March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient.…
March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient.…
March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests.…
March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season.…
March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project.…
March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount.…
March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36…
March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital.…
March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts.…
March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district.…
March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to…
March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March…
March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital.…
March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA).…
March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal.…
March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March…
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient. Three highway projects – the Postal highway, Mid-hill Highway and Madan Bhandari Highway - have sought for additional budget. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Stating that the allocated budget for the current fiscal year is insufficient, Madan Bhandari Highway Project has sought for Rs 5 billon additional budget, while Mid-hill Highway Project and Postal Highway Project have asked for additional budget of Rs 4 billion each. These projects are the highly prioritized road projects of the government. In the current fiscal year, the government had cut down the budget of these big projects massively. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of Rs 1.50 billion has been spent on Madan Bhandari Highway so far. The project has blacktopped additional 30 km of road by the end of Magh (mid-February). The project had received budget of Rs 3.7 billion for this fiscal year which has been spent in blacktopping of the roads and building other infrastructure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The project has sought additional budget to build 49 bridges. “The budget is required as soon as the contractor begins the work,” said Umesh Bindu Shrestha, director of the project. A few days ago, Prime Minister KP Oli had inaugurated 31 bridges to be built along the highway.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Postal Highway which has added 117 km of blacktopped road in the current fiscal year, has also sought for additional budget. It has spent Rs 4.15 billion out of the allocated budget of Rs 7.1 billion. “Rs 4 billion more is required for blacktopping and laying gravel and building other infrastructure,” informed the Project Director Rohit Kumar Bisural. “If the additional budget is not released, it will affect the payment to the contractor and will ultimately delay the progress of the project,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Midhill highway is also experiencing budget crunch for the infrastructures that are under construction. This project had sought budget of Rs12 billion but the government had released only Rs 8.27 billion in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other national pride projects – Fast Track Road project and North-South Corridor are however focused to spend the allocated budget. Shiva Prasad Nepal, director of the North-South Corridor said the allocated budget would be enough for the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Extreme geography and difficulty in transporting construction materials have delayed the blacktopping of the road under this project. Under the Kaligandaki Corridor, only 25 km of blacktopped roads will be completed this year, according to Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Army will be handed over the contract to build 16 km road connecting Sallisalla of Humla to Simikot under the Karnali Corridor Project. The Department of Roads has sent the letter to the Ministry of Defense seeking for its approval. This 16 km section consists of rugged mountainous terrains for which the expertise of the Nepalese Army is best suited to open the road tracks. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepalese Army, which has been assigned to construct the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, has been returning the allocated budget for failing to spend it. Though it has expressed commitment to spend the budget this year, NA will fail to spend it if the signing of contracts for bridges and tunnel doesn’t succeed. The Nepalese Army says Rs 1.40 billion has been spent out of the allocated budget of Rs 8.93 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12894', 'image' => '20210310014236_1615327601.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 13:41:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13147', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Myagdi’s Copper Mines Lying Unused, Buried in Forests', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. ', 'content' => '<p><em>This file photo shows a copper mine in Malika Rural Municipality of Myagdi district. Photo: NBA</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. Some 17 big copper mines of Dhaualagiri, Malika and Raghuganga rural municipality and Beni municipality of the district have not come into resumption due to legal hassles and lack of modern equipment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Local governments are losing revenue worth millions of rupees as the copper mines of Rumle hill in Raghuganga-6, Thadakhani village, Malkabange hill in Dhaulagiri-5, Malkabang, Okharbot in Malika rural municipality and Chinakhet hill in Beni-3 remain idle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Bishal copper mine here has also remained unused for long. Locals complained that the local and provincial governments have shown apathy towards bringing into resumption the copper mine of Rumle hill which was shut some 106 years back. Likewise, the copper mines of Malkabang which have been lying idle over the years are also being buried. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It may be noted that around 100 years ago locals used to excavate copper from the mines and manufacture utensils for their daily use. There was no requirement to purchase utensils from outside. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The copper mines remained shut when the then government started levying tax on those involved in copper mine excavation. There are over a dozen copper mines in Malbang village. Excavating mines is the ancestral occupation of the Chhantyal caste. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“There are still tunnels that were used to excavate mines in the upper hills above the villages. There are several copper mines across the steep terrain. In lack of use, the mines are buried in the soil,” said Dhalman Chhantyal, a local. He further said, “We do not have any option but to remain mute spectators in lack of efforts to explore the treasure”. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Locals said that the legal hassles and lack of equipment were the main challenges in resuming the copper mines. It would not be a big trouble to bring back the mines in operation if the government facilitated legal provisions and provided equipment used for excavation, said Tek Jeet Chhantyal, ward member of Raghuganga-6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He said that the local residents have called for resuming the mines after carrying out necessary study and exploration. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are deprived of using the natural resources available at our disposal,” said Himali Chhantyal, a local, adding, “If the mines here come into operation it would end the compulsion for youths to go abroad for employment and also generate huge revenues for the government.” -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12893', 'image' => '20210310111611_20190606013911_tamakhani2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 11:14:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13146', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mountaineers Start Gearing up for Spring Season Summit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. A few expedition teams have already filed application for climbing mountains during this season, according to the Department of Tourism.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The department is expecting the number of mountaineers to increase with the onset of the spring season.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering sector of Nepal has received some hope for revival of the business that has been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bahrain’s prince Mohammad Al Khalifa’s team is preparing to scale Mount Everest during this spring season. A 16-member team headed by the prince is all set to arrive in Nepal on March 15. The 16-member team includes 13 personnel of the Bahrain Royal Gurad and three Britishers. The team will stay in Nepal for 79 days. Seven Summit Trek is preparing all the logistics for the team’s expedition. The same team had successfully scaled Lobuche and Manaslu in October 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering is expected to feel some respite during the spring season due to some high-profile visits during the winter season when the pandemic posed high risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although normal tourists are still reluctant to visit Nepal due to the provision of mandatory quarantine, those interested in mountaineering seem to be undeterred by such provision.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 250 mountaineers including 80 foreigners are preparing to climb Everest through Seven Summit Trek, informed the company’s chairman Mingma Sherpa. Others have also started booking for the expedition, added Sherpa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has said it would facilitate the tourists by easing the restrictions on quarantine provision and by allowing the visitors with PCR negative test report with easy entry into the country. The ministry has already written a letter to the Covid-19 Crisis Management Committee to make arrangement for on-arrival visas for tourists and this decision is likely to be implemented soon. --RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12892', 'image' => '20210309044352_20201108030120_Contribution of Mountains to the Tourism Economy_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 16:42:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13145', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Issue LoA to China Overseas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:14px"><em>This picture taken from Facebook page of <span style="font-family:Calibri">Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project shows an overview of the Sunkoshi River.</span></em></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. The Department of Water Resources and Irrigation is sending the letter within a week to invite the company to sign the contract. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Three companies from China were in the final competition for the contract of Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. Of the three companies, the department had issued letter of intent (LoI) to the China Overseas Engineering Group. Krishna Prasad Nepal, Deputy Director General of the department, said LoA will be sent within a couple of days. After that, an agreement will be signed with the company to construct the tunnel. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The proposed multipurpose project plans to construct 13.2 km long tunnel to divert the Sunkoshi river to the Marin river located in Kamalamai Municipality of Sindhuli district. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had estimated the cost of the tunnel construction to be Rs 15 billion. But the Chinese firm plans to construct the tunnel at Rs 15.5 billion. This firm has also worked in the Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The tunnel of this project will also be built using boring machine, based on US technology. This method has been successful in Bheri Babai tunnel construction project. This design has to be initially approved by the department and later purchased by the company. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Apart from the tunnel construction, resources has not been arranged to construct other infrastructure. The department needs to call for applications to build other infrastructure like head works, powerhouse, hydro mechanical works among others. Deputy Director Nepal said documents required for these purposes have been sent to the Ministry of Finance for further action.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As soon as financial resources are arranged, application will be called, informed Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Other works like distribution of compensation to the affected families, cutting down trees in the project area have been completed. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 46 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project was inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli last week. But the company will start the task of tunnel construction after a year following the completion of all the technical process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project is expected to provide irrigation facility to farms in Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts of Province 2. Along with the irrigation, the project also plans to generate 29 MW of electricity. This project was enlisted as one of the National Pride Projects in 2019. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12891', 'image' => '20210309021842_87019025_102143838070883_7397641457198170112_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 14:16:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13143', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Collects Billions from Pollution Tax without any Specific Plan for Spending ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. <br /> Although billions of rupees are collected each year from the sales of petroleum products in the name of pollution control, government agencies have not kept track of the money spent.<br /> In the past 12 years, the government has raised around Rs 10 billion from pollution tax. Figures from the Nepal Oil Corporation show that Nepali consumers have paid pollution tax of Rs 9.80 billion to the government from the fiscal year 2065/66 to the fiscal year 2076/77. However, officials inform that the NOC does not have records of the expenses as the money goes to the federal reserve.<br /> Nagendra Sah, deputy executive director of the corporation, informed that NOC has not spent the collected tax as they deposit the amount in the federal reserve fund every year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">"Finance Ministry might have the record," he informed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">The government had collected about Rs 2.94 billion under pollution control fee in the last fiscal year 2019/20 alone. According to NOC, around Rs 1.57 billion was collected in the previous fiscal year 2018/19. The target is to raise Rs 2.8 billion pollution control fee in the current fiscal year.<br /> The government started levying such tax in Kathmandu Valley and across the country since 2066 BS as per the provisions of the Finance Act 2064 BS. The tax, which was earlier levied at the rate of 50 paise per litre on petrol and diesel, was increased to Rs 1.5 per litre from last May. The government still charges Rs 1.5 pollution control fee per litre of diesel and petrol.<br /> NOC, which imports and sells petroleum products, collects the tax from the consumers through petrol pumps. Although the tax collected under this heading should be spent only for a specific purpose, the government has been spending it in various sectors.<br /> Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar informed that the government should make the expenditure of the pollution tax transparent. He added that the amount should only be spent for a specific purpose.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12890', 'image' => '20210309011732_1615244101.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:16:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13144', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Chicken up by 36 Percent as Production Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent. Production of chicken has declined as the hatchery industries have not been able to import parent chicken due to the extended lockdown. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Nepal Hatchery Industry Association, the price of broiler chicken has gone up by 36 per cent in a month from Rs 70 to Rs 95 per chicken. Similarly, the price of layer chicken, which was Rs 140 per chick, has also increased by 22 percent to Rs 170. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tikaram Pokharel, president of the association, told New Business Age that despite the demand of 4.2 million to 4.5 million chickens per week in Nepal, only 2.8 million chickens are being produced per week due to lack of parent chicken. He informed that it was very difficult to meet the high demand for chicken as the production could not be done as per the demand. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“During the lockdown, they had to bury the chicken as they were not sold. Now it is difficult to meet the demand,” he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Hatchery industries had imported mother chicken from Thailand only a few weeks ago and raised them for egg production. However, they have to wait till September and October to get their eggs. As the production of chicken will not increase till then, the price is expected to increase until then.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the cost price of a young broiler chicken is Rs 56 per chicken while the cost price of layer chicken is Rs 110 per chicken. According to the association, the industries had to bury 4.2 million chicken per week for six months as chicken were not sold during the lockdown. Hatcheries had to bear huge loss at that time. Therefore, even if the chicken are sold at the current price for the next six months, the hatchery industry will not be able to recover the loss. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12889', 'image' => '20210309014957_1615244708.Clipboard08.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:49:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13142', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Oli Inaugurates Make in Nepal under the Initiative of CNI', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the inauguration, Prime Minister Oli reportedly said that the private sector should increase investment to contribute to industrial and economic development of the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"The industrialization should be taken ahead by linking it with agro production," the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted the prime minister as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal should now become a producer and exporter country, RSS quoted the prime minister who also pledged policy-level support to make the Make in Nepal campaign successful. According to RSS, Prime Minister Oli emphasized on the need to increase the quality of Nepali products while enhancing the country’s industrial capacity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The importance of domestic production is associated with the 'Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepalis' national resolve of the present government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">At the programme, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said the government was working in collaboration with the private sector, and was ready to address any problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of CNI Satish Kumar More said the CNI was working to promote investment and industrialization to create employment and make the country prosperous, and the new campaign was a step towards that end, RSS further reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Under the campaign, CNI targets to establish more than one thousand industries in a year and help reach the contribution of industry to Nepal's GDP to 26 per cent by 2030. Another target is to make export worth Rs 5 billion in the next five years. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12888', 'image' => '20210309125041_1615215655.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 12:49:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13141', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Announces Refinancing Facility to Hydropower Projects below 10MW Capacity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. Prior to this, there was no provision for refinancing to hydropower plants.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Hydro projects below 10MW capacity can now get refinancing facility of Rs 50 million at three percent interest rate. To refinance these hydro projects, banks and financial institutions can seek loan from the central bank. And the central bank will release the funds at 1 percent interest rate to the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The hydropower projects that apply for refinancing facility should have taken loan of at least Rs 200 million. But refinance of Rs 200 million should not exceed 20% of the total refinancing facility provided by the bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Energy producers from the private sector have responded positively towards the new provision introduced by the central bank. President of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said, it is a praiseworthy decision. This will help to uplift the projects extremely affected by COVID-19. “High interest rate is one of the reasons for poor performance of these projects,” he said, adding, “The new provision of subsidized loans has addressed this problem.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">However, Kumar Pandey, energy entrepreneur, expressed a different view on this topic. He said not only the hydropower projects below 10 MW but all the hydropwoer projects should get this facility. “It is very commendable that the central bank has decided to issue subsidized loans to small hydropower projects but other big projects should also get this facility,” Pandey said. He also sought for the successful implementation of the newly introduced provision. “The work procedure has made the provision of subsidized loans but BFIs should not shy away from the responsibility on the pretext of legal difficulties when the time to issue these loans approaches,” Pandey said. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12887', 'image' => '20210308021619_20201228012934_20201106055408_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 14:15:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13139', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Initiates Feasibility Study for Dry Port in Lo-Manthang ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: Nepal Tourism Board</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. The Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has started work on identifying the geographical location, detailed blueprint of the port construction and cost estimation for the construction of the port at Korala check point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A dry port is being constructed at Korala in accordance to the protocol to implement the Agreement on Transit and Transportation signed between Nepal and China two years ago. Director of Sitara Consultancy, Tika Koirala, a consultant hired for the feasibility study to build the port, said a report would be submitted after finalizing the location, infrastructure and trade and transportation structure. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He informed that the report will be prepared after conducting a feasibility study in two places in Nechung. In addition to modern information technology connected customs office, the Chinese side has built infrastructures such as a quarantine, animal quarantine, staff quarter, laboratory, warehouse, truck and container parking, security arrangements at Korala Port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Prem Prasad Tulachan, a member of the House of Representatives elected from Mustang, said that the feasibility study is underway to develop the port as an international port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Feasibility study of the port has been started due to the demand of the people of Mustang and pressure from the Gandaki state government. We hope it will be completed in a few years,” he said, adding, “Now our focus is on overcoming the delay in upgrading the Beni-Jomsom-Korola road.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Expansion, blacktopping and building bridges along the 186-kilometer Beni-Jomsom-Korala road is currently underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12886', 'image' => '20210308110544_D_kK0BIVAAAwjxF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:04:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13140', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Revenue Collection Declines by Rs 9.72 Billion due to Covid-19', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.<br /> In the first seven months of the current Fiscal Year (FY), Rs 224 billion has been collected from internal revenue. The department had collected revenue of Rs 233.73 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Revenue collection has decreased by 9.72 billion in the review period compared to the previous year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">As a result of COVID-19, revenue collection under the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of this year as compared to last year.<br /> However, in the period from July to mid-January this year, the government has been able to raise huge revenue through income tax and value-added tax.<br /> According to the Inland Revenue Department, revenue of Rs 112.43 billion has been collected from income tax and Rs 65.12 billion from value-added tax.<br /> Similarly, revenue of Rs 43.58 billion has been collected from excise duty, while Rs 2.88 billion was collected from education service fees and others.<br /> Officials of the department informed that the revenue collection target has been affected due to COVID-19. "The reason for the low collection is the contraction in the economy due to Covid-19 and the negative impact on economy," informed Jhakka Prasad Acharya, director-general of the department.<br /> The government had also changed the target of revenue collection in the current fiscal year. One month after the mid-term review of the budget by the Ministry of Finance, the Inland Revenue Department reviewed the work progress and revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year.<br /> Revenue Secretary Ram Sharan Pudasaini emphasized policy guidance and encouragement for revenue mobilization.<br /> According to the officials of the department, there is a need to reform the revenue policy.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12885', 'image' => '20210308113657_20200911125203_1599773733.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:35:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13138', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salt Trading Corporation Imports Urea from China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7.', 'content' => '<p><em>File Photo of Urea</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the fertiliser was imported via Tatopani customs point for the first time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Customs Officer of Tatopani Customs Office Ganesh Prasad Poudel confirmed that Silk Market Pvt Ltd imported two truckloads of urea weighing 20 tonnes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Assistant General Manager of STC Pankaj Joshi said that a tender notice was issued on November 11, 2020 to import 4,000 metric tonnes of urea. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining amount of urea would be brought gradually, RSS reported citing the STC. The urea imported from China would be distributed from Kavre, Kathmandu and Nuwakot districts. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12884', 'image' => '20210308105328_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 10:52:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13137', 'article_category_id' => '266', 'title' => 'Ncell Starts Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in Collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, its CEO Andy Chong handed over the telemedicine kits to officials of four outreach centres under Dhulikhel Hospital amidst a recent function for the implementation of Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Issuing a statement on Saturday (March 6), Ncell said its CEO Andy and Dr Ramesh Makaju, administrative director of Dhulikhel Hospital, also inaugurated ‘Ncell-Dhulikhel Hospital Telemedicine and Healthcare Informatics Centre’ established at the hospital on February 26. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Under this initiative, Ncell intends to serve remote and underserved communities through quality health care services, using technology and data-driven health care methods, the statement added. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Ncell said it </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">is providing telemedicine equipment and establishing connectivity infrastructure at the local community health centers of Dhulikhel Hospital. In return, the hospital will provide support in allocating space and utilities, qualified medical doctors and consultants and carrying out periodic training sessions and monitoring the project to ensure it runs in optimum quality. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">In the initial phase, four community outreach centres </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">of the hospital: Manekharka (Sindhupalchowk), Dorpu (Solukhumbu), Thangsin (Nuwakot) and Bolde (Kavrepalchowk) will implement the project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, they will serve more than 15,000 households of the catchment area. Locals living in the communities of the project areas can receive treatments on communicable as well as non-communicable chronic diseases. Ncell said it plans to expand this to 20 or more outreach centres over the next 4 years. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12883', 'image' => '20210307011934_DH2(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:18:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13136', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thirty five Percent Farmers 'Abandon' Sugarcane Farming', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Kapilmuni Mainali, president of NSMA, informed that there used to be 100,000 farmers involved in commercial sugarcane farming but the number of farmers has declined by more than 35,000.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“More than 35,000 farmers have opted for other options while those currently involved in sugarcane farming have also cut down production,” Mainali said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said that Sugar mills denied payment to the farmers as their business got affected by imported sugar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The country’s annual demand for sugar is about 380,000 metric tons. Delay in payment to farmers has reduced the domestic production to 120,000 metric tons. However, following the protest staged by sugarcane farmers, their outstanding dues have been paid, according to the defaulting sugar mills. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Due to decline in sugarcane production, industrialists say it has affected their production capacity. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Because of the shortage of sugarcane, sugarmills were closed down this year way ahead at the time of harvesting sugarcane,” said Rajesh Kediya, director of Indushankar Sugar Mill, adding, “The controversy over payment has also caused shortage of sugarcane this year.” He said the production will increase this year onwards as the payment has been made. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As the production of sugarcane and sugar has declined in the country, import of sugar has been exponentially high. Sugar worth Rs 7.8 billion has been imported in the seven months of the current fiscal year which is an increment of 798 percent. In the last fiscal year, the import of sugar had declined by 14 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Rajkumar Shrestha, president of Nepal Retailers Association, said sugar has been imported due to low domestic production. Delay in payment might also have its impact on increase in sugar import, Shrestha said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Last year, import of sugar was halted due to low consumption of domestic sugar while this year sugar import has increased due to low production of sugarcane.” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, traders involved in sugar import say the import has increased this year as the government lifted the restriction imposed on sugar import. Brajesh Kumar Jha, manager of Salt Trading Corporation Limited, said that the government had imposed restriction on sugar import during the last fiscal year but has lifted the restriction since the beginning of the current fiscal year month. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said the domestic production can’t meet the demand so import of sugar is a must. According to him, sugar has been imported as per the demand. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12882', 'image' => '20210307010827_20180221015512_ukkhu bechdai 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13134', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Launches Campaign for Digital Listing of Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli marked the beginning of the campaign virtually at once in all seven provinces amidst a programme in the capital on Saturday, March 6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Addressing the event, the PM said the campaign was a crucial effort under the government move for commercialization and modernization of agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With the development of technology in the country, the government was working to make every activity technology-friendly and termed this campaign a milestone of Digital Nepal. The campaign would institutionalise agriculture as a dignified occupation and is expected to help implement the programmes of farmers' welfare protection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has stated that the relations between the state and farmers would be closer through the identity cards by maintaining records of farmers from across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, the PM pledged to utilise the assistance received from the European Union (EU) for this campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Padma Kumari Aryal informed that the agriculture listing campaign was launched with the coordination among three layers of government. "It helps establish farmers as respected people", she hoped, adding that it would also replace the subsistence farming. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to her, identification of real farmers would enable their access to State entitlements. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The plan on agricultural development was launched in a bid to augment export of agricultural products in five years. The 'Prosperous Farmers and Healthy Nepal' campaign was linked to farmers' listing programme. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the farmers' listing programme would eliminate the bad practice of receiving benefits by the non-farmers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Moreover, EU Ambassador to Nepal, Nona Deprez, expressed commitment that EU would continue extending necessary assistance to Nepal for its agricultural development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12881', 'image' => '20210307100743_20181214123216_aaaaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:07:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13135', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Muglin Road to Be Closed for Repair Works', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7), according to the state-owned national news agency RSS. The road section will be closed for traffic from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm every day, until March 13. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a notice, the Narayangadh-Muglin road project has said that the two-way traffic will be stopped on the road so as to complete the remaining work of landslide prevention at Charkilo of the road section. All vehicles except those related to essential and emergency service will be stopped, RSS quoted the project’s engineer Sabita Ranabhat as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Twenty-five percent of the work of landslide prevention on the road section is yet to be completed in the area affected due to the monsoon rains last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Accordingly, vehicles coming from Narayangadh will be stopped at Jalbire and those from Muglin at Shanti bazaar, RSS further reported. Travelers have been meanwhile urged to use alternative route during the period. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12880', 'image' => '20210307101257_20210203120420_20200611120202_WB Road Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:12:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
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', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient. Three highway projects – the Postal highway, Mid-hill Highway and Madan Bhandari Highway - have sought for additional budget. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Stating that the allocated budget for the current fiscal year is insufficient, Madan Bhandari Highway Project has sought for Rs 5 billon additional budget, while Mid-hill Highway Project and Postal Highway Project have asked for additional budget of Rs 4 billion each. These projects are the highly prioritized road projects of the government. In the current fiscal year, the government had cut down the budget of these big projects massively. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of Rs 1.50 billion has been spent on Madan Bhandari Highway so far. The project has blacktopped additional 30 km of road by the end of Magh (mid-February). The project had received budget of Rs 3.7 billion for this fiscal year which has been spent in blacktopping of the roads and building other infrastructure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The project has sought additional budget to build 49 bridges. “The budget is required as soon as the contractor begins the work,” said Umesh Bindu Shrestha, director of the project. A few days ago, Prime Minister KP Oli had inaugurated 31 bridges to be built along the highway.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Postal Highway which has added 117 km of blacktopped road in the current fiscal year, has also sought for additional budget. It has spent Rs 4.15 billion out of the allocated budget of Rs 7.1 billion. “Rs 4 billion more is required for blacktopping and laying gravel and building other infrastructure,” informed the Project Director Rohit Kumar Bisural. “If the additional budget is not released, it will affect the payment to the contractor and will ultimately delay the progress of the project,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Midhill highway is also experiencing budget crunch for the infrastructures that are under construction. This project had sought budget of Rs12 billion but the government had released only Rs 8.27 billion in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other national pride projects – Fast Track Road project and North-South Corridor are however focused to spend the allocated budget. Shiva Prasad Nepal, director of the North-South Corridor said the allocated budget would be enough for the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Extreme geography and difficulty in transporting construction materials have delayed the blacktopping of the road under this project. Under the Kaligandaki Corridor, only 25 km of blacktopped roads will be completed this year, according to Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Army will be handed over the contract to build 16 km road connecting Sallisalla of Humla to Simikot under the Karnali Corridor Project. The Department of Roads has sent the letter to the Ministry of Defense seeking for its approval. This 16 km section consists of rugged mountainous terrains for which the expertise of the Nepalese Army is best suited to open the road tracks. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepalese Army, which has been assigned to construct the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, has been returning the allocated budget for failing to spend it. Though it has expressed commitment to spend the budget this year, NA will fail to spend it if the signing of contracts for bridges and tunnel doesn’t succeed. The Nepalese Army says Rs 1.40 billion has been spent out of the allocated budget of Rs 8.93 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12894', 'image' => '20210310014236_1615327601.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 13:41:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13147', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Myagdi’s Copper Mines Lying Unused, Buried in Forests', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. ', 'content' => '<p><em>This file photo shows a copper mine in Malika Rural Municipality of Myagdi district. Photo: NBA</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. Some 17 big copper mines of Dhaualagiri, Malika and Raghuganga rural municipality and Beni municipality of the district have not come into resumption due to legal hassles and lack of modern equipment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Local governments are losing revenue worth millions of rupees as the copper mines of Rumle hill in Raghuganga-6, Thadakhani village, Malkabange hill in Dhaulagiri-5, Malkabang, Okharbot in Malika rural municipality and Chinakhet hill in Beni-3 remain idle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Bishal copper mine here has also remained unused for long. Locals complained that the local and provincial governments have shown apathy towards bringing into resumption the copper mine of Rumle hill which was shut some 106 years back. Likewise, the copper mines of Malkabang which have been lying idle over the years are also being buried. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It may be noted that around 100 years ago locals used to excavate copper from the mines and manufacture utensils for their daily use. There was no requirement to purchase utensils from outside. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The copper mines remained shut when the then government started levying tax on those involved in copper mine excavation. There are over a dozen copper mines in Malbang village. Excavating mines is the ancestral occupation of the Chhantyal caste. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“There are still tunnels that were used to excavate mines in the upper hills above the villages. There are several copper mines across the steep terrain. In lack of use, the mines are buried in the soil,” said Dhalman Chhantyal, a local. He further said, “We do not have any option but to remain mute spectators in lack of efforts to explore the treasure”. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Locals said that the legal hassles and lack of equipment were the main challenges in resuming the copper mines. It would not be a big trouble to bring back the mines in operation if the government facilitated legal provisions and provided equipment used for excavation, said Tek Jeet Chhantyal, ward member of Raghuganga-6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He said that the local residents have called for resuming the mines after carrying out necessary study and exploration. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are deprived of using the natural resources available at our disposal,” said Himali Chhantyal, a local, adding, “If the mines here come into operation it would end the compulsion for youths to go abroad for employment and also generate huge revenues for the government.” -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12893', 'image' => '20210310111611_20190606013911_tamakhani2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 11:14:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13146', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mountaineers Start Gearing up for Spring Season Summit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. A few expedition teams have already filed application for climbing mountains during this season, according to the Department of Tourism.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The department is expecting the number of mountaineers to increase with the onset of the spring season.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering sector of Nepal has received some hope for revival of the business that has been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bahrain’s prince Mohammad Al Khalifa’s team is preparing to scale Mount Everest during this spring season. A 16-member team headed by the prince is all set to arrive in Nepal on March 15. The 16-member team includes 13 personnel of the Bahrain Royal Gurad and three Britishers. The team will stay in Nepal for 79 days. Seven Summit Trek is preparing all the logistics for the team’s expedition. The same team had successfully scaled Lobuche and Manaslu in October 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering is expected to feel some respite during the spring season due to some high-profile visits during the winter season when the pandemic posed high risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although normal tourists are still reluctant to visit Nepal due to the provision of mandatory quarantine, those interested in mountaineering seem to be undeterred by such provision.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 250 mountaineers including 80 foreigners are preparing to climb Everest through Seven Summit Trek, informed the company’s chairman Mingma Sherpa. Others have also started booking for the expedition, added Sherpa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has said it would facilitate the tourists by easing the restrictions on quarantine provision and by allowing the visitors with PCR negative test report with easy entry into the country. The ministry has already written a letter to the Covid-19 Crisis Management Committee to make arrangement for on-arrival visas for tourists and this decision is likely to be implemented soon. --RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12892', 'image' => '20210309044352_20201108030120_Contribution of Mountains to the Tourism Economy_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 16:42:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13145', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Issue LoA to China Overseas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:14px"><em>This picture taken from Facebook page of <span style="font-family:Calibri">Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project shows an overview of the Sunkoshi River.</span></em></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. The Department of Water Resources and Irrigation is sending the letter within a week to invite the company to sign the contract. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Three companies from China were in the final competition for the contract of Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. Of the three companies, the department had issued letter of intent (LoI) to the China Overseas Engineering Group. Krishna Prasad Nepal, Deputy Director General of the department, said LoA will be sent within a couple of days. After that, an agreement will be signed with the company to construct the tunnel. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The proposed multipurpose project plans to construct 13.2 km long tunnel to divert the Sunkoshi river to the Marin river located in Kamalamai Municipality of Sindhuli district. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had estimated the cost of the tunnel construction to be Rs 15 billion. But the Chinese firm plans to construct the tunnel at Rs 15.5 billion. This firm has also worked in the Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The tunnel of this project will also be built using boring machine, based on US technology. This method has been successful in Bheri Babai tunnel construction project. This design has to be initially approved by the department and later purchased by the company. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Apart from the tunnel construction, resources has not been arranged to construct other infrastructure. The department needs to call for applications to build other infrastructure like head works, powerhouse, hydro mechanical works among others. Deputy Director Nepal said documents required for these purposes have been sent to the Ministry of Finance for further action.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As soon as financial resources are arranged, application will be called, informed Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Other works like distribution of compensation to the affected families, cutting down trees in the project area have been completed. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 46 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project was inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli last week. But the company will start the task of tunnel construction after a year following the completion of all the technical process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project is expected to provide irrigation facility to farms in Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts of Province 2. Along with the irrigation, the project also plans to generate 29 MW of electricity. This project was enlisted as one of the National Pride Projects in 2019. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12891', 'image' => '20210309021842_87019025_102143838070883_7397641457198170112_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 14:16:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13143', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Collects Billions from Pollution Tax without any Specific Plan for Spending ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. <br /> Although billions of rupees are collected each year from the sales of petroleum products in the name of pollution control, government agencies have not kept track of the money spent.<br /> In the past 12 years, the government has raised around Rs 10 billion from pollution tax. Figures from the Nepal Oil Corporation show that Nepali consumers have paid pollution tax of Rs 9.80 billion to the government from the fiscal year 2065/66 to the fiscal year 2076/77. However, officials inform that the NOC does not have records of the expenses as the money goes to the federal reserve.<br /> Nagendra Sah, deputy executive director of the corporation, informed that NOC has not spent the collected tax as they deposit the amount in the federal reserve fund every year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">"Finance Ministry might have the record," he informed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">The government had collected about Rs 2.94 billion under pollution control fee in the last fiscal year 2019/20 alone. According to NOC, around Rs 1.57 billion was collected in the previous fiscal year 2018/19. The target is to raise Rs 2.8 billion pollution control fee in the current fiscal year.<br /> The government started levying such tax in Kathmandu Valley and across the country since 2066 BS as per the provisions of the Finance Act 2064 BS. The tax, which was earlier levied at the rate of 50 paise per litre on petrol and diesel, was increased to Rs 1.5 per litre from last May. The government still charges Rs 1.5 pollution control fee per litre of diesel and petrol.<br /> NOC, which imports and sells petroleum products, collects the tax from the consumers through petrol pumps. Although the tax collected under this heading should be spent only for a specific purpose, the government has been spending it in various sectors.<br /> Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar informed that the government should make the expenditure of the pollution tax transparent. He added that the amount should only be spent for a specific purpose.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12890', 'image' => '20210309011732_1615244101.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:16:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13144', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Chicken up by 36 Percent as Production Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent. Production of chicken has declined as the hatchery industries have not been able to import parent chicken due to the extended lockdown. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Nepal Hatchery Industry Association, the price of broiler chicken has gone up by 36 per cent in a month from Rs 70 to Rs 95 per chicken. Similarly, the price of layer chicken, which was Rs 140 per chick, has also increased by 22 percent to Rs 170. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tikaram Pokharel, president of the association, told New Business Age that despite the demand of 4.2 million to 4.5 million chickens per week in Nepal, only 2.8 million chickens are being produced per week due to lack of parent chicken. He informed that it was very difficult to meet the high demand for chicken as the production could not be done as per the demand. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“During the lockdown, they had to bury the chicken as they were not sold. Now it is difficult to meet the demand,” he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Hatchery industries had imported mother chicken from Thailand only a few weeks ago and raised them for egg production. However, they have to wait till September and October to get their eggs. As the production of chicken will not increase till then, the price is expected to increase until then.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the cost price of a young broiler chicken is Rs 56 per chicken while the cost price of layer chicken is Rs 110 per chicken. According to the association, the industries had to bury 4.2 million chicken per week for six months as chicken were not sold during the lockdown. Hatcheries had to bear huge loss at that time. Therefore, even if the chicken are sold at the current price for the next six months, the hatchery industry will not be able to recover the loss. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12889', 'image' => '20210309014957_1615244708.Clipboard08.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:49:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13142', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Oli Inaugurates Make in Nepal under the Initiative of CNI', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the inauguration, Prime Minister Oli reportedly said that the private sector should increase investment to contribute to industrial and economic development of the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"The industrialization should be taken ahead by linking it with agro production," the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted the prime minister as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal should now become a producer and exporter country, RSS quoted the prime minister who also pledged policy-level support to make the Make in Nepal campaign successful. According to RSS, Prime Minister Oli emphasized on the need to increase the quality of Nepali products while enhancing the country’s industrial capacity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The importance of domestic production is associated with the 'Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepalis' national resolve of the present government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">At the programme, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said the government was working in collaboration with the private sector, and was ready to address any problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of CNI Satish Kumar More said the CNI was working to promote investment and industrialization to create employment and make the country prosperous, and the new campaign was a step towards that end, RSS further reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Under the campaign, CNI targets to establish more than one thousand industries in a year and help reach the contribution of industry to Nepal's GDP to 26 per cent by 2030. Another target is to make export worth Rs 5 billion in the next five years. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12888', 'image' => '20210309125041_1615215655.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 12:49:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13141', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Announces Refinancing Facility to Hydropower Projects below 10MW Capacity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. Prior to this, there was no provision for refinancing to hydropower plants.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Hydro projects below 10MW capacity can now get refinancing facility of Rs 50 million at three percent interest rate. To refinance these hydro projects, banks and financial institutions can seek loan from the central bank. And the central bank will release the funds at 1 percent interest rate to the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The hydropower projects that apply for refinancing facility should have taken loan of at least Rs 200 million. But refinance of Rs 200 million should not exceed 20% of the total refinancing facility provided by the bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Energy producers from the private sector have responded positively towards the new provision introduced by the central bank. President of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said, it is a praiseworthy decision. This will help to uplift the projects extremely affected by COVID-19. “High interest rate is one of the reasons for poor performance of these projects,” he said, adding, “The new provision of subsidized loans has addressed this problem.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">However, Kumar Pandey, energy entrepreneur, expressed a different view on this topic. He said not only the hydropower projects below 10 MW but all the hydropwoer projects should get this facility. “It is very commendable that the central bank has decided to issue subsidized loans to small hydropower projects but other big projects should also get this facility,” Pandey said. He also sought for the successful implementation of the newly introduced provision. “The work procedure has made the provision of subsidized loans but BFIs should not shy away from the responsibility on the pretext of legal difficulties when the time to issue these loans approaches,” Pandey said. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12887', 'image' => '20210308021619_20201228012934_20201106055408_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 14:15:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13139', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Initiates Feasibility Study for Dry Port in Lo-Manthang ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: Nepal Tourism Board</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. The Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has started work on identifying the geographical location, detailed blueprint of the port construction and cost estimation for the construction of the port at Korala check point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A dry port is being constructed at Korala in accordance to the protocol to implement the Agreement on Transit and Transportation signed between Nepal and China two years ago. Director of Sitara Consultancy, Tika Koirala, a consultant hired for the feasibility study to build the port, said a report would be submitted after finalizing the location, infrastructure and trade and transportation structure. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He informed that the report will be prepared after conducting a feasibility study in two places in Nechung. In addition to modern information technology connected customs office, the Chinese side has built infrastructures such as a quarantine, animal quarantine, staff quarter, laboratory, warehouse, truck and container parking, security arrangements at Korala Port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Prem Prasad Tulachan, a member of the House of Representatives elected from Mustang, said that the feasibility study is underway to develop the port as an international port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Feasibility study of the port has been started due to the demand of the people of Mustang and pressure from the Gandaki state government. We hope it will be completed in a few years,” he said, adding, “Now our focus is on overcoming the delay in upgrading the Beni-Jomsom-Korola road.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Expansion, blacktopping and building bridges along the 186-kilometer Beni-Jomsom-Korala road is currently underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12886', 'image' => '20210308110544_D_kK0BIVAAAwjxF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:04:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13140', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Revenue Collection Declines by Rs 9.72 Billion due to Covid-19', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.<br /> In the first seven months of the current Fiscal Year (FY), Rs 224 billion has been collected from internal revenue. The department had collected revenue of Rs 233.73 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Revenue collection has decreased by 9.72 billion in the review period compared to the previous year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">As a result of COVID-19, revenue collection under the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of this year as compared to last year.<br /> However, in the period from July to mid-January this year, the government has been able to raise huge revenue through income tax and value-added tax.<br /> According to the Inland Revenue Department, revenue of Rs 112.43 billion has been collected from income tax and Rs 65.12 billion from value-added tax.<br /> Similarly, revenue of Rs 43.58 billion has been collected from excise duty, while Rs 2.88 billion was collected from education service fees and others.<br /> Officials of the department informed that the revenue collection target has been affected due to COVID-19. "The reason for the low collection is the contraction in the economy due to Covid-19 and the negative impact on economy," informed Jhakka Prasad Acharya, director-general of the department.<br /> The government had also changed the target of revenue collection in the current fiscal year. One month after the mid-term review of the budget by the Ministry of Finance, the Inland Revenue Department reviewed the work progress and revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year.<br /> Revenue Secretary Ram Sharan Pudasaini emphasized policy guidance and encouragement for revenue mobilization.<br /> According to the officials of the department, there is a need to reform the revenue policy.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12885', 'image' => '20210308113657_20200911125203_1599773733.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:35:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13138', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salt Trading Corporation Imports Urea from China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7.', 'content' => '<p><em>File Photo of Urea</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the fertiliser was imported via Tatopani customs point for the first time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Customs Officer of Tatopani Customs Office Ganesh Prasad Poudel confirmed that Silk Market Pvt Ltd imported two truckloads of urea weighing 20 tonnes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Assistant General Manager of STC Pankaj Joshi said that a tender notice was issued on November 11, 2020 to import 4,000 metric tonnes of urea. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining amount of urea would be brought gradually, RSS reported citing the STC. The urea imported from China would be distributed from Kavre, Kathmandu and Nuwakot districts. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12884', 'image' => '20210308105328_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 10:52:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13137', 'article_category_id' => '266', 'title' => 'Ncell Starts Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in Collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, its CEO Andy Chong handed over the telemedicine kits to officials of four outreach centres under Dhulikhel Hospital amidst a recent function for the implementation of Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Issuing a statement on Saturday (March 6), Ncell said its CEO Andy and Dr Ramesh Makaju, administrative director of Dhulikhel Hospital, also inaugurated ‘Ncell-Dhulikhel Hospital Telemedicine and Healthcare Informatics Centre’ established at the hospital on February 26. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Under this initiative, Ncell intends to serve remote and underserved communities through quality health care services, using technology and data-driven health care methods, the statement added. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Ncell said it </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">is providing telemedicine equipment and establishing connectivity infrastructure at the local community health centers of Dhulikhel Hospital. In return, the hospital will provide support in allocating space and utilities, qualified medical doctors and consultants and carrying out periodic training sessions and monitoring the project to ensure it runs in optimum quality. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">In the initial phase, four community outreach centres </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">of the hospital: Manekharka (Sindhupalchowk), Dorpu (Solukhumbu), Thangsin (Nuwakot) and Bolde (Kavrepalchowk) will implement the project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, they will serve more than 15,000 households of the catchment area. Locals living in the communities of the project areas can receive treatments on communicable as well as non-communicable chronic diseases. Ncell said it plans to expand this to 20 or more outreach centres over the next 4 years. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12883', 'image' => '20210307011934_DH2(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:18:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13136', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thirty five Percent Farmers 'Abandon' Sugarcane Farming', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Kapilmuni Mainali, president of NSMA, informed that there used to be 100,000 farmers involved in commercial sugarcane farming but the number of farmers has declined by more than 35,000.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“More than 35,000 farmers have opted for other options while those currently involved in sugarcane farming have also cut down production,” Mainali said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said that Sugar mills denied payment to the farmers as their business got affected by imported sugar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The country’s annual demand for sugar is about 380,000 metric tons. Delay in payment to farmers has reduced the domestic production to 120,000 metric tons. However, following the protest staged by sugarcane farmers, their outstanding dues have been paid, according to the defaulting sugar mills. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Due to decline in sugarcane production, industrialists say it has affected their production capacity. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Because of the shortage of sugarcane, sugarmills were closed down this year way ahead at the time of harvesting sugarcane,” said Rajesh Kediya, director of Indushankar Sugar Mill, adding, “The controversy over payment has also caused shortage of sugarcane this year.” He said the production will increase this year onwards as the payment has been made. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As the production of sugarcane and sugar has declined in the country, import of sugar has been exponentially high. Sugar worth Rs 7.8 billion has been imported in the seven months of the current fiscal year which is an increment of 798 percent. In the last fiscal year, the import of sugar had declined by 14 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Rajkumar Shrestha, president of Nepal Retailers Association, said sugar has been imported due to low domestic production. Delay in payment might also have its impact on increase in sugar import, Shrestha said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Last year, import of sugar was halted due to low consumption of domestic sugar while this year sugar import has increased due to low production of sugarcane.” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, traders involved in sugar import say the import has increased this year as the government lifted the restriction imposed on sugar import. Brajesh Kumar Jha, manager of Salt Trading Corporation Limited, said that the government had imposed restriction on sugar import during the last fiscal year but has lifted the restriction since the beginning of the current fiscal year month. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said the domestic production can’t meet the demand so import of sugar is a must. According to him, sugar has been imported as per the demand. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12882', 'image' => '20210307010827_20180221015512_ukkhu bechdai 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13134', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Launches Campaign for Digital Listing of Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli marked the beginning of the campaign virtually at once in all seven provinces amidst a programme in the capital on Saturday, March 6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Addressing the event, the PM said the campaign was a crucial effort under the government move for commercialization and modernization of agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With the development of technology in the country, the government was working to make every activity technology-friendly and termed this campaign a milestone of Digital Nepal. The campaign would institutionalise agriculture as a dignified occupation and is expected to help implement the programmes of farmers' welfare protection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has stated that the relations between the state and farmers would be closer through the identity cards by maintaining records of farmers from across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, the PM pledged to utilise the assistance received from the European Union (EU) for this campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Padma Kumari Aryal informed that the agriculture listing campaign was launched with the coordination among three layers of government. "It helps establish farmers as respected people", she hoped, adding that it would also replace the subsistence farming. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to her, identification of real farmers would enable their access to State entitlements. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The plan on agricultural development was launched in a bid to augment export of agricultural products in five years. The 'Prosperous Farmers and Healthy Nepal' campaign was linked to farmers' listing programme. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the farmers' listing programme would eliminate the bad practice of receiving benefits by the non-farmers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Moreover, EU Ambassador to Nepal, Nona Deprez, expressed commitment that EU would continue extending necessary assistance to Nepal for its agricultural development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12881', 'image' => '20210307100743_20181214123216_aaaaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:07:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13135', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Muglin Road to Be Closed for Repair Works', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7), according to the state-owned national news agency RSS. The road section will be closed for traffic from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm every day, until March 13. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a notice, the Narayangadh-Muglin road project has said that the two-way traffic will be stopped on the road so as to complete the remaining work of landslide prevention at Charkilo of the road section. All vehicles except those related to essential and emergency service will be stopped, RSS quoted the project’s engineer Sabita Ranabhat as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Twenty-five percent of the work of landslide prevention on the road section is yet to be completed in the area affected due to the monsoon rains last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Accordingly, vehicles coming from Narayangadh will be stopped at Jalbire and those from Muglin at Shanti bazaar, RSS further reported. Travelers have been meanwhile urged to use alternative route during the period. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12880', 'image' => '20210307101257_20210203120420_20200611120202_WB Road Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:12:17', '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' => '13148', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Three Top-Priority Road Projects Seek for Additional Budget of Rs 13 Billion ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient. Three highway projects – the Postal highway, Mid-hill Highway and Madan Bhandari Highway - have sought for additional budget. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Stating that the allocated budget for the current fiscal year is insufficient, Madan Bhandari Highway Project has sought for Rs 5 billon additional budget, while Mid-hill Highway Project and Postal Highway Project have asked for additional budget of Rs 4 billion each. These projects are the highly prioritized road projects of the government. In the current fiscal year, the government had cut down the budget of these big projects massively. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of Rs 1.50 billion has been spent on Madan Bhandari Highway so far. The project has blacktopped additional 30 km of road by the end of Magh (mid-February). The project had received budget of Rs 3.7 billion for this fiscal year which has been spent in blacktopping of the roads and building other infrastructure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The project has sought additional budget to build 49 bridges. “The budget is required as soon as the contractor begins the work,” said Umesh Bindu Shrestha, director of the project. A few days ago, Prime Minister KP Oli had inaugurated 31 bridges to be built along the highway.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Postal Highway which has added 117 km of blacktopped road in the current fiscal year, has also sought for additional budget. It has spent Rs 4.15 billion out of the allocated budget of Rs 7.1 billion. “Rs 4 billion more is required for blacktopping and laying gravel and building other infrastructure,” informed the Project Director Rohit Kumar Bisural. “If the additional budget is not released, it will affect the payment to the contractor and will ultimately delay the progress of the project,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Midhill highway is also experiencing budget crunch for the infrastructures that are under construction. This project had sought budget of Rs12 billion but the government had released only Rs 8.27 billion in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other national pride projects – Fast Track Road project and North-South Corridor are however focused to spend the allocated budget. Shiva Prasad Nepal, director of the North-South Corridor said the allocated budget would be enough for the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Extreme geography and difficulty in transporting construction materials have delayed the blacktopping of the road under this project. Under the Kaligandaki Corridor, only 25 km of blacktopped roads will be completed this year, according to Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Army will be handed over the contract to build 16 km road connecting Sallisalla of Humla to Simikot under the Karnali Corridor Project. The Department of Roads has sent the letter to the Ministry of Defense seeking for its approval. This 16 km section consists of rugged mountainous terrains for which the expertise of the Nepalese Army is best suited to open the road tracks. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepalese Army, which has been assigned to construct the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, has been returning the allocated budget for failing to spend it. Though it has expressed commitment to spend the budget this year, NA will fail to spend it if the signing of contracts for bridges and tunnel doesn’t succeed. The Nepalese Army says Rs 1.40 billion has been spent out of the allocated budget of Rs 8.93 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12894', 'image' => '20210310014236_1615327601.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 13:41:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13147', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Myagdi’s Copper Mines Lying Unused, Buried in Forests', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. ', 'content' => '<p><em>This file photo shows a copper mine in Malika Rural Municipality of Myagdi district. Photo: NBA</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. Some 17 big copper mines of Dhaualagiri, Malika and Raghuganga rural municipality and Beni municipality of the district have not come into resumption due to legal hassles and lack of modern equipment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Local governments are losing revenue worth millions of rupees as the copper mines of Rumle hill in Raghuganga-6, Thadakhani village, Malkabange hill in Dhaulagiri-5, Malkabang, Okharbot in Malika rural municipality and Chinakhet hill in Beni-3 remain idle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Bishal copper mine here has also remained unused for long. Locals complained that the local and provincial governments have shown apathy towards bringing into resumption the copper mine of Rumle hill which was shut some 106 years back. Likewise, the copper mines of Malkabang which have been lying idle over the years are also being buried. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It may be noted that around 100 years ago locals used to excavate copper from the mines and manufacture utensils for their daily use. There was no requirement to purchase utensils from outside. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The copper mines remained shut when the then government started levying tax on those involved in copper mine excavation. There are over a dozen copper mines in Malbang village. Excavating mines is the ancestral occupation of the Chhantyal caste. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“There are still tunnels that were used to excavate mines in the upper hills above the villages. There are several copper mines across the steep terrain. In lack of use, the mines are buried in the soil,” said Dhalman Chhantyal, a local. He further said, “We do not have any option but to remain mute spectators in lack of efforts to explore the treasure”. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Locals said that the legal hassles and lack of equipment were the main challenges in resuming the copper mines. It would not be a big trouble to bring back the mines in operation if the government facilitated legal provisions and provided equipment used for excavation, said Tek Jeet Chhantyal, ward member of Raghuganga-6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He said that the local residents have called for resuming the mines after carrying out necessary study and exploration. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are deprived of using the natural resources available at our disposal,” said Himali Chhantyal, a local, adding, “If the mines here come into operation it would end the compulsion for youths to go abroad for employment and also generate huge revenues for the government.” -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12893', 'image' => '20210310111611_20190606013911_tamakhani2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 11:14:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13146', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mountaineers Start Gearing up for Spring Season Summit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. A few expedition teams have already filed application for climbing mountains during this season, according to the Department of Tourism.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The department is expecting the number of mountaineers to increase with the onset of the spring season.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering sector of Nepal has received some hope for revival of the business that has been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bahrain’s prince Mohammad Al Khalifa’s team is preparing to scale Mount Everest during this spring season. A 16-member team headed by the prince is all set to arrive in Nepal on March 15. The 16-member team includes 13 personnel of the Bahrain Royal Gurad and three Britishers. The team will stay in Nepal for 79 days. Seven Summit Trek is preparing all the logistics for the team’s expedition. The same team had successfully scaled Lobuche and Manaslu in October 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering is expected to feel some respite during the spring season due to some high-profile visits during the winter season when the pandemic posed high risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although normal tourists are still reluctant to visit Nepal due to the provision of mandatory quarantine, those interested in mountaineering seem to be undeterred by such provision.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 250 mountaineers including 80 foreigners are preparing to climb Everest through Seven Summit Trek, informed the company’s chairman Mingma Sherpa. Others have also started booking for the expedition, added Sherpa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has said it would facilitate the tourists by easing the restrictions on quarantine provision and by allowing the visitors with PCR negative test report with easy entry into the country. The ministry has already written a letter to the Covid-19 Crisis Management Committee to make arrangement for on-arrival visas for tourists and this decision is likely to be implemented soon. --RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12892', 'image' => '20210309044352_20201108030120_Contribution of Mountains to the Tourism Economy_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 16:42:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13145', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Issue LoA to China Overseas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:14px"><em>This picture taken from Facebook page of <span style="font-family:Calibri">Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project shows an overview of the Sunkoshi River.</span></em></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. The Department of Water Resources and Irrigation is sending the letter within a week to invite the company to sign the contract. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Three companies from China were in the final competition for the contract of Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. Of the three companies, the department had issued letter of intent (LoI) to the China Overseas Engineering Group. Krishna Prasad Nepal, Deputy Director General of the department, said LoA will be sent within a couple of days. After that, an agreement will be signed with the company to construct the tunnel. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The proposed multipurpose project plans to construct 13.2 km long tunnel to divert the Sunkoshi river to the Marin river located in Kamalamai Municipality of Sindhuli district. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had estimated the cost of the tunnel construction to be Rs 15 billion. But the Chinese firm plans to construct the tunnel at Rs 15.5 billion. This firm has also worked in the Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The tunnel of this project will also be built using boring machine, based on US technology. This method has been successful in Bheri Babai tunnel construction project. This design has to be initially approved by the department and later purchased by the company. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Apart from the tunnel construction, resources has not been arranged to construct other infrastructure. The department needs to call for applications to build other infrastructure like head works, powerhouse, hydro mechanical works among others. Deputy Director Nepal said documents required for these purposes have been sent to the Ministry of Finance for further action.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As soon as financial resources are arranged, application will be called, informed Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Other works like distribution of compensation to the affected families, cutting down trees in the project area have been completed. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 46 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project was inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli last week. But the company will start the task of tunnel construction after a year following the completion of all the technical process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project is expected to provide irrigation facility to farms in Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts of Province 2. Along with the irrigation, the project also plans to generate 29 MW of electricity. This project was enlisted as one of the National Pride Projects in 2019. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12891', 'image' => '20210309021842_87019025_102143838070883_7397641457198170112_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 14:16:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13143', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Collects Billions from Pollution Tax without any Specific Plan for Spending ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. <br /> Although billions of rupees are collected each year from the sales of petroleum products in the name of pollution control, government agencies have not kept track of the money spent.<br /> In the past 12 years, the government has raised around Rs 10 billion from pollution tax. Figures from the Nepal Oil Corporation show that Nepali consumers have paid pollution tax of Rs 9.80 billion to the government from the fiscal year 2065/66 to the fiscal year 2076/77. However, officials inform that the NOC does not have records of the expenses as the money goes to the federal reserve.<br /> Nagendra Sah, deputy executive director of the corporation, informed that NOC has not spent the collected tax as they deposit the amount in the federal reserve fund every year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">"Finance Ministry might have the record," he informed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">The government had collected about Rs 2.94 billion under pollution control fee in the last fiscal year 2019/20 alone. According to NOC, around Rs 1.57 billion was collected in the previous fiscal year 2018/19. The target is to raise Rs 2.8 billion pollution control fee in the current fiscal year.<br /> The government started levying such tax in Kathmandu Valley and across the country since 2066 BS as per the provisions of the Finance Act 2064 BS. The tax, which was earlier levied at the rate of 50 paise per litre on petrol and diesel, was increased to Rs 1.5 per litre from last May. The government still charges Rs 1.5 pollution control fee per litre of diesel and petrol.<br /> NOC, which imports and sells petroleum products, collects the tax from the consumers through petrol pumps. Although the tax collected under this heading should be spent only for a specific purpose, the government has been spending it in various sectors.<br /> Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar informed that the government should make the expenditure of the pollution tax transparent. He added that the amount should only be spent for a specific purpose.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12890', 'image' => '20210309011732_1615244101.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:16:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13144', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Chicken up by 36 Percent as Production Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent. Production of chicken has declined as the hatchery industries have not been able to import parent chicken due to the extended lockdown. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Nepal Hatchery Industry Association, the price of broiler chicken has gone up by 36 per cent in a month from Rs 70 to Rs 95 per chicken. Similarly, the price of layer chicken, which was Rs 140 per chick, has also increased by 22 percent to Rs 170. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tikaram Pokharel, president of the association, told New Business Age that despite the demand of 4.2 million to 4.5 million chickens per week in Nepal, only 2.8 million chickens are being produced per week due to lack of parent chicken. He informed that it was very difficult to meet the high demand for chicken as the production could not be done as per the demand. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“During the lockdown, they had to bury the chicken as they were not sold. Now it is difficult to meet the demand,” he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Hatchery industries had imported mother chicken from Thailand only a few weeks ago and raised them for egg production. However, they have to wait till September and October to get their eggs. As the production of chicken will not increase till then, the price is expected to increase until then.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the cost price of a young broiler chicken is Rs 56 per chicken while the cost price of layer chicken is Rs 110 per chicken. According to the association, the industries had to bury 4.2 million chicken per week for six months as chicken were not sold during the lockdown. Hatcheries had to bear huge loss at that time. Therefore, even if the chicken are sold at the current price for the next six months, the hatchery industry will not be able to recover the loss. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12889', 'image' => '20210309014957_1615244708.Clipboard08.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:49:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13142', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Oli Inaugurates Make in Nepal under the Initiative of CNI', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the inauguration, Prime Minister Oli reportedly said that the private sector should increase investment to contribute to industrial and economic development of the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"The industrialization should be taken ahead by linking it with agro production," the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted the prime minister as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal should now become a producer and exporter country, RSS quoted the prime minister who also pledged policy-level support to make the Make in Nepal campaign successful. According to RSS, Prime Minister Oli emphasized on the need to increase the quality of Nepali products while enhancing the country’s industrial capacity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The importance of domestic production is associated with the 'Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepalis' national resolve of the present government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">At the programme, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said the government was working in collaboration with the private sector, and was ready to address any problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of CNI Satish Kumar More said the CNI was working to promote investment and industrialization to create employment and make the country prosperous, and the new campaign was a step towards that end, RSS further reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Under the campaign, CNI targets to establish more than one thousand industries in a year and help reach the contribution of industry to Nepal's GDP to 26 per cent by 2030. Another target is to make export worth Rs 5 billion in the next five years. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12888', 'image' => '20210309125041_1615215655.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 12:49:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13141', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Announces Refinancing Facility to Hydropower Projects below 10MW Capacity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. Prior to this, there was no provision for refinancing to hydropower plants.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Hydro projects below 10MW capacity can now get refinancing facility of Rs 50 million at three percent interest rate. To refinance these hydro projects, banks and financial institutions can seek loan from the central bank. And the central bank will release the funds at 1 percent interest rate to the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The hydropower projects that apply for refinancing facility should have taken loan of at least Rs 200 million. But refinance of Rs 200 million should not exceed 20% of the total refinancing facility provided by the bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Energy producers from the private sector have responded positively towards the new provision introduced by the central bank. President of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said, it is a praiseworthy decision. This will help to uplift the projects extremely affected by COVID-19. “High interest rate is one of the reasons for poor performance of these projects,” he said, adding, “The new provision of subsidized loans has addressed this problem.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">However, Kumar Pandey, energy entrepreneur, expressed a different view on this topic. He said not only the hydropower projects below 10 MW but all the hydropwoer projects should get this facility. “It is very commendable that the central bank has decided to issue subsidized loans to small hydropower projects but other big projects should also get this facility,” Pandey said. He also sought for the successful implementation of the newly introduced provision. “The work procedure has made the provision of subsidized loans but BFIs should not shy away from the responsibility on the pretext of legal difficulties when the time to issue these loans approaches,” Pandey said. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12887', 'image' => '20210308021619_20201228012934_20201106055408_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 14:15:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13139', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Initiates Feasibility Study for Dry Port in Lo-Manthang ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: Nepal Tourism Board</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. The Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has started work on identifying the geographical location, detailed blueprint of the port construction and cost estimation for the construction of the port at Korala check point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A dry port is being constructed at Korala in accordance to the protocol to implement the Agreement on Transit and Transportation signed between Nepal and China two years ago. Director of Sitara Consultancy, Tika Koirala, a consultant hired for the feasibility study to build the port, said a report would be submitted after finalizing the location, infrastructure and trade and transportation structure. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He informed that the report will be prepared after conducting a feasibility study in two places in Nechung. In addition to modern information technology connected customs office, the Chinese side has built infrastructures such as a quarantine, animal quarantine, staff quarter, laboratory, warehouse, truck and container parking, security arrangements at Korala Port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Prem Prasad Tulachan, a member of the House of Representatives elected from Mustang, said that the feasibility study is underway to develop the port as an international port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Feasibility study of the port has been started due to the demand of the people of Mustang and pressure from the Gandaki state government. We hope it will be completed in a few years,” he said, adding, “Now our focus is on overcoming the delay in upgrading the Beni-Jomsom-Korola road.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Expansion, blacktopping and building bridges along the 186-kilometer Beni-Jomsom-Korala road is currently underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12886', 'image' => '20210308110544_D_kK0BIVAAAwjxF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:04:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13140', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Revenue Collection Declines by Rs 9.72 Billion due to Covid-19', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.<br /> In the first seven months of the current Fiscal Year (FY), Rs 224 billion has been collected from internal revenue. The department had collected revenue of Rs 233.73 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Revenue collection has decreased by 9.72 billion in the review period compared to the previous year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">As a result of COVID-19, revenue collection under the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of this year as compared to last year.<br /> However, in the period from July to mid-January this year, the government has been able to raise huge revenue through income tax and value-added tax.<br /> According to the Inland Revenue Department, revenue of Rs 112.43 billion has been collected from income tax and Rs 65.12 billion from value-added tax.<br /> Similarly, revenue of Rs 43.58 billion has been collected from excise duty, while Rs 2.88 billion was collected from education service fees and others.<br /> Officials of the department informed that the revenue collection target has been affected due to COVID-19. "The reason for the low collection is the contraction in the economy due to Covid-19 and the negative impact on economy," informed Jhakka Prasad Acharya, director-general of the department.<br /> The government had also changed the target of revenue collection in the current fiscal year. One month after the mid-term review of the budget by the Ministry of Finance, the Inland Revenue Department reviewed the work progress and revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year.<br /> Revenue Secretary Ram Sharan Pudasaini emphasized policy guidance and encouragement for revenue mobilization.<br /> According to the officials of the department, there is a need to reform the revenue policy.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12885', 'image' => '20210308113657_20200911125203_1599773733.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:35:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13138', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salt Trading Corporation Imports Urea from China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7.', 'content' => '<p><em>File Photo of Urea</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the fertiliser was imported via Tatopani customs point for the first time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Customs Officer of Tatopani Customs Office Ganesh Prasad Poudel confirmed that Silk Market Pvt Ltd imported two truckloads of urea weighing 20 tonnes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Assistant General Manager of STC Pankaj Joshi said that a tender notice was issued on November 11, 2020 to import 4,000 metric tonnes of urea. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining amount of urea would be brought gradually, RSS reported citing the STC. The urea imported from China would be distributed from Kavre, Kathmandu and Nuwakot districts. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12884', 'image' => '20210308105328_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 10:52:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13137', 'article_category_id' => '266', 'title' => 'Ncell Starts Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in Collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, its CEO Andy Chong handed over the telemedicine kits to officials of four outreach centres under Dhulikhel Hospital amidst a recent function for the implementation of Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Issuing a statement on Saturday (March 6), Ncell said its CEO Andy and Dr Ramesh Makaju, administrative director of Dhulikhel Hospital, also inaugurated ‘Ncell-Dhulikhel Hospital Telemedicine and Healthcare Informatics Centre’ established at the hospital on February 26. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Under this initiative, Ncell intends to serve remote and underserved communities through quality health care services, using technology and data-driven health care methods, the statement added. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Ncell said it </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">is providing telemedicine equipment and establishing connectivity infrastructure at the local community health centers of Dhulikhel Hospital. In return, the hospital will provide support in allocating space and utilities, qualified medical doctors and consultants and carrying out periodic training sessions and monitoring the project to ensure it runs in optimum quality. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">In the initial phase, four community outreach centres </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">of the hospital: Manekharka (Sindhupalchowk), Dorpu (Solukhumbu), Thangsin (Nuwakot) and Bolde (Kavrepalchowk) will implement the project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, they will serve more than 15,000 households of the catchment area. Locals living in the communities of the project areas can receive treatments on communicable as well as non-communicable chronic diseases. Ncell said it plans to expand this to 20 or more outreach centres over the next 4 years. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12883', 'image' => '20210307011934_DH2(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:18:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13136', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thirty five Percent Farmers 'Abandon' Sugarcane Farming', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Kapilmuni Mainali, president of NSMA, informed that there used to be 100,000 farmers involved in commercial sugarcane farming but the number of farmers has declined by more than 35,000.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“More than 35,000 farmers have opted for other options while those currently involved in sugarcane farming have also cut down production,” Mainali said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said that Sugar mills denied payment to the farmers as their business got affected by imported sugar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The country’s annual demand for sugar is about 380,000 metric tons. Delay in payment to farmers has reduced the domestic production to 120,000 metric tons. However, following the protest staged by sugarcane farmers, their outstanding dues have been paid, according to the defaulting sugar mills. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Due to decline in sugarcane production, industrialists say it has affected their production capacity. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Because of the shortage of sugarcane, sugarmills were closed down this year way ahead at the time of harvesting sugarcane,” said Rajesh Kediya, director of Indushankar Sugar Mill, adding, “The controversy over payment has also caused shortage of sugarcane this year.” He said the production will increase this year onwards as the payment has been made. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As the production of sugarcane and sugar has declined in the country, import of sugar has been exponentially high. Sugar worth Rs 7.8 billion has been imported in the seven months of the current fiscal year which is an increment of 798 percent. In the last fiscal year, the import of sugar had declined by 14 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Rajkumar Shrestha, president of Nepal Retailers Association, said sugar has been imported due to low domestic production. Delay in payment might also have its impact on increase in sugar import, Shrestha said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Last year, import of sugar was halted due to low consumption of domestic sugar while this year sugar import has increased due to low production of sugarcane.” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, traders involved in sugar import say the import has increased this year as the government lifted the restriction imposed on sugar import. Brajesh Kumar Jha, manager of Salt Trading Corporation Limited, said that the government had imposed restriction on sugar import during the last fiscal year but has lifted the restriction since the beginning of the current fiscal year month. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said the domestic production can’t meet the demand so import of sugar is a must. According to him, sugar has been imported as per the demand. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12882', 'image' => '20210307010827_20180221015512_ukkhu bechdai 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13134', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Launches Campaign for Digital Listing of Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli marked the beginning of the campaign virtually at once in all seven provinces amidst a programme in the capital on Saturday, March 6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Addressing the event, the PM said the campaign was a crucial effort under the government move for commercialization and modernization of agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With the development of technology in the country, the government was working to make every activity technology-friendly and termed this campaign a milestone of Digital Nepal. The campaign would institutionalise agriculture as a dignified occupation and is expected to help implement the programmes of farmers' welfare protection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has stated that the relations between the state and farmers would be closer through the identity cards by maintaining records of farmers from across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, the PM pledged to utilise the assistance received from the European Union (EU) for this campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Padma Kumari Aryal informed that the agriculture listing campaign was launched with the coordination among three layers of government. "It helps establish farmers as respected people", she hoped, adding that it would also replace the subsistence farming. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to her, identification of real farmers would enable their access to State entitlements. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The plan on agricultural development was launched in a bid to augment export of agricultural products in five years. The 'Prosperous Farmers and Healthy Nepal' campaign was linked to farmers' listing programme. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the farmers' listing programme would eliminate the bad practice of receiving benefits by the non-farmers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Moreover, EU Ambassador to Nepal, Nona Deprez, expressed commitment that EU would continue extending necessary assistance to Nepal for its agricultural development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12881', 'image' => '20210307100743_20181214123216_aaaaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:07:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13135', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Muglin Road to Be Closed for Repair Works', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7), according to the state-owned national news agency RSS. The road section will be closed for traffic from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm every day, until March 13. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a notice, the Narayangadh-Muglin road project has said that the two-way traffic will be stopped on the road so as to complete the remaining work of landslide prevention at Charkilo of the road section. All vehicles except those related to essential and emergency service will be stopped, RSS quoted the project’s engineer Sabita Ranabhat as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Twenty-five percent of the work of landslide prevention on the road section is yet to be completed in the area affected due to the monsoon rains last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Accordingly, vehicles coming from Narayangadh will be stopped at Jalbire and those from Muglin at Shanti bazaar, RSS further reported. Travelers have been meanwhile urged to use alternative route during the period. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12880', 'image' => '20210307101257_20210203120420_20200611120202_WB Road Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:12:17', '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:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 10: Road projects under the National Pride Projects have sought for additional Rs 13 billion stating that the allocated budget is insufficient. Three highway projects – the Postal highway, Mid-hill Highway and Madan Bhandari Highway - have sought for additional budget. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Stating that the allocated budget for the current fiscal year is insufficient, Madan Bhandari Highway Project has sought for Rs 5 billon additional budget, while Mid-hill Highway Project and Postal Highway Project have asked for additional budget of Rs 4 billion each. These projects are the highly prioritized road projects of the government. In the current fiscal year, the government had cut down the budget of these big projects massively. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A total of Rs 1.50 billion has been spent on Madan Bhandari Highway so far. The project has blacktopped additional 30 km of road by the end of Magh (mid-February). The project had received budget of Rs 3.7 billion for this fiscal year which has been spent in blacktopping of the roads and building other infrastructure. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The project has sought additional budget to build 49 bridges. “The budget is required as soon as the contractor begins the work,” said Umesh Bindu Shrestha, director of the project. A few days ago, Prime Minister KP Oli had inaugurated 31 bridges to be built along the highway.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Postal Highway which has added 117 km of blacktopped road in the current fiscal year, has also sought for additional budget. It has spent Rs 4.15 billion out of the allocated budget of Rs 7.1 billion. “Rs 4 billion more is required for blacktopping and laying gravel and building other infrastructure,” informed the Project Director Rohit Kumar Bisural. “If the additional budget is not released, it will affect the payment to the contractor and will ultimately delay the progress of the project,” he added. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Midhill highway is also experiencing budget crunch for the infrastructures that are under construction. This project had sought budget of Rs12 billion but the government had released only Rs 8.27 billion in the current fiscal year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other national pride projects – Fast Track Road project and North-South Corridor are however focused to spend the allocated budget. Shiva Prasad Nepal, director of the North-South Corridor said the allocated budget would be enough for the current fiscal year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Extreme geography and difficulty in transporting construction materials have delayed the blacktopping of the road under this project. Under the Kaligandaki Corridor, only 25 km of blacktopped roads will be completed this year, according to Nepal. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Army will be handed over the contract to build 16 km road connecting Sallisalla of Humla to Simikot under the Karnali Corridor Project. The Department of Roads has sent the letter to the Ministry of Defense seeking for its approval. This 16 km section consists of rugged mountainous terrains for which the expertise of the Nepalese Army is best suited to open the road tracks. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Nepalese Army, which has been assigned to construct the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track, has been returning the allocated budget for failing to spend it. Though it has expressed commitment to spend the budget this year, NA will fail to spend it if the signing of contracts for bridges and tunnel doesn’t succeed. The Nepalese Army says Rs 1.40 billion has been spent out of the allocated budget of Rs 8.93 billion. </span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12894', 'image' => '20210310014236_1615327601.Clipboard05.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 13:41:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13147', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Myagdi’s Copper Mines Lying Unused, Buried in Forests', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. ', 'content' => '<p><em>This file photo shows a copper mine in Malika Rural Municipality of Myagdi district. Photo: NBA</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 10: Copper mines detected in different areas of Myagdi district have been lying unused and buried in the forests. Some 17 big copper mines of Dhaualagiri, Malika and Raghuganga rural municipality and Beni municipality of the district have not come into resumption due to legal hassles and lack of modern equipment. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Local governments are losing revenue worth millions of rupees as the copper mines of Rumle hill in Raghuganga-6, Thadakhani village, Malkabange hill in Dhaulagiri-5, Malkabang, Okharbot in Malika rural municipality and Chinakhet hill in Beni-3 remain idle. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Bishal copper mine here has also remained unused for long. Locals complained that the local and provincial governments have shown apathy towards bringing into resumption the copper mine of Rumle hill which was shut some 106 years back. Likewise, the copper mines of Malkabang which have been lying idle over the years are also being buried. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It may be noted that around 100 years ago locals used to excavate copper from the mines and manufacture utensils for their daily use. There was no requirement to purchase utensils from outside. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The copper mines remained shut when the then government started levying tax on those involved in copper mine excavation. There are over a dozen copper mines in Malbang village. Excavating mines is the ancestral occupation of the Chhantyal caste. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“There are still tunnels that were used to excavate mines in the upper hills above the villages. There are several copper mines across the steep terrain. In lack of use, the mines are buried in the soil,” said Dhalman Chhantyal, a local. He further said, “We do not have any option but to remain mute spectators in lack of efforts to explore the treasure”. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Locals said that the legal hassles and lack of equipment were the main challenges in resuming the copper mines. It would not be a big trouble to bring back the mines in operation if the government facilitated legal provisions and provided equipment used for excavation, said Tek Jeet Chhantyal, ward member of Raghuganga-6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">He said that the local residents have called for resuming the mines after carrying out necessary study and exploration. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">“We are deprived of using the natural resources available at our disposal,” said Himali Chhantyal, a local, adding, “If the mines here come into operation it would end the compulsion for youths to go abroad for employment and also generate huge revenues for the government.” -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-10', 'modified' => '2021-03-10', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12893', 'image' => '20210310111611_20190606013911_tamakhani2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-10 11:14:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13146', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Mountaineers Start Gearing up for Spring Season Summit', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: A small number of foreign mountaineers have started arriving in Nepal for expedition during the spring season. A few expedition teams have already filed application for climbing mountains during this season, according to the Department of Tourism.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The department is expecting the number of mountaineers to increase with the onset of the spring season.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering sector of Nepal has received some hope for revival of the business that has been badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Bahrain’s prince Mohammad Al Khalifa’s team is preparing to scale Mount Everest during this spring season. A 16-member team headed by the prince is all set to arrive in Nepal on March 15. The 16-member team includes 13 personnel of the Bahrain Royal Gurad and three Britishers. The team will stay in Nepal for 79 days. Seven Summit Trek is preparing all the logistics for the team’s expedition. The same team had successfully scaled Lobuche and Manaslu in October 2020.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The mountaineering is expected to feel some respite during the spring season due to some high-profile visits during the winter season when the pandemic posed high risk.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although normal tourists are still reluctant to visit Nepal due to the provision of mandatory quarantine, those interested in mountaineering seem to be undeterred by such provision.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 250 mountaineers including 80 foreigners are preparing to climb Everest through Seven Summit Trek, informed the company’s chairman Mingma Sherpa. Others have also started booking for the expedition, added Sherpa.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has said it would facilitate the tourists by easing the restrictions on quarantine provision and by allowing the visitors with PCR negative test report with easy entry into the country. The ministry has already written a letter to the Covid-19 Crisis Management Committee to make arrangement for on-arrival visas for tourists and this decision is likely to be implemented soon. --RSS</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12892', 'image' => '20210309044352_20201108030120_Contribution of Mountains to the Tourism Economy_1.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 16:42:43', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13145', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Plans to Issue LoA to China Overseas ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:14px"><em>This picture taken from Facebook page of <span style="font-family:Calibri">Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project shows an overview of the Sunkoshi River.</span></em></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 9: The government has decided to issue Letter of Acceptance (LoA) to the China Overseas Engineering Group for the construction of tunnel of the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. The Department of Water Resources and Irrigation is sending the letter within a week to invite the company to sign the contract. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Three companies from China were in the final competition for the contract of Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project. Of the three companies, the department had issued letter of intent (LoI) to the China Overseas Engineering Group. Krishna Prasad Nepal, Deputy Director General of the department, said LoA will be sent within a couple of days. After that, an agreement will be signed with the company to construct the tunnel. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The proposed multipurpose project plans to construct 13.2 km long tunnel to divert the Sunkoshi river to the Marin river located in Kamalamai Municipality of Sindhuli district. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had estimated the cost of the tunnel construction to be Rs 15 billion. But the Chinese firm plans to construct the tunnel at Rs 15.5 billion. This firm has also worked in the Bheri-Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The tunnel of this project will also be built using boring machine, based on US technology. This method has been successful in Bheri Babai tunnel construction project. This design has to be initially approved by the department and later purchased by the company. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Apart from the tunnel construction, resources has not been arranged to construct other infrastructure. The department needs to call for applications to build other infrastructure like head works, powerhouse, hydro mechanical works among others. Deputy Director Nepal said documents required for these purposes have been sent to the Ministry of Finance for further action.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As soon as financial resources are arranged, application will be called, informed Nepal. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Other works like distribution of compensation to the affected families, cutting down trees in the project area have been completed. The overall cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 46 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project was inaugurated by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli last week. But the company will start the task of tunnel construction after a year following the completion of all the technical process. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">This project is expected to provide irrigation facility to farms in Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari and Sarlahi districts of Province 2. Along with the irrigation, the project also plans to generate 29 MW of electricity. This project was enlisted as one of the National Pride Projects in 2019. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12891', 'image' => '20210309021842_87019025_102143838070883_7397641457198170112_n.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 14:16:58', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13143', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Collects Billions from Pollution Tax without any Specific Plan for Spending ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 9: The government has been collecting pollution tax from the public under pollution control heading for more than a decade, without any concrete plan for spending the amount. <br /> Although billions of rupees are collected each year from the sales of petroleum products in the name of pollution control, government agencies have not kept track of the money spent.<br /> In the past 12 years, the government has raised around Rs 10 billion from pollution tax. Figures from the Nepal Oil Corporation show that Nepali consumers have paid pollution tax of Rs 9.80 billion to the government from the fiscal year 2065/66 to the fiscal year 2076/77. However, officials inform that the NOC does not have records of the expenses as the money goes to the federal reserve.<br /> Nagendra Sah, deputy executive director of the corporation, informed that NOC has not spent the collected tax as they deposit the amount in the federal reserve fund every year. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">"Finance Ministry might have the record," he informed.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Arial">The government had collected about Rs 2.94 billion under pollution control fee in the last fiscal year 2019/20 alone. According to NOC, around Rs 1.57 billion was collected in the previous fiscal year 2018/19. The target is to raise Rs 2.8 billion pollution control fee in the current fiscal year.<br /> The government started levying such tax in Kathmandu Valley and across the country since 2066 BS as per the provisions of the Finance Act 2064 BS. The tax, which was earlier levied at the rate of 50 paise per litre on petrol and diesel, was increased to Rs 1.5 per litre from last May. The government still charges Rs 1.5 pollution control fee per litre of diesel and petrol.<br /> NOC, which imports and sells petroleum products, collects the tax from the consumers through petrol pumps. Although the tax collected under this heading should be spent only for a specific purpose, the government has been spending it in various sectors.<br /> Environmentalist Bhushan Tuladhar informed that the government should make the expenditure of the pollution tax transparent. He added that the amount should only be spent for a specific purpose.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12890', 'image' => '20210309011732_1615244101.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:16:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13144', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Price of Chicken up by 36 Percent as Production Declines ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 9: With the decline in production, the price of chicken has increased by 36 percent. Production of chicken has declined as the hatchery industries have not been able to import parent chicken due to the extended lockdown. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Nepal Hatchery Industry Association, the price of broiler chicken has gone up by 36 per cent in a month from Rs 70 to Rs 95 per chicken. Similarly, the price of layer chicken, which was Rs 140 per chick, has also increased by 22 percent to Rs 170. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tikaram Pokharel, president of the association, told New Business Age that despite the demand of 4.2 million to 4.5 million chickens per week in Nepal, only 2.8 million chickens are being produced per week due to lack of parent chicken. He informed that it was very difficult to meet the high demand for chicken as the production could not be done as per the demand. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“During the lockdown, they had to bury the chicken as they were not sold. Now it is difficult to meet the demand,” he said. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Hatchery industries had imported mother chicken from Thailand only a few weeks ago and raised them for egg production. However, they have to wait till September and October to get their eggs. As the production of chicken will not increase till then, the price is expected to increase until then.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">At present, the cost price of a young broiler chicken is Rs 56 per chicken while the cost price of layer chicken is Rs 110 per chicken. According to the association, the industries had to bury 4.2 million chicken per week for six months as chicken were not sold during the lockdown. Hatcheries had to bear huge loss at that time. Therefore, even if the chicken are sold at the current price for the next six months, the hatchery industry will not be able to recover the loss. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12889', 'image' => '20210309014957_1615244708.Clipboard08.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 13:49:18', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13142', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'PM Oli Inaugurates Make in Nepal under the Initiative of CNI', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 9: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday (March 8) inaugurated the 'Make in Nepal-Swadeshi' campaign initiated by the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) to promote domestic production in the capital. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">During the inauguration, Prime Minister Oli reportedly said that the private sector should increase investment to contribute to industrial and economic development of the country. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">"The industrialization should be taken ahead by linking it with agro production," the state-owned national news agency RSS quoted the prime minister as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal should now become a producer and exporter country, RSS quoted the prime minister who also pledged policy-level support to make the Make in Nepal campaign successful. According to RSS, Prime Minister Oli emphasized on the need to increase the quality of Nepali products while enhancing the country’s industrial capacity. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The importance of domestic production is associated with the 'Prosperous Nepal Happy Nepalis' national resolve of the present government. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">At the programme, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta said the government was working in collaboration with the private sector, and was ready to address any problem. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">President of CNI Satish Kumar More said the CNI was working to promote investment and industrialization to create employment and make the country prosperous, and the new campaign was a step towards that end, RSS further reported. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Under the campaign, CNI targets to establish more than one thousand industries in a year and help reach the contribution of industry to Nepal's GDP to 26 per cent by 2030. Another target is to make export worth Rs 5 billion in the next five years. </span></span></span><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-09', 'modified' => '2021-03-09', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12888', 'image' => '20210309125041_1615215655.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-09 12:49:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13141', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NRB Announces Refinancing Facility to Hydropower Projects below 10MW Capacity', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 8: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has amended Refinancing Work Procedure 2077 to provide special refinancing facility to hydropower plants with capacity of less than 10 Megawatts. Prior to this, there was no provision for refinancing to hydropower plants.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Hydro projects below 10MW capacity can now get refinancing facility of Rs 50 million at three percent interest rate. To refinance these hydro projects, banks and financial institutions can seek loan from the central bank. And the central bank will release the funds at 1 percent interest rate to the banks. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The hydropower projects that apply for refinancing facility should have taken loan of at least Rs 200 million. But refinance of Rs 200 million should not exceed 20% of the total refinancing facility provided by the bank.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Energy producers from the private sector have responded positively towards the new provision introduced by the central bank. President of the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal, Krishna Prasad Acharya, said, it is a praiseworthy decision. This will help to uplift the projects extremely affected by COVID-19. “High interest rate is one of the reasons for poor performance of these projects,” he said, adding, “The new provision of subsidized loans has addressed this problem.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">However, Kumar Pandey, energy entrepreneur, expressed a different view on this topic. He said not only the hydropower projects below 10 MW but all the hydropwoer projects should get this facility. “It is very commendable that the central bank has decided to issue subsidized loans to small hydropower projects but other big projects should also get this facility,” Pandey said. He also sought for the successful implementation of the newly introduced provision. “The work procedure has made the provision of subsidized loans but BFIs should not shy away from the responsibility on the pretext of legal difficulties when the time to issue these loans approaches,” Pandey said. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12887', 'image' => '20210308021619_20201228012934_20201106055408_Nepal_Rastra_Bank2 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 14:15:33', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13139', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Initiates Feasibility Study for Dry Port in Lo-Manthang ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. ', 'content' => '<p><em>Photo Courtesy: Nepal Tourism Board</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">March 8: The government has initiated a feasibility study for the construction of a dry port in Lo-Manthang rural municipality of Mustang district. The Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has started work on identifying the geographical location, detailed blueprint of the port construction and cost estimation for the construction of the port at Korala check point.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A dry port is being constructed at Korala in accordance to the protocol to implement the Agreement on Transit and Transportation signed between Nepal and China two years ago. Director of Sitara Consultancy, Tika Koirala, a consultant hired for the feasibility study to build the port, said a report would be submitted after finalizing the location, infrastructure and trade and transportation structure. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He informed that the report will be prepared after conducting a feasibility study in two places in Nechung. In addition to modern information technology connected customs office, the Chinese side has built infrastructures such as a quarantine, animal quarantine, staff quarter, laboratory, warehouse, truck and container parking, security arrangements at Korala Port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Prem Prasad Tulachan, a member of the House of Representatives elected from Mustang, said that the feasibility study is underway to develop the port as an international port. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Feasibility study of the port has been started due to the demand of the people of Mustang and pressure from the Gandaki state government. We hope it will be completed in a few years,” he said, adding, “Now our focus is on overcoming the delay in upgrading the Beni-Jomsom-Korola road.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Expansion, blacktopping and building bridges along the 186-kilometer Beni-Jomsom-Korala road is currently underway.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12886', 'image' => '20210308110544_D_kK0BIVAAAwjxF.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:04:25', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13140', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Revenue Collection Declines by Rs 9.72 Billion due to Covid-19', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 8: The revenue collection of the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of the current fiscal year compared to last year, due to COVID-19.<br /> In the first seven months of the current Fiscal Year (FY), Rs 224 billion has been collected from internal revenue. The department had collected revenue of Rs 233.73 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Revenue collection has decreased by 9.72 billion in the review period compared to the previous year.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">As a result of COVID-19, revenue collection under the Inland Revenue Department has decreased in the first seven months of this year as compared to last year.<br /> However, in the period from July to mid-January this year, the government has been able to raise huge revenue through income tax and value-added tax.<br /> According to the Inland Revenue Department, revenue of Rs 112.43 billion has been collected from income tax and Rs 65.12 billion from value-added tax.<br /> Similarly, revenue of Rs 43.58 billion has been collected from excise duty, while Rs 2.88 billion was collected from education service fees and others.<br /> Officials of the department informed that the revenue collection target has been affected due to COVID-19. "The reason for the low collection is the contraction in the economy due to Covid-19 and the negative impact on economy," informed Jhakka Prasad Acharya, director-general of the department.<br /> The government had also changed the target of revenue collection in the current fiscal year. One month after the mid-term review of the budget by the Ministry of Finance, the Inland Revenue Department reviewed the work progress and revenue collection so far in the current fiscal year.<br /> Revenue Secretary Ram Sharan Pudasaini emphasized policy guidance and encouragement for revenue mobilization.<br /> According to the officials of the department, there is a need to reform the revenue policy.</span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12885', 'image' => '20210308113657_20200911125203_1599773733.Clipboard04.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 11:35:48', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13138', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Salt Trading Corporation Imports Urea from China', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7.', 'content' => '<p><em>File Photo of Urea</em></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 8: The Salt Trading Corporation (STC) has imported 20 tonnes of urea fertiliser from China on Sunday, March 7. According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, the fertiliser was imported via Tatopani customs point for the first time. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Customs Officer of Tatopani Customs Office Ganesh Prasad Poudel confirmed that Silk Market Pvt Ltd imported two truckloads of urea weighing 20 tonnes. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Assistant General Manager of STC Pankaj Joshi said that a tender notice was issued on November 11, 2020 to import 4,000 metric tonnes of urea. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The remaining amount of urea would be brought gradually, RSS reported citing the STC. The urea imported from China would be distributed from Kavre, Kathmandu and Nuwakot districts. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS""> </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-08', 'modified' => '2021-03-08', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12884', 'image' => '20210308105328_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-08 10:52:17', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13137', 'article_category_id' => '266', 'title' => 'Ncell Starts Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in Collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">March 7: Ncell Axiata Limited has started Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme in collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, its CEO Andy Chong handed over the telemedicine kits to officials of four outreach centres under Dhulikhel Hospital amidst a recent function for the implementation of Telemedicine and Health Informatics Programme. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Issuing a statement on Saturday (March 6), Ncell said its CEO Andy and Dr Ramesh Makaju, administrative director of Dhulikhel Hospital, also inaugurated ‘Ncell-Dhulikhel Hospital Telemedicine and Healthcare Informatics Centre’ established at the hospital on February 26. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Under this initiative, Ncell intends to serve remote and underserved communities through quality health care services, using technology and data-driven health care methods, the statement added. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">Ncell said it </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">is providing telemedicine equipment and establishing connectivity infrastructure at the local community health centers of Dhulikhel Hospital. In return, the hospital will provide support in allocating space and utilities, qualified medical doctors and consultants and carrying out periodic training sessions and monitoring the project to ensure it runs in optimum quality. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">In the initial phase, four community outreach centres </span></span><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">of the hospital: Manekharka (Sindhupalchowk), Dorpu (Solukhumbu), Thangsin (Nuwakot) and Bolde (Kavrepalchowk) will implement the project. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:11.5pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">According to Ncell, they will serve more than 15,000 households of the catchment area. Locals living in the communities of the project areas can receive treatments on communicable as well as non-communicable chronic diseases. Ncell said it plans to expand this to 20 or more outreach centres over the next 4 years. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12883', 'image' => '20210307011934_DH2(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:18:34', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => false, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13136', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Thirty five Percent Farmers 'Abandon' Sugarcane Farming', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 7: The number of farmers involved in sugarcane farming has declined by 35 percent due to the delay in payment by sugar mills, according to Nepal Sugar Mills Association (NSMA). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Kapilmuni Mainali, president of NSMA, informed that there used to be 100,000 farmers involved in commercial sugarcane farming but the number of farmers has declined by more than 35,000.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“More than 35,000 farmers have opted for other options while those currently involved in sugarcane farming have also cut down production,” Mainali said. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said that Sugar mills denied payment to the farmers as their business got affected by imported sugar.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The country’s annual demand for sugar is about 380,000 metric tons. Delay in payment to farmers has reduced the domestic production to 120,000 metric tons. However, following the protest staged by sugarcane farmers, their outstanding dues have been paid, according to the defaulting sugar mills. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Due to decline in sugarcane production, industrialists say it has affected their production capacity. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Because of the shortage of sugarcane, sugarmills were closed down this year way ahead at the time of harvesting sugarcane,” said Rajesh Kediya, director of Indushankar Sugar Mill, adding, “The controversy over payment has also caused shortage of sugarcane this year.” He said the production will increase this year onwards as the payment has been made. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">As the production of sugarcane and sugar has declined in the country, import of sugar has been exponentially high. Sugar worth Rs 7.8 billion has been imported in the seven months of the current fiscal year which is an increment of 798 percent. In the last fiscal year, the import of sugar had declined by 14 percent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Rajkumar Shrestha, president of Nepal Retailers Association, said sugar has been imported due to low domestic production. Delay in payment might also have its impact on increase in sugar import, Shrestha said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">“Last year, import of sugar was halted due to low consumption of domestic sugar while this year sugar import has increased due to low production of sugarcane.” </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, traders involved in sugar import say the import has increased this year as the government lifted the restriction imposed on sugar import. Brajesh Kumar Jha, manager of Salt Trading Corporation Limited, said that the government had imposed restriction on sugar import during the last fiscal year but has lifted the restriction since the beginning of the current fiscal year month. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">He said the domestic production can’t meet the demand so import of sugar is a must. According to him, sugar has been imported as per the demand. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12882', 'image' => '20210307010827_20180221015512_ukkhu bechdai 2.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 13:07:46', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13134', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Launches Campaign for Digital Listing of Farmers ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: For the first time in the country, Farmers' Listing Management Campaign has started in Nepal. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli marked the beginning of the campaign virtually at once in all seven provinces amidst a programme in the capital on Saturday, March 6. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Addressing the event, the PM said the campaign was a crucial effort under the government move for commercialization and modernization of agriculture. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">With the development of technology in the country, the government was working to make every activity technology-friendly and termed this campaign a milestone of Digital Nepal. The campaign would institutionalise agriculture as a dignified occupation and is expected to help implement the programmes of farmers' welfare protection. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has stated that the relations between the state and farmers would be closer through the identity cards by maintaining records of farmers from across the country. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, the PM pledged to utilise the assistance received from the European Union (EU) for this campaign. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">On the occasion, Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Padma Kumari Aryal informed that the agriculture listing campaign was launched with the coordination among three layers of government. "It helps establish farmers as respected people", she hoped, adding that it would also replace the subsistence farming. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to her, identification of real farmers would enable their access to State entitlements. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">The plan on agricultural development was launched in a bid to augment export of agricultural products in five years. The 'Prosperous Farmers and Healthy Nepal' campaign was linked to farmers' listing programme. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the farmers' listing programme would eliminate the bad practice of receiving benefits by the non-farmers. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Moreover, EU Ambassador to Nepal, Nona Deprez, expressed commitment that EU would continue extending necessary assistance to Nepal for its agricultural development. -- RSS </span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12881', 'image' => '20210307100743_20181214123216_aaaaa.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:07:07', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '13135', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Narayangadh-Muglin Road to Be Closed for Repair Works', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7).', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">March 7: The Narayagadh-Muglin road will remain closed for landslide prevention work for a week starting from today (March 7), according to the state-owned national news agency RSS. The road section will be closed for traffic from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm every day, until March 13. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Issuing a notice, the Narayangadh-Muglin road project has said that the two-way traffic will be stopped on the road so as to complete the remaining work of landslide prevention at Charkilo of the road section. All vehicles except those related to essential and emergency service will be stopped, RSS quoted the project’s engineer Sabita Ranabhat as saying. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Twenty-five percent of the work of landslide prevention on the road section is yet to be completed in the area affected due to the monsoon rains last year. </span><br /> <span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Accordingly, vehicles coming from Narayangadh will be stopped at Jalbire and those from Muglin at Shanti bazaar, RSS further reported. Travelers have been meanwhile urged to use alternative route during the period. </span><br /> </span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2021-03-07', 'modified' => '2021-03-07', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12880', 'image' => '20210307101257_20210203120420_20200611120202_WB Road Project.jpg', 'article_date' => '2021-03-07 10:12:17', '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
