June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their…
June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their…
June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel…
June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the…
June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism…
May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal…
May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint.…
May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal…
May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new fiscal…
May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal…
May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax…
May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports.…
May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal…
May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture.…
May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year.…
May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY…
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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"">June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their features. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Shashi Shrestha issued the regulations amid a press conference on Wednesday (June 1) and informed about the classification of land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the government’s decision, the country’s land has been categorized as agricultural zone, residential zone, commercial zone, industrial zone, area of mines and minerals, forest zone, public use zone, area of cultural and archeological importance, and others based on topographic features, efficiency and utility of land, its existing use and necessity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister said that the regulations prohibit commercial land plotting and its sale in areas except in classified areas for residential purposes. She was hopeful of the implementation of the regulations as it was issued in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations have the provision that the federal level will deal with the land use mapping procedures across the country and hand it to the local level which can revise and update the mapping as per its needs and implement it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similar, one land zone may have sub-zones such as grains production sub-zone and fruits production sub-zone, according to the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations grant the right to land owner to go to a court if the party finds the classification unconvincing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the minister, federal, province and local levels will prepare land use plans and the province should not to prepare a plan that contradicts with the federal plan and the local levels’ plans should not go against the provincial plan.</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"">Likewise the regulations do not entertain the use of a land classified into one category for another purpose and the land use classification is changeable through a due process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the federal government can alter the land use if valuable minerals are found in the land use zone, if priority projects were to be operated on it or for any other plausible reason like the land falling in the international border security area, development, tourism, world heritage sites etc. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The local level can change the land use for the purpose of disaster risk management, shifting the insecure settlements, prepare the basis and criteria required for regulating and checking the land plotting and demarcation. Provision has also been made for implementing the land pooling programme for the purpose of mechanization of agricultural land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Shrestha said that an action plan would be prepared for the implementation of the Land Use Regulations. A meeting of the Council of Ministers had on May 23 approved the Regulations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Minister Shrestha said that the land bank has not been revoked. She said it has only been suspended for the time being. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15122', 'image' => '20220602035828_CKK_KTM_MantriSashiShreshta(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 15:57:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15379', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Plastic-Free Hotels in Nepal by 2024: HAN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms. HAN aims to get rid of plastics and other disposable materials that are used once but not used again. HAN has set a target of achieving this objective within the next two years, i.e., by 2024.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN informed about the campaign at a press conference organized in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, President of HAN, Sirjana Rana said that the campaign was launched with the aim of reducing and eliminating the use of plastic items in hotel rooms and gradually replacing them as much as possible in the long run.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“This will contribute to the protection of the Nepali hotel industry and the environment of the nation as a whole. Everything we do must be environmentally friendly,” said Rana. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She informed that the campaign has been launched to encourage the tourism that is returning back to normalcy from the impacts of Covid-19. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Recent report published by various booking portals such as Booking.com show that 68 percent of the guests seem to prefer eco-friendly hotels nowadays,” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN also introduced long-term use of reusable materials that are used in large quantities in hotel rooms. The umbrella body of hotels in Nepal informed that it is possible to make immense contribution to sustainable development through the use of environment-friendly technology.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN's general secretary Sajan Shakya said that the plastic products used in the room as well as the bathroom, including tooth brush will also be replaced under this campaign.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shakya informed that the alternatives include bamboo materials, recycling of plastic bottles, and paper covers in soap. The campaign is expected to contribute to sustainable tourism in Nepal through competitive branding globally as a promoter of green tourism.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15121', 'image' => '20220602014245_Hotel.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 13:42:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15378', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Sector not Happy with New Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Energy producers say that the budget has taken the private sector into confidence and considers it to be an “engine” to achieve economic development. However, they argue that the budget has not addressed the concerns of the energy sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They said that although the provisions related to energy sector in the budget are praiseworthy, they are not adequate. Chairman of the National Hydropower Company Kumar Pandey says that the budget did not address their major concerns. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Whatever arrangements have been made for the energy sector, they are commendable. However, the budget has not addressed the issue of major problems faced by the energy sector,” said Pandey, adding, “The energy sector has been badly affected due to the rise in interest rate and inflation. The government did not announce any policy to address this issue. Overall, the government seems to be less interested in energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Pandey said that the government did not address the issues that need immediate attention.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15120', 'image' => '20220602125334_Energy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 12:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15377', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'White Water Rafting under Threat from River Pollution: Tourism Entrepreneurs', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Participants of the 33rd AGM of Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) on Wednesday expressed concerns over an increasing threat to the rafting business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Director General of the Department of Tourism, Taranath Adhikari, said they were working seriously to address the issues in the entire tourism sector. </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"">“Tourism entrepreneurs are primarily responsible for exploring ways to deal with the existing problems in the business and the department is ready to collaborate with them towards that end,” said Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Vice Chairperson of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Chandra Prasad Rijal talked about the potentials of expanding rafting business in Nepal and the role of government for protection of rivers and streams in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairperson of Nepal Association of Tours and Travels Agents (NATTA ) Ramesh Thapa said rafting has contributed to the promotion of Nepal’s adventurous tourism, but those involved in this sector are now faces a challenge to sustain their business.</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"">Meahwhile, Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) chair Khum Bahadur Subedi stressed on the need of collaboration and cooperation among tourism entrepreneurs for recovery of tourism industry largely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Tourism Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal chair Deepak Mahat and Nepal Tourism Entrepreneurs Organisation chair Nawaraj Dahal said that the construction of hydropower projects in the areas having potential for rafting business had its adverse effects on the industry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NARA chair Ganga Prasad Nepal, vice chair Mekh Bahadur Ale and general secretary Shishir Khanal urged the government to rescinding its decision to increase the amount of authorised capital required for registering a rafting company from Rs 500,000 to Rs 5 million. The AGM will elect a new leadership for the Association. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15119', 'image' => '20220602111929_white-river-rafting-nepal (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 11:17:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15376', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'House Panel tells Govt to go Ahead with Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles. A meeting of the committee held at Singha Durbar on Monday issued such directive even if it requires changing the law. The committee remarked that the decision to stop the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which was initiated after a long study and huge investment, is not appropriate from any point of view.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive of the committee mentions, “It has been decided to direct the Government of Nepal to take necessary legal, administrative and practical action to expedite the construction of the airport, which is essential for the national interest, security and economic development.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairperson of the committee Pabitra Niraula Kharel informed that the decision has been taken to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport which is a project of national pride to strengthen the economy in line with the national interest of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Supreme Court last Thursday ordered to discontinue the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which put the construction of airport in a state of uncertainty. Meanwhile, the government's annual policies and programmes and the budget announcement states that the construction process of the airport will continue to move forward. The budget states that the development of the project will move forth through the Investment Board by determining the investment structure. Meanwhile, members of the committee demanded the government to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport. They emphasized that the project, which cost a lot of money from the state treasury and is linked to the future of the country, should be moved forward even if it means changing the law.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal expressed that the construction process of Nijgadh Airport, which was considered appropriate in all respects after a long study and research, should not be obstructed. Indicating that the issue of forest has been unnecessarily raised to fulfill the personal interests of some groups, he said that there will be no deforestation during the construction of the airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the meeting, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale said that he was embarrassed by the Supreme Court's order. Stating that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal already spent Rs 3 billion on the airport and more than 8,050 hectares of land has been already acquired in the name of the airport, he emphasized that there is no alternative other than moving the project forward. He said that the Supreme Court's order disappointed the stakeholders as the preparation of master plan of the airport and the environmental impact assessment as well was already done.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Maheshwar Neupane, said that there is no alternative other than to move ahead with the construction process as the airport, which has been under discussion for almost 28 years, is suitable in all respects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Pradip Adhikari said that if the construction process of the airport is halted, there will be loss to the overall economy of the country in the long run. He said that the Tribhuvan International Airport with a capacity to handle 9.2 million people annually will not be able to accommodate the annual increase of 10 percent of air passengers. The number of air passengers visiting Nepal has been increasing by one million every year. He stated that it is necessary to build the Nijgadh International Airport at any cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15118', 'image' => '20220531033349_Parliament.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:33:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15375', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'We have brought Budget with Restraint, the Goals will be Achieved: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. Speaking at a press conference at the ministry on Monday, a day after the budget for the Fiscal Year (FY 2022/23) was made public, he claimed that he had brought a restrained budget instead an election-oriented budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He urged everyone not to doubt that the topics mentioned in the budget will not be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have set a definite target in the budget. The entire government apparatus is mobilized to achieve these goals. The goal is to end poverty. We have given emphasis to the development of human capital and education. The demands of the private sector have been addressed,” he shared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, priority has been given to increasing employment, developing infrastructure and import substitution by making maximum use of resources. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The upcoming budget will make the country prosperous and address the development aspirations of the people," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Claiming that the government's policy will replace imports, Finance Minister Sharma said that the government is thinking of reducing the trade deficit by exporting cement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have decided to give cash subsidy and rebate on electricity tariff to the industry to promote export," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the economic growth rate of 8 per cent will be achieved as the budget has been prepared by setting targets for the first time in every sector. Sharma also said that everyone would feel a sense of belonging as he had taken everyone's suggestions in formulating the budget and addressed their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, special attention has been given to the agricultural sector considering the situation developed at the international level. The goal is to increase exports and expand employment by reducing imports. Sharma also claimed that the budget was not brought targeting the election. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It's not an election budget. We are providing some services and facilities,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government aims to achieve economic growth of 8 per cent and limit inflation to 7 per cent. This goal has been described by economists as ambitious.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We took everyone's suggestions in budget formulation. We have tried to address the issues included in the policies and programmes with the cooperation of all and under the direction of the Prime Minister,” he said.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15117', 'image' => '20220531031207_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:11:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRNs Welcome Budget Announcement', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. The association stated that many of the demands that they were raising for a long time targeting the NRNs have been addressed in the budget for the fiscal year 2022/823.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the decision to reduce the minimum threshold of foreign investment from Rs 50 million to Rs 20 million through the budget and the arrangements for the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million through an automated system are positive steps. Also, the association stated that NRNs will benefit from the legal arrangements that allows them to invest in the secondary market of securities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the laws and processes related to foreign investment should be improved in order to attract foreign investment in productive and export oriented industries and to attract investment from NRNs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It also demanded that the land demarcation system required for establishment of industry should be reviewed and land lease should be given for 50 years. Similarly, the NRNA also welcomed the arrangement of issuing bonds targeting the Nepali citizens and NRNs who are out for foreign employment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association released a statement on Monday saying, “We also welcome the announcement of a 50 percent deduction on renewal fees of passports, consular services and renewal of work permits for Nepali nationals in foreign employment and remittances through formal channels.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15116', 'image' => '20220531022923_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 14:28:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salary of Government Employees’ goes up by 15 Percent ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new 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"">May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Releasing the annual budget for the Fiscal Year 2022/023 in the Federal Parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Sharma said that the salary of civil servants, army personnel, police personnel, teachers and all other government employees has been increased to encourage them. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new salary level will come into force from the beginning of the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As stated in the annual budget, the government has pledged to bring the Federal Civil Service Act, reduce administrative costs, ensure administrative restructuring and good-governance as well as effective service delivery. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15115', 'image' => '20220531114807_salary.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:47:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Attaining Growth Target is Difficult to Achieve: NCC', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While presenting the budget in parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had claimed that the government has set a target of attaining 8 percent growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NCC said that the growth target of the government is hard to achieve.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Implementation of budget is quite challenging due to the deteriorating situation of the world economy and declining foreign exchange reserves of the country in addition to the liquidity crisis,” the statement read, adding, “As the implementation of budget is challenging, it is hard to meet the target of 8 percent economic growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC however, praised the government’s decision to allocate Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector and its transformation through commercialization and modernization. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also welcomed the government’s decision related to the energy sector. The government had announced to distribute electric stoves and avail electricity at affordable rates among others. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC further said that the private sector is excited by the prospect of creating conducive environment for industrialization and creation of job opportunities. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also urged the government to hold discussion with stakeholders regarding implementation of policies and programmes in an effective manner.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15114', 'image' => '20220531114649_economic-growth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:45:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Income Tax Ceiling', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma informed while unveiling the new budget that an individual now has to pay one percent tax for up to half million income in a year. The same tax rate is applicable to the married couple for whom the income ceiling is up to Rs 600,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In light of the increasing economic activities in Nepal via electronic network from abroad, the government has made arrangement to bring such business under the purview of tax. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has also decided to impost one percent tax for people residing in Nepal and work for foreign companies using electronic medium or are involved in outsourcing work using IT software and modern technology.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has projected the economic growth rate of eight percent in the upcoming fiscal year. -- RSS </span><br /> <br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15113', 'image' => '20220531105551_taxxxxx.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 10:54:19', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Cash Subsidy for Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. The government increased the subsidy limit to encourage the export of goods with high export potential from Nepal after the import-oriented economy put high pressure on the foreign currency reserves.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Presenting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that arrangements have been made to provide cash subsidy of up to 8 percent on exports. Earlier, the cash subsidy was just up to 5 percent. He announced that exports will be promoted by identifying products with high export potential such as cement, steel, footwear, purified water and services based on information technology and business outsourcing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manufacturers of cement, steel and footwear, had been reducing their production capacity due to lack of market, but are likely to increase production and export after the announcement. The government had included cement in the list of exportable commodities in the policies and programmes of the fiscal year 2076/77. However, cement is yet to be exported. At present, Nepal is self-sufficient in cement and steel while 65 percent demand for footwear is produced within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the industrialists of these sectors, they are still unable to operate at full capacity. On the contrary, there is a possibility of increasing production capacity along with increasing cash subsidy on exports. Similarly, the government has revised the minimum limit for foreign investment to 20 million. The government also reduced the previous threshold of Rs 50 million through the budget. It is mentioned in the budget statement that the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million will be done through automated system to attract foreign investment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has launched a Special Campaign Decade starting from 2079 BS with the objective of increasing production for the development and prosperity of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 3.45 billion to start the Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program for the growth of Nepali products, job creation and export-oriented trade.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In order to increase the production and use of domestic goods, 'our production, our consumption campaign' will be launched in the new fiscal year. Similarly, Minister Sharma also announced that the Government of Nepal will provide necessary support for campaigns such as Make in Nepal and Made in Nepal implemented by the private sector. The government has allocated Rs 260 million to operate business incubation center in Hetauda Industrial Area to expand knowledge based business in partnership with the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to support startups. Sharma said that he would cooperate with the state government for market promotion of the products of Karnali Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government announced that the construction of infrastructure of 105 industrial villages will be completed in the next fiscal year. Altogether Rs 3.79 billion has been allocated for industrial infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In its attempt to create conducive environment for the establishment of industries in the country, the government has made provisions to lease state-owned land for 50 years. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provisions to rent the government land would be made further simplified with a target to end unemployment and ensure favourable industrial environment, Minister Sharma said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shekhar Golchha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the budget is focused on industry, agriculture and the issues raised by the private sector has been addressed.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Vishnu Kumar Agrawal remarked that the suggestions given to the government have been included in the budget. The private sector’s umbrella organization is preparing to release their formal opinion by conducting a detailed study of the issues in the budget. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15112', 'image' => '20220530042639_shutterstock_439601284_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 16:25:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Education Sector Receives Rs 16 Billion more Budget for FY 2022/23', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current 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"">May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tabling the budget during a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that a budget of Rs 196 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Education in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget has been provided for the ministry, and the province and local levels under the ministry. Categorically, the ministry has received a budget of Rs 70 billion while the and local levels have been allocated Rs 5.32 billion and Rs 121 billion respectively. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The budget has linked education to labour, employment and production. Development of quality and productive human resources, continuation of school sector reform programme, increase in youth literacy rate, increase in gross school enrollment, creation of environment to guarantee vocational knowledge and skill are some of the key features under the education sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The present scheme of day meal up to Grade 5 would be expanded up to Grade 7, the finance minister said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, restructuring of CTEVT is also on the cards. According to the finance minister, Rs 8.30 billion has been allocated to hand over technical knowledge to the local levels. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The government has also decided to facilitate visa processing for foreign students aspiring to acquire higher education in Nepal. Internet service would be provided at half the tariff to community schools for the expansion of information technology. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15111', 'image' => '20220530033850_education-icon-graduation-hat-vector-2498629.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 15:38:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget gives High Priority to Agriculture Sector ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. The government has announced a national campaign for agricultural production for self-reliance in Fiscal Year 2022/23 with the objective of discouraging increasing imports of agricultural produce. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated a total budget of Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector, which is Rs 10 billion more than the budget of this sector in the current fiscal year. The government had allocated Rs 45.09 billion for agriculture and livestock development in the current fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to increase agricultural production by linking the farmers with agricultural cooperative groups and cooperatives and using the available cultivable land as well as barren land. The government will emphasize increasing productivity through commercialization, modernization and mechanization of this sector. For the effective implementation of the program, a high level mechanism comprising line ministers will be formed under the coordination of the prime minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the budget of the upcoming fiscal year, the government has set a target to deliver the required agricultural loan at the doorsteps of the farmers by setting up a microfinance fund of Rs 500 billion. Moreover, arrangements have been made for the banks and financial institutions to invest the fund mandatorily in the deprived sector and in the agricultural sector. The government will also make arrangements for the Citizen’s Investment Trust, Employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security Fund to invest a certain amount in this fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program' will be launched through the budget for which Rs 3.45 billion has been allocated. Earlier, the government had launched the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project in 2073. This year, the government has allocated Rs 5.90 billion for this project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Reviewing the agriculture budget announced by the government on Sunday, Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said that the government has succeeded in bringing a budget that is liked by all. While the risk of food security is increasing worldwide, he said that the government has been able to bring the budget with the focus on agriculture, which is a matter of happiness. “Looking at the budget of the last 8 to 10 years, the budget for the agriculture sector this year should be considered positive,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At a time when the number of youths have looked down upon the profession of agriculture and have opted to go abroad, the government has brought a programme to attract the youths as well. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Under this programme, the government plans to set up a farmers' welfare fund to start a contribution-based farmer's pension scheme. It is mentioned in the budget that the government will deposit 10 percent of the amount contributed by the farmers in the fund every month. An initial budget of Rs 1 billion has been allocated for the establishment of the fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chairman of the National Farmers Commission Chitra Bahadur Shrestha said that although the overall budget of agriculture is reasonable, the budget allocated by the government for the supply of chemical fertilizers for the upcoming fiscal year may be insufficient. Furthermore, he also said that the implementation of the budget is challenging. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government is planning to set up a chemical fertilizer factory using green hydrogen and green ammonia technology through the Investment Board. Although the government's plan to open a fertilizer factory has been mentioned in previous budgets, it has never been implemented. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 15 billion for the supply of chemical fertilizers in the upcoming fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 12 billion. The government had added Rs 3 billion after the budget was insufficient to procure the required fertilizer. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to fix the minimum support price of agricultural products including paddy, wheat, maize and milk. The products will be procured through government companies and if there is any difference between the support price and purchase price, research will be done. Similarly, Rs 450 million has been allocated for the construction of 100 warehouses across the country for storage of main food crops including paddy. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15110', 'image' => '20220530020533_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 14:04:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15367', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Infrastructure Development and Education get Largest Chunks of Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs 753.4 billion for the current expenditure, which accounts for 42 percent of the total budget while Rs 380.38 billion or 21.2 percent of the budget has been allocated for the capital expenditure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Among different sectors that have been allocated budget, the highest share of budget has been earmarked for physical infrastructure and education sectors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the budget in a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 161.56 billion for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructures and Transport.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The education sector has been allocated a total budget of Rs 196 billion including Rs 70.5 billion for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Rs 5.32 billion for education at provincial level and Rs 121 billion for local level. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has been allocated a budget of Rs 55.97. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the finance minister, a budget of Rs 10.48 million budget has been allocated for the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated Rs 9.38 billion for the tourism sector and Rs 12.24 billion for the development of aviation infrastructure. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Sharma said Rs 7.4 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 13 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Forest and Environment, while the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) has received a budget of Rs 7.5 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has been allocated Rs 9.13 billion while the Ministry of Health and Population has received Rs 69.38 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 37.73 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Urban Development; Rs 2.9 billion for the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Rs 1.77 billion for the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens; Rs 8.59 billion for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; and Rs 25.3 billion for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15109', 'image' => '20220530115328_update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 11:49:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Attract 1 Million Tourists in Upcoming Fiscal Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23). The government made such announcement during the joint session of the Federal Parliament while presenting the budget on Sunday. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 9 billion for the tourism sector.</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""> "Various programmes will be launched and implemented to bring in over 1 million foreign tourists to Nepal," Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said, adding, "The aim is to develop and promote tourism as the basis for income generation and prosperity by marketing Nepal's uniqueness, natural beauty, cultural heritage and civilization in the world tourism market." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the government has plans to encourage the new generation to get involved in tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, the government has allocated Rs 2 billion for reconstruction of earthquake-damaged historical and archeologically important heritage sites and monuments and reconstruction will be carried out within the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Museums, arts and historical monuments would be developed as tourism spots, said the finance minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government has announced exemption of renewal fees and annual license for the hotels and tourism entrepreneurs for the upcoming fiscal year. Minister Sharma informed that hill stations will be built in various places that offer enchanting views of the landscape and also those places that hold significance from religious point of view. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated budget to set up a mountaineering research centre n the Everest region while Rs 330 million has been allocated for construction of the Great Himalayan Trail that stretches in the upper belt of the country from the east to the west. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The existing path leading up to Everest region will be upgraded, said Minister Sharma.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has allocated a budget of Rs 12.2 billion for development of physical infrastructures for the aviation sector, which is believed to aide the tourism business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government also plans to construct a second terminal building at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to help reduce the pressure of inflow of passengers. As per the announcement made by Finance Minister Sharma, Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport and the Pokhara Regional International Airport will be brought into full operation in the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">--- </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15108', 'image' => '20220530105125_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 10:50:35', '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
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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"">June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their features. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Shashi Shrestha issued the regulations amid a press conference on Wednesday (June 1) and informed about the classification of land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the government’s decision, the country’s land has been categorized as agricultural zone, residential zone, commercial zone, industrial zone, area of mines and minerals, forest zone, public use zone, area of cultural and archeological importance, and others based on topographic features, efficiency and utility of land, its existing use and necessity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister said that the regulations prohibit commercial land plotting and its sale in areas except in classified areas for residential purposes. She was hopeful of the implementation of the regulations as it was issued in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations have the provision that the federal level will deal with the land use mapping procedures across the country and hand it to the local level which can revise and update the mapping as per its needs and implement it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similar, one land zone may have sub-zones such as grains production sub-zone and fruits production sub-zone, according to the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations grant the right to land owner to go to a court if the party finds the classification unconvincing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the minister, federal, province and local levels will prepare land use plans and the province should not to prepare a plan that contradicts with the federal plan and the local levels’ plans should not go against the provincial plan.</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"">Likewise the regulations do not entertain the use of a land classified into one category for another purpose and the land use classification is changeable through a due process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the federal government can alter the land use if valuable minerals are found in the land use zone, if priority projects were to be operated on it or for any other plausible reason like the land falling in the international border security area, development, tourism, world heritage sites etc. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The local level can change the land use for the purpose of disaster risk management, shifting the insecure settlements, prepare the basis and criteria required for regulating and checking the land plotting and demarcation. Provision has also been made for implementing the land pooling programme for the purpose of mechanization of agricultural land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Shrestha said that an action plan would be prepared for the implementation of the Land Use Regulations. A meeting of the Council of Ministers had on May 23 approved the Regulations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Minister Shrestha said that the land bank has not been revoked. She said it has only been suspended for the time being. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15122', 'image' => '20220602035828_CKK_KTM_MantriSashiShreshta(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 15:57:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15379', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Plastic-Free Hotels in Nepal by 2024: HAN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms. HAN aims to get rid of plastics and other disposable materials that are used once but not used again. HAN has set a target of achieving this objective within the next two years, i.e., by 2024.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN informed about the campaign at a press conference organized in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, President of HAN, Sirjana Rana said that the campaign was launched with the aim of reducing and eliminating the use of plastic items in hotel rooms and gradually replacing them as much as possible in the long run.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“This will contribute to the protection of the Nepali hotel industry and the environment of the nation as a whole. Everything we do must be environmentally friendly,” said Rana. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She informed that the campaign has been launched to encourage the tourism that is returning back to normalcy from the impacts of Covid-19. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Recent report published by various booking portals such as Booking.com show that 68 percent of the guests seem to prefer eco-friendly hotels nowadays,” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN also introduced long-term use of reusable materials that are used in large quantities in hotel rooms. The umbrella body of hotels in Nepal informed that it is possible to make immense contribution to sustainable development through the use of environment-friendly technology.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN's general secretary Sajan Shakya said that the plastic products used in the room as well as the bathroom, including tooth brush will also be replaced under this campaign.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shakya informed that the alternatives include bamboo materials, recycling of plastic bottles, and paper covers in soap. The campaign is expected to contribute to sustainable tourism in Nepal through competitive branding globally as a promoter of green tourism.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15121', 'image' => '20220602014245_Hotel.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 13:42:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15378', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Sector not Happy with New Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Energy producers say that the budget has taken the private sector into confidence and considers it to be an “engine” to achieve economic development. However, they argue that the budget has not addressed the concerns of the energy sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They said that although the provisions related to energy sector in the budget are praiseworthy, they are not adequate. Chairman of the National Hydropower Company Kumar Pandey says that the budget did not address their major concerns. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Whatever arrangements have been made for the energy sector, they are commendable. However, the budget has not addressed the issue of major problems faced by the energy sector,” said Pandey, adding, “The energy sector has been badly affected due to the rise in interest rate and inflation. The government did not announce any policy to address this issue. Overall, the government seems to be less interested in energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Pandey said that the government did not address the issues that need immediate attention.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15120', 'image' => '20220602125334_Energy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 12:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15377', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'White Water Rafting under Threat from River Pollution: Tourism Entrepreneurs', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Participants of the 33rd AGM of Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) on Wednesday expressed concerns over an increasing threat to the rafting business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Director General of the Department of Tourism, Taranath Adhikari, said they were working seriously to address the issues in the entire tourism sector. </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"">“Tourism entrepreneurs are primarily responsible for exploring ways to deal with the existing problems in the business and the department is ready to collaborate with them towards that end,” said Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Vice Chairperson of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Chandra Prasad Rijal talked about the potentials of expanding rafting business in Nepal and the role of government for protection of rivers and streams in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairperson of Nepal Association of Tours and Travels Agents (NATTA ) Ramesh Thapa said rafting has contributed to the promotion of Nepal’s adventurous tourism, but those involved in this sector are now faces a challenge to sustain their business.</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"">Meahwhile, Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) chair Khum Bahadur Subedi stressed on the need of collaboration and cooperation among tourism entrepreneurs for recovery of tourism industry largely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Tourism Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal chair Deepak Mahat and Nepal Tourism Entrepreneurs Organisation chair Nawaraj Dahal said that the construction of hydropower projects in the areas having potential for rafting business had its adverse effects on the industry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NARA chair Ganga Prasad Nepal, vice chair Mekh Bahadur Ale and general secretary Shishir Khanal urged the government to rescinding its decision to increase the amount of authorised capital required for registering a rafting company from Rs 500,000 to Rs 5 million. The AGM will elect a new leadership for the Association. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15119', 'image' => '20220602111929_white-river-rafting-nepal (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 11:17:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15376', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'House Panel tells Govt to go Ahead with Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles. A meeting of the committee held at Singha Durbar on Monday issued such directive even if it requires changing the law. The committee remarked that the decision to stop the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which was initiated after a long study and huge investment, is not appropriate from any point of view.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive of the committee mentions, “It has been decided to direct the Government of Nepal to take necessary legal, administrative and practical action to expedite the construction of the airport, which is essential for the national interest, security and economic development.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairperson of the committee Pabitra Niraula Kharel informed that the decision has been taken to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport which is a project of national pride to strengthen the economy in line with the national interest of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Supreme Court last Thursday ordered to discontinue the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which put the construction of airport in a state of uncertainty. Meanwhile, the government's annual policies and programmes and the budget announcement states that the construction process of the airport will continue to move forward. The budget states that the development of the project will move forth through the Investment Board by determining the investment structure. Meanwhile, members of the committee demanded the government to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport. They emphasized that the project, which cost a lot of money from the state treasury and is linked to the future of the country, should be moved forward even if it means changing the law.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal expressed that the construction process of Nijgadh Airport, which was considered appropriate in all respects after a long study and research, should not be obstructed. Indicating that the issue of forest has been unnecessarily raised to fulfill the personal interests of some groups, he said that there will be no deforestation during the construction of the airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the meeting, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale said that he was embarrassed by the Supreme Court's order. Stating that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal already spent Rs 3 billion on the airport and more than 8,050 hectares of land has been already acquired in the name of the airport, he emphasized that there is no alternative other than moving the project forward. He said that the Supreme Court's order disappointed the stakeholders as the preparation of master plan of the airport and the environmental impact assessment as well was already done.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Maheshwar Neupane, said that there is no alternative other than to move ahead with the construction process as the airport, which has been under discussion for almost 28 years, is suitable in all respects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Pradip Adhikari said that if the construction process of the airport is halted, there will be loss to the overall economy of the country in the long run. He said that the Tribhuvan International Airport with a capacity to handle 9.2 million people annually will not be able to accommodate the annual increase of 10 percent of air passengers. The number of air passengers visiting Nepal has been increasing by one million every year. He stated that it is necessary to build the Nijgadh International Airport at any cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15118', 'image' => '20220531033349_Parliament.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:33:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15375', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'We have brought Budget with Restraint, the Goals will be Achieved: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. Speaking at a press conference at the ministry on Monday, a day after the budget for the Fiscal Year (FY 2022/23) was made public, he claimed that he had brought a restrained budget instead an election-oriented budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He urged everyone not to doubt that the topics mentioned in the budget will not be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have set a definite target in the budget. The entire government apparatus is mobilized to achieve these goals. The goal is to end poverty. We have given emphasis to the development of human capital and education. The demands of the private sector have been addressed,” he shared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, priority has been given to increasing employment, developing infrastructure and import substitution by making maximum use of resources. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The upcoming budget will make the country prosperous and address the development aspirations of the people," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Claiming that the government's policy will replace imports, Finance Minister Sharma said that the government is thinking of reducing the trade deficit by exporting cement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have decided to give cash subsidy and rebate on electricity tariff to the industry to promote export," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the economic growth rate of 8 per cent will be achieved as the budget has been prepared by setting targets for the first time in every sector. Sharma also said that everyone would feel a sense of belonging as he had taken everyone's suggestions in formulating the budget and addressed their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, special attention has been given to the agricultural sector considering the situation developed at the international level. The goal is to increase exports and expand employment by reducing imports. Sharma also claimed that the budget was not brought targeting the election. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It's not an election budget. We are providing some services and facilities,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government aims to achieve economic growth of 8 per cent and limit inflation to 7 per cent. This goal has been described by economists as ambitious.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We took everyone's suggestions in budget formulation. We have tried to address the issues included in the policies and programmes with the cooperation of all and under the direction of the Prime Minister,” he said.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15117', 'image' => '20220531031207_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:11:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRNs Welcome Budget Announcement', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. The association stated that many of the demands that they were raising for a long time targeting the NRNs have been addressed in the budget for the fiscal year 2022/823.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the decision to reduce the minimum threshold of foreign investment from Rs 50 million to Rs 20 million through the budget and the arrangements for the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million through an automated system are positive steps. Also, the association stated that NRNs will benefit from the legal arrangements that allows them to invest in the secondary market of securities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the laws and processes related to foreign investment should be improved in order to attract foreign investment in productive and export oriented industries and to attract investment from NRNs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It also demanded that the land demarcation system required for establishment of industry should be reviewed and land lease should be given for 50 years. Similarly, the NRNA also welcomed the arrangement of issuing bonds targeting the Nepali citizens and NRNs who are out for foreign employment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association released a statement on Monday saying, “We also welcome the announcement of a 50 percent deduction on renewal fees of passports, consular services and renewal of work permits for Nepali nationals in foreign employment and remittances through formal channels.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15116', 'image' => '20220531022923_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 14:28:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salary of Government Employees’ goes up by 15 Percent ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new 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"">May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Releasing the annual budget for the Fiscal Year 2022/023 in the Federal Parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Sharma said that the salary of civil servants, army personnel, police personnel, teachers and all other government employees has been increased to encourage them. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new salary level will come into force from the beginning of the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As stated in the annual budget, the government has pledged to bring the Federal Civil Service Act, reduce administrative costs, ensure administrative restructuring and good-governance as well as effective service delivery. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15115', 'image' => '20220531114807_salary.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:47:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Attaining Growth Target is Difficult to Achieve: NCC', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While presenting the budget in parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had claimed that the government has set a target of attaining 8 percent growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NCC said that the growth target of the government is hard to achieve.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Implementation of budget is quite challenging due to the deteriorating situation of the world economy and declining foreign exchange reserves of the country in addition to the liquidity crisis,” the statement read, adding, “As the implementation of budget is challenging, it is hard to meet the target of 8 percent economic growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC however, praised the government’s decision to allocate Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector and its transformation through commercialization and modernization. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also welcomed the government’s decision related to the energy sector. The government had announced to distribute electric stoves and avail electricity at affordable rates among others. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC further said that the private sector is excited by the prospect of creating conducive environment for industrialization and creation of job opportunities. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also urged the government to hold discussion with stakeholders regarding implementation of policies and programmes in an effective manner.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15114', 'image' => '20220531114649_economic-growth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:45:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Income Tax Ceiling', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma informed while unveiling the new budget that an individual now has to pay one percent tax for up to half million income in a year. The same tax rate is applicable to the married couple for whom the income ceiling is up to Rs 600,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In light of the increasing economic activities in Nepal via electronic network from abroad, the government has made arrangement to bring such business under the purview of tax. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has also decided to impost one percent tax for people residing in Nepal and work for foreign companies using electronic medium or are involved in outsourcing work using IT software and modern technology.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has projected the economic growth rate of eight percent in the upcoming fiscal year. -- RSS </span><br /> <br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15113', 'image' => '20220531105551_taxxxxx.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 10:54:19', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Cash Subsidy for Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. The government increased the subsidy limit to encourage the export of goods with high export potential from Nepal after the import-oriented economy put high pressure on the foreign currency reserves.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Presenting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that arrangements have been made to provide cash subsidy of up to 8 percent on exports. Earlier, the cash subsidy was just up to 5 percent. He announced that exports will be promoted by identifying products with high export potential such as cement, steel, footwear, purified water and services based on information technology and business outsourcing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manufacturers of cement, steel and footwear, had been reducing their production capacity due to lack of market, but are likely to increase production and export after the announcement. The government had included cement in the list of exportable commodities in the policies and programmes of the fiscal year 2076/77. However, cement is yet to be exported. At present, Nepal is self-sufficient in cement and steel while 65 percent demand for footwear is produced within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the industrialists of these sectors, they are still unable to operate at full capacity. On the contrary, there is a possibility of increasing production capacity along with increasing cash subsidy on exports. Similarly, the government has revised the minimum limit for foreign investment to 20 million. The government also reduced the previous threshold of Rs 50 million through the budget. It is mentioned in the budget statement that the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million will be done through automated system to attract foreign investment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has launched a Special Campaign Decade starting from 2079 BS with the objective of increasing production for the development and prosperity of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 3.45 billion to start the Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program for the growth of Nepali products, job creation and export-oriented trade.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In order to increase the production and use of domestic goods, 'our production, our consumption campaign' will be launched in the new fiscal year. Similarly, Minister Sharma also announced that the Government of Nepal will provide necessary support for campaigns such as Make in Nepal and Made in Nepal implemented by the private sector. The government has allocated Rs 260 million to operate business incubation center in Hetauda Industrial Area to expand knowledge based business in partnership with the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to support startups. Sharma said that he would cooperate with the state government for market promotion of the products of Karnali Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government announced that the construction of infrastructure of 105 industrial villages will be completed in the next fiscal year. Altogether Rs 3.79 billion has been allocated for industrial infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In its attempt to create conducive environment for the establishment of industries in the country, the government has made provisions to lease state-owned land for 50 years. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provisions to rent the government land would be made further simplified with a target to end unemployment and ensure favourable industrial environment, Minister Sharma said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shekhar Golchha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the budget is focused on industry, agriculture and the issues raised by the private sector has been addressed.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Vishnu Kumar Agrawal remarked that the suggestions given to the government have been included in the budget. The private sector’s umbrella organization is preparing to release their formal opinion by conducting a detailed study of the issues in the budget. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15112', 'image' => '20220530042639_shutterstock_439601284_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 16:25:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Education Sector Receives Rs 16 Billion more Budget for FY 2022/23', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current 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"">May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tabling the budget during a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that a budget of Rs 196 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Education in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget has been provided for the ministry, and the province and local levels under the ministry. Categorically, the ministry has received a budget of Rs 70 billion while the and local levels have been allocated Rs 5.32 billion and Rs 121 billion respectively. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The budget has linked education to labour, employment and production. Development of quality and productive human resources, continuation of school sector reform programme, increase in youth literacy rate, increase in gross school enrollment, creation of environment to guarantee vocational knowledge and skill are some of the key features under the education sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The present scheme of day meal up to Grade 5 would be expanded up to Grade 7, the finance minister said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, restructuring of CTEVT is also on the cards. According to the finance minister, Rs 8.30 billion has been allocated to hand over technical knowledge to the local levels. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The government has also decided to facilitate visa processing for foreign students aspiring to acquire higher education in Nepal. Internet service would be provided at half the tariff to community schools for the expansion of information technology. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15111', 'image' => '20220530033850_education-icon-graduation-hat-vector-2498629.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 15:38:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget gives High Priority to Agriculture Sector ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. The government has announced a national campaign for agricultural production for self-reliance in Fiscal Year 2022/23 with the objective of discouraging increasing imports of agricultural produce. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated a total budget of Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector, which is Rs 10 billion more than the budget of this sector in the current fiscal year. The government had allocated Rs 45.09 billion for agriculture and livestock development in the current fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to increase agricultural production by linking the farmers with agricultural cooperative groups and cooperatives and using the available cultivable land as well as barren land. The government will emphasize increasing productivity through commercialization, modernization and mechanization of this sector. For the effective implementation of the program, a high level mechanism comprising line ministers will be formed under the coordination of the prime minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the budget of the upcoming fiscal year, the government has set a target to deliver the required agricultural loan at the doorsteps of the farmers by setting up a microfinance fund of Rs 500 billion. Moreover, arrangements have been made for the banks and financial institutions to invest the fund mandatorily in the deprived sector and in the agricultural sector. The government will also make arrangements for the Citizen’s Investment Trust, Employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security Fund to invest a certain amount in this fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program' will be launched through the budget for which Rs 3.45 billion has been allocated. Earlier, the government had launched the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project in 2073. This year, the government has allocated Rs 5.90 billion for this project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Reviewing the agriculture budget announced by the government on Sunday, Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said that the government has succeeded in bringing a budget that is liked by all. While the risk of food security is increasing worldwide, he said that the government has been able to bring the budget with the focus on agriculture, which is a matter of happiness. “Looking at the budget of the last 8 to 10 years, the budget for the agriculture sector this year should be considered positive,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At a time when the number of youths have looked down upon the profession of agriculture and have opted to go abroad, the government has brought a programme to attract the youths as well. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Under this programme, the government plans to set up a farmers' welfare fund to start a contribution-based farmer's pension scheme. It is mentioned in the budget that the government will deposit 10 percent of the amount contributed by the farmers in the fund every month. An initial budget of Rs 1 billion has been allocated for the establishment of the fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chairman of the National Farmers Commission Chitra Bahadur Shrestha said that although the overall budget of agriculture is reasonable, the budget allocated by the government for the supply of chemical fertilizers for the upcoming fiscal year may be insufficient. Furthermore, he also said that the implementation of the budget is challenging. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government is planning to set up a chemical fertilizer factory using green hydrogen and green ammonia technology through the Investment Board. Although the government's plan to open a fertilizer factory has been mentioned in previous budgets, it has never been implemented. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 15 billion for the supply of chemical fertilizers in the upcoming fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 12 billion. The government had added Rs 3 billion after the budget was insufficient to procure the required fertilizer. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to fix the minimum support price of agricultural products including paddy, wheat, maize and milk. The products will be procured through government companies and if there is any difference between the support price and purchase price, research will be done. Similarly, Rs 450 million has been allocated for the construction of 100 warehouses across the country for storage of main food crops including paddy. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15110', 'image' => '20220530020533_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 14:04:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15367', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Infrastructure Development and Education get Largest Chunks of Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs 753.4 billion for the current expenditure, which accounts for 42 percent of the total budget while Rs 380.38 billion or 21.2 percent of the budget has been allocated for the capital expenditure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Among different sectors that have been allocated budget, the highest share of budget has been earmarked for physical infrastructure and education sectors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the budget in a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 161.56 billion for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructures and Transport.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The education sector has been allocated a total budget of Rs 196 billion including Rs 70.5 billion for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Rs 5.32 billion for education at provincial level and Rs 121 billion for local level. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has been allocated a budget of Rs 55.97. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the finance minister, a budget of Rs 10.48 million budget has been allocated for the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated Rs 9.38 billion for the tourism sector and Rs 12.24 billion for the development of aviation infrastructure. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Sharma said Rs 7.4 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 13 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Forest and Environment, while the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) has received a budget of Rs 7.5 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has been allocated Rs 9.13 billion while the Ministry of Health and Population has received Rs 69.38 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 37.73 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Urban Development; Rs 2.9 billion for the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Rs 1.77 billion for the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens; Rs 8.59 billion for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; and Rs 25.3 billion for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15109', 'image' => '20220530115328_update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 11:49:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Attract 1 Million Tourists in Upcoming Fiscal Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23). The government made such announcement during the joint session of the Federal Parliament while presenting the budget on Sunday. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 9 billion for the tourism sector.</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""> "Various programmes will be launched and implemented to bring in over 1 million foreign tourists to Nepal," Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said, adding, "The aim is to develop and promote tourism as the basis for income generation and prosperity by marketing Nepal's uniqueness, natural beauty, cultural heritage and civilization in the world tourism market." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the government has plans to encourage the new generation to get involved in tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, the government has allocated Rs 2 billion for reconstruction of earthquake-damaged historical and archeologically important heritage sites and monuments and reconstruction will be carried out within the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Museums, arts and historical monuments would be developed as tourism spots, said the finance minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government has announced exemption of renewal fees and annual license for the hotels and tourism entrepreneurs for the upcoming fiscal year. Minister Sharma informed that hill stations will be built in various places that offer enchanting views of the landscape and also those places that hold significance from religious point of view. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated budget to set up a mountaineering research centre n the Everest region while Rs 330 million has been allocated for construction of the Great Himalayan Trail that stretches in the upper belt of the country from the east to the west. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The existing path leading up to Everest region will be upgraded, said Minister Sharma.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has allocated a budget of Rs 12.2 billion for development of physical infrastructures for the aviation sector, which is believed to aide the tourism business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government also plans to construct a second terminal building at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to help reduce the pressure of inflow of passengers. As per the announcement made by Finance Minister Sharma, Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport and the Pokhara Regional International Airport will be brought into full operation in the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">--- </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15108', 'image' => '20220530105125_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 10:50:35', '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' => '15380', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Issues Land Use Regulations, Classifies Land into 10 Zones ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their features. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their features. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Shashi Shrestha issued the regulations amid a press conference on Wednesday (June 1) and informed about the classification of land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the government’s decision, the country’s land has been categorized as agricultural zone, residential zone, commercial zone, industrial zone, area of mines and minerals, forest zone, public use zone, area of cultural and archeological importance, and others based on topographic features, efficiency and utility of land, its existing use and necessity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister said that the regulations prohibit commercial land plotting and its sale in areas except in classified areas for residential purposes. She was hopeful of the implementation of the regulations as it was issued in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations have the provision that the federal level will deal with the land use mapping procedures across the country and hand it to the local level which can revise and update the mapping as per its needs and implement it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similar, one land zone may have sub-zones such as grains production sub-zone and fruits production sub-zone, according to the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations grant the right to land owner to go to a court if the party finds the classification unconvincing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the minister, federal, province and local levels will prepare land use plans and the province should not to prepare a plan that contradicts with the federal plan and the local levels’ plans should not go against the provincial plan.</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"">Likewise the regulations do not entertain the use of a land classified into one category for another purpose and the land use classification is changeable through a due process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the federal government can alter the land use if valuable minerals are found in the land use zone, if priority projects were to be operated on it or for any other plausible reason like the land falling in the international border security area, development, tourism, world heritage sites etc. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The local level can change the land use for the purpose of disaster risk management, shifting the insecure settlements, prepare the basis and criteria required for regulating and checking the land plotting and demarcation. Provision has also been made for implementing the land pooling programme for the purpose of mechanization of agricultural land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Shrestha said that an action plan would be prepared for the implementation of the Land Use Regulations. A meeting of the Council of Ministers had on May 23 approved the Regulations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Minister Shrestha said that the land bank has not been revoked. She said it has only been suspended for the time being. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15122', 'image' => '20220602035828_CKK_KTM_MantriSashiShreshta(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 15:57:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15379', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Plastic-Free Hotels in Nepal by 2024: HAN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms. HAN aims to get rid of plastics and other disposable materials that are used once but not used again. HAN has set a target of achieving this objective within the next two years, i.e., by 2024.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN informed about the campaign at a press conference organized in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, President of HAN, Sirjana Rana said that the campaign was launched with the aim of reducing and eliminating the use of plastic items in hotel rooms and gradually replacing them as much as possible in the long run.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“This will contribute to the protection of the Nepali hotel industry and the environment of the nation as a whole. Everything we do must be environmentally friendly,” said Rana. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She informed that the campaign has been launched to encourage the tourism that is returning back to normalcy from the impacts of Covid-19. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Recent report published by various booking portals such as Booking.com show that 68 percent of the guests seem to prefer eco-friendly hotels nowadays,” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN also introduced long-term use of reusable materials that are used in large quantities in hotel rooms. The umbrella body of hotels in Nepal informed that it is possible to make immense contribution to sustainable development through the use of environment-friendly technology.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN's general secretary Sajan Shakya said that the plastic products used in the room as well as the bathroom, including tooth brush will also be replaced under this campaign.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shakya informed that the alternatives include bamboo materials, recycling of plastic bottles, and paper covers in soap. The campaign is expected to contribute to sustainable tourism in Nepal through competitive branding globally as a promoter of green tourism.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15121', 'image' => '20220602014245_Hotel.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 13:42:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15378', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Sector not Happy with New Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Energy producers say that the budget has taken the private sector into confidence and considers it to be an “engine” to achieve economic development. However, they argue that the budget has not addressed the concerns of the energy sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They said that although the provisions related to energy sector in the budget are praiseworthy, they are not adequate. Chairman of the National Hydropower Company Kumar Pandey says that the budget did not address their major concerns. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Whatever arrangements have been made for the energy sector, they are commendable. However, the budget has not addressed the issue of major problems faced by the energy sector,” said Pandey, adding, “The energy sector has been badly affected due to the rise in interest rate and inflation. The government did not announce any policy to address this issue. Overall, the government seems to be less interested in energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Pandey said that the government did not address the issues that need immediate attention.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15120', 'image' => '20220602125334_Energy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 12:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15377', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'White Water Rafting under Threat from River Pollution: Tourism Entrepreneurs', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Participants of the 33rd AGM of Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) on Wednesday expressed concerns over an increasing threat to the rafting business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Director General of the Department of Tourism, Taranath Adhikari, said they were working seriously to address the issues in the entire tourism sector. </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"">“Tourism entrepreneurs are primarily responsible for exploring ways to deal with the existing problems in the business and the department is ready to collaborate with them towards that end,” said Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Vice Chairperson of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Chandra Prasad Rijal talked about the potentials of expanding rafting business in Nepal and the role of government for protection of rivers and streams in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairperson of Nepal Association of Tours and Travels Agents (NATTA ) Ramesh Thapa said rafting has contributed to the promotion of Nepal’s adventurous tourism, but those involved in this sector are now faces a challenge to sustain their business.</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"">Meahwhile, Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) chair Khum Bahadur Subedi stressed on the need of collaboration and cooperation among tourism entrepreneurs for recovery of tourism industry largely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Tourism Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal chair Deepak Mahat and Nepal Tourism Entrepreneurs Organisation chair Nawaraj Dahal said that the construction of hydropower projects in the areas having potential for rafting business had its adverse effects on the industry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NARA chair Ganga Prasad Nepal, vice chair Mekh Bahadur Ale and general secretary Shishir Khanal urged the government to rescinding its decision to increase the amount of authorised capital required for registering a rafting company from Rs 500,000 to Rs 5 million. The AGM will elect a new leadership for the Association. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15119', 'image' => '20220602111929_white-river-rafting-nepal (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 11:17:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15376', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'House Panel tells Govt to go Ahead with Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles. A meeting of the committee held at Singha Durbar on Monday issued such directive even if it requires changing the law. The committee remarked that the decision to stop the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which was initiated after a long study and huge investment, is not appropriate from any point of view.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive of the committee mentions, “It has been decided to direct the Government of Nepal to take necessary legal, administrative and practical action to expedite the construction of the airport, which is essential for the national interest, security and economic development.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairperson of the committee Pabitra Niraula Kharel informed that the decision has been taken to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport which is a project of national pride to strengthen the economy in line with the national interest of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Supreme Court last Thursday ordered to discontinue the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which put the construction of airport in a state of uncertainty. Meanwhile, the government's annual policies and programmes and the budget announcement states that the construction process of the airport will continue to move forward. The budget states that the development of the project will move forth through the Investment Board by determining the investment structure. Meanwhile, members of the committee demanded the government to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport. They emphasized that the project, which cost a lot of money from the state treasury and is linked to the future of the country, should be moved forward even if it means changing the law.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal expressed that the construction process of Nijgadh Airport, which was considered appropriate in all respects after a long study and research, should not be obstructed. Indicating that the issue of forest has been unnecessarily raised to fulfill the personal interests of some groups, he said that there will be no deforestation during the construction of the airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the meeting, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale said that he was embarrassed by the Supreme Court's order. Stating that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal already spent Rs 3 billion on the airport and more than 8,050 hectares of land has been already acquired in the name of the airport, he emphasized that there is no alternative other than moving the project forward. He said that the Supreme Court's order disappointed the stakeholders as the preparation of master plan of the airport and the environmental impact assessment as well was already done.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Maheshwar Neupane, said that there is no alternative other than to move ahead with the construction process as the airport, which has been under discussion for almost 28 years, is suitable in all respects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Pradip Adhikari said that if the construction process of the airport is halted, there will be loss to the overall economy of the country in the long run. He said that the Tribhuvan International Airport with a capacity to handle 9.2 million people annually will not be able to accommodate the annual increase of 10 percent of air passengers. The number of air passengers visiting Nepal has been increasing by one million every year. He stated that it is necessary to build the Nijgadh International Airport at any cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15118', 'image' => '20220531033349_Parliament.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:33:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15375', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'We have brought Budget with Restraint, the Goals will be Achieved: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. Speaking at a press conference at the ministry on Monday, a day after the budget for the Fiscal Year (FY 2022/23) was made public, he claimed that he had brought a restrained budget instead an election-oriented budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He urged everyone not to doubt that the topics mentioned in the budget will not be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have set a definite target in the budget. The entire government apparatus is mobilized to achieve these goals. The goal is to end poverty. We have given emphasis to the development of human capital and education. The demands of the private sector have been addressed,” he shared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, priority has been given to increasing employment, developing infrastructure and import substitution by making maximum use of resources. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The upcoming budget will make the country prosperous and address the development aspirations of the people," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Claiming that the government's policy will replace imports, Finance Minister Sharma said that the government is thinking of reducing the trade deficit by exporting cement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have decided to give cash subsidy and rebate on electricity tariff to the industry to promote export," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the economic growth rate of 8 per cent will be achieved as the budget has been prepared by setting targets for the first time in every sector. Sharma also said that everyone would feel a sense of belonging as he had taken everyone's suggestions in formulating the budget and addressed their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, special attention has been given to the agricultural sector considering the situation developed at the international level. The goal is to increase exports and expand employment by reducing imports. Sharma also claimed that the budget was not brought targeting the election. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It's not an election budget. We are providing some services and facilities,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government aims to achieve economic growth of 8 per cent and limit inflation to 7 per cent. This goal has been described by economists as ambitious.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We took everyone's suggestions in budget formulation. We have tried to address the issues included in the policies and programmes with the cooperation of all and under the direction of the Prime Minister,” he said.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15117', 'image' => '20220531031207_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:11:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRNs Welcome Budget Announcement', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. The association stated that many of the demands that they were raising for a long time targeting the NRNs have been addressed in the budget for the fiscal year 2022/823.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the decision to reduce the minimum threshold of foreign investment from Rs 50 million to Rs 20 million through the budget and the arrangements for the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million through an automated system are positive steps. Also, the association stated that NRNs will benefit from the legal arrangements that allows them to invest in the secondary market of securities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the laws and processes related to foreign investment should be improved in order to attract foreign investment in productive and export oriented industries and to attract investment from NRNs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It also demanded that the land demarcation system required for establishment of industry should be reviewed and land lease should be given for 50 years. Similarly, the NRNA also welcomed the arrangement of issuing bonds targeting the Nepali citizens and NRNs who are out for foreign employment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association released a statement on Monday saying, “We also welcome the announcement of a 50 percent deduction on renewal fees of passports, consular services and renewal of work permits for Nepali nationals in foreign employment and remittances through formal channels.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15116', 'image' => '20220531022923_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 14:28:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salary of Government Employees’ goes up by 15 Percent ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new 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"">May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Releasing the annual budget for the Fiscal Year 2022/023 in the Federal Parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Sharma said that the salary of civil servants, army personnel, police personnel, teachers and all other government employees has been increased to encourage them. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new salary level will come into force from the beginning of the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As stated in the annual budget, the government has pledged to bring the Federal Civil Service Act, reduce administrative costs, ensure administrative restructuring and good-governance as well as effective service delivery. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15115', 'image' => '20220531114807_salary.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:47:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Attaining Growth Target is Difficult to Achieve: NCC', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While presenting the budget in parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had claimed that the government has set a target of attaining 8 percent growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NCC said that the growth target of the government is hard to achieve.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Implementation of budget is quite challenging due to the deteriorating situation of the world economy and declining foreign exchange reserves of the country in addition to the liquidity crisis,” the statement read, adding, “As the implementation of budget is challenging, it is hard to meet the target of 8 percent economic growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC however, praised the government’s decision to allocate Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector and its transformation through commercialization and modernization. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also welcomed the government’s decision related to the energy sector. The government had announced to distribute electric stoves and avail electricity at affordable rates among others. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC further said that the private sector is excited by the prospect of creating conducive environment for industrialization and creation of job opportunities. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also urged the government to hold discussion with stakeholders regarding implementation of policies and programmes in an effective manner.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15114', 'image' => '20220531114649_economic-growth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:45:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Income Tax Ceiling', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma informed while unveiling the new budget that an individual now has to pay one percent tax for up to half million income in a year. The same tax rate is applicable to the married couple for whom the income ceiling is up to Rs 600,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In light of the increasing economic activities in Nepal via electronic network from abroad, the government has made arrangement to bring such business under the purview of tax. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has also decided to impost one percent tax for people residing in Nepal and work for foreign companies using electronic medium or are involved in outsourcing work using IT software and modern technology.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has projected the economic growth rate of eight percent in the upcoming fiscal year. -- RSS </span><br /> <br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15113', 'image' => '20220531105551_taxxxxx.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 10:54:19', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Cash Subsidy for Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. The government increased the subsidy limit to encourage the export of goods with high export potential from Nepal after the import-oriented economy put high pressure on the foreign currency reserves.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Presenting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that arrangements have been made to provide cash subsidy of up to 8 percent on exports. Earlier, the cash subsidy was just up to 5 percent. He announced that exports will be promoted by identifying products with high export potential such as cement, steel, footwear, purified water and services based on information technology and business outsourcing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manufacturers of cement, steel and footwear, had been reducing their production capacity due to lack of market, but are likely to increase production and export after the announcement. The government had included cement in the list of exportable commodities in the policies and programmes of the fiscal year 2076/77. However, cement is yet to be exported. At present, Nepal is self-sufficient in cement and steel while 65 percent demand for footwear is produced within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the industrialists of these sectors, they are still unable to operate at full capacity. On the contrary, there is a possibility of increasing production capacity along with increasing cash subsidy on exports. Similarly, the government has revised the minimum limit for foreign investment to 20 million. The government also reduced the previous threshold of Rs 50 million through the budget. It is mentioned in the budget statement that the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million will be done through automated system to attract foreign investment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has launched a Special Campaign Decade starting from 2079 BS with the objective of increasing production for the development and prosperity of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 3.45 billion to start the Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program for the growth of Nepali products, job creation and export-oriented trade.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In order to increase the production and use of domestic goods, 'our production, our consumption campaign' will be launched in the new fiscal year. Similarly, Minister Sharma also announced that the Government of Nepal will provide necessary support for campaigns such as Make in Nepal and Made in Nepal implemented by the private sector. The government has allocated Rs 260 million to operate business incubation center in Hetauda Industrial Area to expand knowledge based business in partnership with the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to support startups. Sharma said that he would cooperate with the state government for market promotion of the products of Karnali Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government announced that the construction of infrastructure of 105 industrial villages will be completed in the next fiscal year. Altogether Rs 3.79 billion has been allocated for industrial infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In its attempt to create conducive environment for the establishment of industries in the country, the government has made provisions to lease state-owned land for 50 years. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provisions to rent the government land would be made further simplified with a target to end unemployment and ensure favourable industrial environment, Minister Sharma said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shekhar Golchha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the budget is focused on industry, agriculture and the issues raised by the private sector has been addressed.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Vishnu Kumar Agrawal remarked that the suggestions given to the government have been included in the budget. The private sector’s umbrella organization is preparing to release their formal opinion by conducting a detailed study of the issues in the budget. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15112', 'image' => '20220530042639_shutterstock_439601284_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 16:25:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Education Sector Receives Rs 16 Billion more Budget for FY 2022/23', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current 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"">May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tabling the budget during a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that a budget of Rs 196 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Education in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget has been provided for the ministry, and the province and local levels under the ministry. Categorically, the ministry has received a budget of Rs 70 billion while the and local levels have been allocated Rs 5.32 billion and Rs 121 billion respectively. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The budget has linked education to labour, employment and production. Development of quality and productive human resources, continuation of school sector reform programme, increase in youth literacy rate, increase in gross school enrollment, creation of environment to guarantee vocational knowledge and skill are some of the key features under the education sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The present scheme of day meal up to Grade 5 would be expanded up to Grade 7, the finance minister said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, restructuring of CTEVT is also on the cards. According to the finance minister, Rs 8.30 billion has been allocated to hand over technical knowledge to the local levels. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The government has also decided to facilitate visa processing for foreign students aspiring to acquire higher education in Nepal. Internet service would be provided at half the tariff to community schools for the expansion of information technology. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15111', 'image' => '20220530033850_education-icon-graduation-hat-vector-2498629.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 15:38:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget gives High Priority to Agriculture Sector ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. The government has announced a national campaign for agricultural production for self-reliance in Fiscal Year 2022/23 with the objective of discouraging increasing imports of agricultural produce. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated a total budget of Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector, which is Rs 10 billion more than the budget of this sector in the current fiscal year. The government had allocated Rs 45.09 billion for agriculture and livestock development in the current fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to increase agricultural production by linking the farmers with agricultural cooperative groups and cooperatives and using the available cultivable land as well as barren land. The government will emphasize increasing productivity through commercialization, modernization and mechanization of this sector. For the effective implementation of the program, a high level mechanism comprising line ministers will be formed under the coordination of the prime minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the budget of the upcoming fiscal year, the government has set a target to deliver the required agricultural loan at the doorsteps of the farmers by setting up a microfinance fund of Rs 500 billion. Moreover, arrangements have been made for the banks and financial institutions to invest the fund mandatorily in the deprived sector and in the agricultural sector. The government will also make arrangements for the Citizen’s Investment Trust, Employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security Fund to invest a certain amount in this fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program' will be launched through the budget for which Rs 3.45 billion has been allocated. Earlier, the government had launched the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project in 2073. This year, the government has allocated Rs 5.90 billion for this project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Reviewing the agriculture budget announced by the government on Sunday, Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said that the government has succeeded in bringing a budget that is liked by all. While the risk of food security is increasing worldwide, he said that the government has been able to bring the budget with the focus on agriculture, which is a matter of happiness. “Looking at the budget of the last 8 to 10 years, the budget for the agriculture sector this year should be considered positive,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At a time when the number of youths have looked down upon the profession of agriculture and have opted to go abroad, the government has brought a programme to attract the youths as well. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Under this programme, the government plans to set up a farmers' welfare fund to start a contribution-based farmer's pension scheme. It is mentioned in the budget that the government will deposit 10 percent of the amount contributed by the farmers in the fund every month. An initial budget of Rs 1 billion has been allocated for the establishment of the fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chairman of the National Farmers Commission Chitra Bahadur Shrestha said that although the overall budget of agriculture is reasonable, the budget allocated by the government for the supply of chemical fertilizers for the upcoming fiscal year may be insufficient. Furthermore, he also said that the implementation of the budget is challenging. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government is planning to set up a chemical fertilizer factory using green hydrogen and green ammonia technology through the Investment Board. Although the government's plan to open a fertilizer factory has been mentioned in previous budgets, it has never been implemented. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 15 billion for the supply of chemical fertilizers in the upcoming fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 12 billion. The government had added Rs 3 billion after the budget was insufficient to procure the required fertilizer. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to fix the minimum support price of agricultural products including paddy, wheat, maize and milk. The products will be procured through government companies and if there is any difference between the support price and purchase price, research will be done. Similarly, Rs 450 million has been allocated for the construction of 100 warehouses across the country for storage of main food crops including paddy. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15110', 'image' => '20220530020533_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 14:04:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15367', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Infrastructure Development and Education get Largest Chunks of Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs 753.4 billion for the current expenditure, which accounts for 42 percent of the total budget while Rs 380.38 billion or 21.2 percent of the budget has been allocated for the capital expenditure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Among different sectors that have been allocated budget, the highest share of budget has been earmarked for physical infrastructure and education sectors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the budget in a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 161.56 billion for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructures and Transport.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The education sector has been allocated a total budget of Rs 196 billion including Rs 70.5 billion for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Rs 5.32 billion for education at provincial level and Rs 121 billion for local level. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has been allocated a budget of Rs 55.97. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the finance minister, a budget of Rs 10.48 million budget has been allocated for the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated Rs 9.38 billion for the tourism sector and Rs 12.24 billion for the development of aviation infrastructure. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Sharma said Rs 7.4 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 13 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Forest and Environment, while the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) has received a budget of Rs 7.5 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has been allocated Rs 9.13 billion while the Ministry of Health and Population has received Rs 69.38 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 37.73 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Urban Development; Rs 2.9 billion for the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Rs 1.77 billion for the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens; Rs 8.59 billion for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; and Rs 25.3 billion for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15109', 'image' => '20220530115328_update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 11:49:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Attract 1 Million Tourists in Upcoming Fiscal Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23). The government made such announcement during the joint session of the Federal Parliament while presenting the budget on Sunday. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 9 billion for the tourism sector.</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""> "Various programmes will be launched and implemented to bring in over 1 million foreign tourists to Nepal," Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said, adding, "The aim is to develop and promote tourism as the basis for income generation and prosperity by marketing Nepal's uniqueness, natural beauty, cultural heritage and civilization in the world tourism market." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the government has plans to encourage the new generation to get involved in tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, the government has allocated Rs 2 billion for reconstruction of earthquake-damaged historical and archeologically important heritage sites and monuments and reconstruction will be carried out within the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Museums, arts and historical monuments would be developed as tourism spots, said the finance minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government has announced exemption of renewal fees and annual license for the hotels and tourism entrepreneurs for the upcoming fiscal year. Minister Sharma informed that hill stations will be built in various places that offer enchanting views of the landscape and also those places that hold significance from religious point of view. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated budget to set up a mountaineering research centre n the Everest region while Rs 330 million has been allocated for construction of the Great Himalayan Trail that stretches in the upper belt of the country from the east to the west. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The existing path leading up to Everest region will be upgraded, said Minister Sharma.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has allocated a budget of Rs 12.2 billion for development of physical infrastructures for the aviation sector, which is believed to aide the tourism business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government also plans to construct a second terminal building at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to help reduce the pressure of inflow of passengers. As per the announcement made by Finance Minister Sharma, Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport and the Pokhara Regional International Airport will be brought into full operation in the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">--- </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15108', 'image' => '20220530105125_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 10:50:35', '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"">June 2: The government has issued the Land Use Regulations, dividing land into 10 zones based on their features. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Shashi Shrestha issued the regulations amid a press conference on Wednesday (June 1) and informed about the classification of land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As per the government’s decision, the country’s land has been categorized as agricultural zone, residential zone, commercial zone, industrial zone, area of mines and minerals, forest zone, public use zone, area of cultural and archeological importance, and others based on topographic features, efficiency and utility of land, its existing use and necessity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The minister said that the regulations prohibit commercial land plotting and its sale in areas except in classified areas for residential purposes. She was hopeful of the implementation of the regulations as it was issued in coordination with the stakeholders. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations have the provision that the federal level will deal with the land use mapping procedures across the country and hand it to the local level which can revise and update the mapping as per its needs and implement it. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similar, one land zone may have sub-zones such as grains production sub-zone and fruits production sub-zone, according to the minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The regulations grant the right to land owner to go to a court if the party finds the classification unconvincing. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the minister, federal, province and local levels will prepare land use plans and the province should not to prepare a plan that contradicts with the federal plan and the local levels’ plans should not go against the provincial plan.</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"">Likewise the regulations do not entertain the use of a land classified into one category for another purpose and the land use classification is changeable through a due process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Likewise, the federal government can alter the land use if valuable minerals are found in the land use zone, if priority projects were to be operated on it or for any other plausible reason like the land falling in the international border security area, development, tourism, world heritage sites etc. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The local level can change the land use for the purpose of disaster risk management, shifting the insecure settlements, prepare the basis and criteria required for regulating and checking the land plotting and demarcation. Provision has also been made for implementing the land pooling programme for the purpose of mechanization of agricultural land. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Minister Shrestha said that an action plan would be prepared for the implementation of the Land Use Regulations. A meeting of the Council of Ministers had on May 23 approved the Regulations. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, Minister Shrestha said that the land bank has not been revoked. She said it has only been suspended for the time being. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15122', 'image' => '20220602035828_CKK_KTM_MantriSashiShreshta(2).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 15:57:44', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15379', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Plastic-Free Hotels in Nepal by 2024: HAN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">June 2: Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) has launched a campaign to get rid of disposable plastics in hotel rooms. HAN aims to get rid of plastics and other disposable materials that are used once but not used again. HAN has set a target of achieving this objective within the next two years, i.e., by 2024.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN informed about the campaign at a press conference organized in Kathmandu on Wednesday. Speaking on the occasion, President of HAN, Sirjana Rana said that the campaign was launched with the aim of reducing and eliminating the use of plastic items in hotel rooms and gradually replacing them as much as possible in the long run.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“This will contribute to the protection of the Nepali hotel industry and the environment of the nation as a whole. Everything we do must be environmentally friendly,” said Rana. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">She informed that the campaign has been launched to encourage the tourism that is returning back to normalcy from the impacts of Covid-19. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Recent report published by various booking portals such as Booking.com show that 68 percent of the guests seem to prefer eco-friendly hotels nowadays,” said Rana.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN also introduced long-term use of reusable materials that are used in large quantities in hotel rooms. The umbrella body of hotels in Nepal informed that it is possible to make immense contribution to sustainable development through the use of environment-friendly technology.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">HAN's general secretary Sajan Shakya said that the plastic products used in the room as well as the bathroom, including tooth brush will also be replaced under this campaign.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shakya informed that the alternatives include bamboo materials, recycling of plastic bottles, and paper covers in soap. The campaign is expected to contribute to sustainable tourism in Nepal through competitive branding globally as a promoter of green tourism.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15121', 'image' => '20220602014245_Hotel.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 13:42:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15378', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Energy Sector not Happy with New Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">June 2: Although the private sector has warmly welcomed the budget announced by the government on May 29, the energy sector seems to be dissatisfied with the budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Energy producers say that the budget has taken the private sector into confidence and considers it to be an “engine” to achieve economic development. However, they argue that the budget has not addressed the concerns of the energy sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">They said that although the provisions related to energy sector in the budget are praiseworthy, they are not adequate. Chairman of the National Hydropower Company Kumar Pandey says that the budget did not address their major concerns. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Whatever arrangements have been made for the energy sector, they are commendable. However, the budget has not addressed the issue of major problems faced by the energy sector,” said Pandey, adding, “The energy sector has been badly affected due to the rise in interest rate and inflation. The government did not announce any policy to address this issue. Overall, the government seems to be less interested in energy sector.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Pandey said that the government did not address the issues that need immediate attention.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15120', 'image' => '20220602125334_Energy.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 12:52:52', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15377', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'White Water Rafting under Threat from River Pollution: Tourism Entrepreneurs', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">June 2: Increasing river pollution and haphazard mining have posed a threat to white water rafting in Nepal, said tourism entrepreneurs. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Participants of the 33rd AGM of Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) on Wednesday expressed concerns over an increasing threat to the rafting business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Director General of the Department of Tourism, Taranath Adhikari, said they were working seriously to address the issues in the entire tourism sector. </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"">“Tourism entrepreneurs are primarily responsible for exploring ways to deal with the existing problems in the business and the department is ready to collaborate with them towards that end,” said Adhikari. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Vice Chairperson of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) Chandra Prasad Rijal talked about the potentials of expanding rafting business in Nepal and the role of government for protection of rivers and streams in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairperson of Nepal Association of Tours and Travels Agents (NATTA ) Ramesh Thapa said rafting has contributed to the promotion of Nepal’s adventurous tourism, but those involved in this sector are now faces a challenge to sustain their business.</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"">Meahwhile, Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN) chair Khum Bahadur Subedi stressed on the need of collaboration and cooperation among tourism entrepreneurs for recovery of tourism industry largely affected by COVID-19 pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Tourism Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal chair Deepak Mahat and Nepal Tourism Entrepreneurs Organisation chair Nawaraj Dahal said that the construction of hydropower projects in the areas having potential for rafting business had its adverse effects on the industry. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">NARA chair Ganga Prasad Nepal, vice chair Mekh Bahadur Ale and general secretary Shishir Khanal urged the government to rescinding its decision to increase the amount of authorised capital required for registering a rafting company from Rs 500,000 to Rs 5 million. The AGM will elect a new leadership for the Association. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-06-02', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15119', 'image' => '20220602111929_white-river-rafting-nepal (1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-06-02 11:17:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15376', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'House Panel tells Govt to go Ahead with Construction of Nijgadh Int’l Airport', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The International Relations Committee of the Parliament has directed the government to expedite the construction of Nijgadh International Airport by getting rid of the legal hurdles. A meeting of the committee held at Singha Durbar on Monday issued such directive even if it requires changing the law. The committee remarked that the decision to stop the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which was initiated after a long study and huge investment, is not appropriate from any point of view.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive of the committee mentions, “It has been decided to direct the Government of Nepal to take necessary legal, administrative and practical action to expedite the construction of the airport, which is essential for the national interest, security and economic development.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Chairperson of the committee Pabitra Niraula Kharel informed that the decision has been taken to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport which is a project of national pride to strengthen the economy in line with the national interest of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Supreme Court last Thursday ordered to discontinue the construction of Nijgadh International Airport, which put the construction of airport in a state of uncertainty. Meanwhile, the government's annual policies and programmes and the budget announcement states that the construction process of the airport will continue to move forward. The budget states that the development of the project will move forth through the Investment Board by determining the investment structure. Meanwhile, members of the committee demanded the government to immediately move ahead with the construction of the airport. They emphasized that the project, which cost a lot of money from the state treasury and is linked to the future of the country, should be moved forward even if it means changing the law.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal expressed that the construction process of Nijgadh Airport, which was considered appropriate in all respects after a long study and research, should not be obstructed. Indicating that the issue of forest has been unnecessarily raised to fulfill the personal interests of some groups, he said that there will be no deforestation during the construction of the airport.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At the meeting, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale said that he was embarrassed by the Supreme Court's order. Stating that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal already spent Rs 3 billion on the airport and more than 8,050 hectares of land has been already acquired in the name of the airport, he emphasized that there is no alternative other than moving the project forward. He said that the Supreme Court's order disappointed the stakeholders as the preparation of master plan of the airport and the environmental impact assessment as well was already done.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Maheshwar Neupane, said that there is no alternative other than to move ahead with the construction process as the airport, which has been under discussion for almost 28 years, is suitable in all respects.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Pradip Adhikari said that if the construction process of the airport is halted, there will be loss to the overall economy of the country in the long run. He said that the Tribhuvan International Airport with a capacity to handle 9.2 million people annually will not be able to accommodate the annual increase of 10 percent of air passengers. The number of air passengers visiting Nepal has been increasing by one million every year. He stated that it is necessary to build the Nijgadh International Airport at any cost.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-06-02', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15118', 'image' => '20220531033349_Parliament.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:33:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15375', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'We have brought Budget with Restraint, the Goals will be Achieved: Finance Minister', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has claimed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year has been brought with restraint. Speaking at a press conference at the ministry on Monday, a day after the budget for the Fiscal Year (FY 2022/23) was made public, he claimed that he had brought a restrained budget instead an election-oriented budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He urged everyone not to doubt that the topics mentioned in the budget will not be implemented.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have set a definite target in the budget. The entire government apparatus is mobilized to achieve these goals. The goal is to end poverty. We have given emphasis to the development of human capital and education. The demands of the private sector have been addressed,” he shared.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, priority has been given to increasing employment, developing infrastructure and import substitution by making maximum use of resources. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"The upcoming budget will make the country prosperous and address the development aspirations of the people," he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Claiming that the government's policy will replace imports, Finance Minister Sharma said that the government is thinking of reducing the trade deficit by exporting cement. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We have decided to give cash subsidy and rebate on electricity tariff to the industry to promote export," he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">He added that the economic growth rate of 8 per cent will be achieved as the budget has been prepared by setting targets for the first time in every sector. Sharma also said that everyone would feel a sense of belonging as he had taken everyone's suggestions in formulating the budget and addressed their demands.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, special attention has been given to the agricultural sector considering the situation developed at the international level. The goal is to increase exports and expand employment by reducing imports. Sharma also claimed that the budget was not brought targeting the election. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"It's not an election budget. We are providing some services and facilities,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government aims to achieve economic growth of 8 per cent and limit inflation to 7 per cent. This goal has been described by economists as ambitious.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We took everyone's suggestions in budget formulation. We have tried to address the issues included in the policies and programmes with the cooperation of all and under the direction of the Prime Minister,” he said.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15117', 'image' => '20220531031207_fin min sharma.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 15:11:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15374', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRNs Welcome Budget Announcement', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 31: The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has welcomed the budget announced by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. The association stated that many of the demands that they were raising for a long time targeting the NRNs have been addressed in the budget for the fiscal year 2022/823.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the decision to reduce the minimum threshold of foreign investment from Rs 50 million to Rs 20 million through the budget and the arrangements for the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million through an automated system are positive steps. Also, the association stated that NRNs will benefit from the legal arrangements that allows them to invest in the secondary market of securities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association said that the laws and processes related to foreign investment should be improved in order to attract foreign investment in productive and export oriented industries and to attract investment from NRNs.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">It also demanded that the land demarcation system required for establishment of industry should be reviewed and land lease should be given for 50 years. Similarly, the NRNA also welcomed the arrangement of issuing bonds targeting the Nepali citizens and NRNs who are out for foreign employment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association released a statement on Monday saying, “We also welcome the announcement of a 50 percent deduction on renewal fees of passports, consular services and renewal of work permits for Nepali nationals in foreign employment and remittances through formal channels.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15116', 'image' => '20220531022923_budget new.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 14:28:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15373', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salary of Government Employees’ goes up by 15 Percent ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new 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"">May 30: Finance Minister Janardan Sharma has announced a 15 per cent hike in the salary of government employees for the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Releasing the annual budget for the Fiscal Year 2022/023 in the Federal Parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Sharma said that the salary of civil servants, army personnel, police personnel, teachers and all other government employees has been increased to encourage them. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The new salary level will come into force from the beginning of the new fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">As stated in the annual budget, the government has pledged to bring the Federal Civil Service Act, reduce administrative costs, ensure administrative restructuring and good-governance as well as effective service delivery. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15115', 'image' => '20220531114807_salary.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:47:24', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15372', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Attaining Growth Target is Difficult to Achieve: NCC', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 31: Nepal Chamber of Commerce (CNN) has said that it is quite challenging to meet the economic growth target set by the government for the next fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">While presenting the budget in parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had claimed that the government has set a target of attaining 8 percent growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Issuing a statement on Monday, NCC said that the growth target of the government is hard to achieve.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">“Implementation of budget is quite challenging due to the deteriorating situation of the world economy and declining foreign exchange reserves of the country in addition to the liquidity crisis,” the statement read, adding, “As the implementation of budget is challenging, it is hard to meet the target of 8 percent economic growth while keeping inflation below 7 percent.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC however, praised the government’s decision to allocate Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector and its transformation through commercialization and modernization. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also welcomed the government’s decision related to the energy sector. The government had announced to distribute electric stoves and avail electricity at affordable rates among others. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">NCC further said that the private sector is excited by the prospect of creating conducive environment for industrialization and creation of job opportunities. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">The chamber also urged the government to hold discussion with stakeholders regarding implementation of policies and programmes in an effective manner.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15114', 'image' => '20220531114649_economic-growth.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 11:45:50', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15371', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Income Tax Ceiling', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 31: Much to the relief to middle-income people, the government has widened the income tax ceiling. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Janardan Sharma informed while unveiling the new budget that an individual now has to pay one percent tax for up to half million income in a year. The same tax rate is applicable to the married couple for whom the income ceiling is up to Rs 600,000. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In light of the increasing economic activities in Nepal via electronic network from abroad, the government has made arrangement to bring such business under the purview of tax. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has also decided to impost one percent tax for people residing in Nepal and work for foreign companies using electronic medium or are involved in outsourcing work using IT software and modern technology.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has projected the economic growth rate of eight percent in the upcoming fiscal year. -- RSS </span><br /> <br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-31', 'modified' => '2022-05-31', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15113', 'image' => '20220531105551_taxxxxx.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-31 10:54:19', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15370', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Increases Cash Subsidy for Exports', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased cash subsidies for exports in the budget of the upcoming fiscal year with the aim of giving priority to import substitution by increasing domestic production and exports. The government increased the subsidy limit to encourage the export of goods with high export potential from Nepal after the import-oriented economy put high pressure on the foreign currency reserves.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Presenting the budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that arrangements have been made to provide cash subsidy of up to 8 percent on exports. Earlier, the cash subsidy was just up to 5 percent. He announced that exports will be promoted by identifying products with high export potential such as cement, steel, footwear, purified water and services based on information technology and business outsourcing.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Manufacturers of cement, steel and footwear, had been reducing their production capacity due to lack of market, but are likely to increase production and export after the announcement. The government had included cement in the list of exportable commodities in the policies and programmes of the fiscal year 2076/77. However, cement is yet to be exported. At present, Nepal is self-sufficient in cement and steel while 65 percent demand for footwear is produced within the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the industrialists of these sectors, they are still unable to operate at full capacity. On the contrary, there is a possibility of increasing production capacity along with increasing cash subsidy on exports. Similarly, the government has revised the minimum limit for foreign investment to 20 million. The government also reduced the previous threshold of Rs 50 million through the budget. It is mentioned in the budget statement that the approval of foreign investment up to Rs 100 million will be done through automated system to attract foreign investment.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has launched a Special Campaign Decade starting from 2079 BS with the objective of increasing production for the development and prosperity of the country.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 3.45 billion to start the Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program for the growth of Nepali products, job creation and export-oriented trade.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In order to increase the production and use of domestic goods, 'our production, our consumption campaign' will be launched in the new fiscal year. Similarly, Minister Sharma also announced that the Government of Nepal will provide necessary support for campaigns such as Make in Nepal and Made in Nepal implemented by the private sector. The government has allocated Rs 260 million to operate business incubation center in Hetauda Industrial Area to expand knowledge based business in partnership with the private sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to support startups. Sharma said that he would cooperate with the state government for market promotion of the products of Karnali Province.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government announced that the construction of infrastructure of 105 industrial villages will be completed in the next fiscal year. Altogether Rs 3.79 billion has been allocated for industrial infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">In its attempt to create conducive environment for the establishment of industries in the country, the government has made provisions to lease state-owned land for 50 years. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:11.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The provisions to rent the government land would be made further simplified with a target to end unemployment and ensure favourable industrial environment, Minister Sharma said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Shekhar Golchha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), said that the budget is focused on industry, agriculture and the issues raised by the private sector has been addressed.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries Vishnu Kumar Agrawal remarked that the suggestions given to the government have been included in the budget. The private sector’s umbrella organization is preparing to release their formal opinion by conducting a detailed study of the issues in the budget. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15112', 'image' => '20220530042639_shutterstock_439601284_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 16:25:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15369', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Education Sector Receives Rs 16 Billion more Budget for FY 2022/23', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current 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"">May 30: The government has allocated Rs 16 billion more budget for the education sector in the upcoming fiscal year as compared to the current fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Tabling the budget during a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said that a budget of Rs 196 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Education in the upcoming fiscal year. The budget has been provided for the ministry, and the province and local levels under the ministry. Categorically, the ministry has received a budget of Rs 70 billion while the and local levels have been allocated Rs 5.32 billion and Rs 121 billion respectively. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The budget has linked education to labour, employment and production. Development of quality and productive human resources, continuation of school sector reform programme, increase in youth literacy rate, increase in gross school enrollment, creation of environment to guarantee vocational knowledge and skill are some of the key features under the education sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The present scheme of day meal up to Grade 5 would be expanded up to Grade 7, the finance minister said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, restructuring of CTEVT is also on the cards. According to the finance minister, Rs 8.30 billion has been allocated to hand over technical knowledge to the local levels. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The government has also decided to facilitate visa processing for foreign students aspiring to acquire higher education in Nepal. Internet service would be provided at half the tariff to community schools for the expansion of information technology. -- RSS </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15111', 'image' => '20220530033850_education-icon-graduation-hat-vector-2498629.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 15:38:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15368', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget gives High Priority to Agriculture Sector ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 30: The government has increased the budget for the agriculture sector for the upcoming fiscal year to make the country self-reliant in agriculture. The government has announced a national campaign for agricultural production for self-reliance in Fiscal Year 2022/23 with the objective of discouraging increasing imports of agricultural produce. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated a total budget of Rs 55.97 billion for the agriculture sector, which is Rs 10 billion more than the budget of this sector in the current fiscal year. The government had allocated Rs 45.09 billion for agriculture and livestock development in the current fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to increase agricultural production by linking the farmers with agricultural cooperative groups and cooperatives and using the available cultivable land as well as barren land. The government will emphasize increasing productivity through commercialization, modernization and mechanization of this sector. For the effective implementation of the program, a high level mechanism comprising line ministers will be formed under the coordination of the prime minister. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In the budget of the upcoming fiscal year, the government has set a target to deliver the required agricultural loan at the doorsteps of the farmers by setting up a microfinance fund of Rs 500 billion. Moreover, arrangements have been made for the banks and financial institutions to invest the fund mandatorily in the deprived sector and in the agricultural sector. The government will also make arrangements for the Citizen’s Investment Trust, Employees’ Provident Fund and Social Security Fund to invest a certain amount in this fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The 'Prime Minister's Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Program' will be launched through the budget for which Rs 3.45 billion has been allocated. Earlier, the government had launched the Prime Minister's Agriculture Modernization Project in 2073. This year, the government has allocated Rs 5.90 billion for this project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Reviewing the agriculture budget announced by the government on Sunday, Uddhav Adhikari, coordinator of the Agriculture Campaign for Food, said that the government has succeeded in bringing a budget that is liked by all. While the risk of food security is increasing worldwide, he said that the government has been able to bring the budget with the focus on agriculture, which is a matter of happiness. “Looking at the budget of the last 8 to 10 years, the budget for the agriculture sector this year should be considered positive,” he said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">At a time when the number of youths have looked down upon the profession of agriculture and have opted to go abroad, the government has brought a programme to attract the youths as well. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Under this programme, the government plans to set up a farmers' welfare fund to start a contribution-based farmer's pension scheme. It is mentioned in the budget that the government will deposit 10 percent of the amount contributed by the farmers in the fund every month. An initial budget of Rs 1 billion has been allocated for the establishment of the fund. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chairman of the National Farmers Commission Chitra Bahadur Shrestha said that although the overall budget of agriculture is reasonable, the budget allocated by the government for the supply of chemical fertilizers for the upcoming fiscal year may be insufficient. Furthermore, he also said that the implementation of the budget is challenging. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government is planning to set up a chemical fertilizer factory using green hydrogen and green ammonia technology through the Investment Board. Although the government's plan to open a fertilizer factory has been mentioned in previous budgets, it has never been implemented. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has allocated Rs 15 billion for the supply of chemical fertilizers in the upcoming fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs 12 billion. The government had added Rs 3 billion after the budget was insufficient to procure the required fertilizer. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The budget also has provision to fix the minimum support price of agricultural products including paddy, wheat, maize and milk. The products will be procured through government companies and if there is any difference between the support price and purchase price, research will be done. Similarly, Rs 450 million has been allocated for the construction of 100 warehouses across the country for storage of main food crops including paddy. </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15110', 'image' => '20220530020533_Agri.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 14:04:55', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15367', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Infrastructure Development and Education get Largest Chunks of Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The government has unveiled a budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The government has allocated Rs 753.4 billion for the current expenditure, which accounts for 42 percent of the total budget while Rs 380.38 billion or 21.2 percent of the budget has been allocated for the capital expenditure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Among different sectors that have been allocated budget, the highest share of budget has been earmarked for physical infrastructure and education sectors.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Presenting the budget in a joint session of parliament on Sunday, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 161.56 billion for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructures and Transport.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The education sector has been allocated a total budget of Rs 196 billion including Rs 70.5 billion for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Rs 5.32 billion for education at provincial level and Rs 121 billion for local level. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has been allocated a budget of Rs 55.97. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the finance minister, a budget of Rs 10.48 million budget has been allocated for the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies for the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated Rs 9.38 billion for the tourism sector and Rs 12.24 billion for the development of aviation infrastructure. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Finance Minister Sharma said Rs 7.4 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 13 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Forest and Environment, while the Prime Minister Employment Programme (PMEP) has received a budget of Rs 7.5 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security has been allocated Rs 9.13 billion while the Ministry of Health and Population has received Rs 69.38 billion. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, Rs 37.73 billion has been allocated for the Ministry of Urban Development; Rs 2.9 billion for the Ministry of Youth and Sports; Rs 1.77 billion for the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens; Rs 8.59 billion for the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology; and Rs 25.3 billion for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15109', 'image' => '20220530115328_update.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 11:49:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15366', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Attract 1 Million Tourists in Upcoming Fiscal Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 30: The incumbent government has set a target of attracting one million tourists in the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23). The government made such announcement during the joint session of the Federal Parliament while presenting the budget on Sunday. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma announced that the government has allocated a budget of Rs 9 billion for the tourism sector.</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""> "Various programmes will be launched and implemented to bring in over 1 million foreign tourists to Nepal," Finance Minister Janardan Sharma said, adding, "The aim is to develop and promote tourism as the basis for income generation and prosperity by marketing Nepal's uniqueness, natural beauty, cultural heritage and civilization in the world tourism market." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Furthermore, the government has plans to encourage the new generation to get involved in tourism. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to Finance Minister Sharma, the government has allocated Rs 2 billion for reconstruction of earthquake-damaged historical and archeologically important heritage sites and monuments and reconstruction will be carried out within the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Museums, arts and historical monuments would be developed as tourism spots, said the finance minister. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Similarly, the government has announced exemption of renewal fees and annual license for the hotels and tourism entrepreneurs for the upcoming fiscal year. Minister Sharma informed that hill stations will be built in various places that offer enchanting views of the landscape and also those places that hold significance from religious point of view. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government has allocated budget to set up a mountaineering research centre n the Everest region while Rs 330 million has been allocated for construction of the Great Himalayan Trail that stretches in the upper belt of the country from the east to the west. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The existing path leading up to Everest region will be upgraded, said Minister Sharma.</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"">Meanwhile, the government has allocated a budget of Rs 12.2 billion for development of physical infrastructures for the aviation sector, which is believed to aide the tourism business. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government also plans to construct a second terminal building at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to help reduce the pressure of inflow of passengers. As per the announcement made by Finance Minister Sharma, Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport and the Pokhara Regional International Airport will be brought into full operation in the upcoming fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">--- </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-30', 'modified' => '2022-05-30', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15108', 'image' => '20220530105125_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-30 10:50:35', '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
