May 27: A meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today passed the Policies and Programmes of the Government by overwhelming…
May 27: A meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today passed the Policies and Programmes of the Government by overwhelming…
May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year.…
May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive…
May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a…
May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three…
May 27: The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public…
May 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal…
May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad.…
May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on…
May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall…
May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum…
May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum…
May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum…
May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic…
May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament.…
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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"">May 27: A meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today passed the Policies and Programmes of the Government by overwhelming majority. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had presented the government's policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022/23 for endorsement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Before the endorsement of the policies and programmes, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, replied to the questions raised in course of the deliberations on the document. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Majority of National Assembly members rejected the proposal for amendment to the policies and programmes . </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Lawmakers Dr Bedu Ram Bhusal, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Dr Bimala Rai Poudyal, Bhairav Sundar Shrestha, Devendra Dahal and Bhagawati Neupane had sought clarifications on the government's policy. In reply, Minister Koirala said all the queries are obvious and the government has kept production and processing of herbs in priority. This topic would be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made it clear that since the price of petroleum products fluctuated due to the impact of the international market, the government did not have control over the prices as such. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Regarding the clarification related to the topic of Nijgadh International Airport, he said more cannot be said on this topic as the full text of the Supreme Court's verdict is not yet available. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly held deliberations on the policies and programmes of the government on Thursday and Friday before endorsing it. President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the government's policies and programmes in a joint session of the Federal Parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairman Timilsina directed the lawmakers to be seated in the Federal Parliament's assembly hall 15 minutes before 4 pm on May 29, when the budget for the next fiscal year is to be presented before the joint session of the Federal Parliament. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly will next meet at 3 pm on May 29. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15091', 'image' => '20220527055544_20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 17:54:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15348', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Unimpressed by Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. They said that there is no concrete policy for the tourism sector, which was most affected by the Covid-19 and has been clawing back to normalcy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government, which made the policies and programmes public on Tuesday, is releasing the budget for the next fiscal year on May 29. Binayak Shah, senior vice president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), shared that the budget is expected to have a concrete and landmark programme for tourism. "The tourism sector is still not in a normal state," Shah said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, he said that since the budget will come in a few days, we will have to wait and see what kind of programmes will be included in it. The ' Visit Nepal 2020' campaign announced by the government in 2020 was postponed but never implemented. In the context that the tourism year was postponed due to Covid-19, it is necessary to re-announce such big events, said Shah. He stressed that the government should announce a big event for the revival of tourism in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"Preparations for the tourism year can still be made active," Shah said. "Let's announce a big event in the budget, let's give half a year to prepare."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nepal Tourism Board Deepak Raj Joshi, who is also a founding member of the World Tourism Network, has a similar view. He also said that a big event is needed to revive the tourism sector and give impetus to it. Joshi said that the upcoming budget should announce a big program like the postponed Visit Nepal Year 2020 so that it can be implemented within a year and a half.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the tourism sector is not a business that can be run on its own, he said that it can only move forward by linking tourism in a multi-faceted way.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15090', 'image' => '20220527043635_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 16:35:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15347', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Co-operatives must Ensure 51 Percent Credit Flow to Productive Sector', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing the Unified Directive-2079 on Thursday, the department directed co-operatives to categorize the loans on the basis of sectors and disburse at least 51 percent of the total loan in production and income-generating businesses. The co-operatives are not allowed to operate hydropower projects, hospitals, schools, campuses, hotels, petrol pumps and other projects without mentioning them in their statute. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive mentions that the members of co-operatives will not be allowed to invest their savings and the outstanding loan flow should not exceed 5 percent of the total assets. The directive also stipulates that the elected or nominated public office bearers directly involved in the registration and regulation of co-operatives or the employees working in the government bodies, state government or local level offices cannot be elected or nominated in the Board of Directors or Accounts Supervision Committee of the co-operatives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department also instructed to make arrangements for immediate resignation from such posts by government employees and the vacant posts should be filled in the upcoming general assembly through by-elections.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the then registrar of the department Jhalakaram Adhikari had issued an 88-point Unified Directives on February 13. Three months later, Registrar Rudra Prasad Pandit reissued the directives. The new directives were reduced to 35 points. However, the new directives cover most of the old issues.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Registrar Pandit claimed that the new directives had to be issued as the previous directives were not clear. He said, “Earlier, it was found that the directives were issued hastily without the consent of the ministry. Due to this, precise and clear instructions were issued again to facilitate their implementation.”</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' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15089', 'image' => '20220527035902_Cooperative dept.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 15:58:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15346', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Transportation of Retail Goods Halted in Birgunj since 3 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week. They stopped transportation for three days demanding adjustment of fare due to increase in the price of diesel. Chairman of the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj Bal Krishna Pokharel said that the goods to be transported from Birgunj to Kathmandu and other major cities of the country have not been booked due to the protest. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Until now, we were transporting goods at Rs 3.75 per kg to Rs 4 per kg. With the rise in the price of petroleum products, this amount is not enough to pay the truck fare,” Chairman Pokharel said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Retailers carry 10 metric tons of goods in 6 wheelers. At the rate of Rs 4 per kg, the fare from Birgunj to Kathmandu is Rs 40,000. According to Pokharel, the traders now cannot transport the goods as the cost alone has reached Rs 40,000. Transport entrepreneurs have been running their business by renting trucks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Transport businessmen say that the fare should be at least Rs 50,000, including the expenses for loading and unloading, warehouse, and office operation. They say that the expenses can be covered if the fare is at least Rs 5 per kg.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite some traders offering to pay the fares with adjustments, the transport entrepreneurs are seeking assurance from the state officials. The transport businessmen demanded that the fare should be adjusted in the presence of the local administration or traders' organization.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pokharel complained that the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry had promised to take the initiative but no discussion has been initiated till date. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15088', 'image' => '20220527022218_Birgunjjjj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 14:21:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15345', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Orders Govt to Halt Construction of Nijgadh International Airport ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. </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"">Responding to a writ petition filed against the construction of the airport, a full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakashman Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma issued such order on Thursday (May 26). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The mandamus order of the apex court has instructed the government to revoke all the decisions taken in regard to the construction of the airport till date and seek an alternative to the airport.</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"">Supreme Court’s Spokesperson Bimal Poudel confirmed that the apex court has revoked all the decisions taken by the government for the construction of the airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“The Supreme Court has ordered the government to seek an alternative to the airport. That means the government has to seek another site for the construction of the airport by taking into consideration the environment impact assessment and existing laws,” said Poudel, adding, “The bench has annulled all the earlier decisions taken regarding the EIA .”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year had mentioned that it would finalize the modality of investment and construction of the airport. Three days after the announcement, the Supreme Court ordered the government not to construct the airport. </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"">This is the final verdict in a case filed by senior advocate Prakash Mani Sharma and Ranjuhajur Pandey two years ago.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dispute over the construction of airport had surfaced over the felling of trees. </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"">In the writ petition, the petitioners had demanded that the construction be stopped since the construction there would cause massive destruction of trees. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), which was undertaking the project, has said it will respect the decision of the apex court.</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"">Spokesperson of CAAN Dev Chandra Lal Karn said that the Supreme Court verdict has effectively closed the chapter of this airport.</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"">“We have to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. We will seek other alternatives after receiving the full text of the court verdict,” said Karn.</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"">Infrastructure experts as well as politicians have expressed displeasure over the decision of the apex court. </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"">Former Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai has termed the court’s verdict as a regressive step. In a Twitter post, Bhattarai also urged the justices to reconsider their decision.</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"">“This is a blatant intervention in a project considered as the game changer of the aviation sector of Nepal. The respected justices need to correct this decision,” he wrote on Twitter.</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"">Responding to Bhattarai’s Twitter post, infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya has also expressed his reservations towards the SC decision.</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"">Former Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa also took to Twitter saying that the decision was “inappropriate and unfortunate”. </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"">UML leader Pradeep Gyawali also criticized the order.</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, former Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal said sarcastically “A country like Switzerland with an area of 41,285 sq km has 7 international airports. Why does a small country like ours with an area of 147,516 sq km need 4 international airports?”</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"">Nevertheless, there are also a section of people who have expressed happiness over the SC verdict.</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"">“You didn’t believe when I said an airport cannot be built on the basis of a fake EIA. Now I’m sorry for those who bought land,” wrote a Twitter handler.</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"">Save Nijgadh Campain’s Kashish Das Shrestha said that the SC verdict was a big news for protection of Nijgadh from environmental point of view.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had started construction works of the airport in FY 2072/73 almost two decades after conducting a study. Informed sources said that the government has so far invested Rs 1.11 billion for the project.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15087', 'image' => '20220527124927_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:48:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15344', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Department of Passport to Remain Open on Sunday', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 27: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department took such decision on Wednesday in line with the government's policies and programmes of providing electronic passport in an easy manner. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department claimed it will provide passports to the service-seekers in an easy and smooth manner by operating services even during a public holiday in view of the increasing number of service seekers visiting the department. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department said that it will be open from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday every week from May 29 onwards until an alternative arrangement is made. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15086', 'image' => '20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:07:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15343', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper House begins Deliberations on Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for the upcoming 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 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for 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"">President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the policies and programmes of the government for the new fiscal year during a joint session of parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Govinda Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, proposed during Thursday’s meeting to hold discussions on the government's new policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking part in the deliberations, National Assembly members Bhairab Sundar Shrestha, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Bhagawati Neupane and Bimala Ghimire proposed amendments to the policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The MPs raised concerns regarding ‘one household, one tap’ programme announced by the government stating that although it assures drinking water supply to over 460,000 people, the quality of water supply was doubtful.</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"">“People need pure drinking water and we want the government to clarify who are its target groups for high standard water and who are the ones for the medium standard water,” RSS quoted the MPs as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They alleged the recent local level election was held in an unjust way despite the government claiming it to be peaceful, RSS further reported. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They also sought amendments to the government's decision to exclude over 1,400 road projects introduced by the previous government. The deliberations will continue during the next meeting of upper house. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15085', 'image' => '20220527120236_nepal-parl.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15342', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Export of Soybean Oil Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. Exports of refined soybean oil have been particularly affected since last April due to the competition of Nepali exporters with other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Refined soybean oil worth Rs 5.17 billion was being exported from Nepal to India per month until mid-March. But the export of soybean oil as shrunk to Rs 2 billion per month since April. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data of the Department of Customs, refined soybean oil worth Rs 4.54 billion was exported to India between mid-February to mid-March. However, soybean oil worth Rs 1.90 billion was exported in between mid-March to mid-April while the export during mid-April to mid-May was worth Rs 2.04 billion. Refined soybean oil is the major export product of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, India used to charge up to 45 percent customs duty for the import of soybean oil. However, as Nepal is a SAARC member country, it enjoyed duty-free access to the Indian market. That is the reason why Indian businessmen had been buying soybean oil from Nepal, which was available at a relatively cheaper rate compared to that of other countries. Operator of OCB Foods Suresh Rungta says that the exports from Nepal have been affected after India reduced the customs duty recently. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, India has announced zero customs duty on soybean oil effective from Wednesday. Now, the import of soybean oil from other countries will no longer be subject to customs duty. In such case, Rungata says that the exports from Nepal would be further affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We import raw materials from third countries and export refined oil after processing. Doing so is more expensive here than in other countries," he said, "In such a case, it would be cheaper for Indian businessmen to import oil from a third country than from Nepal. As a result, our soybean oil exports will be affected."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Overall, exports of refined soybean oil have increased by about 27 percent by mid-April. According to the data, soybean oil exports amounted to Rs 45.35 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, which is Rs 9.59 billion more than last fiscal year. In the corresponding period of the previous year, soybean oil exports stood at Rs 35.75 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepali businessmen have been importing crude soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia and Ukraine. It is being exported to India by adding up to 30 percent value addition after processing. Soybean oil is also widely consumed in Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prior to this, refined palm oil was Nepal's main export item. However, soybean oil became the first-choice export item after India banned its import in the fiscal year 2077/78. Regardless of this, palm oil is being exported from Nepal after India lifted the ban on palm oil imports. At present, palm oil is the second largest export item. During this period, palm oil export amounted to Rs 14.78 billion. </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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15084', 'image' => '20220526065642_istockphoto-1172450074-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 18:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15341', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Turkey Negotiating with Russia, Ukraine for Grain-Export Corridor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the news agency, Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia invaded the former Soviet Union nation on February 24 and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos there.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies and the lack of exports from Ukraine is contributing to a growing global food crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Turkey is negotiating with both Russia and Ukraine for the export of grains from Ukraine," Reuters quoted the official as saying in condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"With a corridor to be opened from Turkey, there was a demand for this grain to reach their targeted markets. Negotiations are still ongoing," the person added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko reportedly said on Wednesday that Moscow was ready to provide a corridor for vessels carrying food in return for lifting of some Western sanctions.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Reuters, Turkey neighbours Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea and has good relations with both, even as it has condemned the invasion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been in touch with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and the European Union trying to broker what he calls a "package deal" to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, the news agency further reported.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, there are many hurdles to any deal, including Russian demands for some sanctions to be lifted in return, the drifting mines, and the prohibitive costs of insuring the maritime route, Reuters reported citing officials and analysts.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15083', 'image' => '20220526054353_wheat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:43:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15340', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cottage and Small Scale Industries Welcome Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During a recent programme, officials of the federation said that it is a positive thing to increase internal and external investment in productive sector with the slogan “Nepali Industries, Employment in Nepal: Our Product Our Business”. The federation also said that the package of entrepreneurship development, financial access, product marketing and export facilitation for small, cottage and medium enterprises also seems positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation is also hopeful that the policies and programmes will help in the promotion of local products by linking tourism as a dynamic dimension of the economy with all kinds of economic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation stated that strengths of the policies and programmes include building specialized skilled manpower as per the demand of the labor market, creating employment for the returnee migrant workers by conducting skill-based business, smoothing the supply chain, reducing external impact on the economy and implementing e-commerce system for market access of industrial products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In addition, it also mentioned that the provision of increasing exports by reducing production cost of manufacturing and export-oriented industries, facilitating the establishment and operation of startup based business based on innovation, involving the private sector in the construction of infrastructure such as industrial village, industrial zone, special economic zone were all positive steps.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the federation, the establishment of industries to produce supplementary materials of big foreign industries to give Nepali products exposure to the national, regional and international value chain is likely have a positive impact on the promotion and protection of domestic industries and manufactured goods. It added that it is a positive aspect to encourage the private sector to establish and operate productive industries by creating industry-friendly environment, improving business environment and increasing government’s investment in basic infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Supporting the policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year, the federation says that implementing the Farm to Industry Integrated Model Programme to link the products of agriculture, forest and mining sectors in industrial processing chain, developing agriculture as a major driving force for economic growth and employment, integrating cooperative sector with entrepreneurship, production and employment for economic development and poverty alleviation will have a positive impact in the overall economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation believes that the policy of facilitating credit flow to the productive and employment oriented sectors will easily increase the financial access of cottage and small scale entrepreneurs. According to the policy of reviewing the existing tax system to make it clean, transparent and investment and business friendly, it is necessary to review the tax system targeting business run by small, home-based, cottage and women entrepreneurs who were displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the federation said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation expects that the policies and programmes covered by the National Planning Commission will be implemented through the upcoming budget.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15082', 'image' => '20220526052559_service_1543560160.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:25:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15339', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Demands Lowering Tax on Petroleum Products', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry made such demand via a press statement on Wednesday. The statement issued by the association's president Subodh Kumar Gupta states that the prices have gone up due to the high tax imposed by the government and requested to provide relief to consumers by lowering the tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association made such demand calling the price hike nonsensical after the government increased the price of diesel and petrol by Rs 20 per liter in seven days. Even the price of cooking gas has been increased by Rs 200 per cylinder and is currently being sold for Rs 1,800 to the general public.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement also demands lowering the heavy burden put on the people by reducing the tax of Rs 10 per liter on petroleum products imposed in the name of construction of Budhigandaki Hydropower Project for the past few years besides reduction in the customs duty on petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the chamber has also drawn the attention to the protest organized by transporters demanding an increase in freight charge in proportion to the increase in fuel prices. The chamber has appealed to the truck dealers to resolve the issue through discussion rather than strike and protests on such a sensitive issue.</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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15081', 'image' => '20220526033804_petrol-pump.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 15:37:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15337', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Freight Service Suspended after Fuel Price Hike ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products. The freight service has been shut as the price hike in petroleum products has directly affected the business of transporters, according to the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">All kinds of transportation of goods have been suspended for the time being due to the failure in increasing the freight charge despite the sharp rise in prices of petroleum products, Vice-president of the association Pravin Kumar Karna said. </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"">At least 40 to 60 truckloads of retail goods used to be transported to different cities from Birgunj every day. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pesident of the association Bal Krishna Pokharel said that 46 retailers affiliated to the association have demanded adjustment in the transportation fare in accordance with the increased cost of petroleum products. Entrepreneurs have demanded timely increase in the freight service charge along with the increase in price of petroleum products.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15079', 'image' => '20220526011022_Birgunj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 13:09:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Student Unions Demand Immediate Withdrawal of Fuel Price Hike', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Student leaders affiliated to 13 different student unions jointly submitted the memo to the Industry Minister amid a recent function demanding the government to immediately revoke such decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the occasion, Minister Badu said that the government was not in a position to tell the Nepal Oil Corporation to reduce the fuel prices. He argued that the state-owned NOC was facing a fortnightly loss of Rs 6.71 billion and therefore it was not appropriate to tell the oil monopoly to lower the prices.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Minister Badu stated that the NOC is still bearing a loss of Rs 14.64 for selling a litre of petrol. Likewise, the loss incurred for the sale of a litre of diesel and a cylinder of cooking gas amounted to Rs 26.82 and Rs 879.75 respectively. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that it was the responsibility of the government to seek a solution to the current crisis after considering the situation of NOC and the world market, Minister Badu said that the government has been making efforts towards this end.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15077', 'image' => '20220525073044_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 19:30:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Welcomes Government Announcement to Observe ‘Domestic Poduction Decade’ ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) has expressed its gratitude to the government for its decision to announce a decade dedicated to promoting production and consumption of the domestic products, expressing its support to the implementation of the ‘Make in Nepal’ campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022-23 that were presented by the president before a joint session of the Federal Parliament on Tuesday stated that the upcoming decade would be observed as the decade of domestic production and consumption. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has pledged a subsidy in tax and customs duty for the production and supplies of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The confederation is hopeful the announcement would help in enabling the industrial atmosphere in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the announcements to facilitate in acquiring land for the establishment of industry, reviewing provisions for land ceiling, creating industry-friendly atmosphere and encouraging private sector for operating production-based industries suggested the government’s new policies and programmes are focused on the promotion of industrialization, according to CNI's assessment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The announcement to involve private sector in power trade is itself the encouragement to the private sector for its role in international power trade, the confederation said. It has, likewise, hailed the declaration to ensure power supply to private sector at a low tariff, to develop tourism as a means of earning foreign currency and to implement the Digital Nepal Framework. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has also welcomed the decision to recognise the contribution of remittance to nation’s economy, undertake large infrastructure projects on a public-private joint venture, make public expenditure result-oriented and increase the capital expenditure. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15076', 'image' => '20220525060916_make-in-nepal2021-03-09-06-26-08.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 18:08:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Repeats Policies and Programmes for Upcoming Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. The new policies and programmes presented in parliament by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on behalf of the government on Tuesday is nothing but the continuation of the policies and programmes of the previous government with some new programmes added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has given continuity to concept of operating railway and ship of the previous government, which it had earlier called a ‘pipedream’.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes state that the government will complete feasibility study of Rasuwagadi-Kathmandu railway and conduct detailed study of the Birgunj-Kathmandu and Kathmandu Valley Metro service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The prospects of water transport in Nepal's rivers will be identified and developed, said the president. The government also announced plans to build another 800 kilometers of roads and upgrade 257 kilometers next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes range from bringing a separate policy to increase capital spending to regulating social media and bringing it under the tax purview next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has already issued procedures to regulate social media, it has not been able to fully implement them. The government has tried to regulate advertisements on social media after a large amount of dollars started flowing out of Nepal. Some countries, including neighboring India, have formally registered social media in their countries and brought it under the purview of law and tax. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“In order to increase capital expenditure and facilitate the implementation of development projects, the concept of development including a result-based project management system will be implemented,” according to the policies and programmes unveiled on Tuesday. The government is planning to adopt a separate policy to address the trend of not spending the capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has also put forward a programme to evaluate the sovereign credit of the country within the next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The annual policies and programmes also includes the implementation projects that can transform the overall structure of the economy. Similarly, agriculture, transport, energy, tourism and information technology are considered as the drivers of economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes also mentioned that the value of land will be determined by scientific method after developing an integrated land valuation system based on geographical information. As per the new policies and programmes, arrangements will be made to trade real estate only from specialized institutions. Arrangements will also be made to avail basic services related to land revenue online from the local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has announced the ‘Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Campaign Decade’ in order to expand the market and increase the consumption of Nepali products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We will start a campaign to uplift the economy by increasing domestic and foreign investment in productive sectors with comparative advantage, innovation in small and medium enterprises, market expansion of Nepali products and increase in production and consumption, import substitution and export promotion,” said President Bhandari. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">To make this campaign a success, the Prime Minister Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Programme will be launched and it will be promoted through tax and customs duty exemption and export subsidy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will take industrial promotion policy to develop a green economy through energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to review the existing tax system next year. The government is preparing to bring in a budget to replace the import-dependent tax system by domestic production. Accordingly, a review of the tax system has been announced in the policies and programmes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will also formulate necessary policies and criteria to facilitate revenue mobilisation at the local level. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the concept of digital banking, the national payment system will be strengthened and all financial transactions will be done through electronic means. For the first time, the government is planning to set up a ‘Market and Trade Intelligence’ bureau for international trade information. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of Gautam Buddha International Stadium at Chitwan will also be undertaken by the government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, it is also mentioned that the government will set up its own satellite and state-of-the-art security printing press. The current government has announced plans to move ahead with both the projects which were in dispute over irregularities during the previous CPN-UML-led government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government will give priority to agriculture and bring irrigation facilities in the coming FY, President Bhandari said that the government has adopted a policy to provide irrigation facilities to 22,200 hectares of land, along with the construction as well as maintenance of large and branch canals. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15075', 'image' => '20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 15:47:25', '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"">May 27: A meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today passed the Policies and Programmes of the Government by overwhelming majority. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had presented the government's policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022/23 for endorsement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Before the endorsement of the policies and programmes, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, replied to the questions raised in course of the deliberations on the document. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Majority of National Assembly members rejected the proposal for amendment to the policies and programmes . </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Lawmakers Dr Bedu Ram Bhusal, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Dr Bimala Rai Poudyal, Bhairav Sundar Shrestha, Devendra Dahal and Bhagawati Neupane had sought clarifications on the government's policy. In reply, Minister Koirala said all the queries are obvious and the government has kept production and processing of herbs in priority. This topic would be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made it clear that since the price of petroleum products fluctuated due to the impact of the international market, the government did not have control over the prices as such. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Regarding the clarification related to the topic of Nijgadh International Airport, he said more cannot be said on this topic as the full text of the Supreme Court's verdict is not yet available. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly held deliberations on the policies and programmes of the government on Thursday and Friday before endorsing it. President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the government's policies and programmes in a joint session of the Federal Parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairman Timilsina directed the lawmakers to be seated in the Federal Parliament's assembly hall 15 minutes before 4 pm on May 29, when the budget for the next fiscal year is to be presented before the joint session of the Federal Parliament. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly will next meet at 3 pm on May 29. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15091', 'image' => '20220527055544_20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 17:54:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15348', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Unimpressed by Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. They said that there is no concrete policy for the tourism sector, which was most affected by the Covid-19 and has been clawing back to normalcy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government, which made the policies and programmes public on Tuesday, is releasing the budget for the next fiscal year on May 29. Binayak Shah, senior vice president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), shared that the budget is expected to have a concrete and landmark programme for tourism. "The tourism sector is still not in a normal state," Shah said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, he said that since the budget will come in a few days, we will have to wait and see what kind of programmes will be included in it. The ' Visit Nepal 2020' campaign announced by the government in 2020 was postponed but never implemented. In the context that the tourism year was postponed due to Covid-19, it is necessary to re-announce such big events, said Shah. He stressed that the government should announce a big event for the revival of tourism in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"Preparations for the tourism year can still be made active," Shah said. "Let's announce a big event in the budget, let's give half a year to prepare."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nepal Tourism Board Deepak Raj Joshi, who is also a founding member of the World Tourism Network, has a similar view. He also said that a big event is needed to revive the tourism sector and give impetus to it. Joshi said that the upcoming budget should announce a big program like the postponed Visit Nepal Year 2020 so that it can be implemented within a year and a half.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the tourism sector is not a business that can be run on its own, he said that it can only move forward by linking tourism in a multi-faceted way.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15090', 'image' => '20220527043635_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 16:35:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15347', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Co-operatives must Ensure 51 Percent Credit Flow to Productive Sector', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing the Unified Directive-2079 on Thursday, the department directed co-operatives to categorize the loans on the basis of sectors and disburse at least 51 percent of the total loan in production and income-generating businesses. The co-operatives are not allowed to operate hydropower projects, hospitals, schools, campuses, hotels, petrol pumps and other projects without mentioning them in their statute. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive mentions that the members of co-operatives will not be allowed to invest their savings and the outstanding loan flow should not exceed 5 percent of the total assets. The directive also stipulates that the elected or nominated public office bearers directly involved in the registration and regulation of co-operatives or the employees working in the government bodies, state government or local level offices cannot be elected or nominated in the Board of Directors or Accounts Supervision Committee of the co-operatives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department also instructed to make arrangements for immediate resignation from such posts by government employees and the vacant posts should be filled in the upcoming general assembly through by-elections.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the then registrar of the department Jhalakaram Adhikari had issued an 88-point Unified Directives on February 13. Three months later, Registrar Rudra Prasad Pandit reissued the directives. The new directives were reduced to 35 points. However, the new directives cover most of the old issues.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Registrar Pandit claimed that the new directives had to be issued as the previous directives were not clear. He said, “Earlier, it was found that the directives were issued hastily without the consent of the ministry. Due to this, precise and clear instructions were issued again to facilitate their implementation.”</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' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15089', 'image' => '20220527035902_Cooperative dept.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 15:58:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15346', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Transportation of Retail Goods Halted in Birgunj since 3 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week. They stopped transportation for three days demanding adjustment of fare due to increase in the price of diesel. Chairman of the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj Bal Krishna Pokharel said that the goods to be transported from Birgunj to Kathmandu and other major cities of the country have not been booked due to the protest. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Until now, we were transporting goods at Rs 3.75 per kg to Rs 4 per kg. With the rise in the price of petroleum products, this amount is not enough to pay the truck fare,” Chairman Pokharel said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Retailers carry 10 metric tons of goods in 6 wheelers. At the rate of Rs 4 per kg, the fare from Birgunj to Kathmandu is Rs 40,000. According to Pokharel, the traders now cannot transport the goods as the cost alone has reached Rs 40,000. Transport entrepreneurs have been running their business by renting trucks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Transport businessmen say that the fare should be at least Rs 50,000, including the expenses for loading and unloading, warehouse, and office operation. They say that the expenses can be covered if the fare is at least Rs 5 per kg.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite some traders offering to pay the fares with adjustments, the transport entrepreneurs are seeking assurance from the state officials. The transport businessmen demanded that the fare should be adjusted in the presence of the local administration or traders' organization.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pokharel complained that the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry had promised to take the initiative but no discussion has been initiated till date. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15088', 'image' => '20220527022218_Birgunjjjj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 14:21:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15345', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Orders Govt to Halt Construction of Nijgadh International Airport ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. </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"">Responding to a writ petition filed against the construction of the airport, a full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakashman Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma issued such order on Thursday (May 26). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The mandamus order of the apex court has instructed the government to revoke all the decisions taken in regard to the construction of the airport till date and seek an alternative to the airport.</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"">Supreme Court’s Spokesperson Bimal Poudel confirmed that the apex court has revoked all the decisions taken by the government for the construction of the airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“The Supreme Court has ordered the government to seek an alternative to the airport. That means the government has to seek another site for the construction of the airport by taking into consideration the environment impact assessment and existing laws,” said Poudel, adding, “The bench has annulled all the earlier decisions taken regarding the EIA .”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year had mentioned that it would finalize the modality of investment and construction of the airport. Three days after the announcement, the Supreme Court ordered the government not to construct the airport. </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"">This is the final verdict in a case filed by senior advocate Prakash Mani Sharma and Ranjuhajur Pandey two years ago.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dispute over the construction of airport had surfaced over the felling of trees. </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"">In the writ petition, the petitioners had demanded that the construction be stopped since the construction there would cause massive destruction of trees. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), which was undertaking the project, has said it will respect the decision of the apex court.</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"">Spokesperson of CAAN Dev Chandra Lal Karn said that the Supreme Court verdict has effectively closed the chapter of this airport.</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"">“We have to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. We will seek other alternatives after receiving the full text of the court verdict,” said Karn.</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"">Infrastructure experts as well as politicians have expressed displeasure over the decision of the apex court. </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"">Former Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai has termed the court’s verdict as a regressive step. In a Twitter post, Bhattarai also urged the justices to reconsider their decision.</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"">“This is a blatant intervention in a project considered as the game changer of the aviation sector of Nepal. The respected justices need to correct this decision,” he wrote on Twitter.</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"">Responding to Bhattarai’s Twitter post, infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya has also expressed his reservations towards the SC decision.</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"">Former Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa also took to Twitter saying that the decision was “inappropriate and unfortunate”. </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"">UML leader Pradeep Gyawali also criticized the order.</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, former Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal said sarcastically “A country like Switzerland with an area of 41,285 sq km has 7 international airports. Why does a small country like ours with an area of 147,516 sq km need 4 international airports?”</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"">Nevertheless, there are also a section of people who have expressed happiness over the SC verdict.</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"">“You didn’t believe when I said an airport cannot be built on the basis of a fake EIA. Now I’m sorry for those who bought land,” wrote a Twitter handler.</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"">Save Nijgadh Campain’s Kashish Das Shrestha said that the SC verdict was a big news for protection of Nijgadh from environmental point of view.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had started construction works of the airport in FY 2072/73 almost two decades after conducting a study. Informed sources said that the government has so far invested Rs 1.11 billion for the project.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15087', 'image' => '20220527124927_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:48:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15344', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Department of Passport to Remain Open on Sunday', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 27: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department took such decision on Wednesday in line with the government's policies and programmes of providing electronic passport in an easy manner. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department claimed it will provide passports to the service-seekers in an easy and smooth manner by operating services even during a public holiday in view of the increasing number of service seekers visiting the department. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department said that it will be open from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday every week from May 29 onwards until an alternative arrangement is made. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15086', 'image' => '20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:07:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15343', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper House begins Deliberations on Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for the upcoming 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 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for 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"">President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the policies and programmes of the government for the new fiscal year during a joint session of parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Govinda Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, proposed during Thursday’s meeting to hold discussions on the government's new policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking part in the deliberations, National Assembly members Bhairab Sundar Shrestha, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Bhagawati Neupane and Bimala Ghimire proposed amendments to the policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The MPs raised concerns regarding ‘one household, one tap’ programme announced by the government stating that although it assures drinking water supply to over 460,000 people, the quality of water supply was doubtful.</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"">“People need pure drinking water and we want the government to clarify who are its target groups for high standard water and who are the ones for the medium standard water,” RSS quoted the MPs as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They alleged the recent local level election was held in an unjust way despite the government claiming it to be peaceful, RSS further reported. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They also sought amendments to the government's decision to exclude over 1,400 road projects introduced by the previous government. The deliberations will continue during the next meeting of upper house. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15085', 'image' => '20220527120236_nepal-parl.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15342', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Export of Soybean Oil Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. Exports of refined soybean oil have been particularly affected since last April due to the competition of Nepali exporters with other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Refined soybean oil worth Rs 5.17 billion was being exported from Nepal to India per month until mid-March. But the export of soybean oil as shrunk to Rs 2 billion per month since April. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data of the Department of Customs, refined soybean oil worth Rs 4.54 billion was exported to India between mid-February to mid-March. However, soybean oil worth Rs 1.90 billion was exported in between mid-March to mid-April while the export during mid-April to mid-May was worth Rs 2.04 billion. Refined soybean oil is the major export product of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, India used to charge up to 45 percent customs duty for the import of soybean oil. However, as Nepal is a SAARC member country, it enjoyed duty-free access to the Indian market. That is the reason why Indian businessmen had been buying soybean oil from Nepal, which was available at a relatively cheaper rate compared to that of other countries. Operator of OCB Foods Suresh Rungta says that the exports from Nepal have been affected after India reduced the customs duty recently. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, India has announced zero customs duty on soybean oil effective from Wednesday. Now, the import of soybean oil from other countries will no longer be subject to customs duty. In such case, Rungata says that the exports from Nepal would be further affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We import raw materials from third countries and export refined oil after processing. Doing so is more expensive here than in other countries," he said, "In such a case, it would be cheaper for Indian businessmen to import oil from a third country than from Nepal. As a result, our soybean oil exports will be affected."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Overall, exports of refined soybean oil have increased by about 27 percent by mid-April. According to the data, soybean oil exports amounted to Rs 45.35 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, which is Rs 9.59 billion more than last fiscal year. In the corresponding period of the previous year, soybean oil exports stood at Rs 35.75 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepali businessmen have been importing crude soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia and Ukraine. It is being exported to India by adding up to 30 percent value addition after processing. Soybean oil is also widely consumed in Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prior to this, refined palm oil was Nepal's main export item. However, soybean oil became the first-choice export item after India banned its import in the fiscal year 2077/78. Regardless of this, palm oil is being exported from Nepal after India lifted the ban on palm oil imports. At present, palm oil is the second largest export item. During this period, palm oil export amounted to Rs 14.78 billion. </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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15084', 'image' => '20220526065642_istockphoto-1172450074-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 18:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15341', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Turkey Negotiating with Russia, Ukraine for Grain-Export Corridor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the news agency, Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia invaded the former Soviet Union nation on February 24 and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos there.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies and the lack of exports from Ukraine is contributing to a growing global food crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Turkey is negotiating with both Russia and Ukraine for the export of grains from Ukraine," Reuters quoted the official as saying in condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"With a corridor to be opened from Turkey, there was a demand for this grain to reach their targeted markets. Negotiations are still ongoing," the person added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko reportedly said on Wednesday that Moscow was ready to provide a corridor for vessels carrying food in return for lifting of some Western sanctions.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Reuters, Turkey neighbours Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea and has good relations with both, even as it has condemned the invasion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been in touch with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and the European Union trying to broker what he calls a "package deal" to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, the news agency further reported.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, there are many hurdles to any deal, including Russian demands for some sanctions to be lifted in return, the drifting mines, and the prohibitive costs of insuring the maritime route, Reuters reported citing officials and analysts.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15083', 'image' => '20220526054353_wheat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:43:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15340', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cottage and Small Scale Industries Welcome Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During a recent programme, officials of the federation said that it is a positive thing to increase internal and external investment in productive sector with the slogan “Nepali Industries, Employment in Nepal: Our Product Our Business”. The federation also said that the package of entrepreneurship development, financial access, product marketing and export facilitation for small, cottage and medium enterprises also seems positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation is also hopeful that the policies and programmes will help in the promotion of local products by linking tourism as a dynamic dimension of the economy with all kinds of economic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation stated that strengths of the policies and programmes include building specialized skilled manpower as per the demand of the labor market, creating employment for the returnee migrant workers by conducting skill-based business, smoothing the supply chain, reducing external impact on the economy and implementing e-commerce system for market access of industrial products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In addition, it also mentioned that the provision of increasing exports by reducing production cost of manufacturing and export-oriented industries, facilitating the establishment and operation of startup based business based on innovation, involving the private sector in the construction of infrastructure such as industrial village, industrial zone, special economic zone were all positive steps.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the federation, the establishment of industries to produce supplementary materials of big foreign industries to give Nepali products exposure to the national, regional and international value chain is likely have a positive impact on the promotion and protection of domestic industries and manufactured goods. It added that it is a positive aspect to encourage the private sector to establish and operate productive industries by creating industry-friendly environment, improving business environment and increasing government’s investment in basic infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Supporting the policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year, the federation says that implementing the Farm to Industry Integrated Model Programme to link the products of agriculture, forest and mining sectors in industrial processing chain, developing agriculture as a major driving force for economic growth and employment, integrating cooperative sector with entrepreneurship, production and employment for economic development and poverty alleviation will have a positive impact in the overall economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation believes that the policy of facilitating credit flow to the productive and employment oriented sectors will easily increase the financial access of cottage and small scale entrepreneurs. According to the policy of reviewing the existing tax system to make it clean, transparent and investment and business friendly, it is necessary to review the tax system targeting business run by small, home-based, cottage and women entrepreneurs who were displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the federation said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation expects that the policies and programmes covered by the National Planning Commission will be implemented through the upcoming budget.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15082', 'image' => '20220526052559_service_1543560160.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:25:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15339', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Demands Lowering Tax on Petroleum Products', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry made such demand via a press statement on Wednesday. The statement issued by the association's president Subodh Kumar Gupta states that the prices have gone up due to the high tax imposed by the government and requested to provide relief to consumers by lowering the tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association made such demand calling the price hike nonsensical after the government increased the price of diesel and petrol by Rs 20 per liter in seven days. Even the price of cooking gas has been increased by Rs 200 per cylinder and is currently being sold for Rs 1,800 to the general public.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement also demands lowering the heavy burden put on the people by reducing the tax of Rs 10 per liter on petroleum products imposed in the name of construction of Budhigandaki Hydropower Project for the past few years besides reduction in the customs duty on petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the chamber has also drawn the attention to the protest organized by transporters demanding an increase in freight charge in proportion to the increase in fuel prices. The chamber has appealed to the truck dealers to resolve the issue through discussion rather than strike and protests on such a sensitive issue.</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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15081', 'image' => '20220526033804_petrol-pump.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 15:37:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15337', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Freight Service Suspended after Fuel Price Hike ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products. The freight service has been shut as the price hike in petroleum products has directly affected the business of transporters, according to the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">All kinds of transportation of goods have been suspended for the time being due to the failure in increasing the freight charge despite the sharp rise in prices of petroleum products, Vice-president of the association Pravin Kumar Karna said. </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"">At least 40 to 60 truckloads of retail goods used to be transported to different cities from Birgunj every day. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pesident of the association Bal Krishna Pokharel said that 46 retailers affiliated to the association have demanded adjustment in the transportation fare in accordance with the increased cost of petroleum products. Entrepreneurs have demanded timely increase in the freight service charge along with the increase in price of petroleum products.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15079', 'image' => '20220526011022_Birgunj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 13:09:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Student Unions Demand Immediate Withdrawal of Fuel Price Hike', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Student leaders affiliated to 13 different student unions jointly submitted the memo to the Industry Minister amid a recent function demanding the government to immediately revoke such decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the occasion, Minister Badu said that the government was not in a position to tell the Nepal Oil Corporation to reduce the fuel prices. He argued that the state-owned NOC was facing a fortnightly loss of Rs 6.71 billion and therefore it was not appropriate to tell the oil monopoly to lower the prices.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Minister Badu stated that the NOC is still bearing a loss of Rs 14.64 for selling a litre of petrol. Likewise, the loss incurred for the sale of a litre of diesel and a cylinder of cooking gas amounted to Rs 26.82 and Rs 879.75 respectively. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that it was the responsibility of the government to seek a solution to the current crisis after considering the situation of NOC and the world market, Minister Badu said that the government has been making efforts towards this end.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15077', 'image' => '20220525073044_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 19:30:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Welcomes Government Announcement to Observe ‘Domestic Poduction Decade’ ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) has expressed its gratitude to the government for its decision to announce a decade dedicated to promoting production and consumption of the domestic products, expressing its support to the implementation of the ‘Make in Nepal’ campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022-23 that were presented by the president before a joint session of the Federal Parliament on Tuesday stated that the upcoming decade would be observed as the decade of domestic production and consumption. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has pledged a subsidy in tax and customs duty for the production and supplies of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The confederation is hopeful the announcement would help in enabling the industrial atmosphere in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the announcements to facilitate in acquiring land for the establishment of industry, reviewing provisions for land ceiling, creating industry-friendly atmosphere and encouraging private sector for operating production-based industries suggested the government’s new policies and programmes are focused on the promotion of industrialization, according to CNI's assessment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The announcement to involve private sector in power trade is itself the encouragement to the private sector for its role in international power trade, the confederation said. It has, likewise, hailed the declaration to ensure power supply to private sector at a low tariff, to develop tourism as a means of earning foreign currency and to implement the Digital Nepal Framework. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has also welcomed the decision to recognise the contribution of remittance to nation’s economy, undertake large infrastructure projects on a public-private joint venture, make public expenditure result-oriented and increase the capital expenditure. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15076', 'image' => '20220525060916_make-in-nepal2021-03-09-06-26-08.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 18:08:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Repeats Policies and Programmes for Upcoming Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. The new policies and programmes presented in parliament by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on behalf of the government on Tuesday is nothing but the continuation of the policies and programmes of the previous government with some new programmes added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has given continuity to concept of operating railway and ship of the previous government, which it had earlier called a ‘pipedream’.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes state that the government will complete feasibility study of Rasuwagadi-Kathmandu railway and conduct detailed study of the Birgunj-Kathmandu and Kathmandu Valley Metro service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The prospects of water transport in Nepal's rivers will be identified and developed, said the president. The government also announced plans to build another 800 kilometers of roads and upgrade 257 kilometers next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes range from bringing a separate policy to increase capital spending to regulating social media and bringing it under the tax purview next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has already issued procedures to regulate social media, it has not been able to fully implement them. The government has tried to regulate advertisements on social media after a large amount of dollars started flowing out of Nepal. Some countries, including neighboring India, have formally registered social media in their countries and brought it under the purview of law and tax. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“In order to increase capital expenditure and facilitate the implementation of development projects, the concept of development including a result-based project management system will be implemented,” according to the policies and programmes unveiled on Tuesday. The government is planning to adopt a separate policy to address the trend of not spending the capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has also put forward a programme to evaluate the sovereign credit of the country within the next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The annual policies and programmes also includes the implementation projects that can transform the overall structure of the economy. Similarly, agriculture, transport, energy, tourism and information technology are considered as the drivers of economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes also mentioned that the value of land will be determined by scientific method after developing an integrated land valuation system based on geographical information. As per the new policies and programmes, arrangements will be made to trade real estate only from specialized institutions. Arrangements will also be made to avail basic services related to land revenue online from the local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has announced the ‘Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Campaign Decade’ in order to expand the market and increase the consumption of Nepali products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We will start a campaign to uplift the economy by increasing domestic and foreign investment in productive sectors with comparative advantage, innovation in small and medium enterprises, market expansion of Nepali products and increase in production and consumption, import substitution and export promotion,” said President Bhandari. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">To make this campaign a success, the Prime Minister Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Programme will be launched and it will be promoted through tax and customs duty exemption and export subsidy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will take industrial promotion policy to develop a green economy through energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to review the existing tax system next year. The government is preparing to bring in a budget to replace the import-dependent tax system by domestic production. Accordingly, a review of the tax system has been announced in the policies and programmes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will also formulate necessary policies and criteria to facilitate revenue mobilisation at the local level. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the concept of digital banking, the national payment system will be strengthened and all financial transactions will be done through electronic means. For the first time, the government is planning to set up a ‘Market and Trade Intelligence’ bureau for international trade information. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of Gautam Buddha International Stadium at Chitwan will also be undertaken by the government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, it is also mentioned that the government will set up its own satellite and state-of-the-art security printing press. The current government has announced plans to move ahead with both the projects which were in dispute over irregularities during the previous CPN-UML-led government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government will give priority to agriculture and bring irrigation facilities in the coming FY, President Bhandari said that the government has adopted a policy to provide irrigation facilities to 22,200 hectares of land, along with the construction as well as maintenance of large and branch canals. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15075', 'image' => '20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 15:47:25', '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
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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"">May 27: A meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today passed the Policies and Programmes of the Government by overwhelming majority. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had presented the government's policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022/23 for endorsement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Before the endorsement of the policies and programmes, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, replied to the questions raised in course of the deliberations on the document. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Majority of National Assembly members rejected the proposal for amendment to the policies and programmes . </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Lawmakers Dr Bedu Ram Bhusal, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Dr Bimala Rai Poudyal, Bhairav Sundar Shrestha, Devendra Dahal and Bhagawati Neupane had sought clarifications on the government's policy. In reply, Minister Koirala said all the queries are obvious and the government has kept production and processing of herbs in priority. This topic would be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made it clear that since the price of petroleum products fluctuated due to the impact of the international market, the government did not have control over the prices as such. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Regarding the clarification related to the topic of Nijgadh International Airport, he said more cannot be said on this topic as the full text of the Supreme Court's verdict is not yet available. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly held deliberations on the policies and programmes of the government on Thursday and Friday before endorsing it. President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the government's policies and programmes in a joint session of the Federal Parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairman Timilsina directed the lawmakers to be seated in the Federal Parliament's assembly hall 15 minutes before 4 pm on May 29, when the budget for the next fiscal year is to be presented before the joint session of the Federal Parliament. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly will next meet at 3 pm on May 29. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15091', 'image' => '20220527055544_20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 17:54:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15348', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Unimpressed by Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. They said that there is no concrete policy for the tourism sector, which was most affected by the Covid-19 and has been clawing back to normalcy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government, which made the policies and programmes public on Tuesday, is releasing the budget for the next fiscal year on May 29. Binayak Shah, senior vice president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), shared that the budget is expected to have a concrete and landmark programme for tourism. "The tourism sector is still not in a normal state," Shah said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, he said that since the budget will come in a few days, we will have to wait and see what kind of programmes will be included in it. The ' Visit Nepal 2020' campaign announced by the government in 2020 was postponed but never implemented. In the context that the tourism year was postponed due to Covid-19, it is necessary to re-announce such big events, said Shah. He stressed that the government should announce a big event for the revival of tourism in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"Preparations for the tourism year can still be made active," Shah said. "Let's announce a big event in the budget, let's give half a year to prepare."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nepal Tourism Board Deepak Raj Joshi, who is also a founding member of the World Tourism Network, has a similar view. He also said that a big event is needed to revive the tourism sector and give impetus to it. Joshi said that the upcoming budget should announce a big program like the postponed Visit Nepal Year 2020 so that it can be implemented within a year and a half.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the tourism sector is not a business that can be run on its own, he said that it can only move forward by linking tourism in a multi-faceted way.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15090', 'image' => '20220527043635_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 16:35:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15347', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Co-operatives must Ensure 51 Percent Credit Flow to Productive Sector', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing the Unified Directive-2079 on Thursday, the department directed co-operatives to categorize the loans on the basis of sectors and disburse at least 51 percent of the total loan in production and income-generating businesses. The co-operatives are not allowed to operate hydropower projects, hospitals, schools, campuses, hotels, petrol pumps and other projects without mentioning them in their statute. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive mentions that the members of co-operatives will not be allowed to invest their savings and the outstanding loan flow should not exceed 5 percent of the total assets. The directive also stipulates that the elected or nominated public office bearers directly involved in the registration and regulation of co-operatives or the employees working in the government bodies, state government or local level offices cannot be elected or nominated in the Board of Directors or Accounts Supervision Committee of the co-operatives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department also instructed to make arrangements for immediate resignation from such posts by government employees and the vacant posts should be filled in the upcoming general assembly through by-elections.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the then registrar of the department Jhalakaram Adhikari had issued an 88-point Unified Directives on February 13. Three months later, Registrar Rudra Prasad Pandit reissued the directives. The new directives were reduced to 35 points. However, the new directives cover most of the old issues.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Registrar Pandit claimed that the new directives had to be issued as the previous directives were not clear. He said, “Earlier, it was found that the directives were issued hastily without the consent of the ministry. Due to this, precise and clear instructions were issued again to facilitate their implementation.”</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' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15089', 'image' => '20220527035902_Cooperative dept.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 15:58:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15346', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Transportation of Retail Goods Halted in Birgunj since 3 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week. They stopped transportation for three days demanding adjustment of fare due to increase in the price of diesel. Chairman of the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj Bal Krishna Pokharel said that the goods to be transported from Birgunj to Kathmandu and other major cities of the country have not been booked due to the protest. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Until now, we were transporting goods at Rs 3.75 per kg to Rs 4 per kg. With the rise in the price of petroleum products, this amount is not enough to pay the truck fare,” Chairman Pokharel said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Retailers carry 10 metric tons of goods in 6 wheelers. At the rate of Rs 4 per kg, the fare from Birgunj to Kathmandu is Rs 40,000. According to Pokharel, the traders now cannot transport the goods as the cost alone has reached Rs 40,000. Transport entrepreneurs have been running their business by renting trucks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Transport businessmen say that the fare should be at least Rs 50,000, including the expenses for loading and unloading, warehouse, and office operation. They say that the expenses can be covered if the fare is at least Rs 5 per kg.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite some traders offering to pay the fares with adjustments, the transport entrepreneurs are seeking assurance from the state officials. The transport businessmen demanded that the fare should be adjusted in the presence of the local administration or traders' organization.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pokharel complained that the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry had promised to take the initiative but no discussion has been initiated till date. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15088', 'image' => '20220527022218_Birgunjjjj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 14:21:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15345', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Orders Govt to Halt Construction of Nijgadh International Airport ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. </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"">Responding to a writ petition filed against the construction of the airport, a full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakashman Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma issued such order on Thursday (May 26). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The mandamus order of the apex court has instructed the government to revoke all the decisions taken in regard to the construction of the airport till date and seek an alternative to the airport.</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"">Supreme Court’s Spokesperson Bimal Poudel confirmed that the apex court has revoked all the decisions taken by the government for the construction of the airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“The Supreme Court has ordered the government to seek an alternative to the airport. That means the government has to seek another site for the construction of the airport by taking into consideration the environment impact assessment and existing laws,” said Poudel, adding, “The bench has annulled all the earlier decisions taken regarding the EIA .”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year had mentioned that it would finalize the modality of investment and construction of the airport. Three days after the announcement, the Supreme Court ordered the government not to construct the airport. </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"">This is the final verdict in a case filed by senior advocate Prakash Mani Sharma and Ranjuhajur Pandey two years ago.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dispute over the construction of airport had surfaced over the felling of trees. </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"">In the writ petition, the petitioners had demanded that the construction be stopped since the construction there would cause massive destruction of trees. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), which was undertaking the project, has said it will respect the decision of the apex court.</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"">Spokesperson of CAAN Dev Chandra Lal Karn said that the Supreme Court verdict has effectively closed the chapter of this airport.</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"">“We have to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. We will seek other alternatives after receiving the full text of the court verdict,” said Karn.</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"">Infrastructure experts as well as politicians have expressed displeasure over the decision of the apex court. </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"">Former Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai has termed the court’s verdict as a regressive step. In a Twitter post, Bhattarai also urged the justices to reconsider their decision.</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"">“This is a blatant intervention in a project considered as the game changer of the aviation sector of Nepal. The respected justices need to correct this decision,” he wrote on Twitter.</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"">Responding to Bhattarai’s Twitter post, infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya has also expressed his reservations towards the SC decision.</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"">Former Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa also took to Twitter saying that the decision was “inappropriate and unfortunate”. </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"">UML leader Pradeep Gyawali also criticized the order.</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, former Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal said sarcastically “A country like Switzerland with an area of 41,285 sq km has 7 international airports. Why does a small country like ours with an area of 147,516 sq km need 4 international airports?”</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"">Nevertheless, there are also a section of people who have expressed happiness over the SC verdict.</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"">“You didn’t believe when I said an airport cannot be built on the basis of a fake EIA. Now I’m sorry for those who bought land,” wrote a Twitter handler.</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"">Save Nijgadh Campain’s Kashish Das Shrestha said that the SC verdict was a big news for protection of Nijgadh from environmental point of view.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had started construction works of the airport in FY 2072/73 almost two decades after conducting a study. Informed sources said that the government has so far invested Rs 1.11 billion for the project.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15087', 'image' => '20220527124927_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:48:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15344', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Department of Passport to Remain Open on Sunday', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 27: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department took such decision on Wednesday in line with the government's policies and programmes of providing electronic passport in an easy manner. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department claimed it will provide passports to the service-seekers in an easy and smooth manner by operating services even during a public holiday in view of the increasing number of service seekers visiting the department. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department said that it will be open from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday every week from May 29 onwards until an alternative arrangement is made. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15086', 'image' => '20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:07:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15343', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper House begins Deliberations on Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for the upcoming 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 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for 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"">President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the policies and programmes of the government for the new fiscal year during a joint session of parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Govinda Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, proposed during Thursday’s meeting to hold discussions on the government's new policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking part in the deliberations, National Assembly members Bhairab Sundar Shrestha, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Bhagawati Neupane and Bimala Ghimire proposed amendments to the policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The MPs raised concerns regarding ‘one household, one tap’ programme announced by the government stating that although it assures drinking water supply to over 460,000 people, the quality of water supply was doubtful.</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"">“People need pure drinking water and we want the government to clarify who are its target groups for high standard water and who are the ones for the medium standard water,” RSS quoted the MPs as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They alleged the recent local level election was held in an unjust way despite the government claiming it to be peaceful, RSS further reported. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They also sought amendments to the government's decision to exclude over 1,400 road projects introduced by the previous government. The deliberations will continue during the next meeting of upper house. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15085', 'image' => '20220527120236_nepal-parl.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15342', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Export of Soybean Oil Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. Exports of refined soybean oil have been particularly affected since last April due to the competition of Nepali exporters with other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Refined soybean oil worth Rs 5.17 billion was being exported from Nepal to India per month until mid-March. But the export of soybean oil as shrunk to Rs 2 billion per month since April. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data of the Department of Customs, refined soybean oil worth Rs 4.54 billion was exported to India between mid-February to mid-March. However, soybean oil worth Rs 1.90 billion was exported in between mid-March to mid-April while the export during mid-April to mid-May was worth Rs 2.04 billion. Refined soybean oil is the major export product of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, India used to charge up to 45 percent customs duty for the import of soybean oil. However, as Nepal is a SAARC member country, it enjoyed duty-free access to the Indian market. That is the reason why Indian businessmen had been buying soybean oil from Nepal, which was available at a relatively cheaper rate compared to that of other countries. Operator of OCB Foods Suresh Rungta says that the exports from Nepal have been affected after India reduced the customs duty recently. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, India has announced zero customs duty on soybean oil effective from Wednesday. Now, the import of soybean oil from other countries will no longer be subject to customs duty. In such case, Rungata says that the exports from Nepal would be further affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We import raw materials from third countries and export refined oil after processing. Doing so is more expensive here than in other countries," he said, "In such a case, it would be cheaper for Indian businessmen to import oil from a third country than from Nepal. As a result, our soybean oil exports will be affected."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Overall, exports of refined soybean oil have increased by about 27 percent by mid-April. According to the data, soybean oil exports amounted to Rs 45.35 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, which is Rs 9.59 billion more than last fiscal year. In the corresponding period of the previous year, soybean oil exports stood at Rs 35.75 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepali businessmen have been importing crude soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia and Ukraine. It is being exported to India by adding up to 30 percent value addition after processing. Soybean oil is also widely consumed in Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prior to this, refined palm oil was Nepal's main export item. However, soybean oil became the first-choice export item after India banned its import in the fiscal year 2077/78. Regardless of this, palm oil is being exported from Nepal after India lifted the ban on palm oil imports. At present, palm oil is the second largest export item. During this period, palm oil export amounted to Rs 14.78 billion. </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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15084', 'image' => '20220526065642_istockphoto-1172450074-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 18:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15341', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Turkey Negotiating with Russia, Ukraine for Grain-Export Corridor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the news agency, Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia invaded the former Soviet Union nation on February 24 and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos there.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies and the lack of exports from Ukraine is contributing to a growing global food crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Turkey is negotiating with both Russia and Ukraine for the export of grains from Ukraine," Reuters quoted the official as saying in condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"With a corridor to be opened from Turkey, there was a demand for this grain to reach their targeted markets. Negotiations are still ongoing," the person added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko reportedly said on Wednesday that Moscow was ready to provide a corridor for vessels carrying food in return for lifting of some Western sanctions.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Reuters, Turkey neighbours Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea and has good relations with both, even as it has condemned the invasion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been in touch with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and the European Union trying to broker what he calls a "package deal" to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, the news agency further reported.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, there are many hurdles to any deal, including Russian demands for some sanctions to be lifted in return, the drifting mines, and the prohibitive costs of insuring the maritime route, Reuters reported citing officials and analysts.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15083', 'image' => '20220526054353_wheat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:43:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15340', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cottage and Small Scale Industries Welcome Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During a recent programme, officials of the federation said that it is a positive thing to increase internal and external investment in productive sector with the slogan “Nepali Industries, Employment in Nepal: Our Product Our Business”. The federation also said that the package of entrepreneurship development, financial access, product marketing and export facilitation for small, cottage and medium enterprises also seems positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation is also hopeful that the policies and programmes will help in the promotion of local products by linking tourism as a dynamic dimension of the economy with all kinds of economic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation stated that strengths of the policies and programmes include building specialized skilled manpower as per the demand of the labor market, creating employment for the returnee migrant workers by conducting skill-based business, smoothing the supply chain, reducing external impact on the economy and implementing e-commerce system for market access of industrial products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In addition, it also mentioned that the provision of increasing exports by reducing production cost of manufacturing and export-oriented industries, facilitating the establishment and operation of startup based business based on innovation, involving the private sector in the construction of infrastructure such as industrial village, industrial zone, special economic zone were all positive steps.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the federation, the establishment of industries to produce supplementary materials of big foreign industries to give Nepali products exposure to the national, regional and international value chain is likely have a positive impact on the promotion and protection of domestic industries and manufactured goods. It added that it is a positive aspect to encourage the private sector to establish and operate productive industries by creating industry-friendly environment, improving business environment and increasing government’s investment in basic infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Supporting the policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year, the federation says that implementing the Farm to Industry Integrated Model Programme to link the products of agriculture, forest and mining sectors in industrial processing chain, developing agriculture as a major driving force for economic growth and employment, integrating cooperative sector with entrepreneurship, production and employment for economic development and poverty alleviation will have a positive impact in the overall economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation believes that the policy of facilitating credit flow to the productive and employment oriented sectors will easily increase the financial access of cottage and small scale entrepreneurs. According to the policy of reviewing the existing tax system to make it clean, transparent and investment and business friendly, it is necessary to review the tax system targeting business run by small, home-based, cottage and women entrepreneurs who were displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the federation said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation expects that the policies and programmes covered by the National Planning Commission will be implemented through the upcoming budget.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15082', 'image' => '20220526052559_service_1543560160.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:25:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15339', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Demands Lowering Tax on Petroleum Products', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry made such demand via a press statement on Wednesday. The statement issued by the association's president Subodh Kumar Gupta states that the prices have gone up due to the high tax imposed by the government and requested to provide relief to consumers by lowering the tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association made such demand calling the price hike nonsensical after the government increased the price of diesel and petrol by Rs 20 per liter in seven days. Even the price of cooking gas has been increased by Rs 200 per cylinder and is currently being sold for Rs 1,800 to the general public.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement also demands lowering the heavy burden put on the people by reducing the tax of Rs 10 per liter on petroleum products imposed in the name of construction of Budhigandaki Hydropower Project for the past few years besides reduction in the customs duty on petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the chamber has also drawn the attention to the protest organized by transporters demanding an increase in freight charge in proportion to the increase in fuel prices. The chamber has appealed to the truck dealers to resolve the issue through discussion rather than strike and protests on such a sensitive issue.</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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15081', 'image' => '20220526033804_petrol-pump.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 15:37:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15337', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Freight Service Suspended after Fuel Price Hike ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products. The freight service has been shut as the price hike in petroleum products has directly affected the business of transporters, according to the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">All kinds of transportation of goods have been suspended for the time being due to the failure in increasing the freight charge despite the sharp rise in prices of petroleum products, Vice-president of the association Pravin Kumar Karna said. </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"">At least 40 to 60 truckloads of retail goods used to be transported to different cities from Birgunj every day. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pesident of the association Bal Krishna Pokharel said that 46 retailers affiliated to the association have demanded adjustment in the transportation fare in accordance with the increased cost of petroleum products. Entrepreneurs have demanded timely increase in the freight service charge along with the increase in price of petroleum products.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15079', 'image' => '20220526011022_Birgunj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 13:09:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Student Unions Demand Immediate Withdrawal of Fuel Price Hike', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Student leaders affiliated to 13 different student unions jointly submitted the memo to the Industry Minister amid a recent function demanding the government to immediately revoke such decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the occasion, Minister Badu said that the government was not in a position to tell the Nepal Oil Corporation to reduce the fuel prices. He argued that the state-owned NOC was facing a fortnightly loss of Rs 6.71 billion and therefore it was not appropriate to tell the oil monopoly to lower the prices.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Minister Badu stated that the NOC is still bearing a loss of Rs 14.64 for selling a litre of petrol. Likewise, the loss incurred for the sale of a litre of diesel and a cylinder of cooking gas amounted to Rs 26.82 and Rs 879.75 respectively. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that it was the responsibility of the government to seek a solution to the current crisis after considering the situation of NOC and the world market, Minister Badu said that the government has been making efforts towards this end.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15077', 'image' => '20220525073044_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 19:30:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Welcomes Government Announcement to Observe ‘Domestic Poduction Decade’ ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) has expressed its gratitude to the government for its decision to announce a decade dedicated to promoting production and consumption of the domestic products, expressing its support to the implementation of the ‘Make in Nepal’ campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022-23 that were presented by the president before a joint session of the Federal Parliament on Tuesday stated that the upcoming decade would be observed as the decade of domestic production and consumption. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has pledged a subsidy in tax and customs duty for the production and supplies of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The confederation is hopeful the announcement would help in enabling the industrial atmosphere in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the announcements to facilitate in acquiring land for the establishment of industry, reviewing provisions for land ceiling, creating industry-friendly atmosphere and encouraging private sector for operating production-based industries suggested the government’s new policies and programmes are focused on the promotion of industrialization, according to CNI's assessment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The announcement to involve private sector in power trade is itself the encouragement to the private sector for its role in international power trade, the confederation said. It has, likewise, hailed the declaration to ensure power supply to private sector at a low tariff, to develop tourism as a means of earning foreign currency and to implement the Digital Nepal Framework. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has also welcomed the decision to recognise the contribution of remittance to nation’s economy, undertake large infrastructure projects on a public-private joint venture, make public expenditure result-oriented and increase the capital expenditure. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15076', 'image' => '20220525060916_make-in-nepal2021-03-09-06-26-08.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 18:08:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Repeats Policies and Programmes for Upcoming Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. The new policies and programmes presented in parliament by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on behalf of the government on Tuesday is nothing but the continuation of the policies and programmes of the previous government with some new programmes added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has given continuity to concept of operating railway and ship of the previous government, which it had earlier called a ‘pipedream’.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes state that the government will complete feasibility study of Rasuwagadi-Kathmandu railway and conduct detailed study of the Birgunj-Kathmandu and Kathmandu Valley Metro service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The prospects of water transport in Nepal's rivers will be identified and developed, said the president. The government also announced plans to build another 800 kilometers of roads and upgrade 257 kilometers next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes range from bringing a separate policy to increase capital spending to regulating social media and bringing it under the tax purview next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has already issued procedures to regulate social media, it has not been able to fully implement them. The government has tried to regulate advertisements on social media after a large amount of dollars started flowing out of Nepal. Some countries, including neighboring India, have formally registered social media in their countries and brought it under the purview of law and tax. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“In order to increase capital expenditure and facilitate the implementation of development projects, the concept of development including a result-based project management system will be implemented,” according to the policies and programmes unveiled on Tuesday. The government is planning to adopt a separate policy to address the trend of not spending the capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has also put forward a programme to evaluate the sovereign credit of the country within the next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The annual policies and programmes also includes the implementation projects that can transform the overall structure of the economy. Similarly, agriculture, transport, energy, tourism and information technology are considered as the drivers of economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes also mentioned that the value of land will be determined by scientific method after developing an integrated land valuation system based on geographical information. As per the new policies and programmes, arrangements will be made to trade real estate only from specialized institutions. Arrangements will also be made to avail basic services related to land revenue online from the local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has announced the ‘Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Campaign Decade’ in order to expand the market and increase the consumption of Nepali products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We will start a campaign to uplift the economy by increasing domestic and foreign investment in productive sectors with comparative advantage, innovation in small and medium enterprises, market expansion of Nepali products and increase in production and consumption, import substitution and export promotion,” said President Bhandari. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">To make this campaign a success, the Prime Minister Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Programme will be launched and it will be promoted through tax and customs duty exemption and export subsidy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will take industrial promotion policy to develop a green economy through energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to review the existing tax system next year. The government is preparing to bring in a budget to replace the import-dependent tax system by domestic production. Accordingly, a review of the tax system has been announced in the policies and programmes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will also formulate necessary policies and criteria to facilitate revenue mobilisation at the local level. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the concept of digital banking, the national payment system will be strengthened and all financial transactions will be done through electronic means. For the first time, the government is planning to set up a ‘Market and Trade Intelligence’ bureau for international trade information. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of Gautam Buddha International Stadium at Chitwan will also be undertaken by the government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, it is also mentioned that the government will set up its own satellite and state-of-the-art security printing press. The current government has announced plans to move ahead with both the projects which were in dispute over irregularities during the previous CPN-UML-led government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government will give priority to agriculture and bring irrigation facilities in the coming FY, President Bhandari said that the government has adopted a policy to provide irrigation facilities to 22,200 hectares of land, along with the construction as well as maintenance of large and branch canals. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15075', 'image' => '20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 15:47:25', '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"">May 27: A meeting of the National Assembly (NA) today passed the Policies and Programmes of the Government by overwhelming majority. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina had presented the government's policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022/23 for endorsement. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Before the endorsement of the policies and programmes, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs Govinda Prasad Sharma Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, replied to the questions raised in course of the deliberations on the document. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Majority of National Assembly members rejected the proposal for amendment to the policies and programmes . </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Lawmakers Dr Bedu Ram Bhusal, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Dr Bimala Rai Poudyal, Bhairav Sundar Shrestha, Devendra Dahal and Bhagawati Neupane had sought clarifications on the government's policy. In reply, Minister Koirala said all the queries are obvious and the government has kept production and processing of herbs in priority. This topic would be included in the budget for the next fiscal year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">He made it clear that since the price of petroleum products fluctuated due to the impact of the international market, the government did not have control over the prices as such. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Regarding the clarification related to the topic of Nijgadh International Airport, he said more cannot be said on this topic as the full text of the Supreme Court's verdict is not yet available. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly held deliberations on the policies and programmes of the government on Thursday and Friday before endorsing it. President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the government's policies and programmes in a joint session of the Federal Parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Chairman Timilsina directed the lawmakers to be seated in the Federal Parliament's assembly hall 15 minutes before 4 pm on May 29, when the budget for the next fiscal year is to be presented before the joint session of the Federal Parliament. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The National Assembly will next meet at 3 pm on May 29. -- RSS </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15091', 'image' => '20220527055544_20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 17:54:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15348', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Tourism Entrepreneurs Unimpressed by Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Tourism stakeholders have stated that they are not much impressed by the policies and programmes made public by the government for the upcoming fiscal year. They said that there is no concrete policy for the tourism sector, which was most affected by the Covid-19 and has been clawing back to normalcy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government, which made the policies and programmes public on Tuesday, is releasing the budget for the next fiscal year on May 29. Binayak Shah, senior vice president of the Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), shared that the budget is expected to have a concrete and landmark programme for tourism. "The tourism sector is still not in a normal state," Shah said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">However, he said that since the budget will come in a few days, we will have to wait and see what kind of programmes will be included in it. The ' Visit Nepal 2020' campaign announced by the government in 2020 was postponed but never implemented. In the context that the tourism year was postponed due to Covid-19, it is necessary to re-announce such big events, said Shah. He stressed that the government should announce a big event for the revival of tourism in the new budget.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"Preparations for the tourism year can still be made active," Shah said. "Let's announce a big event in the budget, let's give half a year to prepare."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nepal Tourism Board Deepak Raj Joshi, who is also a founding member of the World Tourism Network, has a similar view. He also said that a big event is needed to revive the tourism sector and give impetus to it. Joshi said that the upcoming budget should announce a big program like the postponed Visit Nepal Year 2020 so that it can be implemented within a year and a half.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the tourism sector is not a business that can be run on its own, he said that it can only move forward by linking tourism in a multi-faceted way.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15090', 'image' => '20220527043635_Tourist.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 16:35:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15347', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Co-operatives must Ensure 51 Percent Credit Flow to Productive Sector', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: At a time when the co-operatives are being criticized for investing in unproductive sectors including real estate, the Department of Co-operatives of the federal government has directed the cooperatives to channel 51 percent of their total credit to the productive sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Issuing the Unified Directive-2079 on Thursday, the department directed co-operatives to categorize the loans on the basis of sectors and disburse at least 51 percent of the total loan in production and income-generating businesses. The co-operatives are not allowed to operate hydropower projects, hospitals, schools, campuses, hotels, petrol pumps and other projects without mentioning them in their statute. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The directive mentions that the members of co-operatives will not be allowed to invest their savings and the outstanding loan flow should not exceed 5 percent of the total assets. The directive also stipulates that the elected or nominated public office bearers directly involved in the registration and regulation of co-operatives or the employees working in the government bodies, state government or local level offices cannot be elected or nominated in the Board of Directors or Accounts Supervision Committee of the co-operatives.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The department also instructed to make arrangements for immediate resignation from such posts by government employees and the vacant posts should be filled in the upcoming general assembly through by-elections.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, the then registrar of the department Jhalakaram Adhikari had issued an 88-point Unified Directives on February 13. Three months later, Registrar Rudra Prasad Pandit reissued the directives. The new directives were reduced to 35 points. However, the new directives cover most of the old issues.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Registrar Pandit claimed that the new directives had to be issued as the previous directives were not clear. He said, “Earlier, it was found that the directives were issued hastily without the consent of the ministry. Due to this, precise and clear instructions were issued again to facilitate their implementation.”</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' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15089', 'image' => '20220527035902_Cooperative dept.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 15:58:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15346', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Transportation of Retail Goods Halted in Birgunj since 3 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 27: Transport entrepreneurs of Birgunj have halted transportation service after the price of petroleum products went up twice in just a week. They stopped transportation for three days demanding adjustment of fare due to increase in the price of diesel. Chairman of the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj Bal Krishna Pokharel said that the goods to be transported from Birgunj to Kathmandu and other major cities of the country have not been booked due to the protest. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“Until now, we were transporting goods at Rs 3.75 per kg to Rs 4 per kg. With the rise in the price of petroleum products, this amount is not enough to pay the truck fare,” Chairman Pokharel said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Retailers carry 10 metric tons of goods in 6 wheelers. At the rate of Rs 4 per kg, the fare from Birgunj to Kathmandu is Rs 40,000. According to Pokharel, the traders now cannot transport the goods as the cost alone has reached Rs 40,000. Transport entrepreneurs have been running their business by renting trucks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Transport businessmen say that the fare should be at least Rs 50,000, including the expenses for loading and unloading, warehouse, and office operation. They say that the expenses can be covered if the fare is at least Rs 5 per kg.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Despite some traders offering to pay the fares with adjustments, the transport entrepreneurs are seeking assurance from the state officials. The transport businessmen demanded that the fare should be adjusted in the presence of the local administration or traders' organization.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Pokharel complained that the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry had promised to take the initiative but no discussion has been initiated till date. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15088', 'image' => '20220527022218_Birgunjjjj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 14:21:35', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15345', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Orders Govt to Halt Construction of Nijgadh International Airport ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 27: International Airport for which the government has already spent more than Rs 1.11 billion in the last three decades. </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"">Responding to a writ petition filed against the construction of the airport, a full bench of Justices Hari Krishna Karki, Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Prakashman Singh Raut and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma issued such order on Thursday (May 26). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The mandamus order of the apex court has instructed the government to revoke all the decisions taken in regard to the construction of the airport till date and seek an alternative to the airport.</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"">Supreme Court’s Spokesperson Bimal Poudel confirmed that the apex court has revoked all the decisions taken by the government for the construction of the airport. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">“The Supreme Court has ordered the government to seek an alternative to the airport. That means the government has to seek another site for the construction of the airport by taking into consideration the environment impact assessment and existing laws,” said Poudel, adding, “The bench has annulled all the earlier decisions taken regarding the EIA .”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year had mentioned that it would finalize the modality of investment and construction of the airport. Three days after the announcement, the Supreme Court ordered the government not to construct the airport. </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"">This is the final verdict in a case filed by senior advocate Prakash Mani Sharma and Ranjuhajur Pandey two years ago.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The dispute over the construction of airport had surfaced over the felling of trees. </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"">In the writ petition, the petitioners had demanded that the construction be stopped since the construction there would cause massive destruction of trees. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), which was undertaking the project, has said it will respect the decision of the apex court.</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"">Spokesperson of CAAN Dev Chandra Lal Karn said that the Supreme Court verdict has effectively closed the chapter of this airport.</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"">“We have to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. We will seek other alternatives after receiving the full text of the court verdict,” said Karn.</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"">Infrastructure experts as well as politicians have expressed displeasure over the decision of the apex court. </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"">Former Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai has termed the court’s verdict as a regressive step. In a Twitter post, Bhattarai also urged the justices to reconsider their decision.</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"">“This is a blatant intervention in a project considered as the game changer of the aviation sector of Nepal. The respected justices need to correct this decision,” he wrote on Twitter.</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"">Responding to Bhattarai’s Twitter post, infrastructure expert Surya Raj Acharya has also expressed his reservations towards the SC decision.</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"">Former Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa also took to Twitter saying that the decision was “inappropriate and unfortunate”. </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"">UML leader Pradeep Gyawali also criticized the order.</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, former Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal said sarcastically “A country like Switzerland with an area of 41,285 sq km has 7 international airports. Why does a small country like ours with an area of 147,516 sq km need 4 international airports?”</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"">Nevertheless, there are also a section of people who have expressed happiness over the SC verdict.</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"">“You didn’t believe when I said an airport cannot be built on the basis of a fake EIA. Now I’m sorry for those who bought land,” wrote a Twitter handler.</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"">Save Nijgadh Campain’s Kashish Das Shrestha said that the SC verdict was a big news for protection of Nijgadh from environmental point of view.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government had started construction works of the airport in FY 2072/73 almost two decades after conducting a study. Informed sources said that the government has so far invested Rs 1.11 billion for the project.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15087', 'image' => '20220527124927_Supreme Court.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:48:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15344', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Department of Passport to Remain Open on Sunday', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 27: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Department of Passport under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to provide services on Sunday even though it is a public holiday. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department took such decision on Wednesday in line with the government's policies and programmes of providing electronic passport in an easy manner. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department claimed it will provide passports to the service-seekers in an easy and smooth manner by operating services even during a public holiday in view of the increasing number of service seekers visiting the department. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The department said that it will be open from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday every week from May 29 onwards until an alternative arrangement is made. -- RSS</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15086', 'image' => '20220527120844_Consular-6_consular.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:07:51', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15343', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Upper House begins Deliberations on Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for the upcoming 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 27: The National Assembly has started deliberations on the government's policies and programmes for 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"">President Bidya Devi Bhandari had presented the policies and programmes of the government for the new fiscal year during a joint session of parliament on May 24. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Govinda Koirala, on behalf of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, proposed during Thursday’s meeting to hold discussions on the government's new policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Taking part in the deliberations, National Assembly members Bhairab Sundar Shrestha, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Bhagawati Neupane and Bimala Ghimire proposed amendments to the policies and programmes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The MPs raised concerns regarding ‘one household, one tap’ programme announced by the government stating that although it assures drinking water supply to over 460,000 people, the quality of water supply was doubtful.</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"">“People need pure drinking water and we want the government to clarify who are its target groups for high standard water and who are the ones for the medium standard water,” RSS quoted the MPs as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They alleged the recent local level election was held in an unjust way despite the government claiming it to be peaceful, RSS further reported. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">They also sought amendments to the government's decision to exclude over 1,400 road projects introduced by the previous government. The deliberations will continue during the next meeting of upper house. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-27', 'modified' => '2022-05-27', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15085', 'image' => '20220527120236_nepal-parl.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-27 12:01:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15342', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Export of Soybean Oil Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The export of soybean oil from Nepal has been affected after India reduced the customs duty on the oil imported from abroad. Exports of refined soybean oil have been particularly affected since last April due to the competition of Nepali exporters with other countries.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Refined soybean oil worth Rs 5.17 billion was being exported from Nepal to India per month until mid-March. But the export of soybean oil as shrunk to Rs 2 billion per month since April. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the data of the Department of Customs, refined soybean oil worth Rs 4.54 billion was exported to India between mid-February to mid-March. However, soybean oil worth Rs 1.90 billion was exported in between mid-March to mid-April while the export during mid-April to mid-May was worth Rs 2.04 billion. Refined soybean oil is the major export product of Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Earlier, India used to charge up to 45 percent customs duty for the import of soybean oil. However, as Nepal is a SAARC member country, it enjoyed duty-free access to the Indian market. That is the reason why Indian businessmen had been buying soybean oil from Nepal, which was available at a relatively cheaper rate compared to that of other countries. Operator of OCB Foods Suresh Rungta says that the exports from Nepal have been affected after India reduced the customs duty recently. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to him, India has announced zero customs duty on soybean oil effective from Wednesday. Now, the import of soybean oil from other countries will no longer be subject to customs duty. In such case, Rungata says that the exports from Nepal would be further affected. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">"We import raw materials from third countries and export refined oil after processing. Doing so is more expensive here than in other countries," he said, "In such a case, it would be cheaper for Indian businessmen to import oil from a third country than from Nepal. As a result, our soybean oil exports will be affected."</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Overall, exports of refined soybean oil have increased by about 27 percent by mid-April. According to the data, soybean oil exports amounted to Rs 45.35 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, which is Rs 9.59 billion more than last fiscal year. In the corresponding period of the previous year, soybean oil exports stood at Rs 35.75 billion. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Nepali businessmen have been importing crude soybean oil from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Indonesia and Ukraine. It is being exported to India by adding up to 30 percent value addition after processing. Soybean oil is also widely consumed in Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Prior to this, refined palm oil was Nepal's main export item. However, soybean oil became the first-choice export item after India banned its import in the fiscal year 2077/78. Regardless of this, palm oil is being exported from Nepal after India lifted the ban on palm oil imports. At present, palm oil is the second largest export item. During this period, palm oil export amounted to Rs 14.78 billion. </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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15084', 'image' => '20220526065642_istockphoto-1172450074-612x612.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 18:55:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15341', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Turkey Negotiating with Russia, Ukraine for Grain-Export Corridor', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">May 26: NATO member Turkey is in negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to the news agency, Ukraine's Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia invaded the former Soviet Union nation on February 24 and more than 20 million tonnes of grain are stuck in silos there.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies and the lack of exports from Ukraine is contributing to a growing global food crisis.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"Turkey is negotiating with both Russia and Ukraine for the export of grains from Ukraine," Reuters quoted the official as saying in condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">"With a corridor to be opened from Turkey, there was a demand for this grain to reach their targeted markets. Negotiations are still ongoing," the person added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko reportedly said on Wednesday that Moscow was ready to provide a corridor for vessels carrying food in return for lifting of some Western sanctions.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">According to Reuters, Turkey neighbours Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea and has good relations with both, even as it has condemned the invasion.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been in touch with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and the European Union trying to broker what he calls a "package deal" to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, the news agency further reported.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""><span style="font-size:15.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">However, there are many hurdles to any deal, including Russian demands for some sanctions to be lifted in return, the drifting mines, and the prohibitive costs of insuring the maritime route, Reuters reported citing officials and analysts.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15083', 'image' => '20220526054353_wheat.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:43:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15340', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cottage and Small Scale Industries Welcome Government’s Policies and Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries has stated that the annual policies and programmes presented by the government in the federal parliament for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2022/23) is overall positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">During a recent programme, officials of the federation said that it is a positive thing to increase internal and external investment in productive sector with the slogan “Nepali Industries, Employment in Nepal: Our Product Our Business”. The federation also said that the package of entrepreneurship development, financial access, product marketing and export facilitation for small, cottage and medium enterprises also seems positive.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation is also hopeful that the policies and programmes will help in the promotion of local products by linking tourism as a dynamic dimension of the economy with all kinds of economic activities.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation stated that strengths of the policies and programmes include building specialized skilled manpower as per the demand of the labor market, creating employment for the returnee migrant workers by conducting skill-based business, smoothing the supply chain, reducing external impact on the economy and implementing e-commerce system for market access of industrial products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">In addition, it also mentioned that the provision of increasing exports by reducing production cost of manufacturing and export-oriented industries, facilitating the establishment and operation of startup based business based on innovation, involving the private sector in the construction of infrastructure such as industrial village, industrial zone, special economic zone were all positive steps.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">As per the federation, the establishment of industries to produce supplementary materials of big foreign industries to give Nepali products exposure to the national, regional and international value chain is likely have a positive impact on the promotion and protection of domestic industries and manufactured goods. It added that it is a positive aspect to encourage the private sector to establish and operate productive industries by creating industry-friendly environment, improving business environment and increasing government’s investment in basic infrastructure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Supporting the policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year, the federation says that implementing the Farm to Industry Integrated Model Programme to link the products of agriculture, forest and mining sectors in industrial processing chain, developing agriculture as a major driving force for economic growth and employment, integrating cooperative sector with entrepreneurship, production and employment for economic development and poverty alleviation will have a positive impact in the overall economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation believes that the policy of facilitating credit flow to the productive and employment oriented sectors will easily increase the financial access of cottage and small scale entrepreneurs. According to the policy of reviewing the existing tax system to make it clean, transparent and investment and business friendly, it is necessary to review the tax system targeting business run by small, home-based, cottage and women entrepreneurs who were displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the federation said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The federation expects that the policies and programmes covered by the National Planning Commission will be implemented through the upcoming budget.</span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15082', 'image' => '20220526052559_service_1543560160.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 17:25:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15339', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Private Sector Demands Lowering Tax on Petroleum Products', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 26: The private sector has demanded the government to reduce the high rate of tax that the government has been levying on the import of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry made such demand via a press statement on Wednesday. The statement issued by the association's president Subodh Kumar Gupta states that the prices have gone up due to the high tax imposed by the government and requested to provide relief to consumers by lowering the tax.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The association made such demand calling the price hike nonsensical after the government increased the price of diesel and petrol by Rs 20 per liter in seven days. Even the price of cooking gas has been increased by Rs 200 per cylinder and is currently being sold for Rs 1,800 to the general public.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The statement also demands lowering the heavy burden put on the people by reducing the tax of Rs 10 per liter on petroleum products imposed in the name of construction of Budhigandaki Hydropower Project for the past few years besides reduction in the customs duty on petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Meanwhile, the chamber has also drawn the attention to the protest organized by transporters demanding an increase in freight charge in proportion to the increase in fuel prices. The chamber has appealed to the truck dealers to resolve the issue through discussion rather than strike and protests on such a sensitive issue.</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' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15081', 'image' => '20220526033804_petrol-pump.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 15:37:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15337', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Freight Service Suspended after Fuel Price Hike ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 26: Retailers in Birgunj, Parsa have shut down all services related to transportation of goods after the rise in prices of petroleum products. The freight service has been shut as the price hike in petroleum products has directly affected the business of transporters, according to the Transport Entrepreneurs Association, Birgunj. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">All kinds of transportation of goods have been suspended for the time being due to the failure in increasing the freight charge despite the sharp rise in prices of petroleum products, Vice-president of the association Pravin Kumar Karna said. </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"">At least 40 to 60 truckloads of retail goods used to be transported to different cities from Birgunj every day. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Pesident of the association Bal Krishna Pokharel said that 46 retailers affiliated to the association have demanded adjustment in the transportation fare in accordance with the increased cost of petroleum products. Entrepreneurs have demanded timely increase in the freight service charge along with the increase in price of petroleum products.-- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-26', 'modified' => '2022-05-26', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15079', 'image' => '20220526011022_Birgunj.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-26 13:09:29', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Student Unions Demand Immediate Withdrawal of Fuel Price Hike', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">May 25: Student leaders have submitted a memorandum to Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu urging him to revoke the decision to hike the prices of petroleum products.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Student leaders affiliated to 13 different student unions jointly submitted the memo to the Industry Minister amid a recent function demanding the government to immediately revoke such decision.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">During the occasion, Minister Badu said that the government was not in a position to tell the Nepal Oil Corporation to reduce the fuel prices. He argued that the state-owned NOC was facing a fortnightly loss of Rs 6.71 billion and therefore it was not appropriate to tell the oil monopoly to lower the prices.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Minister Badu stated that the NOC is still bearing a loss of Rs 14.64 for selling a litre of petrol. Likewise, the loss incurred for the sale of a litre of diesel and a cylinder of cooking gas amounted to Rs 26.82 and Rs 879.75 respectively. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif"">Stating that it was the responsibility of the government to seek a solution to the current crisis after considering the situation of NOC and the world market, Minister Badu said that the government has been making efforts towards this end.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15077', 'image' => '20220525073044_Petrol-Price-Increase.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 19:30:00', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'CNI Welcomes Government Announcement to Observe ‘Domestic Poduction Decade’ ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,"sans-serif""><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">May 25: The private sector has welcomed the government’s decision to celebrate the upcoming decade as a decade for production and consumption of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) has expressed its gratitude to the government for its decision to announce a decade dedicated to promoting production and consumption of the domestic products, expressing its support to the implementation of the ‘Make in Nepal’ campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The government in its policies and programmes for the fiscal year 2022-23 that were presented by the president before a joint session of the Federal Parliament on Tuesday stated that the upcoming decade would be observed as the decade of domestic production and consumption. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has pledged a subsidy in tax and customs duty for the production and supplies of domestic goods. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">The confederation is hopeful the announcement would help in enabling the industrial atmosphere in Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">Moreover, the announcements to facilitate in acquiring land for the establishment of industry, reviewing provisions for land ceiling, creating industry-friendly atmosphere and encouraging private sector for operating production-based industries suggested the government’s new policies and programmes are focused on the promotion of industrialization, according to CNI's assessment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif""> The announcement to involve private sector in power trade is itself the encouragement to the private sector for its role in international power trade, the confederation said. It has, likewise, hailed the declaration to ensure power supply to private sector at a low tariff, to develop tourism as a means of earning foreign currency and to implement the Digital Nepal Framework. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS","sans-serif"">It has also welcomed the decision to recognise the contribution of remittance to nation’s economy, undertake large infrastructure projects on a public-private joint venture, make public expenditure result-oriented and increase the capital expenditure. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15076', 'image' => '20220525060916_make-in-nepal2021-03-09-06-26-08.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 18:08:32', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '15333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Repeats Policies and Programmes for Upcoming Budget', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">May 25: The government has presented its policies and programmes for the budget of upcoming fiscal year in parliament. The new policies and programmes presented in parliament by President Bidya Devi Bhandari on behalf of the government on Tuesday is nothing but the continuation of the policies and programmes of the previous government with some new programmes added.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has given continuity to concept of operating railway and ship of the previous government, which it had earlier called a ‘pipedream’.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes state that the government will complete feasibility study of Rasuwagadi-Kathmandu railway and conduct detailed study of the Birgunj-Kathmandu and Kathmandu Valley Metro service. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The prospects of water transport in Nepal's rivers will be identified and developed, said the president. The government also announced plans to build another 800 kilometers of roads and upgrade 257 kilometers next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes range from bringing a separate policy to increase capital spending to regulating social media and bringing it under the tax purview next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Although the government has already issued procedures to regulate social media, it has not been able to fully implement them. The government has tried to regulate advertisements on social media after a large amount of dollars started flowing out of Nepal. Some countries, including neighboring India, have formally registered social media in their countries and brought it under the purview of law and tax. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“In order to increase capital expenditure and facilitate the implementation of development projects, the concept of development including a result-based project management system will be implemented,” according to the policies and programmes unveiled on Tuesday. The government is planning to adopt a separate policy to address the trend of not spending the capital budget. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has also put forward a programme to evaluate the sovereign credit of the country within the next year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The annual policies and programmes also includes the implementation projects that can transform the overall structure of the economy. Similarly, agriculture, transport, energy, tourism and information technology are considered as the drivers of economic growth. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The policies and programmes also mentioned that the value of land will be determined by scientific method after developing an integrated land valuation system based on geographical information. As per the new policies and programmes, arrangements will be made to trade real estate only from specialized institutions. Arrangements will also be made to avail basic services related to land revenue online from the local levels. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government has announced the ‘Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Campaign Decade’ in order to expand the market and increase the consumption of Nepali products. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">“We will start a campaign to uplift the economy by increasing domestic and foreign investment in productive sectors with comparative advantage, innovation in small and medium enterprises, market expansion of Nepali products and increase in production and consumption, import substitution and export promotion,” said President Bhandari. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">To make this campaign a success, the Prime Minister Nepali Production and Consumption Growth Programme will be launched and it will be promoted through tax and customs duty exemption and export subsidy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will take industrial promotion policy to develop a green economy through energy efficiency and use of renewable energy. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government plans to review the existing tax system next year. The government is preparing to bring in a budget to replace the import-dependent tax system by domestic production. Accordingly, a review of the tax system has been announced in the policies and programmes. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The government will also formulate necessary policies and criteria to facilitate revenue mobilisation at the local level. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">According to the concept of digital banking, the national payment system will be strengthened and all financial transactions will be done through electronic means. For the first time, the government is planning to set up a ‘Market and Trade Intelligence’ bureau for international trade information. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">The construction of Gautam Buddha International Stadium at Chitwan will also be undertaken by the government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Furthermore, it is also mentioned that the government will set up its own satellite and state-of-the-art security printing press. The current government has announced plans to move ahead with both the projects which were in dispute over irregularities during the previous CPN-UML-led government. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Stating that the government will give priority to agriculture and bring irrigation facilities in the coming FY, President Bhandari said that the government has adopted a policy to provide irrigation facilities to 22,200 hectares of land, along with the construction as well as maintenance of large and branch canals. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2022-05-25', 'modified' => '2022-05-25', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '15075', 'image' => '20220525034821_RS_KTM-20220524_163359.jpg', 'article_date' => '2022-05-25 15:47:25', '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
