June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley.…
June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley.…
June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week.…
June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment.…
June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from…
June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal.…
June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.…
Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent…
June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market.…
June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal…
June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation.…
June 11: The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15…
June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078.…
June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic.…
June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company…
June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country.…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley. The Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office (FRSMO) under the Department of Roads has directed the concerned Road Division Offices to implement this decision from June 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Issuing a notice on Sunday, the FRSMO has ordered the concerned offices to halt excavation of roads under the Road Divisions in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Hetauda, Khurkot, Nuwakot, Bharatpur and Charikot. Engineer Kailash Kumar Shrestha, superintending of the FRSMO, informed that the maintenance of various roads cannot be done immediately, and so they have asked not to dig roads from June 15 till mid-September.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that the excavation of road for drinking water, sewerage, electricity and telephone purpose has been stopped as it is not possible to blacktop the road and it will be difficult to work due to rain.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The FRSMO has also warned of action if any unit is found t have dug the roads against its instruction. The office has made it clear that no road will be allowed to be dug and if anyone is found digging, action will be taken as per the Public Roads Act 2031 BS. Under the FRSMO, more than 3,000 road networks have been expanded in these districts.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13276', 'image' => '20210614011147_20190529122404__MG_5482.JPG', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 13:11:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Prohibitory Order in Kathmandu Valley Extended by 1 more Week', 'sub_title' => 'Groceries and stationery shops to open till 11 am ', 'summary' => 'June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, restrictions have been eased from June 14 but the prohibitory order will remain in force until June 21.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A joint meeting of the Chief District Officers of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur took a decision to this effect on Sunday (June 13). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the prohibitory order, people’s mobility will be restricted unless necessary. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Time duration to open groceries and other shops has been extended until 11 in the morning. During the prohibitory order, vegetable and meat shops, groceries, dairy, stores selling drinking water and cooking gas and departmental stores will be allowed to open till 11 am. Vehicles supplying goods are allowed to run between 9 am to 11 am. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, stationery shops and printing press will remain open until 11 am. Shops selling construction materials and electricity shops are allowed to open after 4 pm. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Online marketing and home delivery service will remain open until 7 pm. Vehicle repairing service will be allowed until 9 pm. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Banks and financial institutions will continue their business by mobilising a limited number of human resources. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13275', 'image' => '20210614115927_20200601121121_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 11:58:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'One-Stop Service Centre to Provide Services Electronically', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The centre was set up on May 15, 2019 with the objective of providing services to the industries such as registration, license renewal, approval of foreign investment, providing incentives, discounts and various other facilities from one single point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In order to provide the services electronically, the Department of Industry (DoI) has selected a Nepali company to develop a software for the centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jibalal Bhusal, Director General of the Department, informed that DoI has selected a Nepali company to develop the software after completing the tender process. Once the software is developed, investors, industrialists and service seekers will not have to visit the DoI physically for the approval of foreign investment, industry closure and trademark registration.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, industrialists must visit the department to receive the certificate. The government has announced in the budget programme for the fiscal year 2021/22 that all the services to be provided from the One-Stop Service Centre will be made available electronically. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We can't ensure services will be provided online from the upcoming fiscal year since it takes a year to develop the software," Bhusal said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department has been providing services to the industrialists and investors through the One-Stop Service Centre in line with the one-door policy since the last two years. An official of the department informed that the DoI was looking for a company to develop software but were unable to find such company before.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The One-Stop Service Center has representation of fourteen institutional bodies and nine units. The Inland Revenue Department, Company Registrar’s Office, Department of Immigration and Nepal Electricity Authority are some of the institutional bodies that will provide integrated service from the one-stop service centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The center has representation of foreign investment and technology transfer unit, industry registration, environment, visa, foreign exchange, land facilitation unit among others. Bhusal said that a separate umbrella act is required to make the functions of the one-stop service center more effective in the long run.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The umbrella act has been proposed to make the work of the One-Stop Service Centre effective," he said, adding, "With the implementation of the Act, DoI can mobilize the manpower and resources required for the institutional bodies."</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, human resources are working as representative of the concerned body and are accountable to the same body.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13274', 'image' => '20210613040957_My Effect.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon enters Nepal, More Rainfall Expected this Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the monsoon will enter the western parts of the country in a day or two.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The Division informed that there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall in many places of the country after monsoon becomes active later this week, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. Generally, the monsoon starts on June 13 and exits on October 2 in Nepal. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Most places of the country may receive more rainfall than average during this monsoon, according to the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) had earlier issued warning of more than normal rainfall this year. Chief Executive of NDRRMA Anil Pokharel has been urging the public to remain alert to avoid possible losses of lives and properties from monsoon-induced disasters.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The NDRRMA has launched Impact Based Forecasting (IBF) as a pilot project in nine districts – </span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Baglung, Myagdi, Syangja, Dailekh, Kalikot and Jajarkot – for early warning against disaster, NDRRMA’s Communication Expert Ranjana Shrestha informed New Business Age.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">“</span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Earlier, this technique used to be implied to forecast floods. But now, NDRRMA has launched a pilot project in 9 districts through which prediction of even landslide can be done,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Meanwhile, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said there is an impact of a low-pressure belt from the northwestern Bay of Bengal and surrounding areas in the country’s east and central area and of a mix of westerly and local winds in the western areas. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">As a result, the country received rainfall on Saturday following a partial or normal change in the weather.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13273', 'image' => '20210613043257_2021SECVPF.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:32:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'World Bank Approves $60 Million to Strengthen Nepal’s Higher Education ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: World Bank Nepal's Facebook page</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a statement on June 11, the World Bank said that the fund will be utilized to scale up online learning and expand access to academic institutions for underprivileged and vulnerable students. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Improving access to quality higher education and helping students acquire the skills that are in demand in the labor market will contribute to Nepal’s COVID-19 recovery and strengthen its resilience,” the statement quoted Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank’s Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Program of the World Bank builds on Nepal’s previous successful higher education projects supported through results-based financing, the statement further said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The World Bank’s country office said that the support would help the government of Nepal align its higher education sector with labor market needs, boost collaborative research and entrepreneurship, improve governance, and access to quality higher education, especially for disadvantaged students. </span><br /> “The COVID-19 pandemic has created strong incentives to expand online platforms and blended learning, which the program will help scale up across Nepal’s universities.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13272', 'image' => '20210613074924_19876860n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 07:48:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Five Former PMs Against Extraction of Stones, Sand and Aggregates ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Prime Ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and Baburam Bhattarai on June 12 issued the joint statement demanding the withdrawal of the provision from the budget.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The former prime ministers were of the view that the country is facing an unstable political situation due to the wrongdoings of the incumbent prime minister. They said that the decision of the government to excavate stones, aggregates, and sand from different parts of the country and export them abroad in the name of reducing the trade deficit is anti-national and against the well-being of the citizens.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">They pointed out that the implementation of such provision would create a serious environmental problem by affecting the geography of Nepal which is in a very sensitive situation. Likewise, environmentalists say such excavations in the Chure and Mahabharata ranges could lead to deforestation, drying up of water sources, and desertification in the Terai region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We strongly oppose the government's decision and demand its immediate revocation. We urge the caretaker government not to work in a way that affects the country and the people, and request the administration, security, and other state bodies not to engage in such wrongdoings," the joint statement said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In the budget for the Fiscal Year 2021/22, the government has announced to reduce the trade deficit by extracting minerals, stones, and aggregates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Political parties including the Nepali Congress, Maoist Center, Janata Samajwadi Party, Rastriya Janamorcha, and environmentalists have been criticizing the government for exploiting the Chure region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13271', 'image' => '20210613122650_River-Sand-Mining-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 12:16:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cooperatives Brace for Consolidation Amid Govt Push for Merger ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. ', 'content' => '<p><strong>Sagar Ghimire </strong></p> <p>KATHMANDU, June 12: Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. </p> <p>According to the data of Department of Cooperatives (DoC), a total of 128 cooperatives have gone into merger to become 50 entities as of mid April.</p> <p>This merger drive follows the government's recent push to lower the number of the cooperatives and strengthen their corporate governance. Amid a challenge of effective monitoring and regulation due to the high number of cooperatives, particularly saving and credit cooperatives, the government pursued a policy to promote merger of cooperatives. </p> <p>The government’s priority of cooperatives merger was even highlighted by the budget for the current fiscal year (2020/21). "Saving and credit cooperatives will be encouraged to go into merger," read the budget speech for the current fiscal year. </p> <p>Though the budget has announced that it will encourage merger among cooperatives, cooperative sector leaders say that the government has not introduced any incentive or subsidy for those institutions which opt for amalgamation. The merger spree so far is largely driven by stiff market competition or regulatory push rather than government’s incentivization, they say. </p> <p>Paritosh Paudyal, chairperson of Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions Ltd (NEFSCUN), said that most of the cooperatives have gone into merger after realizing that the merger makes them financially stronger and more competitive in the market. </p> <p>“When there is a lot of competition in the market due to presence of high number of cooperatives, it makes sense for many to go for merger and become bigger and stronger. It helps them to cut costs and stay competitive in the market,” said NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>The merger also brings business consolidation and bolsters the capacity of saving credit cooperatives to withstand any shock or uncertainty, according to NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>“Bank and financial instiututions are expanding their reaches. With higher investment on technology, they are cutting costs and providing their services at cheaper cost. On the other hand, many cooperatives are still operating manually,” said Paudyal. “Now, these cooperatives will also have to make investment in such technology and softwares to lower their costs and stay relevant in the market. Smaller cooperatives may not be in the position to do so. The only way forward is consolidation through mergers,” he said. </p> <p>Most of the cooperatives have found the merger a way to cope with membership duplication and become bigger and stronger entity that benefits their members due to lower costs and higher returns. </p> <p>Ekikrit Friendship Saving and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (EFSCCS) is one among those cooperatives. The Dolakha-based cooperative is an entity formed after a merger among 14 different saving and cooperatives. In fact, the cooperative’s merger journey began even before the government started pushing for the amalgamation of cooperatives. It commenced its integrated operation in December 2014 following a merger between nine cooperatives. Three years later, it wooed two other cooperatives for the marriage. But, its merger journey did not stop there. Three other saving and credit cooperatives also merged into Ekikrit Friendship last year. </p> <p>Keshab Prasad Dahal, the CEO of EFSCCS, said that their merger initiative was aimed mainly at addressing the problem of membership duplication and making the institution financially stronger and bigger. </p> <p>“While there were many members who were getting services from more than one cooperative, we thought combining them would be in the best interest of both institutions and our shareholders. The consolidation not only helped the cooperative to enhance its financial capacity but also enabled it to provide loans at cheaper rate as well as higher return to the shareholders,” he said. </p> <p>According to CEO Dahal, the total number of shareholders has declined to nearly 5,500 from over 12,000 in 2014 while also increasing the capital and volume of deposits and loans. </p> <p>The government’s objective behind pushing for merger is aimed at lowering the high number of saving and credit cooperatives in the country, particularly in urban areas. Due to the lack of government’s capacity to supervise and regulate them, weak corporate governance and internal control in many cooperatives have become a serious concern. </p> <p>Officials are worried about the possibility of replay of the crisis of 2013 when at least 150 cooperatives including Oriental Cooperative had ran into trouble due to poor regulation. A committee led by former Special Court Judge Gauri Bahadur Karki had found these troubled cooperatives misappropriating nearly Rs 11 billion in deposits including Rs 5.5 billion by Oriental Cooperatives run by Sudheer Basnet. These depositors are still waiting to get their money back. </p> <p>Loosely-regulated cooperatives getting intro trouble is not the only risk that the government is worried about. There are also concerns of lack of monitoring and poor regulation posing a threat to the financial stability of the country. While bank and financial institutions are under strict regulation of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), thousands of saving and deposit cooperatives which also provide similar services are largely operating with little or no regulatory check. </p> <p>“High number of cooperatives has become a challenge to carry out supervision and enforce regulation. So, we have been pushing for the merger. We have set standards which even allow the government to send cooperatives into forceful merger,” said Surendra Raj Paudel, the spokesperson of the Department of Cooperatives. </p> <p>In 2019, the government introduced cooperatives regulation with a provision requiring existing cooperatives that operate against the standards to go for forceful merger.</p> <p>As per the new regulation, the government will allow registration of only one cooperative per 5,000 people in a ward of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities. Similarly, there will be one cooperative per 2,000 people in municipal area whereas the government will issue license to only one cooperative for every 500 people in rural municipality, according to the new regulations.<br /> “By fixing the number of cooperatives that can be operated in certain area based on population, the government has made it intention clear to send cooperatives into merger, particularly in urban areas, in a forceful way if required,” said the department’s spokesperson Paudel.</p> <p>There are a total of 34,512 cooperatives across the country as of December 2017, according to the data of the department. Among them, the number of savings and credit cooperatives is the highest. 13,578 savings and credit cooperatives are in operation in Nepal. They have mobilized a total of Rs 217.49 billion in deposits and disbursed Rs 179.88 billion in loans.</p> <p>However, cooperative leaders see a discrepancy in government’s policy and its action when it comes about reducing the number of cooperatives. </p> <p>“On the one hand, the government says that we already have more than enough cooperatives in the country. On the other, local governments are still registering cooperatives,” said NEFSCUN’s Chairperson Paudyal. “The government should first fix the number of cooperatives that the country needs and than implement its policy accordingly,” he added. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-12', 'modified' => '2021-06-12', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13270', 'image' => '20210612114626_Cooperatives_merger.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-12 11:39:20', 'homepage' => true, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '35' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling Under Shortage of Paracetamol ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive surge in demand for paracetamol, a primary drug used for containing fever.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sitaram Regmi, president of the Federation of Nepal Medical Entrepreneurs, said that the demand for paracetamol has been a record high since the month of April and it still remains high. “The demand for paracetamol has increased by 10 percent. Since the industries have also cut down the production, the market is witnessing a shortage,” he said. He added that customers are not getting easy access to the drug also due to artificial shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Regmi, production of paracetamol has also declined by 10 percent. He complained that although the industries can increase the production capacity up to 20 percent, they have not stepped up production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Industries producing paracetamol had reduced the production of the drug since April. Citing that the production cost of medicines like paracetamol, zinc, Vitamin C, doxycycline, and azithromycin used in treating COVID-19 patients is high, they have reduced the production of these medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepal Pharmaceutical Association, has informed that the industries have cut down production due to the increasing price of raw materials. Narayan Chhetri, President of the Association, said that the price of the medicines fixed fourteen years ago is still unchanged. In spite of this, industries were producing medicines incurring losses. But lately, shortages of raw materials have led to a decline in the production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Umesh Lal Shrestha, who was at the helm of the Association in 2008, said pricing of drugs doesn't even cover the production cost of the medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> “Not any government has ever extended support to the industries. The government policy is not supportive enough to solve the problems of entrepreneurs and help develop the industry,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He further added that the practice of stockpiling paracetamol is the major reason behind the shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13269', 'image' => '20210611021604_20210517025320_20200818124630_1597700501.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:15:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget of Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Program Under-spent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Finance Minister Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada had allocated a budget of Rs 6.60 billion for the programme. According to Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO), out of the total allocated budget for the programme, only Rs 967.7 million has been spent as of mid-April.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Under this programme, a committee headed by a directly-elected parliamentarian in the House of Representatives can select the programme and spend the budget. According to government officials, the failure to spend the budget allocated for this programme is mainly due to the dissolution of parliament and the coronavirus pandemic. The government had twice dissolved parliament and called elections twice this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Along with the pandemic, dissolution of the parliament is the main reason,” said Gyanendra Poudel, joint comptroller and auditor general. According to FCGO, at least 60 percent of the budget allocated under this heading had been spent during the corresponding period of previous years, but only 14.49 percent of the allocated budget has been spent this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, new programmes have not been selected and implemented this year, while the spent budget is also found in the programmes run in previous years.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">About Rs 10 billion allocated in the budget of FY 2076/77 for the directly-elected federal parliamentarians to spend Rs 60 million in each election constituency was downzised to Rs 40 million per constituency in the current fiscal year and Rs 6.60 billion was allocated for the purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had pressurised the parliamentarians this year to spend in the health sector under this program by amending the operating procedure. This controversial programme was started in 2051 BS in the name of Parliamentary Development Fund by giving Rs 250,000 per MP. Since then, every finance minister has been increasing the amount and changing its name. As the country has adopted a federal system, this programme has been opposed as the amount was used in unproductive sectors rather than infrastructure development.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government, which dissolved the House of Representatives, has scrapped the local infrastructure development partnership programme through the upcoming budget. Announcing the budget for the fiscal year 2078/79 on May 29, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel had announced the cancellation of the programme. Recently, when the federal government continued such programmes, the provincial government also started replicating it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13268', 'image' => '20210611022802_1623361855.Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:27:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Expert Stress on Promotion of Self-Sufficient Agriculture ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, stakeholders have initiated discussions programme in Nepal in line with the concept of pre-conference on food system which the United Nations has been organising for analysing the situation of countries throughout the world in the context of achieving the development goals by ending global hunger by 2030. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A virtual discussions programme was organised on Wednesday (June 9) in this connection. The discussions programme was held on the topic of contribution of production groups and small farmers to the sustainable food system under the theme – 'Prior Right of the Marginalised Communities, Main Basis for Guaranteeing Sustainable Food System.' </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> Addressing the programme, National Planning Commission (NPC) member and spokesperson Meen Bahadur Shahi said priority should be given to programmes that support attaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Regarding the topic of food sovereignty, he said, the government was moving ahead by analysing the issues raised by the civil society organisations. According to RSS, the NPC spokesperson urged the Agricultural Development Bank to facilitate in ensuring financial access to the grassroots farmers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Dr Yogendra Kumar Karki said the national economy cannot be improved without improving and promoting the agriculture sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the conference, Professor at the Sudurpaschim University Raksha Sharma pointed out that profitable production was hampering sustainable farming system in the country. She added that the profit- seeking tendency has ruined the soil of the farming lands as farmers are found excessively using chemical fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides and energy as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Agro campaigner Chandra Prasad Adhikari argued that the excessive use of chemicals has adversely affected the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Community Self-reliance Service Centre’s Dr Jagat Basnet argued that the concept of smart city was displacing the farmers and the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He complained of irregularities in government’s loan policy to small-scale farmers. Similarly, Farmers Network’s Dr Gokarna Gyawali argued that the COVID-19 effect was hampering the UN’s declaration of ending famine by 2030. According to Dr Gyawali, 270 million people are still facing food shortage and an infant dies of hunger in each 10 seconds in the world.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The conference was jointly organised by the National Land Rights Forum, the Federation of Community Forestry Users Committees, the Agricultural Campaign for Food, the National Irrigation Water Users Federation of Nepal and the Association of Nepali Agricultural Journalists (ANAJ). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six working papers were presented and discussed in the webinar. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The UN is preparing to organize mega conference in course of achieving sustainable goal by 2030. Pre-conference is being organized in Rome since July 26 to 28 for the September conference. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13267', 'image' => '20210611111447_20210106123441_20201105020829_cover.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 11:13:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Melamchi Project to Halt Water Supply to Kathmandu from June 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">June 11: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board made such announcement as the tunnel used for supplying water has to be emptied for inspection from June 15. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a press statement on Thursday (June 10), the board said it will take nearly two months for the inspection, including 16 days for emptying the tunnel. The board noted that it will take around 60 days for the inspection, testing, improvement and refilling. These tasks have to be done before the monsoon peaks, the statement added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Executive Director of the board Ram Kumar Shrestha informed that the board has already alerted the locals of Melamchi, Sindhu and Gyalthum, especially those living in the downstream areas, to remain aware about increase in flow of water due to the emptying process. According to the board, water level in Melamchi as well as Bagmati rivers could rise during this process and has alerted one and all to stay away from those rivers from June 15. Furthermore, the statement urged the locals to remain highly vigilant if there is any urgent need to visit the areas that are likely to be affected during this process.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Waster Supply Project had brought much respite to the growing population of the valley who had been facing acute shortage of water since decades.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The project had diverted water from the Melamchi river to Kathmandu on February 22 for testing the project tunnel. The water from Melamchi had reached Sundarijal of Kathmandu 12 days after the test kicked off. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited had started distributing the water from Melamchi in the Kathmandu Valley from April 19. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13266', 'image' => '20210611103908_1623336277.melamchi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Stays Implementation of Citizenship Ordinance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The constitutional bench comprising of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki and Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada on Thursday (June 10) issued the order prohibiting the government from implementing the ordinance. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has directed the government not to implement the ordinance until a final verdict on writ petitions filed against the ordinance is issued. </span><br /> The constitutional bench noted that any ordinance that is not endorsed through the parliament by fulfilling the constitutional provision is likely to create confusion in the future.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"In such case, it is appropriate to make arrangement through the federal parliament with the passage of the bill. It is the right constitutional process of making law," the ordinance reminded the government, adding, "There is no judicial relevance of implementation the ordinance at present." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The president had issued the ordinance upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers on May 23. Such decision was taken after the ruling party brokered a deal with Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six writ petitions were filed against the ordinance at the apex court by advocates Bishnu Kumar Giri, Ram Bahadur Shahi, Kul Bahadur Bogati, Birbhadra Joshi and Laxman Pokharel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Responding to the writ petitions, the Supreme Court also ordered the government to submit written clarification within seven days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13265', 'image' => '20210611105654_1623360708.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:56:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13518', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Preparing Action Plans to Implement Tax Subsidy Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The action plans are being prepared to implement the programme presented in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2021/22). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the departments under the Ministry are currently formulating action plans to implement such programmes in a stipulated time. The Inland Revenue Department, the Department of Customs and other authorities under the Ministry are preparing separate action plans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Mahesh Acharya, joint secretary of the Finance Ministry, said that the Ministry is working in full swing to formulate action plans and implement the programms in time. Acharya said that other ministries and departments have also started making action plans for the programmes included in the budget. Most of the action plans will be completed within this month.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Since the budget announcement, most of the customs duty rates have already been implemented while other concessional programmes and tax exemptions are in the process of implementation. The provision of income tax exemption will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Mukti Pandey, deputy director general of the Inland Revenue Department, said some concessional programmes including income tax will come into effect from July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has introduced provisions to give 90 percent income tax exemption to the taxpayers with an annual turnover of up to Rs 2 million, 75 percent to the taxpayers with turnover of Rs 2 million to Rs 5 million and 50 percent to those having turnover of Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">It has provisioned to apply only one percent tax on taxable income of hotels, trekking and travels agencies, transport companies, party palaces, airline companies, cinema halls and communication industry. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">If any person or company contributes to the fund set up by the government for control, prevention and treatment of COVID-19 pandemic, the amount can be deducted while calculating taxable income. The budget has reintroduced the policy of refunding value added tax (VAT) when the industry buys fuel. It has also provisioned to deduct VAT paid on the purchase of diesel and gas used in the taxable business of the taxpayer. These provisions will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has given VAT, excise duty and customs duty exemption on various equipment and materials like oxygen, liquid oxygen, oxygen cylinder and medicines imported for the treatment of COVID- 19 infected patients until the mid of January 2022. This provision has already come into effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) have demanded not to fine entrepreneurs who fail to pay their tax during the time of restrictions. In a joint statement issued on June 10, it the representatives of the private organisations said it is not possible to pay VAT, excise duty required to be cleared on a monthly basis due to the restrictions on movement “so we urge the government not to impose fines on entrepreneurs”.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The three umbrella organizations of businessmen had sought to extend the time to clear taxes during last year as well but the government had not extended the time period. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13264', 'image' => '20210610031926_20210501025837_11.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 15:18:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13517', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers Facing Shortage of Fertiliser Despite Sufficient Stock', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The farmers have not been able to get fertilisers because the distribution system has become inconvenient due to the lockdown imposed by the government for controlling coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the Salt Trading Corporation and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited have more than 85,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer in stock. However, the farmers have not been able to receive any of them. Although the government claims that the distribution of fertiliser is easy, the employees of the two state-owned companies have admitted that the supply is not easy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kumar Rajbhandari, spokesperson of Salt Trading Corporation, said that the farmers were suffering due to the inconvenient distribution system. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The distribution has not been smooth due to the impact of lockdown in transporting fertilisers. If the lockdown eases from July, the distribution can be easier,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers across the country are preparing for the planting season in July. But, they have not been able to get the required fertilizer for paddy. Farmers are obliged to return home empty-handed, even after waiting in long lines all day for fertilizer.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Complaints of farmers not getting fertilizer are increasing in districts like Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Panchthar, Ilam, Sarlahi, Chitwan, Banke and Bardiya. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhubaneswar Yadav, a farmer of Sunsari, is preparing to plant paddy on 6 bighas of land from mid-June for which he needs about 20 bags of fertilisers including urea, Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and potassium. However, he has not been able to get a single bag of fertilizer so far.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Even the cooperatives do not have enough fertilizer here. How can they give it to us? It is necessary to create an environment whereby the fertilisers in Kathmandu can reach here to us,” he told New Business Age.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers of Morang, who are preparing to sow paddy, have said that they are also having lots of problems to acquire fertilisers. Man Bahadur Magar, a farmer of Kanepokhari, Morang also complained that he has not received any fertilizer yet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that as the cooperatives could not provide fertilisers in the midst of planting season, the farmers were obliged to go to the Indian border market amidst the risk of coronavirus pandemic to buy fertilisers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, the situation in Chitwan district is different. Despite the easy supply of DAP, the farmers here are facing shortage of urea fertilizer. Rajan Dhakal, chief of Agriculture Knowledge Kendra Chitwan, says that the supply of fertilizer has eased this year but only half of the demand has been met.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Not all places have a balanced distribution of fertilisers,” Dhakal said, adding, “But, the distribution system has been affected as the fertiliser is distributed on the basis of local units’ recommendations.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Distribution and management should be more efficient and accurate. Those who have access are benefited more and those who do not have access are not benefited," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13263', 'image' => '20210610023043_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 14:30:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13519', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 32,000 Metric Tonnes of Urea Arrive from Bangladesh ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The fertilizer was purchased through the Government-to-Government agreement between the two countries. The fertilizer has been received by Birgunj-based provincial office of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited, according to the national news agency RSS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">As per the G2G agreement, the Government of Bangladesh was supposed to supply 50,000 metric tonnes urea to Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining 17,500 metric tonnes of fertilizer is in the process of transportation, RSS reported citing Manager of the company’s provincial office, Gorakh Nath KC. The remaining consignment will be brought to the dry port at Sirsiya of Birgunj via train from the Kolkata Port in India, RSS added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Manager KC said that although the entire consignment should have arrived here from Bangladesh by this time, it was delayed due to the adverse situation caused by the global coronavirus pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the Government of Nepal and the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka making efforts for the supply of the remaining fertilizer from Bangladesh. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13262', 'image' => '20210610040355_20210210122458_1612912820.Clipboard14.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 16:03:19', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13531', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Road Excavation in 8 Districts Banned until mid-September ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley. The Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office (FRSMO) under the Department of Roads has directed the concerned Road Division Offices to implement this decision from June 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Issuing a notice on Sunday, the FRSMO has ordered the concerned offices to halt excavation of roads under the Road Divisions in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Hetauda, Khurkot, Nuwakot, Bharatpur and Charikot. Engineer Kailash Kumar Shrestha, superintending of the FRSMO, informed that the maintenance of various roads cannot be done immediately, and so they have asked not to dig roads from June 15 till mid-September.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that the excavation of road for drinking water, sewerage, electricity and telephone purpose has been stopped as it is not possible to blacktop the road and it will be difficult to work due to rain.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The FRSMO has also warned of action if any unit is found t have dug the roads against its instruction. The office has made it clear that no road will be allowed to be dug and if anyone is found digging, action will be taken as per the Public Roads Act 2031 BS. Under the FRSMO, more than 3,000 road networks have been expanded in these districts.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13276', 'image' => '20210614011147_20190529122404__MG_5482.JPG', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 13:11:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Prohibitory Order in Kathmandu Valley Extended by 1 more Week', 'sub_title' => 'Groceries and stationery shops to open till 11 am ', 'summary' => 'June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, restrictions have been eased from June 14 but the prohibitory order will remain in force until June 21.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A joint meeting of the Chief District Officers of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur took a decision to this effect on Sunday (June 13). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the prohibitory order, people’s mobility will be restricted unless necessary. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Time duration to open groceries and other shops has been extended until 11 in the morning. During the prohibitory order, vegetable and meat shops, groceries, dairy, stores selling drinking water and cooking gas and departmental stores will be allowed to open till 11 am. Vehicles supplying goods are allowed to run between 9 am to 11 am. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, stationery shops and printing press will remain open until 11 am. Shops selling construction materials and electricity shops are allowed to open after 4 pm. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Online marketing and home delivery service will remain open until 7 pm. Vehicle repairing service will be allowed until 9 pm. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Banks and financial institutions will continue their business by mobilising a limited number of human resources. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13275', 'image' => '20210614115927_20200601121121_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 11:58:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'One-Stop Service Centre to Provide Services Electronically', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The centre was set up on May 15, 2019 with the objective of providing services to the industries such as registration, license renewal, approval of foreign investment, providing incentives, discounts and various other facilities from one single point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In order to provide the services electronically, the Department of Industry (DoI) has selected a Nepali company to develop a software for the centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jibalal Bhusal, Director General of the Department, informed that DoI has selected a Nepali company to develop the software after completing the tender process. Once the software is developed, investors, industrialists and service seekers will not have to visit the DoI physically for the approval of foreign investment, industry closure and trademark registration.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, industrialists must visit the department to receive the certificate. The government has announced in the budget programme for the fiscal year 2021/22 that all the services to be provided from the One-Stop Service Centre will be made available electronically. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We can't ensure services will be provided online from the upcoming fiscal year since it takes a year to develop the software," Bhusal said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department has been providing services to the industrialists and investors through the One-Stop Service Centre in line with the one-door policy since the last two years. An official of the department informed that the DoI was looking for a company to develop software but were unable to find such company before.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The One-Stop Service Center has representation of fourteen institutional bodies and nine units. The Inland Revenue Department, Company Registrar’s Office, Department of Immigration and Nepal Electricity Authority are some of the institutional bodies that will provide integrated service from the one-stop service centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The center has representation of foreign investment and technology transfer unit, industry registration, environment, visa, foreign exchange, land facilitation unit among others. Bhusal said that a separate umbrella act is required to make the functions of the one-stop service center more effective in the long run.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The umbrella act has been proposed to make the work of the One-Stop Service Centre effective," he said, adding, "With the implementation of the Act, DoI can mobilize the manpower and resources required for the institutional bodies."</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, human resources are working as representative of the concerned body and are accountable to the same body.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13274', 'image' => '20210613040957_My Effect.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon enters Nepal, More Rainfall Expected this Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the monsoon will enter the western parts of the country in a day or two.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The Division informed that there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall in many places of the country after monsoon becomes active later this week, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. Generally, the monsoon starts on June 13 and exits on October 2 in Nepal. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Most places of the country may receive more rainfall than average during this monsoon, according to the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) had earlier issued warning of more than normal rainfall this year. Chief Executive of NDRRMA Anil Pokharel has been urging the public to remain alert to avoid possible losses of lives and properties from monsoon-induced disasters.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The NDRRMA has launched Impact Based Forecasting (IBF) as a pilot project in nine districts – </span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Baglung, Myagdi, Syangja, Dailekh, Kalikot and Jajarkot – for early warning against disaster, NDRRMA’s Communication Expert Ranjana Shrestha informed New Business Age.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">“</span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Earlier, this technique used to be implied to forecast floods. But now, NDRRMA has launched a pilot project in 9 districts through which prediction of even landslide can be done,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Meanwhile, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said there is an impact of a low-pressure belt from the northwestern Bay of Bengal and surrounding areas in the country’s east and central area and of a mix of westerly and local winds in the western areas. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">As a result, the country received rainfall on Saturday following a partial or normal change in the weather.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13273', 'image' => '20210613043257_2021SECVPF.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:32:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'World Bank Approves $60 Million to Strengthen Nepal’s Higher Education ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: World Bank Nepal's Facebook page</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a statement on June 11, the World Bank said that the fund will be utilized to scale up online learning and expand access to academic institutions for underprivileged and vulnerable students. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Improving access to quality higher education and helping students acquire the skills that are in demand in the labor market will contribute to Nepal’s COVID-19 recovery and strengthen its resilience,” the statement quoted Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank’s Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Program of the World Bank builds on Nepal’s previous successful higher education projects supported through results-based financing, the statement further said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The World Bank’s country office said that the support would help the government of Nepal align its higher education sector with labor market needs, boost collaborative research and entrepreneurship, improve governance, and access to quality higher education, especially for disadvantaged students. </span><br /> “The COVID-19 pandemic has created strong incentives to expand online platforms and blended learning, which the program will help scale up across Nepal’s universities.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13272', 'image' => '20210613074924_19876860n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 07:48:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Five Former PMs Against Extraction of Stones, Sand and Aggregates ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Prime Ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and Baburam Bhattarai on June 12 issued the joint statement demanding the withdrawal of the provision from the budget.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The former prime ministers were of the view that the country is facing an unstable political situation due to the wrongdoings of the incumbent prime minister. They said that the decision of the government to excavate stones, aggregates, and sand from different parts of the country and export them abroad in the name of reducing the trade deficit is anti-national and against the well-being of the citizens.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">They pointed out that the implementation of such provision would create a serious environmental problem by affecting the geography of Nepal which is in a very sensitive situation. Likewise, environmentalists say such excavations in the Chure and Mahabharata ranges could lead to deforestation, drying up of water sources, and desertification in the Terai region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We strongly oppose the government's decision and demand its immediate revocation. We urge the caretaker government not to work in a way that affects the country and the people, and request the administration, security, and other state bodies not to engage in such wrongdoings," the joint statement said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In the budget for the Fiscal Year 2021/22, the government has announced to reduce the trade deficit by extracting minerals, stones, and aggregates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Political parties including the Nepali Congress, Maoist Center, Janata Samajwadi Party, Rastriya Janamorcha, and environmentalists have been criticizing the government for exploiting the Chure region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13271', 'image' => '20210613122650_River-Sand-Mining-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 12:16:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cooperatives Brace for Consolidation Amid Govt Push for Merger ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. ', 'content' => '<p><strong>Sagar Ghimire </strong></p> <p>KATHMANDU, June 12: Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. </p> <p>According to the data of Department of Cooperatives (DoC), a total of 128 cooperatives have gone into merger to become 50 entities as of mid April.</p> <p>This merger drive follows the government's recent push to lower the number of the cooperatives and strengthen their corporate governance. Amid a challenge of effective monitoring and regulation due to the high number of cooperatives, particularly saving and credit cooperatives, the government pursued a policy to promote merger of cooperatives. </p> <p>The government’s priority of cooperatives merger was even highlighted by the budget for the current fiscal year (2020/21). "Saving and credit cooperatives will be encouraged to go into merger," read the budget speech for the current fiscal year. </p> <p>Though the budget has announced that it will encourage merger among cooperatives, cooperative sector leaders say that the government has not introduced any incentive or subsidy for those institutions which opt for amalgamation. The merger spree so far is largely driven by stiff market competition or regulatory push rather than government’s incentivization, they say. </p> <p>Paritosh Paudyal, chairperson of Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions Ltd (NEFSCUN), said that most of the cooperatives have gone into merger after realizing that the merger makes them financially stronger and more competitive in the market. </p> <p>“When there is a lot of competition in the market due to presence of high number of cooperatives, it makes sense for many to go for merger and become bigger and stronger. It helps them to cut costs and stay competitive in the market,” said NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>The merger also brings business consolidation and bolsters the capacity of saving credit cooperatives to withstand any shock or uncertainty, according to NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>“Bank and financial instiututions are expanding their reaches. With higher investment on technology, they are cutting costs and providing their services at cheaper cost. On the other hand, many cooperatives are still operating manually,” said Paudyal. “Now, these cooperatives will also have to make investment in such technology and softwares to lower their costs and stay relevant in the market. Smaller cooperatives may not be in the position to do so. The only way forward is consolidation through mergers,” he said. </p> <p>Most of the cooperatives have found the merger a way to cope with membership duplication and become bigger and stronger entity that benefits their members due to lower costs and higher returns. </p> <p>Ekikrit Friendship Saving and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (EFSCCS) is one among those cooperatives. The Dolakha-based cooperative is an entity formed after a merger among 14 different saving and cooperatives. In fact, the cooperative’s merger journey began even before the government started pushing for the amalgamation of cooperatives. It commenced its integrated operation in December 2014 following a merger between nine cooperatives. Three years later, it wooed two other cooperatives for the marriage. But, its merger journey did not stop there. Three other saving and credit cooperatives also merged into Ekikrit Friendship last year. </p> <p>Keshab Prasad Dahal, the CEO of EFSCCS, said that their merger initiative was aimed mainly at addressing the problem of membership duplication and making the institution financially stronger and bigger. </p> <p>“While there were many members who were getting services from more than one cooperative, we thought combining them would be in the best interest of both institutions and our shareholders. The consolidation not only helped the cooperative to enhance its financial capacity but also enabled it to provide loans at cheaper rate as well as higher return to the shareholders,” he said. </p> <p>According to CEO Dahal, the total number of shareholders has declined to nearly 5,500 from over 12,000 in 2014 while also increasing the capital and volume of deposits and loans. </p> <p>The government’s objective behind pushing for merger is aimed at lowering the high number of saving and credit cooperatives in the country, particularly in urban areas. Due to the lack of government’s capacity to supervise and regulate them, weak corporate governance and internal control in many cooperatives have become a serious concern. </p> <p>Officials are worried about the possibility of replay of the crisis of 2013 when at least 150 cooperatives including Oriental Cooperative had ran into trouble due to poor regulation. A committee led by former Special Court Judge Gauri Bahadur Karki had found these troubled cooperatives misappropriating nearly Rs 11 billion in deposits including Rs 5.5 billion by Oriental Cooperatives run by Sudheer Basnet. These depositors are still waiting to get their money back. </p> <p>Loosely-regulated cooperatives getting intro trouble is not the only risk that the government is worried about. There are also concerns of lack of monitoring and poor regulation posing a threat to the financial stability of the country. While bank and financial institutions are under strict regulation of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), thousands of saving and deposit cooperatives which also provide similar services are largely operating with little or no regulatory check. </p> <p>“High number of cooperatives has become a challenge to carry out supervision and enforce regulation. So, we have been pushing for the merger. We have set standards which even allow the government to send cooperatives into forceful merger,” said Surendra Raj Paudel, the spokesperson of the Department of Cooperatives. </p> <p>In 2019, the government introduced cooperatives regulation with a provision requiring existing cooperatives that operate against the standards to go for forceful merger.</p> <p>As per the new regulation, the government will allow registration of only one cooperative per 5,000 people in a ward of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities. Similarly, there will be one cooperative per 2,000 people in municipal area whereas the government will issue license to only one cooperative for every 500 people in rural municipality, according to the new regulations.<br /> “By fixing the number of cooperatives that can be operated in certain area based on population, the government has made it intention clear to send cooperatives into merger, particularly in urban areas, in a forceful way if required,” said the department’s spokesperson Paudel.</p> <p>There are a total of 34,512 cooperatives across the country as of December 2017, according to the data of the department. Among them, the number of savings and credit cooperatives is the highest. 13,578 savings and credit cooperatives are in operation in Nepal. They have mobilized a total of Rs 217.49 billion in deposits and disbursed Rs 179.88 billion in loans.</p> <p>However, cooperative leaders see a discrepancy in government’s policy and its action when it comes about reducing the number of cooperatives. </p> <p>“On the one hand, the government says that we already have more than enough cooperatives in the country. On the other, local governments are still registering cooperatives,” said NEFSCUN’s Chairperson Paudyal. “The government should first fix the number of cooperatives that the country needs and than implement its policy accordingly,” he added. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-12', 'modified' => '2021-06-12', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13270', 'image' => '20210612114626_Cooperatives_merger.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-12 11:39:20', 'homepage' => true, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '35' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling Under Shortage of Paracetamol ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive surge in demand for paracetamol, a primary drug used for containing fever.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sitaram Regmi, president of the Federation of Nepal Medical Entrepreneurs, said that the demand for paracetamol has been a record high since the month of April and it still remains high. “The demand for paracetamol has increased by 10 percent. Since the industries have also cut down the production, the market is witnessing a shortage,” he said. He added that customers are not getting easy access to the drug also due to artificial shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Regmi, production of paracetamol has also declined by 10 percent. He complained that although the industries can increase the production capacity up to 20 percent, they have not stepped up production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Industries producing paracetamol had reduced the production of the drug since April. Citing that the production cost of medicines like paracetamol, zinc, Vitamin C, doxycycline, and azithromycin used in treating COVID-19 patients is high, they have reduced the production of these medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepal Pharmaceutical Association, has informed that the industries have cut down production due to the increasing price of raw materials. Narayan Chhetri, President of the Association, said that the price of the medicines fixed fourteen years ago is still unchanged. In spite of this, industries were producing medicines incurring losses. But lately, shortages of raw materials have led to a decline in the production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Umesh Lal Shrestha, who was at the helm of the Association in 2008, said pricing of drugs doesn't even cover the production cost of the medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> “Not any government has ever extended support to the industries. The government policy is not supportive enough to solve the problems of entrepreneurs and help develop the industry,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He further added that the practice of stockpiling paracetamol is the major reason behind the shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13269', 'image' => '20210611021604_20210517025320_20200818124630_1597700501.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:15:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget of Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Program Under-spent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Finance Minister Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada had allocated a budget of Rs 6.60 billion for the programme. According to Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO), out of the total allocated budget for the programme, only Rs 967.7 million has been spent as of mid-April.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Under this programme, a committee headed by a directly-elected parliamentarian in the House of Representatives can select the programme and spend the budget. According to government officials, the failure to spend the budget allocated for this programme is mainly due to the dissolution of parliament and the coronavirus pandemic. The government had twice dissolved parliament and called elections twice this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Along with the pandemic, dissolution of the parliament is the main reason,” said Gyanendra Poudel, joint comptroller and auditor general. According to FCGO, at least 60 percent of the budget allocated under this heading had been spent during the corresponding period of previous years, but only 14.49 percent of the allocated budget has been spent this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, new programmes have not been selected and implemented this year, while the spent budget is also found in the programmes run in previous years.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">About Rs 10 billion allocated in the budget of FY 2076/77 for the directly-elected federal parliamentarians to spend Rs 60 million in each election constituency was downzised to Rs 40 million per constituency in the current fiscal year and Rs 6.60 billion was allocated for the purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had pressurised the parliamentarians this year to spend in the health sector under this program by amending the operating procedure. This controversial programme was started in 2051 BS in the name of Parliamentary Development Fund by giving Rs 250,000 per MP. Since then, every finance minister has been increasing the amount and changing its name. As the country has adopted a federal system, this programme has been opposed as the amount was used in unproductive sectors rather than infrastructure development.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government, which dissolved the House of Representatives, has scrapped the local infrastructure development partnership programme through the upcoming budget. Announcing the budget for the fiscal year 2078/79 on May 29, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel had announced the cancellation of the programme. Recently, when the federal government continued such programmes, the provincial government also started replicating it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13268', 'image' => '20210611022802_1623361855.Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:27:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Expert Stress on Promotion of Self-Sufficient Agriculture ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, stakeholders have initiated discussions programme in Nepal in line with the concept of pre-conference on food system which the United Nations has been organising for analysing the situation of countries throughout the world in the context of achieving the development goals by ending global hunger by 2030. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A virtual discussions programme was organised on Wednesday (June 9) in this connection. The discussions programme was held on the topic of contribution of production groups and small farmers to the sustainable food system under the theme – 'Prior Right of the Marginalised Communities, Main Basis for Guaranteeing Sustainable Food System.' </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> Addressing the programme, National Planning Commission (NPC) member and spokesperson Meen Bahadur Shahi said priority should be given to programmes that support attaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Regarding the topic of food sovereignty, he said, the government was moving ahead by analysing the issues raised by the civil society organisations. According to RSS, the NPC spokesperson urged the Agricultural Development Bank to facilitate in ensuring financial access to the grassroots farmers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Dr Yogendra Kumar Karki said the national economy cannot be improved without improving and promoting the agriculture sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the conference, Professor at the Sudurpaschim University Raksha Sharma pointed out that profitable production was hampering sustainable farming system in the country. She added that the profit- seeking tendency has ruined the soil of the farming lands as farmers are found excessively using chemical fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides and energy as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Agro campaigner Chandra Prasad Adhikari argued that the excessive use of chemicals has adversely affected the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Community Self-reliance Service Centre’s Dr Jagat Basnet argued that the concept of smart city was displacing the farmers and the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He complained of irregularities in government’s loan policy to small-scale farmers. Similarly, Farmers Network’s Dr Gokarna Gyawali argued that the COVID-19 effect was hampering the UN’s declaration of ending famine by 2030. According to Dr Gyawali, 270 million people are still facing food shortage and an infant dies of hunger in each 10 seconds in the world.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The conference was jointly organised by the National Land Rights Forum, the Federation of Community Forestry Users Committees, the Agricultural Campaign for Food, the National Irrigation Water Users Federation of Nepal and the Association of Nepali Agricultural Journalists (ANAJ). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six working papers were presented and discussed in the webinar. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The UN is preparing to organize mega conference in course of achieving sustainable goal by 2030. Pre-conference is being organized in Rome since July 26 to 28 for the September conference. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13267', 'image' => '20210611111447_20210106123441_20201105020829_cover.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 11:13:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Melamchi Project to Halt Water Supply to Kathmandu from June 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">June 11: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board made such announcement as the tunnel used for supplying water has to be emptied for inspection from June 15. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a press statement on Thursday (June 10), the board said it will take nearly two months for the inspection, including 16 days for emptying the tunnel. The board noted that it will take around 60 days for the inspection, testing, improvement and refilling. These tasks have to be done before the monsoon peaks, the statement added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Executive Director of the board Ram Kumar Shrestha informed that the board has already alerted the locals of Melamchi, Sindhu and Gyalthum, especially those living in the downstream areas, to remain aware about increase in flow of water due to the emptying process. According to the board, water level in Melamchi as well as Bagmati rivers could rise during this process and has alerted one and all to stay away from those rivers from June 15. Furthermore, the statement urged the locals to remain highly vigilant if there is any urgent need to visit the areas that are likely to be affected during this process.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Waster Supply Project had brought much respite to the growing population of the valley who had been facing acute shortage of water since decades.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The project had diverted water from the Melamchi river to Kathmandu on February 22 for testing the project tunnel. The water from Melamchi had reached Sundarijal of Kathmandu 12 days after the test kicked off. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited had started distributing the water from Melamchi in the Kathmandu Valley from April 19. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13266', 'image' => '20210611103908_1623336277.melamchi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Stays Implementation of Citizenship Ordinance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The constitutional bench comprising of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki and Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada on Thursday (June 10) issued the order prohibiting the government from implementing the ordinance. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has directed the government not to implement the ordinance until a final verdict on writ petitions filed against the ordinance is issued. </span><br /> The constitutional bench noted that any ordinance that is not endorsed through the parliament by fulfilling the constitutional provision is likely to create confusion in the future.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"In such case, it is appropriate to make arrangement through the federal parliament with the passage of the bill. It is the right constitutional process of making law," the ordinance reminded the government, adding, "There is no judicial relevance of implementation the ordinance at present." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The president had issued the ordinance upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers on May 23. Such decision was taken after the ruling party brokered a deal with Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six writ petitions were filed against the ordinance at the apex court by advocates Bishnu Kumar Giri, Ram Bahadur Shahi, Kul Bahadur Bogati, Birbhadra Joshi and Laxman Pokharel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Responding to the writ petitions, the Supreme Court also ordered the government to submit written clarification within seven days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13265', 'image' => '20210611105654_1623360708.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:56:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13518', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Preparing Action Plans to Implement Tax Subsidy Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The action plans are being prepared to implement the programme presented in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2021/22). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the departments under the Ministry are currently formulating action plans to implement such programmes in a stipulated time. The Inland Revenue Department, the Department of Customs and other authorities under the Ministry are preparing separate action plans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Mahesh Acharya, joint secretary of the Finance Ministry, said that the Ministry is working in full swing to formulate action plans and implement the programms in time. Acharya said that other ministries and departments have also started making action plans for the programmes included in the budget. Most of the action plans will be completed within this month.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Since the budget announcement, most of the customs duty rates have already been implemented while other concessional programmes and tax exemptions are in the process of implementation. The provision of income tax exemption will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Mukti Pandey, deputy director general of the Inland Revenue Department, said some concessional programmes including income tax will come into effect from July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has introduced provisions to give 90 percent income tax exemption to the taxpayers with an annual turnover of up to Rs 2 million, 75 percent to the taxpayers with turnover of Rs 2 million to Rs 5 million and 50 percent to those having turnover of Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">It has provisioned to apply only one percent tax on taxable income of hotels, trekking and travels agencies, transport companies, party palaces, airline companies, cinema halls and communication industry. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">If any person or company contributes to the fund set up by the government for control, prevention and treatment of COVID-19 pandemic, the amount can be deducted while calculating taxable income. The budget has reintroduced the policy of refunding value added tax (VAT) when the industry buys fuel. It has also provisioned to deduct VAT paid on the purchase of diesel and gas used in the taxable business of the taxpayer. These provisions will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has given VAT, excise duty and customs duty exemption on various equipment and materials like oxygen, liquid oxygen, oxygen cylinder and medicines imported for the treatment of COVID- 19 infected patients until the mid of January 2022. This provision has already come into effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) have demanded not to fine entrepreneurs who fail to pay their tax during the time of restrictions. In a joint statement issued on June 10, it the representatives of the private organisations said it is not possible to pay VAT, excise duty required to be cleared on a monthly basis due to the restrictions on movement “so we urge the government not to impose fines on entrepreneurs”.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The three umbrella organizations of businessmen had sought to extend the time to clear taxes during last year as well but the government had not extended the time period. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13264', 'image' => '20210610031926_20210501025837_11.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 15:18:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13517', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers Facing Shortage of Fertiliser Despite Sufficient Stock', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The farmers have not been able to get fertilisers because the distribution system has become inconvenient due to the lockdown imposed by the government for controlling coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the Salt Trading Corporation and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited have more than 85,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer in stock. However, the farmers have not been able to receive any of them. Although the government claims that the distribution of fertiliser is easy, the employees of the two state-owned companies have admitted that the supply is not easy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kumar Rajbhandari, spokesperson of Salt Trading Corporation, said that the farmers were suffering due to the inconvenient distribution system. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The distribution has not been smooth due to the impact of lockdown in transporting fertilisers. If the lockdown eases from July, the distribution can be easier,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers across the country are preparing for the planting season in July. But, they have not been able to get the required fertilizer for paddy. Farmers are obliged to return home empty-handed, even after waiting in long lines all day for fertilizer.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Complaints of farmers not getting fertilizer are increasing in districts like Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Panchthar, Ilam, Sarlahi, Chitwan, Banke and Bardiya. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhubaneswar Yadav, a farmer of Sunsari, is preparing to plant paddy on 6 bighas of land from mid-June for which he needs about 20 bags of fertilisers including urea, Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and potassium. However, he has not been able to get a single bag of fertilizer so far.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Even the cooperatives do not have enough fertilizer here. How can they give it to us? It is necessary to create an environment whereby the fertilisers in Kathmandu can reach here to us,” he told New Business Age.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers of Morang, who are preparing to sow paddy, have said that they are also having lots of problems to acquire fertilisers. Man Bahadur Magar, a farmer of Kanepokhari, Morang also complained that he has not received any fertilizer yet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that as the cooperatives could not provide fertilisers in the midst of planting season, the farmers were obliged to go to the Indian border market amidst the risk of coronavirus pandemic to buy fertilisers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, the situation in Chitwan district is different. Despite the easy supply of DAP, the farmers here are facing shortage of urea fertilizer. Rajan Dhakal, chief of Agriculture Knowledge Kendra Chitwan, says that the supply of fertilizer has eased this year but only half of the demand has been met.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Not all places have a balanced distribution of fertilisers,” Dhakal said, adding, “But, the distribution system has been affected as the fertiliser is distributed on the basis of local units’ recommendations.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Distribution and management should be more efficient and accurate. Those who have access are benefited more and those who do not have access are not benefited," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13263', 'image' => '20210610023043_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 14:30:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13519', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 32,000 Metric Tonnes of Urea Arrive from Bangladesh ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The fertilizer was purchased through the Government-to-Government agreement between the two countries. The fertilizer has been received by Birgunj-based provincial office of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited, according to the national news agency RSS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">As per the G2G agreement, the Government of Bangladesh was supposed to supply 50,000 metric tonnes urea to Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining 17,500 metric tonnes of fertilizer is in the process of transportation, RSS reported citing Manager of the company’s provincial office, Gorakh Nath KC. The remaining consignment will be brought to the dry port at Sirsiya of Birgunj via train from the Kolkata Port in India, RSS added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Manager KC said that although the entire consignment should have arrived here from Bangladesh by this time, it was delayed due to the adverse situation caused by the global coronavirus pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the Government of Nepal and the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka making efforts for the supply of the remaining fertilizer from Bangladesh. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13262', 'image' => '20210610040355_20210210122458_1612912820.Clipboard14.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 16:03:19', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13531', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Road Excavation in 8 Districts Banned until mid-September ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley. The Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office (FRSMO) under the Department of Roads has directed the concerned Road Division Offices to implement this decision from June 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Issuing a notice on Sunday, the FRSMO has ordered the concerned offices to halt excavation of roads under the Road Divisions in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Hetauda, Khurkot, Nuwakot, Bharatpur and Charikot. Engineer Kailash Kumar Shrestha, superintending of the FRSMO, informed that the maintenance of various roads cannot be done immediately, and so they have asked not to dig roads from June 15 till mid-September.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that the excavation of road for drinking water, sewerage, electricity and telephone purpose has been stopped as it is not possible to blacktop the road and it will be difficult to work due to rain.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The FRSMO has also warned of action if any unit is found t have dug the roads against its instruction. The office has made it clear that no road will be allowed to be dug and if anyone is found digging, action will be taken as per the Public Roads Act 2031 BS. Under the FRSMO, more than 3,000 road networks have been expanded in these districts.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13276', 'image' => '20210614011147_20190529122404__MG_5482.JPG', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 13:11:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Prohibitory Order in Kathmandu Valley Extended by 1 more Week', 'sub_title' => 'Groceries and stationery shops to open till 11 am ', 'summary' => 'June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, restrictions have been eased from June 14 but the prohibitory order will remain in force until June 21.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A joint meeting of the Chief District Officers of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur took a decision to this effect on Sunday (June 13). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the prohibitory order, people’s mobility will be restricted unless necessary. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Time duration to open groceries and other shops has been extended until 11 in the morning. During the prohibitory order, vegetable and meat shops, groceries, dairy, stores selling drinking water and cooking gas and departmental stores will be allowed to open till 11 am. Vehicles supplying goods are allowed to run between 9 am to 11 am. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, stationery shops and printing press will remain open until 11 am. Shops selling construction materials and electricity shops are allowed to open after 4 pm. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Online marketing and home delivery service will remain open until 7 pm. Vehicle repairing service will be allowed until 9 pm. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Banks and financial institutions will continue their business by mobilising a limited number of human resources. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13275', 'image' => '20210614115927_20200601121121_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 11:58:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'One-Stop Service Centre to Provide Services Electronically', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The centre was set up on May 15, 2019 with the objective of providing services to the industries such as registration, license renewal, approval of foreign investment, providing incentives, discounts and various other facilities from one single point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In order to provide the services electronically, the Department of Industry (DoI) has selected a Nepali company to develop a software for the centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jibalal Bhusal, Director General of the Department, informed that DoI has selected a Nepali company to develop the software after completing the tender process. Once the software is developed, investors, industrialists and service seekers will not have to visit the DoI physically for the approval of foreign investment, industry closure and trademark registration.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, industrialists must visit the department to receive the certificate. The government has announced in the budget programme for the fiscal year 2021/22 that all the services to be provided from the One-Stop Service Centre will be made available electronically. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We can't ensure services will be provided online from the upcoming fiscal year since it takes a year to develop the software," Bhusal said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department has been providing services to the industrialists and investors through the One-Stop Service Centre in line with the one-door policy since the last two years. An official of the department informed that the DoI was looking for a company to develop software but were unable to find such company before.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The One-Stop Service Center has representation of fourteen institutional bodies and nine units. The Inland Revenue Department, Company Registrar’s Office, Department of Immigration and Nepal Electricity Authority are some of the institutional bodies that will provide integrated service from the one-stop service centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The center has representation of foreign investment and technology transfer unit, industry registration, environment, visa, foreign exchange, land facilitation unit among others. Bhusal said that a separate umbrella act is required to make the functions of the one-stop service center more effective in the long run.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The umbrella act has been proposed to make the work of the One-Stop Service Centre effective," he said, adding, "With the implementation of the Act, DoI can mobilize the manpower and resources required for the institutional bodies."</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, human resources are working as representative of the concerned body and are accountable to the same body.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13274', 'image' => '20210613040957_My Effect.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon enters Nepal, More Rainfall Expected this Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the monsoon will enter the western parts of the country in a day or two.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The Division informed that there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall in many places of the country after monsoon becomes active later this week, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. Generally, the monsoon starts on June 13 and exits on October 2 in Nepal. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Most places of the country may receive more rainfall than average during this monsoon, according to the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) had earlier issued warning of more than normal rainfall this year. Chief Executive of NDRRMA Anil Pokharel has been urging the public to remain alert to avoid possible losses of lives and properties from monsoon-induced disasters.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The NDRRMA has launched Impact Based Forecasting (IBF) as a pilot project in nine districts – </span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Baglung, Myagdi, Syangja, Dailekh, Kalikot and Jajarkot – for early warning against disaster, NDRRMA’s Communication Expert Ranjana Shrestha informed New Business Age.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">“</span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Earlier, this technique used to be implied to forecast floods. But now, NDRRMA has launched a pilot project in 9 districts through which prediction of even landslide can be done,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Meanwhile, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said there is an impact of a low-pressure belt from the northwestern Bay of Bengal and surrounding areas in the country’s east and central area and of a mix of westerly and local winds in the western areas. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">As a result, the country received rainfall on Saturday following a partial or normal change in the weather.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13273', 'image' => '20210613043257_2021SECVPF.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:32:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'World Bank Approves $60 Million to Strengthen Nepal’s Higher Education ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: World Bank Nepal's Facebook page</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a statement on June 11, the World Bank said that the fund will be utilized to scale up online learning and expand access to academic institutions for underprivileged and vulnerable students. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Improving access to quality higher education and helping students acquire the skills that are in demand in the labor market will contribute to Nepal’s COVID-19 recovery and strengthen its resilience,” the statement quoted Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank’s Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Program of the World Bank builds on Nepal’s previous successful higher education projects supported through results-based financing, the statement further said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The World Bank’s country office said that the support would help the government of Nepal align its higher education sector with labor market needs, boost collaborative research and entrepreneurship, improve governance, and access to quality higher education, especially for disadvantaged students. </span><br /> “The COVID-19 pandemic has created strong incentives to expand online platforms and blended learning, which the program will help scale up across Nepal’s universities.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13272', 'image' => '20210613074924_19876860n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 07:48:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Five Former PMs Against Extraction of Stones, Sand and Aggregates ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Prime Ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and Baburam Bhattarai on June 12 issued the joint statement demanding the withdrawal of the provision from the budget.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The former prime ministers were of the view that the country is facing an unstable political situation due to the wrongdoings of the incumbent prime minister. They said that the decision of the government to excavate stones, aggregates, and sand from different parts of the country and export them abroad in the name of reducing the trade deficit is anti-national and against the well-being of the citizens.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">They pointed out that the implementation of such provision would create a serious environmental problem by affecting the geography of Nepal which is in a very sensitive situation. Likewise, environmentalists say such excavations in the Chure and Mahabharata ranges could lead to deforestation, drying up of water sources, and desertification in the Terai region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We strongly oppose the government's decision and demand its immediate revocation. We urge the caretaker government not to work in a way that affects the country and the people, and request the administration, security, and other state bodies not to engage in such wrongdoings," the joint statement said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In the budget for the Fiscal Year 2021/22, the government has announced to reduce the trade deficit by extracting minerals, stones, and aggregates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Political parties including the Nepali Congress, Maoist Center, Janata Samajwadi Party, Rastriya Janamorcha, and environmentalists have been criticizing the government for exploiting the Chure region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13271', 'image' => '20210613122650_River-Sand-Mining-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 12:16:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cooperatives Brace for Consolidation Amid Govt Push for Merger ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. ', 'content' => '<p><strong>Sagar Ghimire </strong></p> <p>KATHMANDU, June 12: Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. </p> <p>According to the data of Department of Cooperatives (DoC), a total of 128 cooperatives have gone into merger to become 50 entities as of mid April.</p> <p>This merger drive follows the government's recent push to lower the number of the cooperatives and strengthen their corporate governance. Amid a challenge of effective monitoring and regulation due to the high number of cooperatives, particularly saving and credit cooperatives, the government pursued a policy to promote merger of cooperatives. </p> <p>The government’s priority of cooperatives merger was even highlighted by the budget for the current fiscal year (2020/21). "Saving and credit cooperatives will be encouraged to go into merger," read the budget speech for the current fiscal year. </p> <p>Though the budget has announced that it will encourage merger among cooperatives, cooperative sector leaders say that the government has not introduced any incentive or subsidy for those institutions which opt for amalgamation. The merger spree so far is largely driven by stiff market competition or regulatory push rather than government’s incentivization, they say. </p> <p>Paritosh Paudyal, chairperson of Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions Ltd (NEFSCUN), said that most of the cooperatives have gone into merger after realizing that the merger makes them financially stronger and more competitive in the market. </p> <p>“When there is a lot of competition in the market due to presence of high number of cooperatives, it makes sense for many to go for merger and become bigger and stronger. It helps them to cut costs and stay competitive in the market,” said NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>The merger also brings business consolidation and bolsters the capacity of saving credit cooperatives to withstand any shock or uncertainty, according to NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>“Bank and financial instiututions are expanding their reaches. With higher investment on technology, they are cutting costs and providing their services at cheaper cost. On the other hand, many cooperatives are still operating manually,” said Paudyal. “Now, these cooperatives will also have to make investment in such technology and softwares to lower their costs and stay relevant in the market. Smaller cooperatives may not be in the position to do so. The only way forward is consolidation through mergers,” he said. </p> <p>Most of the cooperatives have found the merger a way to cope with membership duplication and become bigger and stronger entity that benefits their members due to lower costs and higher returns. </p> <p>Ekikrit Friendship Saving and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (EFSCCS) is one among those cooperatives. The Dolakha-based cooperative is an entity formed after a merger among 14 different saving and cooperatives. In fact, the cooperative’s merger journey began even before the government started pushing for the amalgamation of cooperatives. It commenced its integrated operation in December 2014 following a merger between nine cooperatives. Three years later, it wooed two other cooperatives for the marriage. But, its merger journey did not stop there. Three other saving and credit cooperatives also merged into Ekikrit Friendship last year. </p> <p>Keshab Prasad Dahal, the CEO of EFSCCS, said that their merger initiative was aimed mainly at addressing the problem of membership duplication and making the institution financially stronger and bigger. </p> <p>“While there were many members who were getting services from more than one cooperative, we thought combining them would be in the best interest of both institutions and our shareholders. The consolidation not only helped the cooperative to enhance its financial capacity but also enabled it to provide loans at cheaper rate as well as higher return to the shareholders,” he said. </p> <p>According to CEO Dahal, the total number of shareholders has declined to nearly 5,500 from over 12,000 in 2014 while also increasing the capital and volume of deposits and loans. </p> <p>The government’s objective behind pushing for merger is aimed at lowering the high number of saving and credit cooperatives in the country, particularly in urban areas. Due to the lack of government’s capacity to supervise and regulate them, weak corporate governance and internal control in many cooperatives have become a serious concern. </p> <p>Officials are worried about the possibility of replay of the crisis of 2013 when at least 150 cooperatives including Oriental Cooperative had ran into trouble due to poor regulation. A committee led by former Special Court Judge Gauri Bahadur Karki had found these troubled cooperatives misappropriating nearly Rs 11 billion in deposits including Rs 5.5 billion by Oriental Cooperatives run by Sudheer Basnet. These depositors are still waiting to get their money back. </p> <p>Loosely-regulated cooperatives getting intro trouble is not the only risk that the government is worried about. There are also concerns of lack of monitoring and poor regulation posing a threat to the financial stability of the country. While bank and financial institutions are under strict regulation of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), thousands of saving and deposit cooperatives which also provide similar services are largely operating with little or no regulatory check. </p> <p>“High number of cooperatives has become a challenge to carry out supervision and enforce regulation. So, we have been pushing for the merger. We have set standards which even allow the government to send cooperatives into forceful merger,” said Surendra Raj Paudel, the spokesperson of the Department of Cooperatives. </p> <p>In 2019, the government introduced cooperatives regulation with a provision requiring existing cooperatives that operate against the standards to go for forceful merger.</p> <p>As per the new regulation, the government will allow registration of only one cooperative per 5,000 people in a ward of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities. Similarly, there will be one cooperative per 2,000 people in municipal area whereas the government will issue license to only one cooperative for every 500 people in rural municipality, according to the new regulations.<br /> “By fixing the number of cooperatives that can be operated in certain area based on population, the government has made it intention clear to send cooperatives into merger, particularly in urban areas, in a forceful way if required,” said the department’s spokesperson Paudel.</p> <p>There are a total of 34,512 cooperatives across the country as of December 2017, according to the data of the department. Among them, the number of savings and credit cooperatives is the highest. 13,578 savings and credit cooperatives are in operation in Nepal. They have mobilized a total of Rs 217.49 billion in deposits and disbursed Rs 179.88 billion in loans.</p> <p>However, cooperative leaders see a discrepancy in government’s policy and its action when it comes about reducing the number of cooperatives. </p> <p>“On the one hand, the government says that we already have more than enough cooperatives in the country. On the other, local governments are still registering cooperatives,” said NEFSCUN’s Chairperson Paudyal. “The government should first fix the number of cooperatives that the country needs and than implement its policy accordingly,” he added. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-12', 'modified' => '2021-06-12', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13270', 'image' => '20210612114626_Cooperatives_merger.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-12 11:39:20', 'homepage' => true, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '35' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling Under Shortage of Paracetamol ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive surge in demand for paracetamol, a primary drug used for containing fever.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sitaram Regmi, president of the Federation of Nepal Medical Entrepreneurs, said that the demand for paracetamol has been a record high since the month of April and it still remains high. “The demand for paracetamol has increased by 10 percent. Since the industries have also cut down the production, the market is witnessing a shortage,” he said. He added that customers are not getting easy access to the drug also due to artificial shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Regmi, production of paracetamol has also declined by 10 percent. He complained that although the industries can increase the production capacity up to 20 percent, they have not stepped up production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Industries producing paracetamol had reduced the production of the drug since April. Citing that the production cost of medicines like paracetamol, zinc, Vitamin C, doxycycline, and azithromycin used in treating COVID-19 patients is high, they have reduced the production of these medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepal Pharmaceutical Association, has informed that the industries have cut down production due to the increasing price of raw materials. Narayan Chhetri, President of the Association, said that the price of the medicines fixed fourteen years ago is still unchanged. In spite of this, industries were producing medicines incurring losses. But lately, shortages of raw materials have led to a decline in the production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Umesh Lal Shrestha, who was at the helm of the Association in 2008, said pricing of drugs doesn't even cover the production cost of the medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> “Not any government has ever extended support to the industries. The government policy is not supportive enough to solve the problems of entrepreneurs and help develop the industry,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He further added that the practice of stockpiling paracetamol is the major reason behind the shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13269', 'image' => '20210611021604_20210517025320_20200818124630_1597700501.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:15:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget of Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Program Under-spent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Finance Minister Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada had allocated a budget of Rs 6.60 billion for the programme. According to Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO), out of the total allocated budget for the programme, only Rs 967.7 million has been spent as of mid-April.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Under this programme, a committee headed by a directly-elected parliamentarian in the House of Representatives can select the programme and spend the budget. According to government officials, the failure to spend the budget allocated for this programme is mainly due to the dissolution of parliament and the coronavirus pandemic. The government had twice dissolved parliament and called elections twice this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Along with the pandemic, dissolution of the parliament is the main reason,” said Gyanendra Poudel, joint comptroller and auditor general. According to FCGO, at least 60 percent of the budget allocated under this heading had been spent during the corresponding period of previous years, but only 14.49 percent of the allocated budget has been spent this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, new programmes have not been selected and implemented this year, while the spent budget is also found in the programmes run in previous years.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">About Rs 10 billion allocated in the budget of FY 2076/77 for the directly-elected federal parliamentarians to spend Rs 60 million in each election constituency was downzised to Rs 40 million per constituency in the current fiscal year and Rs 6.60 billion was allocated for the purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had pressurised the parliamentarians this year to spend in the health sector under this program by amending the operating procedure. This controversial programme was started in 2051 BS in the name of Parliamentary Development Fund by giving Rs 250,000 per MP. Since then, every finance minister has been increasing the amount and changing its name. As the country has adopted a federal system, this programme has been opposed as the amount was used in unproductive sectors rather than infrastructure development.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government, which dissolved the House of Representatives, has scrapped the local infrastructure development partnership programme through the upcoming budget. Announcing the budget for the fiscal year 2078/79 on May 29, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel had announced the cancellation of the programme. Recently, when the federal government continued such programmes, the provincial government also started replicating it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13268', 'image' => '20210611022802_1623361855.Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:27:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Expert Stress on Promotion of Self-Sufficient Agriculture ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, stakeholders have initiated discussions programme in Nepal in line with the concept of pre-conference on food system which the United Nations has been organising for analysing the situation of countries throughout the world in the context of achieving the development goals by ending global hunger by 2030. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A virtual discussions programme was organised on Wednesday (June 9) in this connection. The discussions programme was held on the topic of contribution of production groups and small farmers to the sustainable food system under the theme – 'Prior Right of the Marginalised Communities, Main Basis for Guaranteeing Sustainable Food System.' </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> Addressing the programme, National Planning Commission (NPC) member and spokesperson Meen Bahadur Shahi said priority should be given to programmes that support attaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Regarding the topic of food sovereignty, he said, the government was moving ahead by analysing the issues raised by the civil society organisations. According to RSS, the NPC spokesperson urged the Agricultural Development Bank to facilitate in ensuring financial access to the grassroots farmers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Dr Yogendra Kumar Karki said the national economy cannot be improved without improving and promoting the agriculture sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the conference, Professor at the Sudurpaschim University Raksha Sharma pointed out that profitable production was hampering sustainable farming system in the country. She added that the profit- seeking tendency has ruined the soil of the farming lands as farmers are found excessively using chemical fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides and energy as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Agro campaigner Chandra Prasad Adhikari argued that the excessive use of chemicals has adversely affected the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Community Self-reliance Service Centre’s Dr Jagat Basnet argued that the concept of smart city was displacing the farmers and the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He complained of irregularities in government’s loan policy to small-scale farmers. Similarly, Farmers Network’s Dr Gokarna Gyawali argued that the COVID-19 effect was hampering the UN’s declaration of ending famine by 2030. According to Dr Gyawali, 270 million people are still facing food shortage and an infant dies of hunger in each 10 seconds in the world.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The conference was jointly organised by the National Land Rights Forum, the Federation of Community Forestry Users Committees, the Agricultural Campaign for Food, the National Irrigation Water Users Federation of Nepal and the Association of Nepali Agricultural Journalists (ANAJ). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six working papers were presented and discussed in the webinar. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The UN is preparing to organize mega conference in course of achieving sustainable goal by 2030. Pre-conference is being organized in Rome since July 26 to 28 for the September conference. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13267', 'image' => '20210611111447_20210106123441_20201105020829_cover.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 11:13:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Melamchi Project to Halt Water Supply to Kathmandu from June 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">June 11: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board made such announcement as the tunnel used for supplying water has to be emptied for inspection from June 15. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a press statement on Thursday (June 10), the board said it will take nearly two months for the inspection, including 16 days for emptying the tunnel. The board noted that it will take around 60 days for the inspection, testing, improvement and refilling. These tasks have to be done before the monsoon peaks, the statement added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Executive Director of the board Ram Kumar Shrestha informed that the board has already alerted the locals of Melamchi, Sindhu and Gyalthum, especially those living in the downstream areas, to remain aware about increase in flow of water due to the emptying process. According to the board, water level in Melamchi as well as Bagmati rivers could rise during this process and has alerted one and all to stay away from those rivers from June 15. Furthermore, the statement urged the locals to remain highly vigilant if there is any urgent need to visit the areas that are likely to be affected during this process.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Waster Supply Project had brought much respite to the growing population of the valley who had been facing acute shortage of water since decades.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The project had diverted water from the Melamchi river to Kathmandu on February 22 for testing the project tunnel. The water from Melamchi had reached Sundarijal of Kathmandu 12 days after the test kicked off. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited had started distributing the water from Melamchi in the Kathmandu Valley from April 19. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13266', 'image' => '20210611103908_1623336277.melamchi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Stays Implementation of Citizenship Ordinance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The constitutional bench comprising of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki and Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada on Thursday (June 10) issued the order prohibiting the government from implementing the ordinance. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has directed the government not to implement the ordinance until a final verdict on writ petitions filed against the ordinance is issued. </span><br /> The constitutional bench noted that any ordinance that is not endorsed through the parliament by fulfilling the constitutional provision is likely to create confusion in the future.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"In such case, it is appropriate to make arrangement through the federal parliament with the passage of the bill. It is the right constitutional process of making law," the ordinance reminded the government, adding, "There is no judicial relevance of implementation the ordinance at present." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The president had issued the ordinance upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers on May 23. Such decision was taken after the ruling party brokered a deal with Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six writ petitions were filed against the ordinance at the apex court by advocates Bishnu Kumar Giri, Ram Bahadur Shahi, Kul Bahadur Bogati, Birbhadra Joshi and Laxman Pokharel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Responding to the writ petitions, the Supreme Court also ordered the government to submit written clarification within seven days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13265', 'image' => '20210611105654_1623360708.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:56:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13518', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Preparing Action Plans to Implement Tax Subsidy Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The action plans are being prepared to implement the programme presented in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2021/22). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the departments under the Ministry are currently formulating action plans to implement such programmes in a stipulated time. The Inland Revenue Department, the Department of Customs and other authorities under the Ministry are preparing separate action plans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Mahesh Acharya, joint secretary of the Finance Ministry, said that the Ministry is working in full swing to formulate action plans and implement the programms in time. Acharya said that other ministries and departments have also started making action plans for the programmes included in the budget. Most of the action plans will be completed within this month.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Since the budget announcement, most of the customs duty rates have already been implemented while other concessional programmes and tax exemptions are in the process of implementation. The provision of income tax exemption will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Mukti Pandey, deputy director general of the Inland Revenue Department, said some concessional programmes including income tax will come into effect from July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has introduced provisions to give 90 percent income tax exemption to the taxpayers with an annual turnover of up to Rs 2 million, 75 percent to the taxpayers with turnover of Rs 2 million to Rs 5 million and 50 percent to those having turnover of Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">It has provisioned to apply only one percent tax on taxable income of hotels, trekking and travels agencies, transport companies, party palaces, airline companies, cinema halls and communication industry. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">If any person or company contributes to the fund set up by the government for control, prevention and treatment of COVID-19 pandemic, the amount can be deducted while calculating taxable income. The budget has reintroduced the policy of refunding value added tax (VAT) when the industry buys fuel. It has also provisioned to deduct VAT paid on the purchase of diesel and gas used in the taxable business of the taxpayer. These provisions will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has given VAT, excise duty and customs duty exemption on various equipment and materials like oxygen, liquid oxygen, oxygen cylinder and medicines imported for the treatment of COVID- 19 infected patients until the mid of January 2022. This provision has already come into effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) have demanded not to fine entrepreneurs who fail to pay their tax during the time of restrictions. In a joint statement issued on June 10, it the representatives of the private organisations said it is not possible to pay VAT, excise duty required to be cleared on a monthly basis due to the restrictions on movement “so we urge the government not to impose fines on entrepreneurs”.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The three umbrella organizations of businessmen had sought to extend the time to clear taxes during last year as well but the government had not extended the time period. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13264', 'image' => '20210610031926_20210501025837_11.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 15:18:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13517', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers Facing Shortage of Fertiliser Despite Sufficient Stock', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The farmers have not been able to get fertilisers because the distribution system has become inconvenient due to the lockdown imposed by the government for controlling coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the Salt Trading Corporation and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited have more than 85,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer in stock. However, the farmers have not been able to receive any of them. Although the government claims that the distribution of fertiliser is easy, the employees of the two state-owned companies have admitted that the supply is not easy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kumar Rajbhandari, spokesperson of Salt Trading Corporation, said that the farmers were suffering due to the inconvenient distribution system. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The distribution has not been smooth due to the impact of lockdown in transporting fertilisers. If the lockdown eases from July, the distribution can be easier,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers across the country are preparing for the planting season in July. But, they have not been able to get the required fertilizer for paddy. Farmers are obliged to return home empty-handed, even after waiting in long lines all day for fertilizer.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Complaints of farmers not getting fertilizer are increasing in districts like Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Panchthar, Ilam, Sarlahi, Chitwan, Banke and Bardiya. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhubaneswar Yadav, a farmer of Sunsari, is preparing to plant paddy on 6 bighas of land from mid-June for which he needs about 20 bags of fertilisers including urea, Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and potassium. However, he has not been able to get a single bag of fertilizer so far.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Even the cooperatives do not have enough fertilizer here. How can they give it to us? It is necessary to create an environment whereby the fertilisers in Kathmandu can reach here to us,” he told New Business Age.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers of Morang, who are preparing to sow paddy, have said that they are also having lots of problems to acquire fertilisers. Man Bahadur Magar, a farmer of Kanepokhari, Morang also complained that he has not received any fertilizer yet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that as the cooperatives could not provide fertilisers in the midst of planting season, the farmers were obliged to go to the Indian border market amidst the risk of coronavirus pandemic to buy fertilisers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, the situation in Chitwan district is different. Despite the easy supply of DAP, the farmers here are facing shortage of urea fertilizer. Rajan Dhakal, chief of Agriculture Knowledge Kendra Chitwan, says that the supply of fertilizer has eased this year but only half of the demand has been met.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Not all places have a balanced distribution of fertilisers,” Dhakal said, adding, “But, the distribution system has been affected as the fertiliser is distributed on the basis of local units’ recommendations.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Distribution and management should be more efficient and accurate. Those who have access are benefited more and those who do not have access are not benefited," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13263', 'image' => '20210610023043_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 14:30:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13519', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 32,000 Metric Tonnes of Urea Arrive from Bangladesh ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The fertilizer was purchased through the Government-to-Government agreement between the two countries. The fertilizer has been received by Birgunj-based provincial office of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited, according to the national news agency RSS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">As per the G2G agreement, the Government of Bangladesh was supposed to supply 50,000 metric tonnes urea to Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining 17,500 metric tonnes of fertilizer is in the process of transportation, RSS reported citing Manager of the company’s provincial office, Gorakh Nath KC. The remaining consignment will be brought to the dry port at Sirsiya of Birgunj via train from the Kolkata Port in India, RSS added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Manager KC said that although the entire consignment should have arrived here from Bangladesh by this time, it was delayed due to the adverse situation caused by the global coronavirus pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the Government of Nepal and the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka making efforts for the supply of the remaining fertilizer from Bangladesh. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13262', 'image' => '20210610040355_20210210122458_1612912820.Clipboard14.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 16:03:19', '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:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 14: With the arrival of monsoon, any works related to road construction has been banned in eight districts including Kathmandu Valley. The Federal Road Supervision and Monitoring Office (FRSMO) under the Department of Roads has directed the concerned Road Division Offices to implement this decision from June 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Issuing a notice on Sunday, the FRSMO has ordered the concerned offices to halt excavation of roads under the Road Divisions in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Hetauda, Khurkot, Nuwakot, Bharatpur and Charikot. Engineer Kailash Kumar Shrestha, superintending of the FRSMO, informed that the maintenance of various roads cannot be done immediately, and so they have asked not to dig roads from June 15 till mid-September.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that the excavation of road for drinking water, sewerage, electricity and telephone purpose has been stopped as it is not possible to blacktop the road and it will be difficult to work due to rain.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The FRSMO has also warned of action if any unit is found t have dug the roads against its instruction. The office has made it clear that no road will be allowed to be dug and if anyone is found digging, action will be taken as per the Public Roads Act 2031 BS. Under the FRSMO, more than 3,000 road networks have been expanded in these districts.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13276', 'image' => '20210614011147_20190529122404__MG_5482.JPG', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 13:11:03', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13530', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Prohibitory Order in Kathmandu Valley Extended by 1 more Week', 'sub_title' => 'Groceries and stationery shops to open till 11 am ', 'summary' => 'June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 14: The government authorities in the Kathmandu Valley have extended the prohibitory order by one more week. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, restrictions have been eased from June 14 but the prohibitory order will remain in force until June 21.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A joint meeting of the Chief District Officers of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur took a decision to this effect on Sunday (June 13). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the prohibitory order, people’s mobility will be restricted unless necessary. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Time duration to open groceries and other shops has been extended until 11 in the morning. During the prohibitory order, vegetable and meat shops, groceries, dairy, stores selling drinking water and cooking gas and departmental stores will be allowed to open till 11 am. Vehicles supplying goods are allowed to run between 9 am to 11 am. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, stationery shops and printing press will remain open until 11 am. Shops selling construction materials and electricity shops are allowed to open after 4 pm. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Online marketing and home delivery service will remain open until 7 pm. Vehicle repairing service will be allowed until 9 pm. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Banks and financial institutions will continue their business by mobilising a limited number of human resources. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-14', 'modified' => '2021-06-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13275', 'image' => '20210614115927_20200601121121_lockdown.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-14 11:58:42', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13528', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'One-Stop Service Centre to Provide Services Electronically', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: The government has initiated the process of developing software for the One-Stop Service Centre two years after its establishment. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The centre was set up on May 15, 2019 with the objective of providing services to the industries such as registration, license renewal, approval of foreign investment, providing incentives, discounts and various other facilities from one single point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In order to provide the services electronically, the Department of Industry (DoI) has selected a Nepali company to develop a software for the centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jibalal Bhusal, Director General of the Department, informed that DoI has selected a Nepali company to develop the software after completing the tender process. Once the software is developed, investors, industrialists and service seekers will not have to visit the DoI physically for the approval of foreign investment, industry closure and trademark registration.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, industrialists must visit the department to receive the certificate. The government has announced in the budget programme for the fiscal year 2021/22 that all the services to be provided from the One-Stop Service Centre will be made available electronically. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We can't ensure services will be provided online from the upcoming fiscal year since it takes a year to develop the software," Bhusal said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department has been providing services to the industrialists and investors through the One-Stop Service Centre in line with the one-door policy since the last two years. An official of the department informed that the DoI was looking for a company to develop software but were unable to find such company before.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The One-Stop Service Center has representation of fourteen institutional bodies and nine units. The Inland Revenue Department, Company Registrar’s Office, Department of Immigration and Nepal Electricity Authority are some of the institutional bodies that will provide integrated service from the one-stop service centre. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The center has representation of foreign investment and technology transfer unit, industry registration, environment, visa, foreign exchange, land facilitation unit among others. Bhusal said that a separate umbrella act is required to make the functions of the one-stop service center more effective in the long run.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The umbrella act has been proposed to make the work of the One-Stop Service Centre effective," he said, adding, "With the implementation of the Act, DoI can mobilize the manpower and resources required for the institutional bodies."</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, human resources are working as representative of the concerned body and are accountable to the same body.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13274', 'image' => '20210613040957_My Effect.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13529', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Monsoon enters Nepal, More Rainfall Expected this Year ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">June 13: Monsoon that entered Province 1, 2 and Bagmati Province since Friday has made its way to Gandaki and Lumbini Provinces from Saturday.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division under the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, the monsoon will enter the western parts of the country in a day or two.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The Division informed that there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall in many places of the country after monsoon becomes active later this week, the state-owned national news agency RSS reported. Generally, the monsoon starts on June 13 and exits on October 2 in Nepal. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Most places of the country may receive more rainfall than average during this monsoon, according to the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) had earlier issued warning of more than normal rainfall this year. Chief Executive of NDRRMA Anil Pokharel has been urging the public to remain alert to avoid possible losses of lives and properties from monsoon-induced disasters.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">The NDRRMA has launched Impact Based Forecasting (IBF) as a pilot project in nine districts – </span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha, Rasuwa, Baglung, Myagdi, Syangja, Dailekh, Kalikot and Jajarkot – for early warning against disaster, NDRRMA’s Communication Expert Ranjana Shrestha informed New Business Age.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">“</span></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Earlier, this technique used to be implied to forecast floods. But now, NDRRMA has launched a pilot project in 9 districts through which prediction of even landslide can be done,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Meanwhile, the Meteorological Forecasting Division said there is an impact of a low-pressure belt from the northwestern Bay of Bengal and surrounding areas in the country’s east and central area and of a mix of westerly and local winds in the western areas. </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">As a result, the country received rainfall on Saturday following a partial or normal change in the weather.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13273', 'image' => '20210613043257_2021SECVPF.jpeg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 16:32:09', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13526', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'World Bank Approves $60 Million to Strengthen Nepal’s Higher Education ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: World Bank Nepal's Facebook page</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 13: The World Bank has approved US$ 60 million to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a statement on June 11, the World Bank said that the fund will be utilized to scale up online learning and expand access to academic institutions for underprivileged and vulnerable students. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Improving access to quality higher education and helping students acquire the skills that are in demand in the labor market will contribute to Nepal’s COVID-19 recovery and strengthen its resilience,” the statement quoted Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank’s Country Director for the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as saying. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Program of the World Bank builds on Nepal’s previous successful higher education projects supported through results-based financing, the statement further said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The World Bank’s country office said that the support would help the government of Nepal align its higher education sector with labor market needs, boost collaborative research and entrepreneurship, improve governance, and access to quality higher education, especially for disadvantaged students. </span><br /> “The COVID-19 pandemic has created strong incentives to expand online platforms and blended learning, which the program will help scale up across Nepal’s universities.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><strong> </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13272', 'image' => '20210613074924_19876860n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 07:48:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13527', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Five Former PMs Against Extraction of Stones, Sand and Aggregates ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 13: Five former prime ministers have demanded the government to immediately withdraw the new arrangement made for the export of sand, aggregates, and stones through the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Prime Ministers Sher Bahadur Deuba, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhala Nath Khanal, and Baburam Bhattarai on June 12 issued the joint statement demanding the withdrawal of the provision from the budget.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The former prime ministers were of the view that the country is facing an unstable political situation due to the wrongdoings of the incumbent prime minister. They said that the decision of the government to excavate stones, aggregates, and sand from different parts of the country and export them abroad in the name of reducing the trade deficit is anti-national and against the well-being of the citizens.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">They pointed out that the implementation of such provision would create a serious environmental problem by affecting the geography of Nepal which is in a very sensitive situation. Likewise, environmentalists say such excavations in the Chure and Mahabharata ranges could lead to deforestation, drying up of water sources, and desertification in the Terai region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"We strongly oppose the government's decision and demand its immediate revocation. We urge the caretaker government not to work in a way that affects the country and the people, and request the administration, security, and other state bodies not to engage in such wrongdoings," the joint statement said.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">In the budget for the Fiscal Year 2021/22, the government has announced to reduce the trade deficit by extracting minerals, stones, and aggregates.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Political parties including the Nepali Congress, Maoist Center, Janata Samajwadi Party, Rastriya Janamorcha, and environmentalists have been criticizing the government for exploiting the Chure region.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-13', 'modified' => '2021-06-13', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13271', 'image' => '20210613122650_River-Sand-Mining-1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-13 12:16:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13525', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Cooperatives Brace for Consolidation Amid Govt Push for Merger ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. ', 'content' => '<p><strong>Sagar Ghimire </strong></p> <p>KATHMANDU, June 12: Following a footstep of bank and financial institutions (BFIs), cooperatives are also pursuing merger in recent days. </p> <p>According to the data of Department of Cooperatives (DoC), a total of 128 cooperatives have gone into merger to become 50 entities as of mid April.</p> <p>This merger drive follows the government's recent push to lower the number of the cooperatives and strengthen their corporate governance. Amid a challenge of effective monitoring and regulation due to the high number of cooperatives, particularly saving and credit cooperatives, the government pursued a policy to promote merger of cooperatives. </p> <p>The government’s priority of cooperatives merger was even highlighted by the budget for the current fiscal year (2020/21). "Saving and credit cooperatives will be encouraged to go into merger," read the budget speech for the current fiscal year. </p> <p>Though the budget has announced that it will encourage merger among cooperatives, cooperative sector leaders say that the government has not introduced any incentive or subsidy for those institutions which opt for amalgamation. The merger spree so far is largely driven by stiff market competition or regulatory push rather than government’s incentivization, they say. </p> <p>Paritosh Paudyal, chairperson of Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions Ltd (NEFSCUN), said that most of the cooperatives have gone into merger after realizing that the merger makes them financially stronger and more competitive in the market. </p> <p>“When there is a lot of competition in the market due to presence of high number of cooperatives, it makes sense for many to go for merger and become bigger and stronger. It helps them to cut costs and stay competitive in the market,” said NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>The merger also brings business consolidation and bolsters the capacity of saving credit cooperatives to withstand any shock or uncertainty, according to NEFSCUN Chairperson Paudyal. </p> <p>“Bank and financial instiututions are expanding their reaches. With higher investment on technology, they are cutting costs and providing their services at cheaper cost. On the other hand, many cooperatives are still operating manually,” said Paudyal. “Now, these cooperatives will also have to make investment in such technology and softwares to lower their costs and stay relevant in the market. Smaller cooperatives may not be in the position to do so. The only way forward is consolidation through mergers,” he said. </p> <p>Most of the cooperatives have found the merger a way to cope with membership duplication and become bigger and stronger entity that benefits their members due to lower costs and higher returns. </p> <p>Ekikrit Friendship Saving and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (EFSCCS) is one among those cooperatives. The Dolakha-based cooperative is an entity formed after a merger among 14 different saving and cooperatives. In fact, the cooperative’s merger journey began even before the government started pushing for the amalgamation of cooperatives. It commenced its integrated operation in December 2014 following a merger between nine cooperatives. Three years later, it wooed two other cooperatives for the marriage. But, its merger journey did not stop there. Three other saving and credit cooperatives also merged into Ekikrit Friendship last year. </p> <p>Keshab Prasad Dahal, the CEO of EFSCCS, said that their merger initiative was aimed mainly at addressing the problem of membership duplication and making the institution financially stronger and bigger. </p> <p>“While there were many members who were getting services from more than one cooperative, we thought combining them would be in the best interest of both institutions and our shareholders. The consolidation not only helped the cooperative to enhance its financial capacity but also enabled it to provide loans at cheaper rate as well as higher return to the shareholders,” he said. </p> <p>According to CEO Dahal, the total number of shareholders has declined to nearly 5,500 from over 12,000 in 2014 while also increasing the capital and volume of deposits and loans. </p> <p>The government’s objective behind pushing for merger is aimed at lowering the high number of saving and credit cooperatives in the country, particularly in urban areas. Due to the lack of government’s capacity to supervise and regulate them, weak corporate governance and internal control in many cooperatives have become a serious concern. </p> <p>Officials are worried about the possibility of replay of the crisis of 2013 when at least 150 cooperatives including Oriental Cooperative had ran into trouble due to poor regulation. A committee led by former Special Court Judge Gauri Bahadur Karki had found these troubled cooperatives misappropriating nearly Rs 11 billion in deposits including Rs 5.5 billion by Oriental Cooperatives run by Sudheer Basnet. These depositors are still waiting to get their money back. </p> <p>Loosely-regulated cooperatives getting intro trouble is not the only risk that the government is worried about. There are also concerns of lack of monitoring and poor regulation posing a threat to the financial stability of the country. While bank and financial institutions are under strict regulation of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), thousands of saving and deposit cooperatives which also provide similar services are largely operating with little or no regulatory check. </p> <p>“High number of cooperatives has become a challenge to carry out supervision and enforce regulation. So, we have been pushing for the merger. We have set standards which even allow the government to send cooperatives into forceful merger,” said Surendra Raj Paudel, the spokesperson of the Department of Cooperatives. </p> <p>In 2019, the government introduced cooperatives regulation with a provision requiring existing cooperatives that operate against the standards to go for forceful merger.</p> <p>As per the new regulation, the government will allow registration of only one cooperative per 5,000 people in a ward of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities. Similarly, there will be one cooperative per 2,000 people in municipal area whereas the government will issue license to only one cooperative for every 500 people in rural municipality, according to the new regulations.<br /> “By fixing the number of cooperatives that can be operated in certain area based on population, the government has made it intention clear to send cooperatives into merger, particularly in urban areas, in a forceful way if required,” said the department’s spokesperson Paudel.</p> <p>There are a total of 34,512 cooperatives across the country as of December 2017, according to the data of the department. Among them, the number of savings and credit cooperatives is the highest. 13,578 savings and credit cooperatives are in operation in Nepal. They have mobilized a total of Rs 217.49 billion in deposits and disbursed Rs 179.88 billion in loans.</p> <p>However, cooperative leaders see a discrepancy in government’s policy and its action when it comes about reducing the number of cooperatives. </p> <p>“On the one hand, the government says that we already have more than enough cooperatives in the country. On the other, local governments are still registering cooperatives,” said NEFSCUN’s Chairperson Paudyal. “The government should first fix the number of cooperatives that the country needs and than implement its policy accordingly,” he added. </p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-12', 'modified' => '2021-06-12', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13270', 'image' => '20210612114626_Cooperatives_merger.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-12 11:39:20', 'homepage' => true, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '35' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13523', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Market Reeling Under Shortage of Paracetamol ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The market is currently reeling under shortage of paracetamol due to production cuts, artificial shortage and high demand for the essential drug in the market. In the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a massive surge in demand for paracetamol, a primary drug used for containing fever.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sitaram Regmi, president of the Federation of Nepal Medical Entrepreneurs, said that the demand for paracetamol has been a record high since the month of April and it still remains high. “The demand for paracetamol has increased by 10 percent. Since the industries have also cut down the production, the market is witnessing a shortage,” he said. He added that customers are not getting easy access to the drug also due to artificial shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Regmi, production of paracetamol has also declined by 10 percent. He complained that although the industries can increase the production capacity up to 20 percent, they have not stepped up production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Industries producing paracetamol had reduced the production of the drug since April. Citing that the production cost of medicines like paracetamol, zinc, Vitamin C, doxycycline, and azithromycin used in treating COVID-19 patients is high, they have reduced the production of these medicines.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepal Pharmaceutical Association, has informed that the industries have cut down production due to the increasing price of raw materials. Narayan Chhetri, President of the Association, said that the price of the medicines fixed fourteen years ago is still unchanged. In spite of this, industries were producing medicines incurring losses. But lately, shortages of raw materials have led to a decline in the production.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Umesh Lal Shrestha, who was at the helm of the Association in 2008, said pricing of drugs doesn't even cover the production cost of the medicine.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> “Not any government has ever extended support to the industries. The government policy is not supportive enough to solve the problems of entrepreneurs and help develop the industry,” said Shrestha.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He further added that the practice of stockpiling paracetamol is the major reason behind the shortage.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13269', 'image' => '20210611021604_20210517025320_20200818124630_1597700501.Clipboard10.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:15:22', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13524', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Budget of Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Program Under-spent', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 11: The budget allocated under Member of Parliament (MP)’s discretion for the 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme' has been under-spent in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Former Finance Minister Dr Yuvaraj Khatiwada had allocated a budget of Rs 6.60 billion for the programme. According to Financial Comptroller General’s Office (FCGO), out of the total allocated budget for the programme, only Rs 967.7 million has been spent as of mid-April.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Under this programme, a committee headed by a directly-elected parliamentarian in the House of Representatives can select the programme and spend the budget. According to government officials, the failure to spend the budget allocated for this programme is mainly due to the dissolution of parliament and the coronavirus pandemic. The government had twice dissolved parliament and called elections twice this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Along with the pandemic, dissolution of the parliament is the main reason,” said Gyanendra Poudel, joint comptroller and auditor general. According to FCGO, at least 60 percent of the budget allocated under this heading had been spent during the corresponding period of previous years, but only 14.49 percent of the allocated budget has been spent this year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, new programmes have not been selected and implemented this year, while the spent budget is also found in the programmes run in previous years.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">About Rs 10 billion allocated in the budget of FY 2076/77 for the directly-elected federal parliamentarians to spend Rs 60 million in each election constituency was downzised to Rs 40 million per constituency in the current fiscal year and Rs 6.60 billion was allocated for the purpose.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had pressurised the parliamentarians this year to spend in the health sector under this program by amending the operating procedure. This controversial programme was started in 2051 BS in the name of Parliamentary Development Fund by giving Rs 250,000 per MP. Since then, every finance minister has been increasing the amount and changing its name. As the country has adopted a federal system, this programme has been opposed as the amount was used in unproductive sectors rather than infrastructure development.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government, which dissolved the House of Representatives, has scrapped the local infrastructure development partnership programme through the upcoming budget. Announcing the budget for the fiscal year 2078/79 on May 29, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel had announced the cancellation of the programme. Recently, when the federal government continued such programmes, the provincial government also started replicating it.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13268', 'image' => '20210611022802_1623361855.Clipboard18.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 14:27:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13522', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' Expert Stress on Promotion of Self-Sufficient Agriculture ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: Experts have emphasised on the need of adopting self-reliant agriculture system for attaining the sustainable development goals (SDG) outlined by the United Nations Organisation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, stakeholders have initiated discussions programme in Nepal in line with the concept of pre-conference on food system which the United Nations has been organising for analysing the situation of countries throughout the world in the context of achieving the development goals by ending global hunger by 2030. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">A virtual discussions programme was organised on Wednesday (June 9) in this connection. The discussions programme was held on the topic of contribution of production groups and small farmers to the sustainable food system under the theme – 'Prior Right of the Marginalised Communities, Main Basis for Guaranteeing Sustainable Food System.' </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> Addressing the programme, National Planning Commission (NPC) member and spokesperson Meen Bahadur Shahi said priority should be given to programmes that support attaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Regarding the topic of food sovereignty, he said, the government was moving ahead by analysing the issues raised by the civil society organisations. According to RSS, the NPC spokesperson urged the Agricultural Development Bank to facilitate in ensuring financial access to the grassroots farmers. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Dr Yogendra Kumar Karki said the national economy cannot be improved without improving and promoting the agriculture sector. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the conference, Professor at the Sudurpaschim University Raksha Sharma pointed out that profitable production was hampering sustainable farming system in the country. She added that the profit- seeking tendency has ruined the soil of the farming lands as farmers are found excessively using chemical fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides and energy as well. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Agro campaigner Chandra Prasad Adhikari argued that the excessive use of chemicals has adversely affected the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Community Self-reliance Service Centre’s Dr Jagat Basnet argued that the concept of smart city was displacing the farmers and the agriculture system. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He complained of irregularities in government’s loan policy to small-scale farmers. Similarly, Farmers Network’s Dr Gokarna Gyawali argued that the COVID-19 effect was hampering the UN’s declaration of ending famine by 2030. According to Dr Gyawali, 270 million people are still facing food shortage and an infant dies of hunger in each 10 seconds in the world.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The conference was jointly organised by the National Land Rights Forum, the Federation of Community Forestry Users Committees, the Agricultural Campaign for Food, the National Irrigation Water Users Federation of Nepal and the Association of Nepali Agricultural Journalists (ANAJ). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six working papers were presented and discussed in the webinar. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The UN is preparing to organize mega conference in course of achieving sustainable goal by 2030. Pre-conference is being organized in Rome since July 26 to 28 for the September conference. </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13267', 'image' => '20210611111447_20210106123441_20201105020829_cover.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 11:13:53', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13520', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Melamchi Project to Halt Water Supply to Kathmandu from June 15', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">June 11: <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Project will halt water supply to Kathmandu for two months starting from June 15 </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Water Supply Development Board made such announcement as the tunnel used for supplying water has to be emptied for inspection from June 15. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a press statement on Thursday (June 10), the board said it will take nearly two months for the inspection, including 16 days for emptying the tunnel. The board noted that it will take around 60 days for the inspection, testing, improvement and refilling. These tasks have to be done before the monsoon peaks, the statement added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Executive Director of the board Ram Kumar Shrestha informed that the board has already alerted the locals of Melamchi, Sindhu and Gyalthum, especially those living in the downstream areas, to remain aware about increase in flow of water due to the emptying process. According to the board, water level in Melamchi as well as Bagmati rivers could rise during this process and has alerted one and all to stay away from those rivers from June 15. Furthermore, the statement urged the locals to remain highly vigilant if there is any urgent need to visit the areas that are likely to be affected during this process.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Melamchi Waster Supply Project had brought much respite to the growing population of the valley who had been facing acute shortage of water since decades.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The project had diverted water from the Melamchi river to Kathmandu on February 22 for testing the project tunnel. The water from Melamchi had reached Sundarijal of Kathmandu 12 days after the test kicked off. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited had started distributing the water from Melamchi in the Kathmandu Valley from April 19. </span></span></span><br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13266', 'image' => '20210611103908_1623336277.melamchi.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:38:01', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13521', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Stays Implementation of Citizenship Ordinance', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 11: The Supreme Court has an issued interim on Thrusday order asking the government not to implement the Citizenship Ordinance 2078. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The constitutional bench comprising of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and justices Dipak Kumar Karki, Mira Khadka, Hari Krishna Karki and Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada on Thursday (June 10) issued the order prohibiting the government from implementing the ordinance. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has directed the government not to implement the ordinance until a final verdict on writ petitions filed against the ordinance is issued. </span><br /> The constitutional bench noted that any ordinance that is not endorsed through the parliament by fulfilling the constitutional provision is likely to create confusion in the future.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"In such case, it is appropriate to make arrangement through the federal parliament with the passage of the bill. It is the right constitutional process of making law," the ordinance reminded the government, adding, "There is no judicial relevance of implementation the ordinance at present." </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The president had issued the ordinance upon the recommendation of the Council of Ministers on May 23. Such decision was taken after the ruling party brokered a deal with Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) to this effect. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Six writ petitions were filed against the ordinance at the apex court by advocates Bishnu Kumar Giri, Ram Bahadur Shahi, Kul Bahadur Bogati, Birbhadra Joshi and Laxman Pokharel. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Responding to the writ petitions, the Supreme Court also ordered the government to submit written clarification within seven days.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-11', 'modified' => '2021-06-11', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13265', 'image' => '20210611105654_1623360708.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-11 10:56:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13518', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Preparing Action Plans to Implement Tax Subsidy Programmes', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: The government has started preparing action plans to implement the programmes of tax subsidies and exemptions announced for various businesses affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The action plans are being prepared to implement the programme presented in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (FY 2021/22). </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Ministry of Finance, the departments under the Ministry are currently formulating action plans to implement such programmes in a stipulated time. The Inland Revenue Department, the Department of Customs and other authorities under the Ministry are preparing separate action plans.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Mahesh Acharya, joint secretary of the Finance Ministry, said that the Ministry is working in full swing to formulate action plans and implement the programms in time. Acharya said that other ministries and departments have also started making action plans for the programmes included in the budget. Most of the action plans will be completed within this month.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Since the budget announcement, most of the customs duty rates have already been implemented while other concessional programmes and tax exemptions are in the process of implementation. The provision of income tax exemption will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to Mukti Pandey, deputy director general of the Inland Revenue Department, said some concessional programmes including income tax will come into effect from July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has introduced provisions to give 90 percent income tax exemption to the taxpayers with an annual turnover of up to Rs 2 million, 75 percent to the taxpayers with turnover of Rs 2 million to Rs 5 million and 50 percent to those having turnover of Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">It has provisioned to apply only one percent tax on taxable income of hotels, trekking and travels agencies, transport companies, party palaces, airline companies, cinema halls and communication industry. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">If any person or company contributes to the fund set up by the government for control, prevention and treatment of COVID-19 pandemic, the amount can be deducted while calculating taxable income. The budget has reintroduced the policy of refunding value added tax (VAT) when the industry buys fuel. It has also provisioned to deduct VAT paid on the purchase of diesel and gas used in the taxable business of the taxpayer. These provisions will be implemented only after July 15.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The budget has given VAT, excise duty and customs duty exemption on various equipment and materials like oxygen, liquid oxygen, oxygen cylinder and medicines imported for the treatment of COVID- 19 infected patients until the mid of January 2022. This provision has already come into effect.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) have demanded not to fine entrepreneurs who fail to pay their tax during the time of restrictions. In a joint statement issued on June 10, it the representatives of the private organisations said it is not possible to pay VAT, excise duty required to be cleared on a monthly basis due to the restrictions on movement “so we urge the government not to impose fines on entrepreneurs”.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The three umbrella organizations of businessmen had sought to extend the time to clear taxes during last year as well but the government had not extended the time period. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13264', 'image' => '20210610031926_20210501025837_11.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 15:18:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13517', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Farmers Facing Shortage of Fertiliser Despite Sufficient Stock', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">June 10: Farmers have not been able to get fertilisers even though there is sufficient stock in the warehouses of the state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The farmers have not been able to get fertilisers because the distribution system has become inconvenient due to the lockdown imposed by the government for controlling coronavirus.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the Salt Trading Corporation and the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited have more than 85,000 metric tons of chemical fertilizer in stock. However, the farmers have not been able to receive any of them. Although the government claims that the distribution of fertiliser is easy, the employees of the two state-owned companies have admitted that the supply is not easy.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Kumar Rajbhandari, spokesperson of Salt Trading Corporation, said that the farmers were suffering due to the inconvenient distribution system. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The distribution has not been smooth due to the impact of lockdown in transporting fertilisers. If the lockdown eases from July, the distribution can be easier,” he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers across the country are preparing for the planting season in July. But, they have not been able to get the required fertilizer for paddy. Farmers are obliged to return home empty-handed, even after waiting in long lines all day for fertilizer.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Complaints of farmers not getting fertilizer are increasing in districts like Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa, Panchthar, Ilam, Sarlahi, Chitwan, Banke and Bardiya. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhubaneswar Yadav, a farmer of Sunsari, is preparing to plant paddy on 6 bighas of land from mid-June for which he needs about 20 bags of fertilisers including urea, Diammonium phosphate (DAP) and potassium. However, he has not been able to get a single bag of fertilizer so far.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Even the cooperatives do not have enough fertilizer here. How can they give it to us? It is necessary to create an environment whereby the fertilisers in Kathmandu can reach here to us,” he told New Business Age.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Farmers of Morang, who are preparing to sow paddy, have said that they are also having lots of problems to acquire fertilisers. Man Bahadur Magar, a farmer of Kanepokhari, Morang also complained that he has not received any fertilizer yet. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He said that as the cooperatives could not provide fertilisers in the midst of planting season, the farmers were obliged to go to the Indian border market amidst the risk of coronavirus pandemic to buy fertilisers.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">However, the situation in Chitwan district is different. Despite the easy supply of DAP, the farmers here are facing shortage of urea fertilizer. Rajan Dhakal, chief of Agriculture Knowledge Kendra Chitwan, says that the supply of fertilizer has eased this year but only half of the demand has been met.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Not all places have a balanced distribution of fertilisers,” Dhakal said, adding, “But, the distribution system has been affected as the fertiliser is distributed on the basis of local units’ recommendations.”</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Distribution and management should be more efficient and accurate. Those who have access are benefited more and those who do not have access are not benefited," he said.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13263', 'image' => '20210610023043_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 14:30:04', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13519', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => ' 32,000 Metric Tonnes of Urea Arrive from Bangladesh ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">June 10: A consignment of 32,500 metric tonnes of urea procured from Bangladesh has arrived in the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The fertilizer was purchased through the Government-to-Government agreement between the two countries. The fertilizer has been received by Birgunj-based provincial office of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited, according to the national news agency RSS. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">As per the G2G agreement, the Government of Bangladesh was supposed to supply 50,000 metric tonnes urea to Nepal. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining 17,500 metric tonnes of fertilizer is in the process of transportation, RSS reported citing Manager of the company’s provincial office, Gorakh Nath KC. The remaining consignment will be brought to the dry port at Sirsiya of Birgunj via train from the Kolkata Port in India, RSS added. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Manager KC said that although the entire consignment should have arrived here from Bangladesh by this time, it was delayed due to the adverse situation caused by the global coronavirus pandemic. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to him, the Government of Nepal and the Embassy of Nepal in Dhaka making efforts for the supply of the remaining fertilizer from Bangladesh. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-06-10', 'modified' => '2021-06-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '13262', 'image' => '20210610040355_20210210122458_1612912820.Clipboard14.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-06-10 16:03:19', '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
