the decisions of the Council of Ministers, government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide the amount to NOC as it was running short of money to pay to the IOC. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Council of Ministers also decided to provide Rs 598.68 million collected from infrastructure tax to the NOC. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15377', 'image' => '20220718081006_845791-fuel-istock-070819.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 08:09:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15635', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance of Medicinal Herbs Comes into Effect ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has made arrangement to provide 80 percent grant for insuring farmlands used for producing medicinal herbs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government made such arrangement after the Insurance Board issued the Agriculture, Livestock and Medicinal Herb Insurance Directive 2077 on Friday. The directive has come into effect from the first day of the current fiscal year (ie July 17).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced insurance scheme for medicinal herb farming from the new fiscal year. As per the budget announcement, the Insurance Board issued the new directive after amending the old directive that was in use. The new directive has provision for the government to provide grand for insurance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had been providing 80 percent grant on insurance premium for agriculture farming, which has now been extended to cover medicinal herbs as well, said Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government has adopted a policy to provide grant on insurance coverage for medicinal herbs from the new fiscal year. As per the policy, we also amended the Agriculture and Livestock Directive to accommodate the new provision,” said Poudel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Insurance companies can insure medicinal herbs from July 17 onward. There will also be a provision for grant but such grant is not applicable for the insurance policy prepared by the insurance companies themselves,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Insurance Board said that the insurance companies can issue short-term insurance policies that do not cover government grant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The insurance companies will have to mandatorily provide insurance scheme for agriculture, livestock and medicinal herbs in the designated districts. The companies will not be allowed to deny insurance scheme for medicinal herbs in those districts. They will also have to open their branch offices near the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in those districts from now on.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the board, this arrangement has made to make the work more convenient.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As far as the livestock insurance is concerned, the insurance rate has to be determined based on the policy, market price, invoice price, and local customs price. In agriculture and herbal insurance, the insurance rate must be established based on the data and cost provided by the insurance document, the relevant office of the Nepal government or the provincial government, or the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While determining the insurance rate based on the cost of crops, it must be done based on the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. For this, the board has said it will soon prepare the data, including the cost and expenditure in the geographical areas of the seven provinces and the farmers' price of the produced goods. After that, the board says that insurance should be maintained on the same basis. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The directive also mentions that a complaint can be filed with the board if the insurance company does not cooperate in issuing the insurance policy even if the customer provides all the required documents.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15376', 'image' => '20220717051146_RajendraPaneru_Kanchanpur_RSS_30.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 17:10:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15634', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Garbage Classification in KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) had issued a notice a month ago asking the residents of Kathmandu to classify wastes produced at their home into biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage. KMC Mayor Balendra Sah had reached the doorsteps of the locals to make them aware of this cause. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This drive has been launched in all 32 wards of the city. The KMC has fixed the day for picking wastes from the city. From now on, biodegradable waste will be collected on Sunday and Wednesday and non-biodegradable garbage on Tuesday and Friday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The arrangements in the landfill site will be made accordingly, said the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Those flouting the directive by the KMC to segregate waste will be fined Rs 500 each. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC has also urged the local residents to use biodegradable waste as fertiliser. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15375', 'image' => '20220717044224_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 16:41:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15633', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'When will the EU Remove Nepali Airlines from its Flight Safety Blacklist?', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts believe that there is no reason for the EU to keep Nepal in the blacklist as Nepal has made significant improvements in aviation safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Budhisagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said that there is no point in keeping Nepal in the flight safety blacklist as Nepal's air safety rate is of international standard. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We do not see any basis for the EU to ban Nepali airlines. We have done our work to improve flight safety and will continue to do so. Therefore, there is no need for the EU to keep it in the blacklist,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Joint Secretary Lamichhane, who is also the head of the Ministry's Civil Aviation Division, expressed his belief that Nepal will soon be removed from the EU's flight safety list as Nepal's flight safety rate is above average in the world.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Ministry of Tourism, efforts are being made with the EU to lift the ban due to the progress made by Nepal in air safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">ICAO's recent audit has shown that Nepal's aviation sector has made significant progress. In the flight safety audit, the world's average flight safety rate is 67, and the Asia Pacific rate is 63 per cent. For the first time in the history of air travel, Nepal has scored 70.1 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since 2014, the European Commission under the EU has put Nepal on the flight safety blacklist, showing security concerns over Nepal's airspace. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) removed Nepal from its list of Serious Security Concerns (SSC) in July 2017.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15374', 'image' => '20220717011757_20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 13:17:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15631', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ban on Import of 10 Types of Goods gets Continuity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items. </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"">Earlier, the government had decided to impose the ban on such items until the end of last fiscal year (July 16) but has now decided to extend the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government reportedly took such decision due to the liquidity crisis and to maintain its foreign exchange reserves that were fast depleting due to high amount of imports.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, published a notice in the Nepal Gazettee on July 16, stating that the ban on the import of the ten products has been given continuity, the state-owned national news agency reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the RSS, the products that have been banned in the country include snacks such as Kurkure, Kurmure, Lays among others as well as all types of alcoholic drinks (except industrial raw materials), cigarette and tobacco products (excepting industrial raw materials), diamond (except industrial raw materials), smart phones costing more than US$ 300, colour television, jeep, car and van, motorcycle, all kinds of dolls and playing cards. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Prior to this, the ministry had imposed a ban on the import of these goods until July 16 through a similar notice issued in the Nepal Gazette on April 26. </span><br /> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15372', 'image' => '20220717124909_nada.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:48:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15630', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Nepal Plan Gains Momentum', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country. During this period, significant success has been achieved especially in the field of ICT by completing the 'Digital Nepal' plan put forward by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Information and Broadcasting Department has started providing all its service through online medium from July 3. The department has been providing online services such as BRLMS, DMS, Information Management System and Cash SMS. The department started the information management system under the online service from last year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general of the department, informed that all the works of the department including issuance of press representative certificate, renewal of identity card, registration and renewal of online media, management of records of newspapers and journalists and management and distribution of public information are done through the online system. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the last fiscal year, the department distributed 2,092 press passes and renewed 2,557 press passes through online system. Hamal says that 3,463 online registrations were done, with 662 registrations and 677 renewals in the last fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Dr. Baikuntha Aryal informed that 90 percent of the services of the Ministry of Communication are provided online for the purpose of fulfilling the plan of Digital Nepal. In Nepal, where the digital journey started with the use of computers for the national census in the year 1971, now has a 100 percent access to mobile phones and 60 percent Internet access.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government continued policy, legal and structural reforms for the overall development of the information and communication sector. In this 1 year period, National Cyber Security Strategy 2078, National Broadcasting (Eleventh Amendment) Regulations 2078, Radio Communication (License) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations 2078 and Film (Production, Exhibition and Distribution) (Seventh Amendment) Regulations 2078 were approved and implemented by the Council of Ministers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued the National Information Technology Development Committee (Formation) (Third Amendment) Order 2078, approved guidelines for the construction and management of government offices' websites, and issued guidelines for new technologies including Citizen Apps (Operation and Management) 2078 and 5G.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Uttar Kumar Khatri, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, informed that the 'Digital Nepal Framework 2076' is in the implementation phase.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Under the framework, we are now running software called automation and we are working through the Internet, email. Comments are also made from here. Not only that, but now we have also received the support of the World Bank,” said Khatri.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the Ministry of Communication, comments, letters, correspondence, employee leave, attendance, etc. are now done in the digital system under the integrated work management system. Spokesperson Khatri also informed that it will be applied to other ministries and offices within the Singha Durbar from mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15371', 'image' => '20220717122522_1658013512.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:24:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Labour Minister Stresses on In-depth Study to Address the Problems of Informal Sector Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the Central Labour Advisory Council held at the labour ministry on Friday, Minister Kunwar pointed out that there are many problems faced by the informal sector workers and it is necessary to identify them in a subtle way.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that since labour is a subject related to everyone, the concerned agencies should take initiatives to better understand the problems of workers and solve them. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Everyone does the work. Some people work comfortably without touching stones and soil, while others work hard even by immersing themselves in soil. But all those who work hard are not given importance. Those who are working hard in the informal sector should be properly evaluated. It is necessary to bring them under the scope of social security and pay attention to justice,” said the minister.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Pointing out the need of labour commission like other commissions, he stressed on the need for an extensive discussion on this issue.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He emphasized that the laws, rules and regulations made to ensure the rights of the workers should also be amended according to the time. Similarly, he said that there are many problems in foreign employment and added that he is discussing about promoting employment in the country with concerned agencies. According to Minister Kunwar, since there are many workers in the informal sector, the government will work accordingly to solve their problems. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Deepak Kafle, member secretary of the advisory council and secretary of the Labor Relations and Social Security Division under the ministry, informed that the Central Labour Advisory Council is consulting with the government on labour related issues and making decisions on various issues related to the labor sector. The council has 21 members headed by the Minister for Labour and includes 6 secretaries from various ministries, 5 from employers, 5 from trade unions and other relevant bodies.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15370', 'image' => '20220717112343_stitch_0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 11:22:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Meets 88 Percent Target in Revenue Collection ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The data from the Office of Auditor General shows that the revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year is worth Rs 1,035 billion and it is 87.7 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the office, the government had set a target of collecting tax revenue of around Rs 1,068 billion in the current fiscal year and the collection till date stands at over Rs 957 billion and this is 89.65 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the collection towards the non-tax revenue is Rs 77.19 billion against the target of around Rs 113 billion and this is 69.23 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government expects to gain Rs 5,992 billion from the foreign grants and the collection is so far over Rs 1,388 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new fiscal year is commencing on July 17 and in this brief period, some figures may increase in the tax and non-tax revenue collections. The overall revenue collection is so far 88.41 of the target, the report said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government expenditures in the current fiscal is 78.22 percent of the total target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had set a target of spending around Rs 1,633 billion while the expenditures till date stands a little more than Rs 1,277 billion. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-15', 'modified' => '2022-07-15', 'keywords' => 'revenue collection, target, fiscal year, government, Nepal', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15369', 'image' => '20220715062344_new_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-15 18:22:47', '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' => '15643', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Form Experts' Panel to Construct Nijgadh Airport', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in Nijgadh. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The ministry said it has decided to form a panel of experts to locate an appropriate site for the construction of an airport to in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The civil aviation's regulatory body CAAN decided to form the panel which would get final shape after approval from the cabinet meeting within a few days. The construction of the Nijgadh International Airport would be forwarded based on the study report presented by the committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a meeting of the International Relations Committee of the federal parliament held on Monday, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha shared that the airport would be constructed with least environmental damage based on the experts' recommendation in line with the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cost of the Nijgadh International Airport, the much-hyped national pride project, is estimated to be around Rs 120 billion in the preliminary phase. So far, as much as 8,050 hectares of land has been acquired and around Rs 3 billion spent for the project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The International Relations Committee Chairperson Pabitra Niraula Kharel said the project should be advanced without further delay since it is vital for Nepal's development and economic prosperity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She also said the committee would take its decision after holding consultations with the Minister for Law and Justice by internalising the full text of the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said the SC has paved the way for the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport and now the ministry and line agencies should proceed without further delay. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Director General of CAAN Pradip Adhikari shared about administrative and other decisions taken in this regard. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting, lawmakers Bhim Bahadur Rawal, Surendra Kumar Karki, Dev Prakash Timalsina, Chand Tara Kumari, Pushpa Kumari Karn Kayastha, Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Mohan Baniya and Renuka Gurung shared common views stating that the airport was appropriate from all perspectives thus a state-of-the-art airport in Nijgadh should be constructed as soon as possible. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-19', 'modified' => '2022-07-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15384', 'image' => '20220719082541_20220605082424_Environment (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-19 08:25:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15642', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon Break Likely to End from Tuesday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present. Light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to take place in some places of hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, there will be partly to generally cloudy weather throughout the country tonight (July 18) and light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to occur in some places of the hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country. There are chances of heavy rainfall in one or two places of Sudur Paschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division's analysis, currently the axis of monsoon trough is located towards the south from the normal position. The country is witnessing a rise in temperature for the past few days. It said that the shifting of monsoon trough towards the south from the normal position caused a monsoon break, leading to the temperature rise. </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"">Meteorologist Hira Bhatarai said this year more heat has been felt in hill regions including the Kathmandu Valley than in previous years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Bhattarai, the monsoon trough is likely to move back towards Nepal from Tuesday with the possibility of rainfall, giving some respite from the heat. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15383', 'image' => '20220718075009_image_750x_62a32cee152ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 19:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15640', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government’s Capital Expenditure Weakest in a Decade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. The country witnessed budget announcement by two finance ministers in just one fiscal year while the pace of development could not gain momentum due to the incompetence of the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The then finance minister Bishnu Poudel had announced a budget through ordinance on May 29, 2021 for the last fiscal year which concluded on July 16. However, a mandamus order by the Supreme Court to reinstate the parliament dissolved by the then government led by KP Sharma Oli led to the downfall of Oli government. Then, a new government’s finance minister Janardan Sharma introduced a replacement budget stating that the government would spend 10 percent of the allocated capital budget every month. However, the government failed to work as per its commitment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Office of the Auditor General, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 378.9 billion for capital expenditure in the fiscal year 2021/22 but was able to spend only 216.37 billion which is 57.23 percent of the allocated budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Data released by the Office of the Auditor General has revealed that the government spent as much as Rs 79 billion in the last month (mid-June to mid-July) of the last fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure which was Rs 137 billion in mid-June increased to Rs 216 billion in mid-July. The government was under pressure to spend towards the end of the fiscal year as it did not pay much attention in spending budget in the starting period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The capital expenditure of the government in the last fiscal year was the weakest in the past decade except for the spending during the Covid-19 period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure in FY 2013/14 was 75 percent which increased to 84 percent in FY 2016/17 before plunging to 74 percent (FY 2014/15) and 58 percent (FY 2015/16). The government’s capital expenditure then increased to 86 percent in the next fiscal year (FY 2018/19). It then dropped to 46 percent during the pandemic era in FY 2019/20 before rising to 64 percent in FY 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has always failed in spending budget. Although the government signs work execution agreements with the officials who spend budget, such agreements have hardly yielded any results. The government has stopped signing such agreements after the onset of Covid-19 due to which the work execution of the government officials have been affected due to lack of evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr Pushparaj Kandel terms the government’s failure to spend capital budget as its ‘incompetence’. He argues that the capital budget could not be spent because the government failed to create a conducive environment for spending the budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Kandel, the development works have slumped due to various reasons including the transfer of civil servants , government’s lack of interest to control inflation and its failure to take the construction entrepreneurs in confidence.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Auditor General Navaraj Dhungana blames political instability, inflation and construction holiday announced by the contractors as the main reasons for the poor spending of capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Dhungana, although the government amended the Public Procurement Act, it did so quite late thereby affecting the construction works. The construction entrepreneurs are yet to collect Rs 5 billion from the Department of Roads and Rs 20 billion from other government agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s policy is also to blame for the poor capital spending. The government has been amending the Public Procurement Regulation time and again to address the problems of construction entrepreneurs but this has created instability. The government amended the reculation for the 12<sup>th</sup> time just last month. The same regulation has been amended 7 times in the last 3 years.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15382', 'image' => '20220718041402_capital expenditure.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 16:02:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15641', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Extends Term of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by 2 Years', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.</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"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial management of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, informed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.</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"">A meeting of the Investment Board on June 6 had recommended the government to extend the term of the project. The Indian company had written a letter to the Investment Board seeking two years’ time for financial management. The government has selected GMR for the project in 2008.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15381', 'image' => '20220718050715_upper karnali.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 17:05:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15639', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'New Tourism Infrastructures Added along Mardi Trekking Route', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In a bid to provide facilities for domestic and foreign tourists, tourism infrastructures have been constructed along the route from Pokhara metropolis-25, Melbot to Astam of Machhapuchhre rural municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Physical Infrastructures such as trekking route, park and railing were developed under the 'one electoral constituency, one tourism infrastructure' of the Gandaki province last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">There is a plan to develop a trekking route from Melbot to Astam, Dhital, Dhampus, Pritam Deurali and Dhital Lwang and Ghalel Kalimati en route to Mardi mountain. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It may be noted that the Gandaki province government had allocated a budget of Rs 2.5 million last year. It was spent for the development of tourism infrastructure and different physical structures, informed coordinator of Melbot-Astam-Dhital-Dhampus-Mardi mountain route construction committee Biswo Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that a 300-meter slate-placed path, 311-meter railing side wall, four waiting stands and ponds were constructed in the route.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15380', 'image' => '20220718030551_fishtail-seen-from-mardi-himal-base-camp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 15:04:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15638', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Contributors of Social Security Fund to get Home Loan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has approved the 'Contributors Credit Guidelines 2079' making the contributors eligible to take such loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the guidelines prepared by the fund and approved by the Ministry of Labor, there is a provision that the fund to give loans to the contributors to build a new house, add a floor to the house under their ownership, renovate the house, buy a unit in joint housing and also to buy a new house.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the guidelines, the contributors who have contributed to the fund for at least 36 months and have at least 2 years left to retire based on their age and service period will be given a lump sum for this purpose. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While approving the house loan, the amount approved should not exceed the amount determined by the mortgage evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For this, the loan will be given in accordance to one of the three in which the loan amount is the least.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the first method, Rs 7.5 million rupees will be given on the basis of the mortgage value, in the second method, an amount equal to the salary of the contributor for 15 years will be provided and in the third method, an amount equivalent to the salary of the remaining period until the contributor reaches the age of 60 years will be provided.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the guidelines also has provision for the contributors’ educational allowance. Educational leave is arranged for contributors who have contributed for at least 36 months to the fund and who have at least two years remaining before compulsory retirement based on age or length of service. It is mentioned in the guidelines that such allowance can be provided to the contributor or his/her husband, wife, son, daughter for the purpose of higher education in educational institutions in the country or abroad. Such amount shall be either Rs 3.5 million or the actual expenditure demanded by the concerned educational institution, whichever is less.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The student's admission fee, monthly, examination, hostel or accommodation expenses, other fees specified by the relevant educational institution, educational material expenses, and travel and insurance expenses will be included in the said amount. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Arrangements have made so that the educational allowance taken by the contributor can be reapplied if he/she repays it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive director of the fund, Kapilmani Gyawali, informed that the contributors who have contributed regularly for 36 months to the fund, will be provided the service via online from mid-July itself.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15379', 'image' => '20220718013538_Home Loan_2.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 13:31:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15637', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Extension of Ban on Import of Goods Increases Smuggling: Importers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed in a press conference held at the ministry on Sunday that the cabinet meeting on July 17 decided to extend the ban on imports of the luxury items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on July 16 restricting the import of the ten banned items until August 30. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry has stated that it has imposed a complete ban on the import of those items from July 17 to August 30 using the authority given by Subsection (1) of Section 3 of the Export-Import (Control) Act, 2013. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, the ministry had published a notice in the Nepal Gazette dated April 26 and banned the import of 10 different items till the end of last fiscal year (July 16). The latest move of the government has extended the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This time, the government has taken stronger measures while extending the import ban. Earlier, the government had banned the import of motorcycles above 250 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 600. Now, importers can't import motorcycles above 150 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 300. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Other prohibited items include chips, all types of liquor (except industrial raw materials), cigarettes and tobacco products (except industrial raw materials), diamonds (except industrial raw materials), colour televisions, jeeps, cars and vans, all types of toys. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government had banned the import of these items as foreign exchange reserves were dwindling.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Importers have warned that this ban will increase unauthorized trade. The Nepal Foreign Trade Association issued a statement a few days ago and requested not to extend the ban until August 30. The association claims that even if legal imports are stopped, illegal imports will grow.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Senior vice president of the association, Vinod Sethia, claims that all goods banned by the government except motor vehicles are entering Nepal through the open border in the south. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Motor vehicles have been stopped only because they cannot be brought here and driven without registration. Apart from that, the import of any other item has not been stopped," said Sethia. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"They are being imported through illegal channels,” he added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Automobiles Association, also expressed his displeasure over the extension of the restrictions on the import of vehicles. Thapa expressed his displeasure by writing a status on his Facebook page saying that the import of goods necessary for the employees to reach the office, to run industries and businesses, to transport food is listed as a luxury item and has been banned as unproductive goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15378', 'image' => '20220718115901_tobacco.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 11:58:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15636', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Provide Rs 7 Billion Loan to NOC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to provide the amount to the state-owned NOC to pay its dues to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).</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""> Addressing a news conference organized at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Sunday to unveil the decisions of the Council of Ministers, government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide the amount to NOC as it was running short of money to pay to the IOC. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Council of Ministers also decided to provide Rs 598.68 million collected from infrastructure tax to the NOC. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15377', 'image' => '20220718081006_845791-fuel-istock-070819.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 08:09:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15635', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance of Medicinal Herbs Comes into Effect ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has made arrangement to provide 80 percent grant for insuring farmlands used for producing medicinal herbs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government made such arrangement after the Insurance Board issued the Agriculture, Livestock and Medicinal Herb Insurance Directive 2077 on Friday. The directive has come into effect from the first day of the current fiscal year (ie July 17).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced insurance scheme for medicinal herb farming from the new fiscal year. As per the budget announcement, the Insurance Board issued the new directive after amending the old directive that was in use. The new directive has provision for the government to provide grand for insurance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had been providing 80 percent grant on insurance premium for agriculture farming, which has now been extended to cover medicinal herbs as well, said Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government has adopted a policy to provide grant on insurance coverage for medicinal herbs from the new fiscal year. As per the policy, we also amended the Agriculture and Livestock Directive to accommodate the new provision,” said Poudel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Insurance companies can insure medicinal herbs from July 17 onward. There will also be a provision for grant but such grant is not applicable for the insurance policy prepared by the insurance companies themselves,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Insurance Board said that the insurance companies can issue short-term insurance policies that do not cover government grant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The insurance companies will have to mandatorily provide insurance scheme for agriculture, livestock and medicinal herbs in the designated districts. The companies will not be allowed to deny insurance scheme for medicinal herbs in those districts. They will also have to open their branch offices near the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in those districts from now on.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the board, this arrangement has made to make the work more convenient.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As far as the livestock insurance is concerned, the insurance rate has to be determined based on the policy, market price, invoice price, and local customs price. In agriculture and herbal insurance, the insurance rate must be established based on the data and cost provided by the insurance document, the relevant office of the Nepal government or the provincial government, or the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While determining the insurance rate based on the cost of crops, it must be done based on the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. For this, the board has said it will soon prepare the data, including the cost and expenditure in the geographical areas of the seven provinces and the farmers' price of the produced goods. After that, the board says that insurance should be maintained on the same basis. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The directive also mentions that a complaint can be filed with the board if the insurance company does not cooperate in issuing the insurance policy even if the customer provides all the required documents.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15376', 'image' => '20220717051146_RajendraPaneru_Kanchanpur_RSS_30.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 17:10:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15634', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Garbage Classification in KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) had issued a notice a month ago asking the residents of Kathmandu to classify wastes produced at their home into biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage. KMC Mayor Balendra Sah had reached the doorsteps of the locals to make them aware of this cause. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This drive has been launched in all 32 wards of the city. The KMC has fixed the day for picking wastes from the city. From now on, biodegradable waste will be collected on Sunday and Wednesday and non-biodegradable garbage on Tuesday and Friday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The arrangements in the landfill site will be made accordingly, said the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Those flouting the directive by the KMC to segregate waste will be fined Rs 500 each. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC has also urged the local residents to use biodegradable waste as fertiliser. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15375', 'image' => '20220717044224_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 16:41:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15633', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'When will the EU Remove Nepali Airlines from its Flight Safety Blacklist?', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts believe that there is no reason for the EU to keep Nepal in the blacklist as Nepal has made significant improvements in aviation safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Budhisagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said that there is no point in keeping Nepal in the flight safety blacklist as Nepal's air safety rate is of international standard. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We do not see any basis for the EU to ban Nepali airlines. We have done our work to improve flight safety and will continue to do so. Therefore, there is no need for the EU to keep it in the blacklist,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Joint Secretary Lamichhane, who is also the head of the Ministry's Civil Aviation Division, expressed his belief that Nepal will soon be removed from the EU's flight safety list as Nepal's flight safety rate is above average in the world.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Ministry of Tourism, efforts are being made with the EU to lift the ban due to the progress made by Nepal in air safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">ICAO's recent audit has shown that Nepal's aviation sector has made significant progress. In the flight safety audit, the world's average flight safety rate is 67, and the Asia Pacific rate is 63 per cent. For the first time in the history of air travel, Nepal has scored 70.1 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since 2014, the European Commission under the EU has put Nepal on the flight safety blacklist, showing security concerns over Nepal's airspace. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) removed Nepal from its list of Serious Security Concerns (SSC) in July 2017.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15374', 'image' => '20220717011757_20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 13:17:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15631', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ban on Import of 10 Types of Goods gets Continuity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items. </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"">Earlier, the government had decided to impose the ban on such items until the end of last fiscal year (July 16) but has now decided to extend the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government reportedly took such decision due to the liquidity crisis and to maintain its foreign exchange reserves that were fast depleting due to high amount of imports.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, published a notice in the Nepal Gazettee on July 16, stating that the ban on the import of the ten products has been given continuity, the state-owned national news agency reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the RSS, the products that have been banned in the country include snacks such as Kurkure, Kurmure, Lays among others as well as all types of alcoholic drinks (except industrial raw materials), cigarette and tobacco products (excepting industrial raw materials), diamond (except industrial raw materials), smart phones costing more than US$ 300, colour television, jeep, car and van, motorcycle, all kinds of dolls and playing cards. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Prior to this, the ministry had imposed a ban on the import of these goods until July 16 through a similar notice issued in the Nepal Gazette on April 26. </span><br /> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15372', 'image' => '20220717124909_nada.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:48:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15630', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Nepal Plan Gains Momentum', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country. During this period, significant success has been achieved especially in the field of ICT by completing the 'Digital Nepal' plan put forward by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Information and Broadcasting Department has started providing all its service through online medium from July 3. The department has been providing online services such as BRLMS, DMS, Information Management System and Cash SMS. The department started the information management system under the online service from last year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general of the department, informed that all the works of the department including issuance of press representative certificate, renewal of identity card, registration and renewal of online media, management of records of newspapers and journalists and management and distribution of public information are done through the online system. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the last fiscal year, the department distributed 2,092 press passes and renewed 2,557 press passes through online system. Hamal says that 3,463 online registrations were done, with 662 registrations and 677 renewals in the last fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Dr. Baikuntha Aryal informed that 90 percent of the services of the Ministry of Communication are provided online for the purpose of fulfilling the plan of Digital Nepal. In Nepal, where the digital journey started with the use of computers for the national census in the year 1971, now has a 100 percent access to mobile phones and 60 percent Internet access.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government continued policy, legal and structural reforms for the overall development of the information and communication sector. In this 1 year period, National Cyber Security Strategy 2078, National Broadcasting (Eleventh Amendment) Regulations 2078, Radio Communication (License) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations 2078 and Film (Production, Exhibition and Distribution) (Seventh Amendment) Regulations 2078 were approved and implemented by the Council of Ministers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued the National Information Technology Development Committee (Formation) (Third Amendment) Order 2078, approved guidelines for the construction and management of government offices' websites, and issued guidelines for new technologies including Citizen Apps (Operation and Management) 2078 and 5G.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Uttar Kumar Khatri, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, informed that the 'Digital Nepal Framework 2076' is in the implementation phase.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Under the framework, we are now running software called automation and we are working through the Internet, email. Comments are also made from here. Not only that, but now we have also received the support of the World Bank,” said Khatri.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the Ministry of Communication, comments, letters, correspondence, employee leave, attendance, etc. are now done in the digital system under the integrated work management system. Spokesperson Khatri also informed that it will be applied to other ministries and offices within the Singha Durbar from mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15371', 'image' => '20220717122522_1658013512.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:24:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Labour Minister Stresses on In-depth Study to Address the Problems of Informal Sector Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the Central Labour Advisory Council held at the labour ministry on Friday, Minister Kunwar pointed out that there are many problems faced by the informal sector workers and it is necessary to identify them in a subtle way.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that since labour is a subject related to everyone, the concerned agencies should take initiatives to better understand the problems of workers and solve them. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Everyone does the work. Some people work comfortably without touching stones and soil, while others work hard even by immersing themselves in soil. But all those who work hard are not given importance. Those who are working hard in the informal sector should be properly evaluated. It is necessary to bring them under the scope of social security and pay attention to justice,” said the minister.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Pointing out the need of labour commission like other commissions, he stressed on the need for an extensive discussion on this issue.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He emphasized that the laws, rules and regulations made to ensure the rights of the workers should also be amended according to the time. Similarly, he said that there are many problems in foreign employment and added that he is discussing about promoting employment in the country with concerned agencies. According to Minister Kunwar, since there are many workers in the informal sector, the government will work accordingly to solve their problems. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Deepak Kafle, member secretary of the advisory council and secretary of the Labor Relations and Social Security Division under the ministry, informed that the Central Labour Advisory Council is consulting with the government on labour related issues and making decisions on various issues related to the labor sector. The council has 21 members headed by the Minister for Labour and includes 6 secretaries from various ministries, 5 from employers, 5 from trade unions and other relevant bodies.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15370', 'image' => '20220717112343_stitch_0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 11:22:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Meets 88 Percent Target in Revenue Collection ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The data from the Office of Auditor General shows that the revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year is worth Rs 1,035 billion and it is 87.7 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the office, the government had set a target of collecting tax revenue of around Rs 1,068 billion in the current fiscal year and the collection till date stands at over Rs 957 billion and this is 89.65 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the collection towards the non-tax revenue is Rs 77.19 billion against the target of around Rs 113 billion and this is 69.23 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government expects to gain Rs 5,992 billion from the foreign grants and the collection is so far over Rs 1,388 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new fiscal year is commencing on July 17 and in this brief period, some figures may increase in the tax and non-tax revenue collections. The overall revenue collection is so far 88.41 of the target, the report said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government expenditures in the current fiscal is 78.22 percent of the total target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had set a target of spending around Rs 1,633 billion while the expenditures till date stands a little more than Rs 1,277 billion. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-15', 'modified' => '2022-07-15', 'keywords' => 'revenue collection, target, fiscal year, government, Nepal', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15369', 'image' => '20220715062344_new_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-15 18:22:47', '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
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 19: Following the recent verdict of the Supreme Court (SC), the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) have decided to take the needful steps to construct an international airport in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The ministry said it has decided to form a panel of experts to locate an appropriate site for the construction of an airport to in Nijgadh. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The civil aviation's regulatory body CAAN decided to form the panel which would get final shape after approval from the cabinet meeting within a few days. The construction of the Nijgadh International Airport would be forwarded based on the study report presented by the committee. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">During a meeting of the International Relations Committee of the federal parliament held on Monday, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jeevan Ram Shrestha shared that the airport would be constructed with least environmental damage based on the experts' recommendation in line with the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The cost of the Nijgadh International Airport, the much-hyped national pride project, is estimated to be around Rs 120 billion in the preliminary phase. So far, as much as 8,050 hectares of land has been acquired and around Rs 3 billion spent for the project. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The International Relations Committee Chairperson Pabitra Niraula Kharel said the project should be advanced without further delay since it is vital for Nepal's development and economic prosperity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">She also said the committee would take its decision after holding consultations with the Minister for Law and Justice by internalising the full text of the SC verdict. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said the SC has paved the way for the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport and now the ministry and line agencies should proceed without further delay. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">On the occasion, Director General of CAAN Pradip Adhikari shared about administrative and other decisions taken in this regard. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Speaking at the meeting, lawmakers Bhim Bahadur Rawal, Surendra Kumar Karki, Dev Prakash Timalsina, Chand Tara Kumari, Pushpa Kumari Karn Kayastha, Dipak Prakash Bhatta, Mohan Baniya and Renuka Gurung shared common views stating that the airport was appropriate from all perspectives thus a state-of-the-art airport in Nijgadh should be constructed as soon as possible. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-19', 'modified' => '2022-07-19', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15384', 'image' => '20220719082541_20220605082424_Environment (4).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-19 08:25:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15642', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon Break Likely to End from Tuesday ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The weather throughout the country is partly to generally cloudy at present. Light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to take place in some places of hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, there will be partly to generally cloudy weather throughout the country tonight (July 18) and light to moderate rainfall with thunder and lightning is likely to occur in some places of the hill districts of the country and in one or two places in the rest of the country. There are chances of heavy rainfall in one or two places of Sudur Paschim Province. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the division's analysis, currently the axis of monsoon trough is located towards the south from the normal position. The country is witnessing a rise in temperature for the past few days. It said that the shifting of monsoon trough towards the south from the normal position caused a monsoon break, leading to the temperature rise. </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"">Meteorologist Hira Bhatarai said this year more heat has been felt in hill regions including the Kathmandu Valley than in previous years. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Bhattarai, the monsoon trough is likely to move back towards Nepal from Tuesday with the possibility of rainfall, giving some respite from the heat. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15383', 'image' => '20220718075009_image_750x_62a32cee152ae.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 19:49:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15640', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government’s Capital Expenditure Weakest in a Decade', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Bijay Damase</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Political instability, economic crisis and inflation have taken toll on development and construction works of the country. The country witnessed budget announcement by two finance ministers in just one fiscal year while the pace of development could not gain momentum due to the incompetence of the government.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The then finance minister Bishnu Poudel had announced a budget through ordinance on May 29, 2021 for the last fiscal year which concluded on July 16. However, a mandamus order by the Supreme Court to reinstate the parliament dissolved by the then government led by KP Sharma Oli led to the downfall of Oli government. Then, a new government’s finance minister Janardan Sharma introduced a replacement budget stating that the government would spend 10 percent of the allocated capital budget every month. However, the government failed to work as per its commitment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Office of the Auditor General, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 378.9 billion for capital expenditure in the fiscal year 2021/22 but was able to spend only 216.37 billion which is 57.23 percent of the allocated budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Data released by the Office of the Auditor General has revealed that the government spent as much as Rs 79 billion in the last month (mid-June to mid-July) of the last fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure which was Rs 137 billion in mid-June increased to Rs 216 billion in mid-July. The government was under pressure to spend towards the end of the fiscal year as it did not pay much attention in spending budget in the starting period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The capital expenditure of the government in the last fiscal year was the weakest in the past decade except for the spending during the Covid-19 period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s capital expenditure in FY 2013/14 was 75 percent which increased to 84 percent in FY 2016/17 before plunging to 74 percent (FY 2014/15) and 58 percent (FY 2015/16). The government’s capital expenditure then increased to 86 percent in the next fiscal year (FY 2018/19). It then dropped to 46 percent during the pandemic era in FY 2019/20 before rising to 64 percent in FY 2020/21.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has always failed in spending budget. Although the government signs work execution agreements with the officials who spend budget, such agreements have hardly yielded any results. The government has stopped signing such agreements after the onset of Covid-19 due to which the work execution of the government officials have been affected due to lack of evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Former Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission Dr Pushparaj Kandel terms the government’s failure to spend capital budget as its ‘incompetence’. He argues that the capital budget could not be spent because the government failed to create a conducive environment for spending the budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Kandel, the development works have slumped due to various reasons including the transfer of civil servants , government’s lack of interest to control inflation and its failure to take the construction entrepreneurs in confidence.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Deputy Auditor General Navaraj Dhungana blames political instability, inflation and construction holiday announced by the contractors as the main reasons for the poor spending of capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to Dhungana, although the government amended the Public Procurement Act, it did so quite late thereby affecting the construction works. The construction entrepreneurs are yet to collect Rs 5 billion from the Department of Roads and Rs 20 billion from other government agencies.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government’s policy is also to blame for the poor capital spending. The government has been amending the Public Procurement Regulation time and again to address the problems of construction entrepreneurs but this has created instability. The government amended the reculation for the 12<sup>th</sup> time just last month. The same regulation has been amended 7 times in the last 3 years.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15382', 'image' => '20220718041402_capital expenditure.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 16:02:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15641', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Extends Term of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by 2 Years', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to extend the term of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years under certain conditions.</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"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to extend the term of the Indian company GMR for financial management of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, informed Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.</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"">A meeting of the Investment Board on June 6 had recommended the government to extend the term of the project. The Indian company had written a letter to the Investment Board seeking two years’ time for financial management. The government has selected GMR for the project in 2008.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15381', 'image' => '20220718050715_upper karnali.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 17:05:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15639', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'New Tourism Infrastructures Added along Mardi Trekking Route', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: Additional tourism infrastructures have been developed along the trekking route of the famous Mardi mountain in Kaski district. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In a bid to provide facilities for domestic and foreign tourists, tourism infrastructures have been constructed along the route from Pokhara metropolis-25, Melbot to Astam of Machhapuchhre rural municipality. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Physical Infrastructures such as trekking route, park and railing were developed under the 'one electoral constituency, one tourism infrastructure' of the Gandaki province last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">There is a plan to develop a trekking route from Melbot to Astam, Dhital, Dhampus, Pritam Deurali and Dhital Lwang and Ghalel Kalimati en route to Mardi mountain. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It may be noted that the Gandaki province government had allocated a budget of Rs 2.5 million last year. It was spent for the development of tourism infrastructure and different physical structures, informed coordinator of Melbot-Astam-Dhital-Dhampus-Mardi mountain route construction committee Biswo Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He further shared that a 300-meter slate-placed path, 311-meter railing side wall, four waiting stands and ponds were constructed in the route.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15380', 'image' => '20220718030551_fishtail-seen-from-mardi-himal-base-camp.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 15:04:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15638', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Contributors of Social Security Fund to get Home Loan', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 18: Contributors of Social Security Fund (SSF) will now be able to take 'home loan'. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has approved the 'Contributors Credit Guidelines 2079' making the contributors eligible to take such loans. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">In the guidelines prepared by the fund and approved by the Ministry of Labor, there is a provision that the fund to give loans to the contributors to build a new house, add a floor to the house under their ownership, renovate the house, buy a unit in joint housing and also to buy a new house.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the guidelines, the contributors who have contributed to the fund for at least 36 months and have at least 2 years left to retire based on their age and service period will be given a lump sum for this purpose. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While approving the house loan, the amount approved should not exceed the amount determined by the mortgage evaluation.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">For this, the loan will be given in accordance to one of the three in which the loan amount is the least.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the first method, Rs 7.5 million rupees will be given on the basis of the mortgage value, in the second method, an amount equal to the salary of the contributor for 15 years will be provided and in the third method, an amount equivalent to the salary of the remaining period until the contributor reaches the age of 60 years will be provided.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Likewise, the guidelines also has provision for the contributors’ educational allowance. Educational leave is arranged for contributors who have contributed for at least 36 months to the fund and who have at least two years remaining before compulsory retirement based on age or length of service. It is mentioned in the guidelines that such allowance can be provided to the contributor or his/her husband, wife, son, daughter for the purpose of higher education in educational institutions in the country or abroad. Such amount shall be either Rs 3.5 million or the actual expenditure demanded by the concerned educational institution, whichever is less.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The student's admission fee, monthly, examination, hostel or accommodation expenses, other fees specified by the relevant educational institution, educational material expenses, and travel and insurance expenses will be included in the said amount. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Arrangements have made so that the educational allowance taken by the contributor can be reapplied if he/she repays it.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The executive director of the fund, Kapilmani Gyawali, informed that the contributors who have contributed regularly for 36 months to the fund, will be provided the service via online from mid-July itself.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15379', 'image' => '20220718013538_Home Loan_2.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 13:31:49', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15637', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Extension of Ban on Import of Goods Increases Smuggling: Importers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has extended the ban imposed on imports of 10 different items till August 30. This has increased the prospect of smuggling of the banned goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed in a press conference held at the ministry on Sunday that the cabinet meeting on July 17 decided to extend the ban on imports of the luxury items.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has published a notice in the Nepal Gazette on July 16 restricting the import of the ten banned items until August 30. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Ministry has stated that it has imposed a complete ban on the import of those items from July 17 to August 30 using the authority given by Subsection (1) of Section 3 of the Export-Import (Control) Act, 2013. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Earlier, the ministry had published a notice in the Nepal Gazette dated April 26 and banned the import of 10 different items till the end of last fiscal year (July 16). The latest move of the government has extended the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This time, the government has taken stronger measures while extending the import ban. Earlier, the government had banned the import of motorcycles above 250 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 600. Now, importers can't import motorcycles above 150 cc and smartphones worth more than US$ 300. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Other prohibited items include chips, all types of liquor (except industrial raw materials), cigarettes and tobacco products (except industrial raw materials), diamonds (except industrial raw materials), colour televisions, jeeps, cars and vans, all types of toys. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government had banned the import of these items as foreign exchange reserves were dwindling.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Importers have warned that this ban will increase unauthorized trade. The Nepal Foreign Trade Association issued a statement a few days ago and requested not to extend the ban until August 30. The association claims that even if legal imports are stopped, illegal imports will grow.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Senior vice president of the association, Vinod Sethia, claims that all goods banned by the government except motor vehicles are entering Nepal through the open border in the south. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Motor vehicles have been stopped only because they cannot be brought here and driven without registration. Apart from that, the import of any other item has not been stopped," said Sethia. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"They are being imported through illegal channels,” he added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, Dhruva Thapa, president of NADA Automobiles Association, also expressed his displeasure over the extension of the restrictions on the import of vehicles. Thapa expressed his displeasure by writing a status on his Facebook page saying that the import of goods necessary for the employees to reach the office, to run industries and businesses, to transport food is listed as a luxury item and has been banned as unproductive goods.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15378', 'image' => '20220718115901_tobacco.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 11:58:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15636', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government to Provide Rs 7 Billion Loan to NOC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 18: The government has decided to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in order to ease the supply of petroleum products. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to provide the amount to the state-owned NOC to pay its dues to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).</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""> Addressing a news conference organized at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology on Sunday to unveil the decisions of the Council of Ministers, government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide the amount to NOC as it was running short of money to pay to the IOC. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Council of Ministers also decided to provide Rs 598.68 million collected from infrastructure tax to the NOC. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-18', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15377', 'image' => '20220718081006_845791-fuel-istock-070819.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-18 08:09:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15635', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Insurance of Medicinal Herbs Comes into Effect ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Milan Bishwakarma</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: From now onwards, farmers and businessmen can insure medicinal herbs in Nepal.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government has made arrangement to provide 80 percent grant for insuring farmlands used for producing medicinal herbs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government made such arrangement after the Insurance Board issued the Agriculture, Livestock and Medicinal Herb Insurance Directive 2077 on Friday. The directive has come into effect from the first day of the current fiscal year (ie July 17).</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had announced insurance scheme for medicinal herb farming from the new fiscal year. As per the budget announcement, the Insurance Board issued the new directive after amending the old directive that was in use. The new directive has provision for the government to provide grand for insurance.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The government had been providing 80 percent grant on insurance premium for agriculture farming, which has now been extended to cover medicinal herbs as well, said Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of the board.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“The government has adopted a policy to provide grant on insurance coverage for medicinal herbs from the new fiscal year. As per the policy, we also amended the Agriculture and Livestock Directive to accommodate the new provision,” said Poudel.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Insurance companies can insure medicinal herbs from July 17 onward. There will also be a provision for grant but such grant is not applicable for the insurance policy prepared by the insurance companies themselves,” he added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Insurance Board said that the insurance companies can issue short-term insurance policies that do not cover government grant.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The insurance companies will have to mandatorily provide insurance scheme for agriculture, livestock and medicinal herbs in the designated districts. The companies will not be allowed to deny insurance scheme for medicinal herbs in those districts. They will also have to open their branch offices near the Agriculture Knowledge Centre in those districts from now on.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the board, this arrangement has made to make the work more convenient.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">As far as the livestock insurance is concerned, the insurance rate has to be determined based on the policy, market price, invoice price, and local customs price. In agriculture and herbal insurance, the insurance rate must be established based on the data and cost provided by the insurance document, the relevant office of the Nepal government or the provincial government, or the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While determining the insurance rate based on the cost of crops, it must be done based on the data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. For this, the board has said it will soon prepare the data, including the cost and expenditure in the geographical areas of the seven provinces and the farmers' price of the produced goods. After that, the board says that insurance should be maintained on the same basis. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The directive also mentions that a complaint can be filed with the board if the insurance company does not cooperate in issuing the insurance policy even if the customer provides all the required documents.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15376', 'image' => '20220717051146_RajendraPaneru_Kanchanpur_RSS_30.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 17:10:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15634', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Garbage Classification in KMC ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The classification of garbage has come into effect in Kathmandu from today in a bid to make waste management in the city more effective. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) had issued a notice a month ago asking the residents of Kathmandu to classify wastes produced at their home into biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage. KMC Mayor Balendra Sah had reached the doorsteps of the locals to make them aware of this cause. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">This drive has been launched in all 32 wards of the city. The KMC has fixed the day for picking wastes from the city. From now on, biodegradable waste will be collected on Sunday and Wednesday and non-biodegradable garbage on Tuesday and Friday. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The arrangements in the landfill site will be made accordingly, said the metropolis. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Those flouting the directive by the KMC to segregate waste will be fined Rs 500 each. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The KMC has also urged the local residents to use biodegradable waste as fertiliser. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-18', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15375', 'image' => '20220717044224_Kathmandu Valley.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 16:41:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15633', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'When will the EU Remove Nepali Airlines from its Flight Safety Blacklist?', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">July 17: Even though Nepal has achieved significant progress in air safety according to the international standards, the European Union (EU) has still not removed it from the flight safety blacklist.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The EU has banned Nepali aircraft in European skies since 2014 citing air safety concerns.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Experts believe that there is no reason for the EU to keep Nepal in the blacklist as Nepal has made significant improvements in aviation safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Budhisagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said that there is no point in keeping Nepal in the flight safety blacklist as Nepal's air safety rate is of international standard. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“We do not see any basis for the EU to ban Nepali airlines. We have done our work to improve flight safety and will continue to do so. Therefore, there is no need for the EU to keep it in the blacklist,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Joint Secretary Lamichhane, who is also the head of the Ministry's Civil Aviation Division, expressed his belief that Nepal will soon be removed from the EU's flight safety list as Nepal's flight safety rate is above average in the world.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">According to the Ministry of Tourism, efforts are being made with the EU to lift the ban due to the progress made by Nepal in air safety.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">ICAO's recent audit has shown that Nepal's aviation sector has made significant progress. In the flight safety audit, the world's average flight safety rate is 67, and the Asia Pacific rate is 63 per cent. For the first time in the history of air travel, Nepal has scored 70.1 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Since 2014, the European Commission under the EU has put Nepal on the flight safety blacklist, showing security concerns over Nepal's airspace. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) removed Nepal from its list of Serious Security Concerns (SSC) in July 2017.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15374', 'image' => '20220717011757_20220426100813_1650929561.Clipboard19.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 13:17:15', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15631', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Ban on Import of 10 Types of Goods gets Continuity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 17: The government has given continuity to the ban on import of 10 different goods including luxury items. </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"">Earlier, the government had decided to impose the ban on such items until the end of last fiscal year (July 16) but has now decided to extend the ban till August 30.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government reportedly took such decision due to the liquidity crisis and to maintain its foreign exchange reserves that were fast depleting due to high amount of imports.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, published a notice in the Nepal Gazettee on July 16, stating that the ban on the import of the ten products has been given continuity, the state-owned national news agency reported.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the RSS, the products that have been banned in the country include snacks such as Kurkure, Kurmure, Lays among others as well as all types of alcoholic drinks (except industrial raw materials), cigarette and tobacco products (excepting industrial raw materials), diamond (except industrial raw materials), smart phones costing more than US$ 300, colour television, jeep, car and van, motorcycle, all kinds of dolls and playing cards. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Prior to this, the ministry had imposed a ban on the import of these goods until July 16 through a similar notice issued in the Nepal Gazette on April 26. </span><br /> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15372', 'image' => '20220717124909_nada.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:48:21', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15630', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Digital Nepal Plan Gains Momentum', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: In just one year since the formation of the present government, there has been a significant progress in the field of information, communication and technology of the country. During this period, significant success has been achieved especially in the field of ICT by completing the 'Digital Nepal' plan put forward by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The Information and Broadcasting Department has started providing all its service through online medium from July 3. The department has been providing online services such as BRLMS, DMS, Information Management System and Cash SMS. The department started the information management system under the online service from last year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Gogan Bahadur Hamal, director general of the department, informed that all the works of the department including issuance of press representative certificate, renewal of identity card, registration and renewal of online media, management of records of newspapers and journalists and management and distribution of public information are done through the online system. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In the last fiscal year, the department distributed 2,092 press passes and renewed 2,557 press passes through online system. Hamal says that 3,463 online registrations were done, with 662 registrations and 677 renewals in the last fiscal year.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology Dr. Baikuntha Aryal informed that 90 percent of the services of the Ministry of Communication are provided online for the purpose of fulfilling the plan of Digital Nepal. In Nepal, where the digital journey started with the use of computers for the national census in the year 1971, now has a 100 percent access to mobile phones and 60 percent Internet access.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The government continued policy, legal and structural reforms for the overall development of the information and communication sector. In this 1 year period, National Cyber Security Strategy 2078, National Broadcasting (Eleventh Amendment) Regulations 2078, Radio Communication (License) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations 2078 and Film (Production, Exhibition and Distribution) (Seventh Amendment) Regulations 2078 were approved and implemented by the Council of Ministers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology issued the National Information Technology Development Committee (Formation) (Third Amendment) Order 2078, approved guidelines for the construction and management of government offices' websites, and issued guidelines for new technologies including Citizen Apps (Operation and Management) 2078 and 5G.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Uttar Kumar Khatri, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, informed that the 'Digital Nepal Framework 2076' is in the implementation phase.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Under the framework, we are now running software called automation and we are working through the Internet, email. Comments are also made from here. Not only that, but now we have also received the support of the World Bank,” said Khatri.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">As per the Ministry of Communication, comments, letters, correspondence, employee leave, attendance, etc. are now done in the digital system under the integrated work management system. Spokesperson Khatri also informed that it will be applied to other ministries and offices within the Singha Durbar from mid-July.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15371', 'image' => '20220717122522_1658013512.Clipboard03.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 12:24:38', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15629', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Labour Minister Stresses on In-depth Study to Address the Problems of Informal Sector Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">July 17: Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar has stressed on the need for an in-depth study on the problems faced by workers working in the informal sector. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Speaking at a meeting of the Central Labour Advisory Council held at the labour ministry on Friday, Minister Kunwar pointed out that there are many problems faced by the informal sector workers and it is necessary to identify them in a subtle way.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He said that since labour is a subject related to everyone, the concerned agencies should take initiatives to better understand the problems of workers and solve them. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“Everyone does the work. Some people work comfortably without touching stones and soil, while others work hard even by immersing themselves in soil. But all those who work hard are not given importance. Those who are working hard in the informal sector should be properly evaluated. It is necessary to bring them under the scope of social security and pay attention to justice,” said the minister.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Pointing out the need of labour commission like other commissions, he stressed on the need for an extensive discussion on this issue.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">He emphasized that the laws, rules and regulations made to ensure the rights of the workers should also be amended according to the time. Similarly, he said that there are many problems in foreign employment and added that he is discussing about promoting employment in the country with concerned agencies. According to Minister Kunwar, since there are many workers in the informal sector, the government will work accordingly to solve their problems. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Deepak Kafle, member secretary of the advisory council and secretary of the Labor Relations and Social Security Division under the ministry, informed that the Central Labour Advisory Council is consulting with the government on labour related issues and making decisions on various issues related to the labor sector. The council has 21 members headed by the Minister for Labour and includes 6 secretaries from various ministries, 5 from employers, 5 from trade unions and other relevant bodies.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-17', 'modified' => '2022-07-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15370', 'image' => '20220717112343_stitch_0.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-17 11:22:59', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15628', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Meets 88 Percent Target in Revenue Collection ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">July 15: The government had set a target of collecting revenue of over Rs 1,180 billion in the current fiscal year and tomorrow (July 16) is the last day of the fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The data from the Office of Auditor General shows that the revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year is worth Rs 1,035 billion and it is 87.7 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the office, the government had set a target of collecting tax revenue of around Rs 1,068 billion in the current fiscal year and the collection till date stands at over Rs 957 billion and this is 89.65 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the collection towards the non-tax revenue is Rs 77.19 billion against the target of around Rs 113 billion and this is 69.23 percent of the target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government expects to gain Rs 5,992 billion from the foreign grants and the collection is so far over Rs 1,388 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new fiscal year is commencing on July 17 and in this brief period, some figures may increase in the tax and non-tax revenue collections. The overall revenue collection is so far 88.41 of the target, the report said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government expenditures in the current fiscal is 78.22 percent of the total target. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had set a target of spending around Rs 1,633 billion while the expenditures till date stands a little more than Rs 1,277 billion. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-07-15', 'modified' => '2022-07-15', 'keywords' => 'revenue collection, target, fiscal year, government, Nepal', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15369', 'image' => '20220715062344_new_logo.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-07-15 18:22:47', '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
