RDI Files Tax Evasion Cases against 1,000 Defaulters

Mar 03, 2021 0 4 minutes 45 seconds to read

March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department (RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.…

10 megawatts of Solar Power Added to Nat'l Grid

Mar 03, 2021 0 1 minutes 34 seconds to read

March 3: The country's largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported.…

NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products

Mar 02, 2021 0 1 minutes 26 seconds to read

March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products.…

NTB Felicitates Chef Santosh Shah

Mar 02, 2021 0 2 minutes 11 seconds to read

March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March…

Tourist Arrival Increases Marginally in February

Mar 02, 2021 0 1 minutes 17 seconds to read

March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous…

SC yet to Rule on Case Related to Printing of Excise Duty Stickers

Mar 02, 2021 0 2 minutes 20 seconds to read

March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court.…

Fertiliser from Bangladesh to Arrive within a Week

Mar 02, 2021 0 1 minutes 35 seconds to read

March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a…

‘Upcoming Budget will Focus on Minimizing Damages Caused by Covid-19’

Mar 02, 2021 0 1 minutes 38 seconds to read

March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy.…

INNJA Felicitates Journalists on its Third Anniversary

Mar 01, 2021 0 2 minutes 4 seconds to read

March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of…

Private Sector Reluctant to Import Covid-19 Vaccine

Mar 01, 2021 0 2 minutes 13 seconds to read

March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine.…

DoTM Stops Printing Smart License Cards Except for Emergency Purpose

Mar 01, 2021 0 1 minutes 36 seconds to read

March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards.…

Sugar Mills yet to Clear Farmers' Dues

Mar 01, 2021 0 2 minutes 58 seconds to read

March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months.…

Central Bank Warns of Action against Banks that Cross the Limit of Spread Rate

Mar 01, 2021 0 1 minutes 57 seconds to read

March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread…

Online Service for Business Promotion

Mar 01, 2021 0 1 minutes 3 seconds to read

March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.…

Prominent businessman, Immediate Past President of NICCI Saurya SJB Rana dies

Feb 28, 2021 0 1 minutes 13 seconds to read

Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart…

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No Laughing Matter

The Sweet Rewards of Power

By Madan Lamsal

. . .
read more »

NEPSE

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			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'RDI Files Tax Evasion Cases against 1,000 Defaulters',
			'sub_title' => 'Fiscal Crimes of Over Rs 47 Billion Busted in the Past 2 Years ',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department  (RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.    ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department &nbsp;(RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&nbsp;In the past two years, the Department has lodges cases against 1,000 defaulters and companies for their involvement in tax evasion cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Those individuals and companies, some of them being renowned ones as well, were alleged to commit financial crimes by dodging taxes worth over Rs 47 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department that has been tasked to look into revenue leakages investigation and controlling economic crimes, has been brought under the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for a year now. It, however, started its operation in full-fledge since last August.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department&#39;s director general Dirgharaj Mainali said, &quot;We had probed into the risk-prone areas where economic transaction were conducted in high volume. We busted economic crimes in a greater scale. Many of the defaulters were facing case in the court while some were still being investigated.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Mainali opined that the identification of the tax evaders, some of them being the multinational companies, could be considered one of the achievements of the Department.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Among the notorious criminal activities investigated by the Department include setting up new companies in the name of strangers by misusing their citizenship identity card and printing fake VAT bills and producing counterfeit government documents among others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The gangs found to be using fake VAT and PAN bills, selling and buying fake invoices, registering the company by using forged documents, evading tax in foreign employment, involved in hundi business and misappropriating the foreign currencies have also been facing cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Cases of tax evasion amounting to around one billion rupees by using fake invoices have been filed against 13 people including Subodh Sah of Balara Municipality-7 in Sarlahi district in January this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department in course of investigation had found that they had evaded tax by operating bank account of 11 different firms. The Department last year had filed case against Barun Beverage on the charge of using fake bills.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has demanded double fine and three years of imprisonment to them as the company had evaded tax of Rs 649.6 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Similarly, a case has been filed against three persons including main traders of Baba Flour Mill and Gopal Flour Mill at Biratnagar Metropolitan City-9, Suresh Kumar Rathi, at High Court, Patan, on February 28 this year on the charge of evading Rs 153.6 million tax.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, a tax evasion case has been filed against Jay Kishor Sah and Parameshwor Sah who were found to have used fake invoices after establishing 24 firms.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">These were the glaring examples of economic crimes exposed in the past two years. The Department registered 221 cases (except related to foreign exchange misappropriation) of economic crimes. A total of 779 people including 11 government employees have been identified as the accused in the above mentioned cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">They have been accused of committing finical crime worth Rs 36.35 billion. The list of accused include 126 firms which are alleged of issuing fake and duplicate invoices to avoid tax and 52 firms which had purchased duplicate invoices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department achieved a success in noticing such offenses as it has developed and used a software to deal with the transactions. Mainali claimed the Department&rsquo;s increased promptness has contributed to the control of revenue leakage and voluntary participation in the tax system.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">440 face action for dollar misappropriation&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to the Department, so far 440 people faced charge-sheet for the alleged financial crime. They have been accused of misappropriating worth Rs 10.72 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has sought to fine three-fold of the amount of misappropriation and a three-year jail term against them. It is said it has caused a positive impact on revenue mobilization and income through remittance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department, in a bid to systematize the information system, has implemented the mandatory provision for entering the import and export of goods in the system before the transport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p>
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			'id' => '13117',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '10 megawatts of Solar Power Added to Nat'l Grid',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The country's largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The country&#39;s largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to RSS, the project with capacity of 25-megawatt plant had produced 1.25 megawatt power some eight months ago. Chief of the project Bikash Raghubansi reportedly informed that 8.75 megawatt of solar power was generated recently and was linked to the national power grid after a successful test transmission. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Of the seven blocks of the project, power is now generated from two of the solar panels and is connected to the national transmission line through the national grid of Devighat Hydropower Centre, RSS further reported.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project said that five more megawatts of solar power would be generated within some days.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">For the power generation, construction works are moving ahead smoothly including installation of panels and clearing the site.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, Project Chief Raghubansi has committed to completing the entire project in coming six months.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project is being developed with the joint investment of Government of Nepal and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Likewise, the project has received $ 30.8 million in loan assistance from the World Bank under the Grid Solar and Energy Efficiency Programme. </span></span></span></p>
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			'id' => '13116',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. The state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) hiked the prices of petroleum products effective from Monday midnight (March 2). </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">With the price adjustment, petrol, diesel and kerosene each will now cost Rs 2 more per litre. Similarly, NOC has increased the price of Aviation Trubine Fuel (ATF) by Rs 5 per litre for domestic flights and by US$ 25 per kilolitres for international flights. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">The price of cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) remains unchanged at Rs 1400 per cylinder.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">After the increase in price, petrol will now cost Rs 116 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 99 per litre. Likewise, ATF for domestic flights has been fixed at Rs 72 per litre while the fuel for international flights will cost US$ 893 per kiloliter.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">NOC stated that it still has to bear loss despite increasing the price. This is the second time NOC has increased the price of petroleum products since February 11.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13115',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NTB Felicitates Chef Santosh Shah',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.<br />
Tourism Secretary Yadav Prasad Koirala, NTB CEO Dhananjay Regmi, Shreejana Rana, president of Hotel Association of Nepal, and Mani Lamichhane, director of NTB, felicitated Shah for his achievement in the global cookery arena and for promoting Nepali culture and ethnicity through his dishes abroad.<br />
Chef Shah , born in 1985 in Karjana, Siraha, was the finalist of the BBC&rsquo;s cookery show - Master Chef &nbsp;UK.<br />
Shah arrived in Nepal upon a special request and initiation of the Pacific Asia Tour Association Nepal Chapter.<br />
Lamichhane informed that Shah&#39;s stardom will help Nepal to promote its dishes globally. &quot;Currently, Shah has helped Nepal to promote gastronomy as an additional tourism product and brand the rich ethnicity of the country,&quot; Lamichhane informed. &nbsp;<br />
Likewise, Regmi, during a presentation titled Globalization of Heritage Cuisine of Nepal-Prospects and Opportunities of Gastronomy Tourism in Nepal, informed that NTB will collaborate with Shah to promote Nepali gastronomy.<br />
NTB under the coordination of Karna Shakya, a veteran tourism entrepreneur, had conducted a gastronomy promotion campaign back in 2018 to promote various 200 original dishes of the country.<br />
Similarly, Shah addressing the event, said that Master Chef UK has helped him to promote Nepali food through his signature dishes. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">&quot;I highlighted the rich culture of our country through my dishes in Master Chef. We have underestimated the value of our cuisine and ingredients, we need to brand and promote them. Through Master Chef, I have made an initiative to register the trademark of some ingredients,&quot; Shah informed.<br />
Shah also stressed the issues hindering the promotion of Nepali cuisine.&nbsp; &quot;Foreigners have a checklist regarding the issues related to food hygiene, I requested the concerned authority to work on it,&quot; he informed.<br />
Shah is currently working on his recipe book and is coming up with some restaurant projects. &quot;I am preparing to launch five signature Nepali dishes in the world map, it will help me to brand the rich gastronomy of the country,&quot; he informed.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13114',
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			'title' => 'Tourist Arrival Increases Marginally in February',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri<br />
March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month, according to the data released by the Department of Immigration.<br />
In February, a total of&nbsp;9,146 foreigners arrived in Nepal by air through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), compared to 8,874 foreign nationals in January.<br />
Among the visitors, 6,151 were male, 2,983 were female, while 12 were of the other sex.<br />
Country-wise, India was the prime tourist market for Nepal.&nbsp; In total, 3322 Indian tourists landed at TIA in February, up from 2,865 in January.<br />
Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Nepal has declined in February. However, the number of American tourists has increased.<br />
According to the report, only 613 Chinese nationals landed at TIA in February, down from 1,666 in January. The number of US nationals arriving in Nepal grew slightly from 524 in January to 721 in February. &nbsp;<br />
According to the report, foreigners from 123 nations arrived in Nepal in February compared to 122 in January.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise, the number of Nepali nationals returning home has also grown marginally in February. A total of 46,471 Nepali nationals landed in Kathmandu in February, up from 46,384 a month ago.<br />
In total, 44,152 Nepalis left for abroad in February, down from 47,238 in January.<br />
According to the data, two refugees landed at TIA in February. In January, no refuges had landed at TIA. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13113',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'SC yet to Rule on Case Related to Printing of Excise Duty Stickers ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had sought applications from international companies on October 15 last year. But the Supreme Court issued an interim order to halt the tender process in response to a writ petition filed by Manohar Raj Ghimire of Mirage Printing Company. International companies from France and Italy had submitted proposals the department is yet to evaluate their proposals.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Shiwadevi Dahal, deputy director general of Department of Revenue Investigation, said it has been difficult to meet the demand of excise duty stickers due to the short supply. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&ldquo;We have received applications from interested companies but their evaluation process has been halted as the case is pending in the court,&rdquo; said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">To meet the current demand of excise duty stickers, Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC) has been printing twelve kinds of stickers. Previously, the IRD had been printing 43 kinds of stickers through foreign companies. The limited number of stickers is insufficient to meet the huge demand, said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">One of the high-ranking officials of Janak Education Material Centre said, &ldquo;We have been assigned to print 700 million stickers. But we print stickers only on a specific day when the department specifies the volume to be printed.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had filed a case against SC asking to vacate its interim order in last October. The department had filed for a vacate order stating that the domestic printing companies are vulnerable in terms of security but the SC has not issued a fresh order in this regard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Dahal said that the department had opened global tender only after reaching a conclusion that domestic printing companies were not capable of printing the stickers as per the required standard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">According to officials of the IRD, it has been issuing global tender from 2005 to print the excise duty stickers. The task of printing stickers is more sensitive that printing bank notes. Domestic companies can&rsquo;t provide that level of security features, so global tender is a must, say the officials.</span></span></p>
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			'image' => '20210302032510_20201127115547_20200417094838_CKC_ktm.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-02 15:24:32',
			'homepage' => false,
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	(int) 6 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13112',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Fertiliser from Bangladesh to Arrive within a Week ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week. Out of 50,000 metric tons of urea, 22,500 metric tons have already arrived at the Kolkata Port. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Workers are now unloading the goods that have arrived at the Kolkata Port. According to Bishnu Pokharel, spokesperson of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL), the goods will reach Birgunj in about a week after the loading is completed in the next three to four days. He said that they would be sent to Biratnagar and Bhairahawa for distribution from Birgunj. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The fertilizer will be transported to Nepal by Gentrade FZF in three phases.</span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">A total of 22,500 metric tons of urea have been imported in the first phase. Similarly, in the second phase, 10,000 metric tons of urea will be brought in the country. Likewise, the company said that 17,500 metric tons of urea will arrive in March 15 in the third phase. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The agreement between AICL and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation to purchase urea through the G2G process was signed on December 17 after Shailung Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Honiko Multiple Pvt Ltd that were awarded the contract to import 50,000 metric tons of urea in last April failed to import the fertilisers. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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			'description' => '',
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			'image' => '20210302022312_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-02 14:22:22',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13111',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '‘Upcoming Budget will Focus on Minimizing Damages Caused by Covid-19’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. Speaking at a pre-budget discussion program organized by the Nepal Revenue Advisory Committee in Biratnagar on March 1, Secretary Dhungana informed that the upcoming fiscal year&rsquo;s budget will focus on reviving the economy affected by Covid-19.<br />
He also informed that the main objective of the budget would be to increase government investments and create employment opportunities. Stating that the government will move forward with the concept of 3Rs - relief, recovery, and relevance- to improve the economy, he added that all economic indicators except the country&#39;s gross domestic product (GDP) are positive.<br />
Finance Secretary Dhungana said that the statistics department is preparing to release the GDP data by the end of the second quarter.<br />
Stating that Nepal will set its economic growth target based on the economic growth rate of China and India, he added that Covid-19 is likely to affect the inflow of foreign aid, and the country needs to increase its sources of revenue collection to meet the growth rate target.<br />
He said that the government will take internal loans as per the international standard and norms. He added that discussions being held with the private sector regarding the complaints of the tax rates.<br />
Dhungana further said that some importers ordering raw material and others ordering finished product has created confusion. He said that the issue should be resolved by the private sector itself.<br />
Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning of Province 1 Uttar Kumar Khatri expressed the need for better revenue collection from riverine and forest products. He opined the need for re-evaluating the real estate registration tax and imposing tax on inheritance.</span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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			'description' => '',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-02 13:09:42',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13110',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'INNJA Felicitates Journalists on its Third Anniversary',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Tamish Giri</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.<br />
The association awarded outstanding journalists on the basis of their work in three categories-literature, investigative journalism, community journalism. The awards were given for the news reports and literature works published in 2020.<br />
INNJA felicitated Rajendra Prajuli with the Literature Award during a function organised at Nepal Tourism Board, Kathmandu. Prajuli bagged the award for the best literature writer for 2020 for his book &lsquo;Koteshwor ko Ketole&rsquo;. He received a cheque of Rs 100,000 and a certificate.<br />
Likewise, &nbsp;Sushil Panta of Lokaantra.com and Topendra Karki of Kantipur News were awarded the best investigative news reporter awards for 2020. Panta&#39;s news report on Members of Parliament and its secretary receiving allowance despite the pandemic and Karki&#39;s investigative report on mismanagement in Nepal Police&#39;s procurement process received the best investigative journalism report awards for 2020.<br />
Both Panta and Karki were honored with a certificate and cheque of Rs 100,000 each.<br />
Likewise, INNJA felicitated Basanta Pratap Singh, Kantipur&rsquo;s correspondent for Bajhang district; Nira Gautam, RSS correspondent for Butwal; and Mandira Thapa, Nepal Television&rsquo;s correspondent for Dolakha, under the Community Journalism Award category.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">&ldquo;This kind of award encourages us to contribute more to the field of journalism,&rdquo; said Gautam after receiving the award.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Singh&#39;s report on cataracts cases in Bajhang, Gautam&#39;s news report on abortion, and Thapa&#39;s news report on rape cases in Dolakha during the pandemic were declared the best community reporting for 2020. They received a cheque of Rs 100,000 each along with a certificate.<br />
Likewise, INNJA recognized Tribhuvan University&rsquo;s journalism academician Lal Singh Dhoj Rai for his long-term contribution to Nepali journalism.&nbsp; Rai received a cheque of Rs 61,111 and a letter of appreciation.<br />
INNJA also felicitated Gopal Budathoki, president of the Press Council of Nepal, and Bala Adhikari.<br />
INNJA, established on March 1, 2018, in Virginia, the USA has been helping Nepali journalists and promoting Nepali journalism. Earlier, the association had provided fellowship to 80 journalists who were affected by Covid-19.</span></span></p>
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			'image' => '20210301081321_INNJA 2.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 19:15:37',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13108',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Private Sector Reluctant to Import Covid-19 Vaccine',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the private sector has not shown any interest to import the vaccine. The government had amended the law through an ordinance in the first week of November last year to pave the way for private companies to register with the Department of Drug Administration and import vaccines.<br />
The authorised distributor of the Indian company Serum Institute for Nepal was registered with the Department after the government allowed import of Covid-19 vaccine. The Serum Institute is producing Covishield vaccines developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca.<br />
The Ministry of Health and Population introduced the same vaccine in Nepal after receiving grant from the Indian government.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">The Department of Drug Administration informed that despite the registration, Serum Institute&rsquo;s distributor for Nepal of Hukam Distributors and Logistics Pvt Pvt Ltd has not placed any order and initiated any process for importing the vaccine. Similarly, the Chinese company SynoPharm was registered with the department after China decided to provide vaccines to Nepal, on a grant basis.<br />
The company was registered with the department on the initiative of the Chinese embassy. Besides, there are no other companies registered with the department. &quot;Two companies, one private and the other Chinese, have been registered,&quot; informed Santosh KC, information officer of the department.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Nepal received one million doses of vaccine on January 21 as grant from the Government of India. Similarly, the country bought a million doses of vaccine on February 21.<br />
Nepal so far has vaccinated health workers, security personnel, staff, journalists, and staff of diplomatic missions at the forefront of the campaign against Covid-19 and is preparing to vaccinate the general public from March 7.<br />
Pawan Acharya, general secretary of the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers, informed that the private sector was ready to import the vaccine but did not do it due to the lack of demand for vaccines in Nepal. He added that since the government is currently distributing the vaccines, there has been no demand for vaccines in Nepal.<br />
&quot;The private sector is ready to bring the vaccine, but we are not ready to take the risk as it requires huge investment and there is no demand in the country,&quot; he informed.<br />
He further added that the private sector will move ahead with the process of bringing vaccines if the demand for vaccines goes up.</span></span></p>
',
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			'created' => '2021-03-01',
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			'description' => '',
			'sortorder' => '12855',
			'image' => '20210301031220_covid-vaccine-750x400.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:11:02',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13109',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'DoTM Stops Printing Smart License Cards Except for Emergency Purpose',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. The department has stopped printing smart license cards for applications submitted after the month of Mangsir (mid-November).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has only 40,000 empty cards in stock. &ldquo;We have limited stock of empty cards so the process of printing smart licenses has stopped except for emergency purpose,&rdquo; said Loknath Bhusal, spokesperson for the DOTM. &ldquo;We are printing licenses for applications filed long ago and for emergency purposes only.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has already signed an agreement to purchase new stock of cards with the French company- Smart Card and Solutions. Three companies including those from Malaysia, India and France had sent applications in response to a tender announced by the department in the second week of Bhadra (August/September).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Malaysian Company Irish Bahard Corporation had submitted a proposal with the lowest bid of Rs 96.1 million while Madras Securities of India had proposed a bid of Rs 192.2 million. But the department awarded the French company with the project for Rs 140 million stating that the card produced by the Malaysian company was of low quality.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&nbsp;&ldquo;The French company was awarded the contract after analyzing the financial and technical proposals of the three companies. The proposal of the Malaysian company had six technical irregularities,&rdquo; said Bhusal.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department started distributing smart license card from December 2015. It has already printed two million smart license cards so far.</span></span></p>
',
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			'created' => '2021-03-01',
			'modified' => '2021-03-01',
			'keywords' => '',
			'description' => '',
			'sortorder' => '12854',
			'image' => '20210301033304_1614549604.Clipboard01.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:32:21',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13107',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Sugar Mills yet to Clear Farmers' Dues ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. The government had reached a understanding with the farmers in this regard and an agreement was signed on December 28, 2020. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">At present, the sugarcane farmers are protesting by organising hunger strike while working in the fields. &ldquo;The industrialists have not paid the dues yet. Therefore, as a protest, we are now working in the fields by having only one meal a day. We are in a situation where we have to hold hunger strike to get the value of our harvest,&rdquo; said Hari Shyam Raya, secretary of the Sugarcane Farmers&rsquo; Struggle Committee, Sarlahi. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to him, out of the total payment of Rs 900 million, only Rs 570 million has been deposited into the farmers&rsquo; account by the defaulting sugar mills while they are yet to pay Rs 330 million. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">On the contrary, the government has stated that the data provided by the industrialists to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), show that they owe Rs 650 million in total to the farmers and Rs 570 million has already been paid. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Urmila KC, deputy spokesperson of the ministry, said that all the dues of the farmers have been paid except those who do not have bank accounts and have been out of contact. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Regarding the controversy surrounding the total dues, the ministry said that it can be ascertained whether the sugar mills owe Rs 900 million or Rs 650 million only after receiving the report of the Joint Technical Committee comprising the representatives of MoICS, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, Sugar Producers Association, and sugarcane farmers. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to the Ministry, the committee is currently undertaking its work and it will take another two months to prepare the report. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Raya has been saying that the problem in calculation has arisen as Mahalaxmi and Annapurna Sugar Mills reduce five to 20 kg weight per quintal saying that the quality of sugarcane is not good. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">As per him, it won&rsquo;t be a problem had they reduced 1kg weight per quintal of sugarcane. These two industries have made bills of 90 kg per quintal and 80 kg per quintal for farmers. Although they had raised this issue at that time, Raya complains that the industrialists did not listen to them. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13106',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Central Bank Warns of Action against Banks that Cross the Limit of Spread Rate',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has made it clear that banks cannot charge spread rate of more than 4.4 percent under the existing rule. However, NRB noted that some banks have been disregarding this provision and has warned them of taking action as per the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">It has been learnt that the central bank took such decision after considering the fact that banks crossing the limit of spread rate would cause extra burden on rate of interest on loan.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Issuing a circular on Sunday (February 28), the central bank instructed all banks to adjust the excessive spread rate within the same quarter in which it has crossed the limit fixed by NRB.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&ldquo;The board members and CEO of the institution which crosses the spread rate limit shall be charged in accordance to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058,&rdquo; reads the circular.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has also instructed banks to spend a maximum of 5 percent of fund allocated under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to promote electronic transaction.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">NRB stated that such instruction was given to the banks realizing the need to create awareness among the people and to make banking transaction technology friendly.</span></span></span></span></p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 12:14:38',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13105',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '     Online Service for Business Promotion    ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.     ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">At an orientation on &#39;Nepal Trade Information Portal&#39; organized by Trade and Export Promotion Centre on Sunday, it was shared that the government has initiated a process to promote business and enterprises through online platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The centre&#39;s Director Surendranath Gogal informed that the government is opting to run a portal so as to facilitate export of goods produced in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The portal containing the information about domestic production would also provide data about annual trade deficit, he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&quot;Those willing to promote their business online are allowed to post information about their 10 products in the portal free of cost,&quot; he added. -- RSS&nbsp; </span></span></span></p>
',
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			'image' => '20210301110031_My Effect.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 10:59:51',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13104',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Prominent businessman, Immediate Past President of NICCI Saurya SJB Rana dies ',
			'sub_title' => 'Private sector mourns loss of a 'good' entrepreneur of the country',
			'summary' => 'Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.',
			'content' => '<p>FEBRUARY 28: Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.</p>

<p>Rana, also the Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (NICCI), breathed his last today while undergoing treatment at Nepal Mediciti hospital in Lalitpur.</p>

<p>He was 65.</p>

<p>NICCI&rsquo;s President Shreejana Rana told <em>New Business Age</em> that Saurya SJB Rana died today due to post surgery complications from the heart bypass surgery performed last Thursday.</p>

<p>He is the President of Tara Management Pvt Ltd that has investments in various companies including Sipradi Companies, Bhote Koshi Power Company Pvt Ltd and joint venture cigarette manufacturer Surya Nepal Private Ltd, among others.</p>

<p>Rana was also the president of Nepal Automobiles Dealers Association.</p>

<p>His last rites are being performed at Pashupati Aryaghat.</p>

<p>Business leaders paid their last tribute to the late businessman Saurya SJB Rana at Pashupati.</p>

<p>Hari Bhakta Sharma, former President at Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), said that the death of Rana is a loss of a good entrepreneur for the country.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I am very sad to hear about the death of Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries Saurya SJB Rana,&rdquo; wrote Sharma in his Facebook post. &ldquo;The country has lost a good entrepreneur,&rdquo; said Sharma in his condolence message.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13118',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'RDI Files Tax Evasion Cases against 1,000 Defaulters',
			'sub_title' => 'Fiscal Crimes of Over Rs 47 Billion Busted in the Past 2 Years ',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department  (RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.    ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department &nbsp;(RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&nbsp;In the past two years, the Department has lodges cases against 1,000 defaulters and companies for their involvement in tax evasion cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Those individuals and companies, some of them being renowned ones as well, were alleged to commit financial crimes by dodging taxes worth over Rs 47 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department that has been tasked to look into revenue leakages investigation and controlling economic crimes, has been brought under the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for a year now. It, however, started its operation in full-fledge since last August.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department&#39;s director general Dirgharaj Mainali said, &quot;We had probed into the risk-prone areas where economic transaction were conducted in high volume. We busted economic crimes in a greater scale. Many of the defaulters were facing case in the court while some were still being investigated.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Mainali opined that the identification of the tax evaders, some of them being the multinational companies, could be considered one of the achievements of the Department.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Among the notorious criminal activities investigated by the Department include setting up new companies in the name of strangers by misusing their citizenship identity card and printing fake VAT bills and producing counterfeit government documents among others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The gangs found to be using fake VAT and PAN bills, selling and buying fake invoices, registering the company by using forged documents, evading tax in foreign employment, involved in hundi business and misappropriating the foreign currencies have also been facing cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Cases of tax evasion amounting to around one billion rupees by using fake invoices have been filed against 13 people including Subodh Sah of Balara Municipality-7 in Sarlahi district in January this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department in course of investigation had found that they had evaded tax by operating bank account of 11 different firms. The Department last year had filed case against Barun Beverage on the charge of using fake bills.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has demanded double fine and three years of imprisonment to them as the company had evaded tax of Rs 649.6 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Similarly, a case has been filed against three persons including main traders of Baba Flour Mill and Gopal Flour Mill at Biratnagar Metropolitan City-9, Suresh Kumar Rathi, at High Court, Patan, on February 28 this year on the charge of evading Rs 153.6 million tax.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, a tax evasion case has been filed against Jay Kishor Sah and Parameshwor Sah who were found to have used fake invoices after establishing 24 firms.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">These were the glaring examples of economic crimes exposed in the past two years. The Department registered 221 cases (except related to foreign exchange misappropriation) of economic crimes. A total of 779 people including 11 government employees have been identified as the accused in the above mentioned cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">They have been accused of committing finical crime worth Rs 36.35 billion. The list of accused include 126 firms which are alleged of issuing fake and duplicate invoices to avoid tax and 52 firms which had purchased duplicate invoices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department achieved a success in noticing such offenses as it has developed and used a software to deal with the transactions. Mainali claimed the Department&rsquo;s increased promptness has contributed to the control of revenue leakage and voluntary participation in the tax system.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">440 face action for dollar misappropriation&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to the Department, so far 440 people faced charge-sheet for the alleged financial crime. They have been accused of misappropriating worth Rs 10.72 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has sought to fine three-fold of the amount of misappropriation and a three-year jail term against them. It is said it has caused a positive impact on revenue mobilization and income through remittance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department, in a bid to systematize the information system, has implemented the mandatory provision for entering the import and export of goods in the system before the transport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13117',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '10 megawatts of Solar Power Added to Nat'l Grid',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The country's largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The country&#39;s largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to RSS, the project with capacity of 25-megawatt plant had produced 1.25 megawatt power some eight months ago. Chief of the project Bikash Raghubansi reportedly informed that 8.75 megawatt of solar power was generated recently and was linked to the national power grid after a successful test transmission. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Of the seven blocks of the project, power is now generated from two of the solar panels and is connected to the national transmission line through the national grid of Devighat Hydropower Centre, RSS further reported.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project said that five more megawatts of solar power would be generated within some days.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">For the power generation, construction works are moving ahead smoothly including installation of panels and clearing the site.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, Project Chief Raghubansi has committed to completing the entire project in coming six months.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project is being developed with the joint investment of Government of Nepal and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Likewise, the project has received $ 30.8 million in loan assistance from the World Bank under the Grid Solar and Energy Efficiency Programme. </span></span></span></p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-03 09:24:56',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13116',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. The state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) hiked the prices of petroleum products effective from Monday midnight (March 2). </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">With the price adjustment, petrol, diesel and kerosene each will now cost Rs 2 more per litre. Similarly, NOC has increased the price of Aviation Trubine Fuel (ATF) by Rs 5 per litre for domestic flights and by US$ 25 per kilolitres for international flights. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">The price of cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) remains unchanged at Rs 1400 per cylinder.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">After the increase in price, petrol will now cost Rs 116 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 99 per litre. Likewise, ATF for domestic flights has been fixed at Rs 72 per litre while the fuel for international flights will cost US$ 893 per kiloliter.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">NOC stated that it still has to bear loss despite increasing the price. This is the second time NOC has increased the price of petroleum products since February 11.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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			'id' => '13115',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NTB Felicitates Chef Santosh Shah',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.<br />
Tourism Secretary Yadav Prasad Koirala, NTB CEO Dhananjay Regmi, Shreejana Rana, president of Hotel Association of Nepal, and Mani Lamichhane, director of NTB, felicitated Shah for his achievement in the global cookery arena and for promoting Nepali culture and ethnicity through his dishes abroad.<br />
Chef Shah , born in 1985 in Karjana, Siraha, was the finalist of the BBC&rsquo;s cookery show - Master Chef &nbsp;UK.<br />
Shah arrived in Nepal upon a special request and initiation of the Pacific Asia Tour Association Nepal Chapter.<br />
Lamichhane informed that Shah&#39;s stardom will help Nepal to promote its dishes globally. &quot;Currently, Shah has helped Nepal to promote gastronomy as an additional tourism product and brand the rich ethnicity of the country,&quot; Lamichhane informed. &nbsp;<br />
Likewise, Regmi, during a presentation titled Globalization of Heritage Cuisine of Nepal-Prospects and Opportunities of Gastronomy Tourism in Nepal, informed that NTB will collaborate with Shah to promote Nepali gastronomy.<br />
NTB under the coordination of Karna Shakya, a veteran tourism entrepreneur, had conducted a gastronomy promotion campaign back in 2018 to promote various 200 original dishes of the country.<br />
Similarly, Shah addressing the event, said that Master Chef UK has helped him to promote Nepali food through his signature dishes. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">&quot;I highlighted the rich culture of our country through my dishes in Master Chef. We have underestimated the value of our cuisine and ingredients, we need to brand and promote them. Through Master Chef, I have made an initiative to register the trademark of some ingredients,&quot; Shah informed.<br />
Shah also stressed the issues hindering the promotion of Nepali cuisine.&nbsp; &quot;Foreigners have a checklist regarding the issues related to food hygiene, I requested the concerned authority to work on it,&quot; he informed.<br />
Shah is currently working on his recipe book and is coming up with some restaurant projects. &quot;I am preparing to launch five signature Nepali dishes in the world map, it will help me to brand the rich gastronomy of the country,&quot; he informed.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13114',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Tourist Arrival Increases Marginally in February',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri<br />
March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month, according to the data released by the Department of Immigration.<br />
In February, a total of&nbsp;9,146 foreigners arrived in Nepal by air through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), compared to 8,874 foreign nationals in January.<br />
Among the visitors, 6,151 were male, 2,983 were female, while 12 were of the other sex.<br />
Country-wise, India was the prime tourist market for Nepal.&nbsp; In total, 3322 Indian tourists landed at TIA in February, up from 2,865 in January.<br />
Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Nepal has declined in February. However, the number of American tourists has increased.<br />
According to the report, only 613 Chinese nationals landed at TIA in February, down from 1,666 in January. The number of US nationals arriving in Nepal grew slightly from 524 in January to 721 in February. &nbsp;<br />
According to the report, foreigners from 123 nations arrived in Nepal in February compared to 122 in January.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise, the number of Nepali nationals returning home has also grown marginally in February. A total of 46,471 Nepali nationals landed in Kathmandu in February, up from 46,384 a month ago.<br />
In total, 44,152 Nepalis left for abroad in February, down from 47,238 in January.<br />
According to the data, two refugees landed at TIA in February. In January, no refuges had landed at TIA. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13113',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'SC yet to Rule on Case Related to Printing of Excise Duty Stickers ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had sought applications from international companies on October 15 last year. But the Supreme Court issued an interim order to halt the tender process in response to a writ petition filed by Manohar Raj Ghimire of Mirage Printing Company. International companies from France and Italy had submitted proposals the department is yet to evaluate their proposals.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Shiwadevi Dahal, deputy director general of Department of Revenue Investigation, said it has been difficult to meet the demand of excise duty stickers due to the short supply. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&ldquo;We have received applications from interested companies but their evaluation process has been halted as the case is pending in the court,&rdquo; said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">To meet the current demand of excise duty stickers, Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC) has been printing twelve kinds of stickers. Previously, the IRD had been printing 43 kinds of stickers through foreign companies. The limited number of stickers is insufficient to meet the huge demand, said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">One of the high-ranking officials of Janak Education Material Centre said, &ldquo;We have been assigned to print 700 million stickers. But we print stickers only on a specific day when the department specifies the volume to be printed.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had filed a case against SC asking to vacate its interim order in last October. The department had filed for a vacate order stating that the domestic printing companies are vulnerable in terms of security but the SC has not issued a fresh order in this regard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Dahal said that the department had opened global tender only after reaching a conclusion that domestic printing companies were not capable of printing the stickers as per the required standard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">According to officials of the IRD, it has been issuing global tender from 2005 to print the excise duty stickers. The task of printing stickers is more sensitive that printing bank notes. Domestic companies can&rsquo;t provide that level of security features, so global tender is a must, say the officials.</span></span></p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13112',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Fertiliser from Bangladesh to Arrive within a Week ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week. Out of 50,000 metric tons of urea, 22,500 metric tons have already arrived at the Kolkata Port. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Workers are now unloading the goods that have arrived at the Kolkata Port. According to Bishnu Pokharel, spokesperson of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL), the goods will reach Birgunj in about a week after the loading is completed in the next three to four days. He said that they would be sent to Biratnagar and Bhairahawa for distribution from Birgunj. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The fertilizer will be transported to Nepal by Gentrade FZF in three phases.</span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">A total of 22,500 metric tons of urea have been imported in the first phase. Similarly, in the second phase, 10,000 metric tons of urea will be brought in the country. Likewise, the company said that 17,500 metric tons of urea will arrive in March 15 in the third phase. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The agreement between AICL and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation to purchase urea through the G2G process was signed on December 17 after Shailung Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Honiko Multiple Pvt Ltd that were awarded the contract to import 50,000 metric tons of urea in last April failed to import the fertilisers. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13111',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '‘Upcoming Budget will Focus on Minimizing Damages Caused by Covid-19’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. Speaking at a pre-budget discussion program organized by the Nepal Revenue Advisory Committee in Biratnagar on March 1, Secretary Dhungana informed that the upcoming fiscal year&rsquo;s budget will focus on reviving the economy affected by Covid-19.<br />
He also informed that the main objective of the budget would be to increase government investments and create employment opportunities. Stating that the government will move forward with the concept of 3Rs - relief, recovery, and relevance- to improve the economy, he added that all economic indicators except the country&#39;s gross domestic product (GDP) are positive.<br />
Finance Secretary Dhungana said that the statistics department is preparing to release the GDP data by the end of the second quarter.<br />
Stating that Nepal will set its economic growth target based on the economic growth rate of China and India, he added that Covid-19 is likely to affect the inflow of foreign aid, and the country needs to increase its sources of revenue collection to meet the growth rate target.<br />
He said that the government will take internal loans as per the international standard and norms. He added that discussions being held with the private sector regarding the complaints of the tax rates.<br />
Dhungana further said that some importers ordering raw material and others ordering finished product has created confusion. He said that the issue should be resolved by the private sector itself.<br />
Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning of Province 1 Uttar Kumar Khatri expressed the need for better revenue collection from riverine and forest products. He opined the need for re-evaluating the real estate registration tax and imposing tax on inheritance.</span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-02 13:09:42',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13110',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'INNJA Felicitates Journalists on its Third Anniversary',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Tamish Giri</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.<br />
The association awarded outstanding journalists on the basis of their work in three categories-literature, investigative journalism, community journalism. The awards were given for the news reports and literature works published in 2020.<br />
INNJA felicitated Rajendra Prajuli with the Literature Award during a function organised at Nepal Tourism Board, Kathmandu. Prajuli bagged the award for the best literature writer for 2020 for his book &lsquo;Koteshwor ko Ketole&rsquo;. He received a cheque of Rs 100,000 and a certificate.<br />
Likewise, &nbsp;Sushil Panta of Lokaantra.com and Topendra Karki of Kantipur News were awarded the best investigative news reporter awards for 2020. Panta&#39;s news report on Members of Parliament and its secretary receiving allowance despite the pandemic and Karki&#39;s investigative report on mismanagement in Nepal Police&#39;s procurement process received the best investigative journalism report awards for 2020.<br />
Both Panta and Karki were honored with a certificate and cheque of Rs 100,000 each.<br />
Likewise, INNJA felicitated Basanta Pratap Singh, Kantipur&rsquo;s correspondent for Bajhang district; Nira Gautam, RSS correspondent for Butwal; and Mandira Thapa, Nepal Television&rsquo;s correspondent for Dolakha, under the Community Journalism Award category.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">&ldquo;This kind of award encourages us to contribute more to the field of journalism,&rdquo; said Gautam after receiving the award.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Singh&#39;s report on cataracts cases in Bajhang, Gautam&#39;s news report on abortion, and Thapa&#39;s news report on rape cases in Dolakha during the pandemic were declared the best community reporting for 2020. They received a cheque of Rs 100,000 each along with a certificate.<br />
Likewise, INNJA recognized Tribhuvan University&rsquo;s journalism academician Lal Singh Dhoj Rai for his long-term contribution to Nepali journalism.&nbsp; Rai received a cheque of Rs 61,111 and a letter of appreciation.<br />
INNJA also felicitated Gopal Budathoki, president of the Press Council of Nepal, and Bala Adhikari.<br />
INNJA, established on March 1, 2018, in Virginia, the USA has been helping Nepali journalists and promoting Nepali journalism. Earlier, the association had provided fellowship to 80 journalists who were affected by Covid-19.</span></span></p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 19:15:37',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13108',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Private Sector Reluctant to Import Covid-19 Vaccine',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the private sector has not shown any interest to import the vaccine. The government had amended the law through an ordinance in the first week of November last year to pave the way for private companies to register with the Department of Drug Administration and import vaccines.<br />
The authorised distributor of the Indian company Serum Institute for Nepal was registered with the Department after the government allowed import of Covid-19 vaccine. The Serum Institute is producing Covishield vaccines developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca.<br />
The Ministry of Health and Population introduced the same vaccine in Nepal after receiving grant from the Indian government.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">The Department of Drug Administration informed that despite the registration, Serum Institute&rsquo;s distributor for Nepal of Hukam Distributors and Logistics Pvt Pvt Ltd has not placed any order and initiated any process for importing the vaccine. Similarly, the Chinese company SynoPharm was registered with the department after China decided to provide vaccines to Nepal, on a grant basis.<br />
The company was registered with the department on the initiative of the Chinese embassy. Besides, there are no other companies registered with the department. &quot;Two companies, one private and the other Chinese, have been registered,&quot; informed Santosh KC, information officer of the department.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Nepal received one million doses of vaccine on January 21 as grant from the Government of India. Similarly, the country bought a million doses of vaccine on February 21.<br />
Nepal so far has vaccinated health workers, security personnel, staff, journalists, and staff of diplomatic missions at the forefront of the campaign against Covid-19 and is preparing to vaccinate the general public from March 7.<br />
Pawan Acharya, general secretary of the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers, informed that the private sector was ready to import the vaccine but did not do it due to the lack of demand for vaccines in Nepal. He added that since the government is currently distributing the vaccines, there has been no demand for vaccines in Nepal.<br />
&quot;The private sector is ready to bring the vaccine, but we are not ready to take the risk as it requires huge investment and there is no demand in the country,&quot; he informed.<br />
He further added that the private sector will move ahead with the process of bringing vaccines if the demand for vaccines goes up.</span></span></p>
',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:11:02',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13109',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'DoTM Stops Printing Smart License Cards Except for Emergency Purpose',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. The department has stopped printing smart license cards for applications submitted after the month of Mangsir (mid-November).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has only 40,000 empty cards in stock. &ldquo;We have limited stock of empty cards so the process of printing smart licenses has stopped except for emergency purpose,&rdquo; said Loknath Bhusal, spokesperson for the DOTM. &ldquo;We are printing licenses for applications filed long ago and for emergency purposes only.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has already signed an agreement to purchase new stock of cards with the French company- Smart Card and Solutions. Three companies including those from Malaysia, India and France had sent applications in response to a tender announced by the department in the second week of Bhadra (August/September).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Malaysian Company Irish Bahard Corporation had submitted a proposal with the lowest bid of Rs 96.1 million while Madras Securities of India had proposed a bid of Rs 192.2 million. But the department awarded the French company with the project for Rs 140 million stating that the card produced by the Malaysian company was of low quality.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&nbsp;&ldquo;The French company was awarded the contract after analyzing the financial and technical proposals of the three companies. The proposal of the Malaysian company had six technical irregularities,&rdquo; said Bhusal.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department started distributing smart license card from December 2015. It has already printed two million smart license cards so far.</span></span></p>
',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:32:21',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13107',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Sugar Mills yet to Clear Farmers' Dues ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. The government had reached a understanding with the farmers in this regard and an agreement was signed on December 28, 2020. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">At present, the sugarcane farmers are protesting by organising hunger strike while working in the fields. &ldquo;The industrialists have not paid the dues yet. Therefore, as a protest, we are now working in the fields by having only one meal a day. We are in a situation where we have to hold hunger strike to get the value of our harvest,&rdquo; said Hari Shyam Raya, secretary of the Sugarcane Farmers&rsquo; Struggle Committee, Sarlahi. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to him, out of the total payment of Rs 900 million, only Rs 570 million has been deposited into the farmers&rsquo; account by the defaulting sugar mills while they are yet to pay Rs 330 million. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">On the contrary, the government has stated that the data provided by the industrialists to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), show that they owe Rs 650 million in total to the farmers and Rs 570 million has already been paid. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Urmila KC, deputy spokesperson of the ministry, said that all the dues of the farmers have been paid except those who do not have bank accounts and have been out of contact. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Regarding the controversy surrounding the total dues, the ministry said that it can be ascertained whether the sugar mills owe Rs 900 million or Rs 650 million only after receiving the report of the Joint Technical Committee comprising the representatives of MoICS, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, Sugar Producers Association, and sugarcane farmers. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to the Ministry, the committee is currently undertaking its work and it will take another two months to prepare the report. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Raya has been saying that the problem in calculation has arisen as Mahalaxmi and Annapurna Sugar Mills reduce five to 20 kg weight per quintal saying that the quality of sugarcane is not good. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">As per him, it won&rsquo;t be a problem had they reduced 1kg weight per quintal of sugarcane. These two industries have made bills of 90 kg per quintal and 80 kg per quintal for farmers. Although they had raised this issue at that time, Raya complains that the industrialists did not listen to them. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13106',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Central Bank Warns of Action against Banks that Cross the Limit of Spread Rate',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has made it clear that banks cannot charge spread rate of more than 4.4 percent under the existing rule. However, NRB noted that some banks have been disregarding this provision and has warned them of taking action as per the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">It has been learnt that the central bank took such decision after considering the fact that banks crossing the limit of spread rate would cause extra burden on rate of interest on loan.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Issuing a circular on Sunday (February 28), the central bank instructed all banks to adjust the excessive spread rate within the same quarter in which it has crossed the limit fixed by NRB.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&ldquo;The board members and CEO of the institution which crosses the spread rate limit shall be charged in accordance to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058,&rdquo; reads the circular.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has also instructed banks to spend a maximum of 5 percent of fund allocated under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to promote electronic transaction.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">NRB stated that such instruction was given to the banks realizing the need to create awareness among the people and to make banking transaction technology friendly.</span></span></span></span></p>
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13105',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '     Online Service for Business Promotion    ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.     ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">At an orientation on &#39;Nepal Trade Information Portal&#39; organized by Trade and Export Promotion Centre on Sunday, it was shared that the government has initiated a process to promote business and enterprises through online platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The centre&#39;s Director Surendranath Gogal informed that the government is opting to run a portal so as to facilitate export of goods produced in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The portal containing the information about domestic production would also provide data about annual trade deficit, he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&quot;Those willing to promote their business online are allowed to post information about their 10 products in the portal free of cost,&quot; he added. -- RSS&nbsp; </span></span></span></p>
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			'image' => '20210301110031_My Effect.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 10:59:51',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13104',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Prominent businessman, Immediate Past President of NICCI Saurya SJB Rana dies ',
			'sub_title' => 'Private sector mourns loss of a 'good' entrepreneur of the country',
			'summary' => 'Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.',
			'content' => '<p>FEBRUARY 28: Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.</p>

<p>Rana, also the Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (NICCI), breathed his last today while undergoing treatment at Nepal Mediciti hospital in Lalitpur.</p>

<p>He was 65.</p>

<p>NICCI&rsquo;s President Shreejana Rana told <em>New Business Age</em> that Saurya SJB Rana died today due to post surgery complications from the heart bypass surgery performed last Thursday.</p>

<p>He is the President of Tara Management Pvt Ltd that has investments in various companies including Sipradi Companies, Bhote Koshi Power Company Pvt Ltd and joint venture cigarette manufacturer Surya Nepal Private Ltd, among others.</p>

<p>Rana was also the president of Nepal Automobiles Dealers Association.</p>

<p>His last rites are being performed at Pashupati Aryaghat.</p>

<p>Business leaders paid their last tribute to the late businessman Saurya SJB Rana at Pashupati.</p>

<p>Hari Bhakta Sharma, former President at Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), said that the death of Rana is a loss of a good entrepreneur for the country.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I am very sad to hear about the death of Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries Saurya SJB Rana,&rdquo; wrote Sharma in his Facebook post. &ldquo;The country has lost a good entrepreneur,&rdquo; said Sharma in his condolence message.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13118',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'RDI Files Tax Evasion Cases against 1,000 Defaulters',
			'sub_title' => 'Fiscal Crimes of Over Rs 47 Billion Busted in the Past 2 Years ',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department  (RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.    ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department &nbsp;(RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&nbsp;In the past two years, the Department has lodges cases against 1,000 defaulters and companies for their involvement in tax evasion cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Those individuals and companies, some of them being renowned ones as well, were alleged to commit financial crimes by dodging taxes worth over Rs 47 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department that has been tasked to look into revenue leakages investigation and controlling economic crimes, has been brought under the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for a year now. It, however, started its operation in full-fledge since last August.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department&#39;s director general Dirgharaj Mainali said, &quot;We had probed into the risk-prone areas where economic transaction were conducted in high volume. We busted economic crimes in a greater scale. Many of the defaulters were facing case in the court while some were still being investigated.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Mainali opined that the identification of the tax evaders, some of them being the multinational companies, could be considered one of the achievements of the Department.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Among the notorious criminal activities investigated by the Department include setting up new companies in the name of strangers by misusing their citizenship identity card and printing fake VAT bills and producing counterfeit government documents among others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The gangs found to be using fake VAT and PAN bills, selling and buying fake invoices, registering the company by using forged documents, evading tax in foreign employment, involved in hundi business and misappropriating the foreign currencies have also been facing cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Cases of tax evasion amounting to around one billion rupees by using fake invoices have been filed against 13 people including Subodh Sah of Balara Municipality-7 in Sarlahi district in January this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department in course of investigation had found that they had evaded tax by operating bank account of 11 different firms. The Department last year had filed case against Barun Beverage on the charge of using fake bills.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has demanded double fine and three years of imprisonment to them as the company had evaded tax of Rs 649.6 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Similarly, a case has been filed against three persons including main traders of Baba Flour Mill and Gopal Flour Mill at Biratnagar Metropolitan City-9, Suresh Kumar Rathi, at High Court, Patan, on February 28 this year on the charge of evading Rs 153.6 million tax.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, a tax evasion case has been filed against Jay Kishor Sah and Parameshwor Sah who were found to have used fake invoices after establishing 24 firms.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">These were the glaring examples of economic crimes exposed in the past two years. The Department registered 221 cases (except related to foreign exchange misappropriation) of economic crimes. A total of 779 people including 11 government employees have been identified as the accused in the above mentioned cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">They have been accused of committing finical crime worth Rs 36.35 billion. The list of accused include 126 firms which are alleged of issuing fake and duplicate invoices to avoid tax and 52 firms which had purchased duplicate invoices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department achieved a success in noticing such offenses as it has developed and used a software to deal with the transactions. Mainali claimed the Department&rsquo;s increased promptness has contributed to the control of revenue leakage and voluntary participation in the tax system.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">440 face action for dollar misappropriation&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to the Department, so far 440 people faced charge-sheet for the alleged financial crime. They have been accused of misappropriating worth Rs 10.72 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has sought to fine three-fold of the amount of misappropriation and a three-year jail term against them. It is said it has caused a positive impact on revenue mobilization and income through remittance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department, in a bid to systematize the information system, has implemented the mandatory provision for entering the import and export of goods in the system before the transport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13117',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '10 megawatts of Solar Power Added to Nat'l Grid',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The country's largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The country&#39;s largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to RSS, the project with capacity of 25-megawatt plant had produced 1.25 megawatt power some eight months ago. Chief of the project Bikash Raghubansi reportedly informed that 8.75 megawatt of solar power was generated recently and was linked to the national power grid after a successful test transmission. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Of the seven blocks of the project, power is now generated from two of the solar panels and is connected to the national transmission line through the national grid of Devighat Hydropower Centre, RSS further reported.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project said that five more megawatts of solar power would be generated within some days.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">For the power generation, construction works are moving ahead smoothly including installation of panels and clearing the site.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, Project Chief Raghubansi has committed to completing the entire project in coming six months.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project is being developed with the joint investment of Government of Nepal and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Likewise, the project has received $ 30.8 million in loan assistance from the World Bank under the Grid Solar and Energy Efficiency Programme. </span></span></span></p>
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			'sortorder' => '12863',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-03 09:24:56',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13116',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. The state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) hiked the prices of petroleum products effective from Monday midnight (March 2). </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">With the price adjustment, petrol, diesel and kerosene each will now cost Rs 2 more per litre. Similarly, NOC has increased the price of Aviation Trubine Fuel (ATF) by Rs 5 per litre for domestic flights and by US$ 25 per kilolitres for international flights. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">The price of cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) remains unchanged at Rs 1400 per cylinder.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">After the increase in price, petrol will now cost Rs 116 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 99 per litre. Likewise, ATF for domestic flights has been fixed at Rs 72 per litre while the fuel for international flights will cost US$ 893 per kiloliter.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">NOC stated that it still has to bear loss despite increasing the price. This is the second time NOC has increased the price of petroleum products since February 11.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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			'id' => '13115',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NTB Felicitates Chef Santosh Shah',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.<br />
Tourism Secretary Yadav Prasad Koirala, NTB CEO Dhananjay Regmi, Shreejana Rana, president of Hotel Association of Nepal, and Mani Lamichhane, director of NTB, felicitated Shah for his achievement in the global cookery arena and for promoting Nepali culture and ethnicity through his dishes abroad.<br />
Chef Shah , born in 1985 in Karjana, Siraha, was the finalist of the BBC&rsquo;s cookery show - Master Chef &nbsp;UK.<br />
Shah arrived in Nepal upon a special request and initiation of the Pacific Asia Tour Association Nepal Chapter.<br />
Lamichhane informed that Shah&#39;s stardom will help Nepal to promote its dishes globally. &quot;Currently, Shah has helped Nepal to promote gastronomy as an additional tourism product and brand the rich ethnicity of the country,&quot; Lamichhane informed. &nbsp;<br />
Likewise, Regmi, during a presentation titled Globalization of Heritage Cuisine of Nepal-Prospects and Opportunities of Gastronomy Tourism in Nepal, informed that NTB will collaborate with Shah to promote Nepali gastronomy.<br />
NTB under the coordination of Karna Shakya, a veteran tourism entrepreneur, had conducted a gastronomy promotion campaign back in 2018 to promote various 200 original dishes of the country.<br />
Similarly, Shah addressing the event, said that Master Chef UK has helped him to promote Nepali food through his signature dishes. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">&quot;I highlighted the rich culture of our country through my dishes in Master Chef. We have underestimated the value of our cuisine and ingredients, we need to brand and promote them. Through Master Chef, I have made an initiative to register the trademark of some ingredients,&quot; Shah informed.<br />
Shah also stressed the issues hindering the promotion of Nepali cuisine.&nbsp; &quot;Foreigners have a checklist regarding the issues related to food hygiene, I requested the concerned authority to work on it,&quot; he informed.<br />
Shah is currently working on his recipe book and is coming up with some restaurant projects. &quot;I am preparing to launch five signature Nepali dishes in the world map, it will help me to brand the rich gastronomy of the country,&quot; he informed.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13114',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Tourist Arrival Increases Marginally in February',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri<br />
March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month, according to the data released by the Department of Immigration.<br />
In February, a total of&nbsp;9,146 foreigners arrived in Nepal by air through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), compared to 8,874 foreign nationals in January.<br />
Among the visitors, 6,151 were male, 2,983 were female, while 12 were of the other sex.<br />
Country-wise, India was the prime tourist market for Nepal.&nbsp; In total, 3322 Indian tourists landed at TIA in February, up from 2,865 in January.<br />
Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Nepal has declined in February. However, the number of American tourists has increased.<br />
According to the report, only 613 Chinese nationals landed at TIA in February, down from 1,666 in January. The number of US nationals arriving in Nepal grew slightly from 524 in January to 721 in February. &nbsp;<br />
According to the report, foreigners from 123 nations arrived in Nepal in February compared to 122 in January.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise, the number of Nepali nationals returning home has also grown marginally in February. A total of 46,471 Nepali nationals landed in Kathmandu in February, up from 46,384 a month ago.<br />
In total, 44,152 Nepalis left for abroad in February, down from 47,238 in January.<br />
According to the data, two refugees landed at TIA in February. In January, no refuges had landed at TIA. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13113',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'SC yet to Rule on Case Related to Printing of Excise Duty Stickers ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had sought applications from international companies on October 15 last year. But the Supreme Court issued an interim order to halt the tender process in response to a writ petition filed by Manohar Raj Ghimire of Mirage Printing Company. International companies from France and Italy had submitted proposals the department is yet to evaluate their proposals.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Shiwadevi Dahal, deputy director general of Department of Revenue Investigation, said it has been difficult to meet the demand of excise duty stickers due to the short supply. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&ldquo;We have received applications from interested companies but their evaluation process has been halted as the case is pending in the court,&rdquo; said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">To meet the current demand of excise duty stickers, Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC) has been printing twelve kinds of stickers. Previously, the IRD had been printing 43 kinds of stickers through foreign companies. The limited number of stickers is insufficient to meet the huge demand, said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">One of the high-ranking officials of Janak Education Material Centre said, &ldquo;We have been assigned to print 700 million stickers. But we print stickers only on a specific day when the department specifies the volume to be printed.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had filed a case against SC asking to vacate its interim order in last October. The department had filed for a vacate order stating that the domestic printing companies are vulnerable in terms of security but the SC has not issued a fresh order in this regard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Dahal said that the department had opened global tender only after reaching a conclusion that domestic printing companies were not capable of printing the stickers as per the required standard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">According to officials of the IRD, it has been issuing global tender from 2005 to print the excise duty stickers. The task of printing stickers is more sensitive that printing bank notes. Domestic companies can&rsquo;t provide that level of security features, so global tender is a must, say the officials.</span></span></p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13112',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Fertiliser from Bangladesh to Arrive within a Week ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week. Out of 50,000 metric tons of urea, 22,500 metric tons have already arrived at the Kolkata Port. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Workers are now unloading the goods that have arrived at the Kolkata Port. According to Bishnu Pokharel, spokesperson of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL), the goods will reach Birgunj in about a week after the loading is completed in the next three to four days. He said that they would be sent to Biratnagar and Bhairahawa for distribution from Birgunj. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The fertilizer will be transported to Nepal by Gentrade FZF in three phases.</span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">A total of 22,500 metric tons of urea have been imported in the first phase. Similarly, in the second phase, 10,000 metric tons of urea will be brought in the country. Likewise, the company said that 17,500 metric tons of urea will arrive in March 15 in the third phase. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The agreement between AICL and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation to purchase urea through the G2G process was signed on December 17 after Shailung Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Honiko Multiple Pvt Ltd that were awarded the contract to import 50,000 metric tons of urea in last April failed to import the fertilisers. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13111',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '‘Upcoming Budget will Focus on Minimizing Damages Caused by Covid-19’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. Speaking at a pre-budget discussion program organized by the Nepal Revenue Advisory Committee in Biratnagar on March 1, Secretary Dhungana informed that the upcoming fiscal year&rsquo;s budget will focus on reviving the economy affected by Covid-19.<br />
He also informed that the main objective of the budget would be to increase government investments and create employment opportunities. Stating that the government will move forward with the concept of 3Rs - relief, recovery, and relevance- to improve the economy, he added that all economic indicators except the country&#39;s gross domestic product (GDP) are positive.<br />
Finance Secretary Dhungana said that the statistics department is preparing to release the GDP data by the end of the second quarter.<br />
Stating that Nepal will set its economic growth target based on the economic growth rate of China and India, he added that Covid-19 is likely to affect the inflow of foreign aid, and the country needs to increase its sources of revenue collection to meet the growth rate target.<br />
He said that the government will take internal loans as per the international standard and norms. He added that discussions being held with the private sector regarding the complaints of the tax rates.<br />
Dhungana further said that some importers ordering raw material and others ordering finished product has created confusion. He said that the issue should be resolved by the private sector itself.<br />
Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning of Province 1 Uttar Kumar Khatri expressed the need for better revenue collection from riverine and forest products. He opined the need for re-evaluating the real estate registration tax and imposing tax on inheritance.</span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13110',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'INNJA Felicitates Journalists on its Third Anniversary',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Tamish Giri</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.<br />
The association awarded outstanding journalists on the basis of their work in three categories-literature, investigative journalism, community journalism. The awards were given for the news reports and literature works published in 2020.<br />
INNJA felicitated Rajendra Prajuli with the Literature Award during a function organised at Nepal Tourism Board, Kathmandu. Prajuli bagged the award for the best literature writer for 2020 for his book &lsquo;Koteshwor ko Ketole&rsquo;. He received a cheque of Rs 100,000 and a certificate.<br />
Likewise, &nbsp;Sushil Panta of Lokaantra.com and Topendra Karki of Kantipur News were awarded the best investigative news reporter awards for 2020. Panta&#39;s news report on Members of Parliament and its secretary receiving allowance despite the pandemic and Karki&#39;s investigative report on mismanagement in Nepal Police&#39;s procurement process received the best investigative journalism report awards for 2020.<br />
Both Panta and Karki were honored with a certificate and cheque of Rs 100,000 each.<br />
Likewise, INNJA felicitated Basanta Pratap Singh, Kantipur&rsquo;s correspondent for Bajhang district; Nira Gautam, RSS correspondent for Butwal; and Mandira Thapa, Nepal Television&rsquo;s correspondent for Dolakha, under the Community Journalism Award category.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">&ldquo;This kind of award encourages us to contribute more to the field of journalism,&rdquo; said Gautam after receiving the award.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Singh&#39;s report on cataracts cases in Bajhang, Gautam&#39;s news report on abortion, and Thapa&#39;s news report on rape cases in Dolakha during the pandemic were declared the best community reporting for 2020. They received a cheque of Rs 100,000 each along with a certificate.<br />
Likewise, INNJA recognized Tribhuvan University&rsquo;s journalism academician Lal Singh Dhoj Rai for his long-term contribution to Nepali journalism.&nbsp; Rai received a cheque of Rs 61,111 and a letter of appreciation.<br />
INNJA also felicitated Gopal Budathoki, president of the Press Council of Nepal, and Bala Adhikari.<br />
INNJA, established on March 1, 2018, in Virginia, the USA has been helping Nepali journalists and promoting Nepali journalism. Earlier, the association had provided fellowship to 80 journalists who were affected by Covid-19.</span></span></p>
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13108',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Private Sector Reluctant to Import Covid-19 Vaccine',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the private sector has not shown any interest to import the vaccine. The government had amended the law through an ordinance in the first week of November last year to pave the way for private companies to register with the Department of Drug Administration and import vaccines.<br />
The authorised distributor of the Indian company Serum Institute for Nepal was registered with the Department after the government allowed import of Covid-19 vaccine. The Serum Institute is producing Covishield vaccines developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca.<br />
The Ministry of Health and Population introduced the same vaccine in Nepal after receiving grant from the Indian government.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">The Department of Drug Administration informed that despite the registration, Serum Institute&rsquo;s distributor for Nepal of Hukam Distributors and Logistics Pvt Pvt Ltd has not placed any order and initiated any process for importing the vaccine. Similarly, the Chinese company SynoPharm was registered with the department after China decided to provide vaccines to Nepal, on a grant basis.<br />
The company was registered with the department on the initiative of the Chinese embassy. Besides, there are no other companies registered with the department. &quot;Two companies, one private and the other Chinese, have been registered,&quot; informed Santosh KC, information officer of the department.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Nepal received one million doses of vaccine on January 21 as grant from the Government of India. Similarly, the country bought a million doses of vaccine on February 21.<br />
Nepal so far has vaccinated health workers, security personnel, staff, journalists, and staff of diplomatic missions at the forefront of the campaign against Covid-19 and is preparing to vaccinate the general public from March 7.<br />
Pawan Acharya, general secretary of the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers, informed that the private sector was ready to import the vaccine but did not do it due to the lack of demand for vaccines in Nepal. He added that since the government is currently distributing the vaccines, there has been no demand for vaccines in Nepal.<br />
&quot;The private sector is ready to bring the vaccine, but we are not ready to take the risk as it requires huge investment and there is no demand in the country,&quot; he informed.<br />
He further added that the private sector will move ahead with the process of bringing vaccines if the demand for vaccines goes up.</span></span></p>
',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13109',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'DoTM Stops Printing Smart License Cards Except for Emergency Purpose',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. The department has stopped printing smart license cards for applications submitted after the month of Mangsir (mid-November).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has only 40,000 empty cards in stock. &ldquo;We have limited stock of empty cards so the process of printing smart licenses has stopped except for emergency purpose,&rdquo; said Loknath Bhusal, spokesperson for the DOTM. &ldquo;We are printing licenses for applications filed long ago and for emergency purposes only.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has already signed an agreement to purchase new stock of cards with the French company- Smart Card and Solutions. Three companies including those from Malaysia, India and France had sent applications in response to a tender announced by the department in the second week of Bhadra (August/September).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Malaysian Company Irish Bahard Corporation had submitted a proposal with the lowest bid of Rs 96.1 million while Madras Securities of India had proposed a bid of Rs 192.2 million. But the department awarded the French company with the project for Rs 140 million stating that the card produced by the Malaysian company was of low quality.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&nbsp;&ldquo;The French company was awarded the contract after analyzing the financial and technical proposals of the three companies. The proposal of the Malaysian company had six technical irregularities,&rdquo; said Bhusal.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department started distributing smart license card from December 2015. It has already printed two million smart license cards so far.</span></span></p>
',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:32:21',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13107',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Sugar Mills yet to Clear Farmers' Dues ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. The government had reached a understanding with the farmers in this regard and an agreement was signed on December 28, 2020. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">At present, the sugarcane farmers are protesting by organising hunger strike while working in the fields. &ldquo;The industrialists have not paid the dues yet. Therefore, as a protest, we are now working in the fields by having only one meal a day. We are in a situation where we have to hold hunger strike to get the value of our harvest,&rdquo; said Hari Shyam Raya, secretary of the Sugarcane Farmers&rsquo; Struggle Committee, Sarlahi. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to him, out of the total payment of Rs 900 million, only Rs 570 million has been deposited into the farmers&rsquo; account by the defaulting sugar mills while they are yet to pay Rs 330 million. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">On the contrary, the government has stated that the data provided by the industrialists to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), show that they owe Rs 650 million in total to the farmers and Rs 570 million has already been paid. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Urmila KC, deputy spokesperson of the ministry, said that all the dues of the farmers have been paid except those who do not have bank accounts and have been out of contact. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Regarding the controversy surrounding the total dues, the ministry said that it can be ascertained whether the sugar mills owe Rs 900 million or Rs 650 million only after receiving the report of the Joint Technical Committee comprising the representatives of MoICS, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, Sugar Producers Association, and sugarcane farmers. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to the Ministry, the committee is currently undertaking its work and it will take another two months to prepare the report. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Raya has been saying that the problem in calculation has arisen as Mahalaxmi and Annapurna Sugar Mills reduce five to 20 kg weight per quintal saying that the quality of sugarcane is not good. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">As per him, it won&rsquo;t be a problem had they reduced 1kg weight per quintal of sugarcane. These two industries have made bills of 90 kg per quintal and 80 kg per quintal for farmers. Although they had raised this issue at that time, Raya complains that the industrialists did not listen to them. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13106',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Central Bank Warns of Action against Banks that Cross the Limit of Spread Rate',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has made it clear that banks cannot charge spread rate of more than 4.4 percent under the existing rule. However, NRB noted that some banks have been disregarding this provision and has warned them of taking action as per the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">It has been learnt that the central bank took such decision after considering the fact that banks crossing the limit of spread rate would cause extra burden on rate of interest on loan.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Issuing a circular on Sunday (February 28), the central bank instructed all banks to adjust the excessive spread rate within the same quarter in which it has crossed the limit fixed by NRB.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&ldquo;The board members and CEO of the institution which crosses the spread rate limit shall be charged in accordance to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058,&rdquo; reads the circular.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has also instructed banks to spend a maximum of 5 percent of fund allocated under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to promote electronic transaction.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">NRB stated that such instruction was given to the banks realizing the need to create awareness among the people and to make banking transaction technology friendly.</span></span></span></span></p>
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13105',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '     Online Service for Business Promotion    ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.     ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">At an orientation on &#39;Nepal Trade Information Portal&#39; organized by Trade and Export Promotion Centre on Sunday, it was shared that the government has initiated a process to promote business and enterprises through online platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The centre&#39;s Director Surendranath Gogal informed that the government is opting to run a portal so as to facilitate export of goods produced in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The portal containing the information about domestic production would also provide data about annual trade deficit, he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&quot;Those willing to promote their business online are allowed to post information about their 10 products in the portal free of cost,&quot; he added. -- RSS&nbsp; </span></span></span></p>
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			'image' => '20210301110031_My Effect.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 10:59:51',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13104',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Prominent businessman, Immediate Past President of NICCI Saurya SJB Rana dies ',
			'sub_title' => 'Private sector mourns loss of a 'good' entrepreneur of the country',
			'summary' => 'Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.',
			'content' => '<p>FEBRUARY 28: Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.</p>

<p>Rana, also the Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (NICCI), breathed his last today while undergoing treatment at Nepal Mediciti hospital in Lalitpur.</p>

<p>He was 65.</p>

<p>NICCI&rsquo;s President Shreejana Rana told <em>New Business Age</em> that Saurya SJB Rana died today due to post surgery complications from the heart bypass surgery performed last Thursday.</p>

<p>He is the President of Tara Management Pvt Ltd that has investments in various companies including Sipradi Companies, Bhote Koshi Power Company Pvt Ltd and joint venture cigarette manufacturer Surya Nepal Private Ltd, among others.</p>

<p>Rana was also the president of Nepal Automobiles Dealers Association.</p>

<p>His last rites are being performed at Pashupati Aryaghat.</p>

<p>Business leaders paid their last tribute to the late businessman Saurya SJB Rana at Pashupati.</p>

<p>Hari Bhakta Sharma, former President at Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), said that the death of Rana is a loss of a good entrepreneur for the country.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I am very sad to hear about the death of Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries Saurya SJB Rana,&rdquo; wrote Sharma in his Facebook post. &ldquo;The country has lost a good entrepreneur,&rdquo; said Sharma in his condolence message.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13118',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'RDI Files Tax Evasion Cases against 1,000 Defaulters',
			'sub_title' => 'Fiscal Crimes of Over Rs 47 Billion Busted in the Past 2 Years ',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department  (RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.    ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The Revenue Investigation Department &nbsp;(RDI) has been tightening its noose against the tax evaders or those involved in economic crimes of any sorts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&nbsp;In the past two years, the Department has lodges cases against 1,000 defaulters and companies for their involvement in tax evasion cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Those individuals and companies, some of them being renowned ones as well, were alleged to commit financial crimes by dodging taxes worth over Rs 47 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department that has been tasked to look into revenue leakages investigation and controlling economic crimes, has been brought under the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers for a year now. It, however, started its operation in full-fledge since last August.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department&#39;s director general Dirgharaj Mainali said, &quot;We had probed into the risk-prone areas where economic transaction were conducted in high volume. We busted economic crimes in a greater scale. Many of the defaulters were facing case in the court while some were still being investigated.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Mainali opined that the identification of the tax evaders, some of them being the multinational companies, could be considered one of the achievements of the Department.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Among the notorious criminal activities investigated by the Department include setting up new companies in the name of strangers by misusing their citizenship identity card and printing fake VAT bills and producing counterfeit government documents among others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The gangs found to be using fake VAT and PAN bills, selling and buying fake invoices, registering the company by using forged documents, evading tax in foreign employment, involved in hundi business and misappropriating the foreign currencies have also been facing cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Cases of tax evasion amounting to around one billion rupees by using fake invoices have been filed against 13 people including Subodh Sah of Balara Municipality-7 in Sarlahi district in January this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department in course of investigation had found that they had evaded tax by operating bank account of 11 different firms. The Department last year had filed case against Barun Beverage on the charge of using fake bills.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has demanded double fine and three years of imprisonment to them as the company had evaded tax of Rs 649.6 million.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Similarly, a case has been filed against three persons including main traders of Baba Flour Mill and Gopal Flour Mill at Biratnagar Metropolitan City-9, Suresh Kumar Rathi, at High Court, Patan, on February 28 this year on the charge of evading Rs 153.6 million tax.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, a tax evasion case has been filed against Jay Kishor Sah and Parameshwor Sah who were found to have used fake invoices after establishing 24 firms.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">These were the glaring examples of economic crimes exposed in the past two years. The Department registered 221 cases (except related to foreign exchange misappropriation) of economic crimes. A total of 779 people including 11 government employees have been identified as the accused in the above mentioned cases.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">They have been accused of committing finical crime worth Rs 36.35 billion. The list of accused include 126 firms which are alleged of issuing fake and duplicate invoices to avoid tax and 52 firms which had purchased duplicate invoices.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department achieved a success in noticing such offenses as it has developed and used a software to deal with the transactions. Mainali claimed the Department&rsquo;s increased promptness has contributed to the control of revenue leakage and voluntary participation in the tax system.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span></span></span><br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">440 face action for dollar misappropriation&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to the Department, so far 440 people faced charge-sheet for the alleged financial crime. They have been accused of misappropriating worth Rs 10.72 billion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department has sought to fine three-fold of the amount of misappropriation and a three-year jail term against them. It is said it has caused a positive impact on revenue mobilization and income through remittance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The Department, in a bid to systematize the information system, has implemented the mandatory provision for entering the import and export of goods in the system before the transport. -- RSS</span></span></span></p>
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			'id' => '13117',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '10 megawatts of Solar Power Added to Nat'l Grid',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 3: The country's largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 3: The country&#39;s largest solar plant being constructed in Nuwakot district has generated 10 more megawatt of power, state-owned national news agency RSS reported. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">According to RSS, the project with capacity of 25-megawatt plant had produced 1.25 megawatt power some eight months ago. Chief of the project Bikash Raghubansi reportedly informed that 8.75 megawatt of solar power was generated recently and was linked to the national power grid after a successful test transmission. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Of the seven blocks of the project, power is now generated from two of the solar panels and is connected to the national transmission line through the national grid of Devighat Hydropower Centre, RSS further reported.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project said that five more megawatts of solar power would be generated within some days.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">For the power generation, construction works are moving ahead smoothly including installation of panels and clearing the site.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Likewise, Project Chief Raghubansi has committed to completing the entire project in coming six months.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The project is being developed with the joint investment of Government of Nepal and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). Likewise, the project has received $ 30.8 million in loan assistance from the World Bank under the Grid Solar and Energy Efficiency Programme. </span></span></span></p>
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			'id' => '13116',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">March 2: The government has once again increased the price of petroleum products. The state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) hiked the prices of petroleum products effective from Monday midnight (March 2). </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">With the price adjustment, petrol, diesel and kerosene each will now cost Rs 2 more per litre. Similarly, NOC has increased the price of Aviation Trubine Fuel (ATF) by Rs 5 per litre for domestic flights and by US$ 25 per kilolitres for international flights. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">The price of cooking gas (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) remains unchanged at Rs 1400 per cylinder.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">After the increase in price, petrol will now cost Rs 116 per litre while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs 99 per litre. Likewise, ATF for domestic flights has been fixed at Rs 72 per litre while the fuel for international flights will cost US$ 893 per kiloliter.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Bangla MN&quot;">NOC stated that it still has to bear loss despite increasing the price. This is the second time NOC has increased the price of petroleum products since February 11.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13115',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'NTB Felicitates Chef Santosh Shah',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has felicitated Master Chef UK finalist Santosh Shah amid a function held at NTB, Kathmandu, on March 2.<br />
Tourism Secretary Yadav Prasad Koirala, NTB CEO Dhananjay Regmi, Shreejana Rana, president of Hotel Association of Nepal, and Mani Lamichhane, director of NTB, felicitated Shah for his achievement in the global cookery arena and for promoting Nepali culture and ethnicity through his dishes abroad.<br />
Chef Shah , born in 1985 in Karjana, Siraha, was the finalist of the BBC&rsquo;s cookery show - Master Chef &nbsp;UK.<br />
Shah arrived in Nepal upon a special request and initiation of the Pacific Asia Tour Association Nepal Chapter.<br />
Lamichhane informed that Shah&#39;s stardom will help Nepal to promote its dishes globally. &quot;Currently, Shah has helped Nepal to promote gastronomy as an additional tourism product and brand the rich ethnicity of the country,&quot; Lamichhane informed. &nbsp;<br />
Likewise, Regmi, during a presentation titled Globalization of Heritage Cuisine of Nepal-Prospects and Opportunities of Gastronomy Tourism in Nepal, informed that NTB will collaborate with Shah to promote Nepali gastronomy.<br />
NTB under the coordination of Karna Shakya, a veteran tourism entrepreneur, had conducted a gastronomy promotion campaign back in 2018 to promote various 200 original dishes of the country.<br />
Similarly, Shah addressing the event, said that Master Chef UK has helped him to promote Nepali food through his signature dishes. </span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Times">&quot;I highlighted the rich culture of our country through my dishes in Master Chef. We have underestimated the value of our cuisine and ingredients, we need to brand and promote them. Through Master Chef, I have made an initiative to register the trademark of some ingredients,&quot; Shah informed.<br />
Shah also stressed the issues hindering the promotion of Nepali cuisine.&nbsp; &quot;Foreigners have a checklist regarding the issues related to food hygiene, I requested the concerned authority to work on it,&quot; he informed.<br />
Shah is currently working on his recipe book and is coming up with some restaurant projects. &quot;I am preparing to launch five signature Nepali dishes in the world map, it will help me to brand the rich gastronomy of the country,&quot; he informed.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'id' => '13114',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Tourist Arrival Increases Marginally in February',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">Tamish Giri<br />
March 2: The arrival of tourists to Nepal through air route has increased by 3.06 percent in February compared to the previous month, according to the data released by the Department of Immigration.<br />
In February, a total of&nbsp;9,146 foreigners arrived in Nepal by air through the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), compared to 8,874 foreign nationals in January.<br />
Among the visitors, 6,151 were male, 2,983 were female, while 12 were of the other sex.<br />
Country-wise, India was the prime tourist market for Nepal.&nbsp; In total, 3322 Indian tourists landed at TIA in February, up from 2,865 in January.<br />
Meanwhile, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Nepal has declined in February. However, the number of American tourists has increased.<br />
According to the report, only 613 Chinese nationals landed at TIA in February, down from 1,666 in January. The number of US nationals arriving in Nepal grew slightly from 524 in January to 721 in February. &nbsp;<br />
According to the report, foreigners from 123 nations arrived in Nepal in February compared to 122 in January.&nbsp;&nbsp; Likewise, the number of Nepali nationals returning home has also grown marginally in February. A total of 46,471 Nepali nationals landed in Kathmandu in February, up from 46,384 a month ago.<br />
In total, 44,152 Nepalis left for abroad in February, down from 47,238 in January.<br />
According to the data, two refugees landed at TIA in February. In January, no refuges had landed at TIA. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13113',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'SC yet to Rule on Case Related to Printing of Excise Duty Stickers ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 2: The process of awarding tender to international companies to print excise duty stickers has not moved ahead as the case is still sub judice at the Supreme Court. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had sought applications from international companies on October 15 last year. But the Supreme Court issued an interim order to halt the tender process in response to a writ petition filed by Manohar Raj Ghimire of Mirage Printing Company. International companies from France and Italy had submitted proposals the department is yet to evaluate their proposals.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Shiwadevi Dahal, deputy director general of Department of Revenue Investigation, said it has been difficult to meet the demand of excise duty stickers due to the short supply. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&ldquo;We have received applications from interested companies but their evaluation process has been halted as the case is pending in the court,&rdquo; said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">To meet the current demand of excise duty stickers, Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC) has been printing twelve kinds of stickers. Previously, the IRD had been printing 43 kinds of stickers through foreign companies. The limited number of stickers is insufficient to meet the huge demand, said Dahal. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">One of the high-ranking officials of Janak Education Material Centre said, &ldquo;We have been assigned to print 700 million stickers. But we print stickers only on a specific day when the department specifies the volume to be printed.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government had filed a case against SC asking to vacate its interim order in last October. The department had filed for a vacate order stating that the domestic printing companies are vulnerable in terms of security but the SC has not issued a fresh order in this regard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Dahal said that the department had opened global tender only after reaching a conclusion that domestic printing companies were not capable of printing the stickers as per the required standard. </span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">According to officials of the IRD, it has been issuing global tender from 2005 to print the excise duty stickers. The task of printing stickers is more sensitive that printing bank notes. Domestic companies can&rsquo;t provide that level of security features, so global tender is a must, say the officials.</span></span></p>
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13112',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Fertiliser from Bangladesh to Arrive within a Week ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 2: The fertilizer purchased by the government from Bangladesh under a G2G deal will be arriving in Nepal within a week. Out of 50,000 metric tons of urea, 22,500 metric tons have already arrived at the Kolkata Port. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Workers are now unloading the goods that have arrived at the Kolkata Port. According to Bishnu Pokharel, spokesperson of the Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL), the goods will reach Birgunj in about a week after the loading is completed in the next three to four days. He said that they would be sent to Biratnagar and Bhairahawa for distribution from Birgunj. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The fertilizer will be transported to Nepal by Gentrade FZF in three phases.</span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">A total of 22,500 metric tons of urea have been imported in the first phase. Similarly, in the second phase, 10,000 metric tons of urea will be brought in the country. Likewise, the company said that 17,500 metric tons of urea will arrive in March 15 in the third phase. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">The agreement between AICL and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation to purchase urea through the G2G process was signed on December 17 after Shailung Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Honiko Multiple Pvt Ltd that were awarded the contract to import 50,000 metric tons of urea in last April failed to import the fertilisers. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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			'image' => '20210302022312_20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg',
			'article_date' => '2021-03-02 14:22:22',
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	(int) 7 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13111',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '‘Upcoming Budget will Focus on Minimizing Damages Caused by Covid-19’',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:16px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Times">March 2: Finance Secretary Shishir Dhungana has informed that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will focus on minimizing the damage caused by Covid-19 to the economy. Speaking at a pre-budget discussion program organized by the Nepal Revenue Advisory Committee in Biratnagar on March 1, Secretary Dhungana informed that the upcoming fiscal year&rsquo;s budget will focus on reviving the economy affected by Covid-19.<br />
He also informed that the main objective of the budget would be to increase government investments and create employment opportunities. Stating that the government will move forward with the concept of 3Rs - relief, recovery, and relevance- to improve the economy, he added that all economic indicators except the country&#39;s gross domestic product (GDP) are positive.<br />
Finance Secretary Dhungana said that the statistics department is preparing to release the GDP data by the end of the second quarter.<br />
Stating that Nepal will set its economic growth target based on the economic growth rate of China and India, he added that Covid-19 is likely to affect the inflow of foreign aid, and the country needs to increase its sources of revenue collection to meet the growth rate target.<br />
He said that the government will take internal loans as per the international standard and norms. He added that discussions being held with the private sector regarding the complaints of the tax rates.<br />
Dhungana further said that some importers ordering raw material and others ordering finished product has created confusion. He said that the issue should be resolved by the private sector itself.<br />
Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning of Province 1 Uttar Kumar Khatri expressed the need for better revenue collection from riverine and forest products. He opined the need for re-evaluating the real estate registration tax and imposing tax on inheritance.</span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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			'sortorder' => '12857',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-02 13:09:42',
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	(int) 8 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13110',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'INNJA Felicitates Journalists on its Third Anniversary',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Tamish Giri</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The USA-based International Network of Nepali Journalists (INNJA) felicitated nine Nepali journalists on the occasion of its third anniversary on March 1, 2021 for their contribution to the field of journalism.<br />
The association awarded outstanding journalists on the basis of their work in three categories-literature, investigative journalism, community journalism. The awards were given for the news reports and literature works published in 2020.<br />
INNJA felicitated Rajendra Prajuli with the Literature Award during a function organised at Nepal Tourism Board, Kathmandu. Prajuli bagged the award for the best literature writer for 2020 for his book &lsquo;Koteshwor ko Ketole&rsquo;. He received a cheque of Rs 100,000 and a certificate.<br />
Likewise, &nbsp;Sushil Panta of Lokaantra.com and Topendra Karki of Kantipur News were awarded the best investigative news reporter awards for 2020. Panta&#39;s news report on Members of Parliament and its secretary receiving allowance despite the pandemic and Karki&#39;s investigative report on mismanagement in Nepal Police&#39;s procurement process received the best investigative journalism report awards for 2020.<br />
Both Panta and Karki were honored with a certificate and cheque of Rs 100,000 each.<br />
Likewise, INNJA felicitated Basanta Pratap Singh, Kantipur&rsquo;s correspondent for Bajhang district; Nira Gautam, RSS correspondent for Butwal; and Mandira Thapa, Nepal Television&rsquo;s correspondent for Dolakha, under the Community Journalism Award category.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">&ldquo;This kind of award encourages us to contribute more to the field of journalism,&rdquo; said Gautam after receiving the award.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Singh&#39;s report on cataracts cases in Bajhang, Gautam&#39;s news report on abortion, and Thapa&#39;s news report on rape cases in Dolakha during the pandemic were declared the best community reporting for 2020. They received a cheque of Rs 100,000 each along with a certificate.<br />
Likewise, INNJA recognized Tribhuvan University&rsquo;s journalism academician Lal Singh Dhoj Rai for his long-term contribution to Nepali journalism.&nbsp; Rai received a cheque of Rs 61,111 and a letter of appreciation.<br />
INNJA also felicitated Gopal Budathoki, president of the Press Council of Nepal, and Bala Adhikari.<br />
INNJA, established on March 1, 2018, in Virginia, the USA has been helping Nepali journalists and promoting Nepali journalism. Earlier, the association had provided fellowship to 80 journalists who were affected by Covid-19.</span></span></p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 19:15:37',
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	(int) 9 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13108',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Private Sector Reluctant to Import Covid-19 Vaccine',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">March 1: The government amended the Drugs Act 2035 three months ago to allow the private sector to import the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the private sector has not shown any interest to import the vaccine. The government had amended the law through an ordinance in the first week of November last year to pave the way for private companies to register with the Department of Drug Administration and import vaccines.<br />
The authorised distributor of the Indian company Serum Institute for Nepal was registered with the Department after the government allowed import of Covid-19 vaccine. The Serum Institute is producing Covishield vaccines developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca.<br />
The Ministry of Health and Population introduced the same vaccine in Nepal after receiving grant from the Indian government.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">The Department of Drug Administration informed that despite the registration, Serum Institute&rsquo;s distributor for Nepal of Hukam Distributors and Logistics Pvt Pvt Ltd has not placed any order and initiated any process for importing the vaccine. Similarly, the Chinese company SynoPharm was registered with the department after China decided to provide vaccines to Nepal, on a grant basis.<br />
The company was registered with the department on the initiative of the Chinese embassy. Besides, there are no other companies registered with the department. &quot;Two companies, one private and the other Chinese, have been registered,&quot; informed Santosh KC, information officer of the department.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria">Nepal received one million doses of vaccine on January 21 as grant from the Government of India. Similarly, the country bought a million doses of vaccine on February 21.<br />
Nepal so far has vaccinated health workers, security personnel, staff, journalists, and staff of diplomatic missions at the forefront of the campaign against Covid-19 and is preparing to vaccinate the general public from March 7.<br />
Pawan Acharya, general secretary of the Association of Pharmaceutical Importers, informed that the private sector was ready to import the vaccine but did not do it due to the lack of demand for vaccines in Nepal. He added that since the government is currently distributing the vaccines, there has been no demand for vaccines in Nepal.<br />
&quot;The private sector is ready to bring the vaccine, but we are not ready to take the risk as it requires huge investment and there is no demand in the country,&quot; he informed.<br />
He further added that the private sector will move ahead with the process of bringing vaccines if the demand for vaccines goes up.</span></span></p>
',
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			'created' => '2021-03-01',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:11:02',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13109',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'DoTM Stops Printing Smart License Cards Except for Emergency Purpose',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">March 1: The Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has stopped printing smart license cards due to the shortage of empty cards. The department has stopped printing smart license cards for applications submitted after the month of Mangsir (mid-November).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has only 40,000 empty cards in stock. &ldquo;We have limited stock of empty cards so the process of printing smart licenses has stopped except for emergency purpose,&rdquo; said Loknath Bhusal, spokesperson for the DOTM. &ldquo;We are printing licenses for applications filed long ago and for emergency purposes only.&rdquo;</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department has already signed an agreement to purchase new stock of cards with the French company- Smart Card and Solutions. Three companies including those from Malaysia, India and France had sent applications in response to a tender announced by the department in the second week of Bhadra (August/September).</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Malaysian Company Irish Bahard Corporation had submitted a proposal with the lowest bid of Rs 96.1 million while Madras Securities of India had proposed a bid of Rs 192.2 million. But the department awarded the French company with the project for Rs 140 million stating that the card produced by the Malaysian company was of low quality.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">&nbsp;&ldquo;The French company was awarded the contract after analyzing the financial and technical proposals of the three companies. The proposal of the Malaysian company had six technical irregularities,&rdquo; said Bhusal.</span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The department started distributing smart license card from December 2015. It has already printed two million smart license cards so far.</span></span></p>
',
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			'sortorder' => '12854',
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 15:32:21',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13107',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Sugar Mills yet to Clear Farmers' Dues ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">March 1: Despite the assurance of the government that sugar mills would clear all the dues of sugarcane farmers within 21 days, the farmers say that they have not received full payment even after two months. The government had reached a understanding with the farmers in this regard and an agreement was signed on December 28, 2020. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">At present, the sugarcane farmers are protesting by organising hunger strike while working in the fields. &ldquo;The industrialists have not paid the dues yet. Therefore, as a protest, we are now working in the fields by having only one meal a day. We are in a situation where we have to hold hunger strike to get the value of our harvest,&rdquo; said Hari Shyam Raya, secretary of the Sugarcane Farmers&rsquo; Struggle Committee, Sarlahi. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to him, out of the total payment of Rs 900 million, only Rs 570 million has been deposited into the farmers&rsquo; account by the defaulting sugar mills while they are yet to pay Rs 330 million. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">On the contrary, the government has stated that the data provided by the industrialists to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), show that they owe Rs 650 million in total to the farmers and Rs 570 million has already been paid. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Urmila KC, deputy spokesperson of the ministry, said that all the dues of the farmers have been paid except those who do not have bank accounts and have been out of contact. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Regarding the controversy surrounding the total dues, the ministry said that it can be ascertained whether the sugar mills owe Rs 900 million or Rs 650 million only after receiving the report of the Joint Technical Committee comprising the representatives of MoICS, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance, Sugar Producers Association, and sugarcane farmers. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">According to the Ministry, the committee is currently undertaking its work and it will take another two months to prepare the report. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">Raya has been saying that the problem in calculation has arisen as Mahalaxmi and Annapurna Sugar Mills reduce five to 20 kg weight per quintal saying that the quality of sugarcane is not good. </span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;">As per him, it won&rsquo;t be a problem had they reduced 1kg weight per quintal of sugarcane. These two industries have made bills of 90 kg per quintal and 80 kg per quintal for farmers. Although they had raised this issue at that time, Raya complains that the industrialists did not listen to them. </span></span></span></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13106',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Central Bank Warns of Action against Banks that Cross the Limit of Spread Rate',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: Nepal Rastra Bank has decided to take action against the banks that exceed the spread rate.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has made it clear that banks cannot charge spread rate of more than 4.4 percent under the existing rule. However, NRB noted that some banks have been disregarding this provision and has warned them of taking action as per the existing laws.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">It has been learnt that the central bank took such decision after considering the fact that banks crossing the limit of spread rate would cause extra burden on rate of interest on loan.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">Issuing a circular on Sunday (February 28), the central bank instructed all banks to adjust the excessive spread rate within the same quarter in which it has crossed the limit fixed by NRB.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&ldquo;The board members and CEO of the institution which crosses the spread rate limit shall be charged in accordance to the Nepal Rastra Bank Act 2058,&rdquo; reads the circular.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The central bank has also instructed banks to spend a maximum of 5 percent of fund allocated under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to promote electronic transaction.</span></span></span></span></p>

<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">NRB stated that such instruction was given to the banks realizing the need to create awareness among the people and to make banking transaction technology friendly.</span></span></span></span></p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 12:14:38',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13105',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => '     Online Service for Business Promotion    ',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => 'March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.     ',
			'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">March 1: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is all set to operate online service for the promotion of trade and business in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">At an orientation on &#39;Nepal Trade Information Portal&#39; organized by Trade and Export Promotion Centre on Sunday, it was shared that the government has initiated a process to promote business and enterprises through online platform.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The centre&#39;s Director Surendranath Gogal informed that the government is opting to run a portal so as to facilitate export of goods produced in the country.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">The portal containing the information about domestic production would also provide data about annual trade deficit, he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><br />
<span style="font-family:&quot;Arial Unicode MS&quot;">&quot;Those willing to promote their business online are allowed to post information about their 10 products in the portal free of cost,&quot; he added. -- RSS&nbsp; </span></span></span></p>
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			'article_date' => '2021-03-01 10:59:51',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '13104',
			'article_category_id' => '1',
			'title' => 'Prominent businessman, Immediate Past President of NICCI Saurya SJB Rana dies ',
			'sub_title' => 'Private sector mourns loss of a 'good' entrepreneur of the country',
			'summary' => 'Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.',
			'content' => '<p>FEBRUARY 28: Saurya SJB Rana, a prominent businessman, has died due to a heart problem.</p>

<p>Rana, also the Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries (NICCI), breathed his last today while undergoing treatment at Nepal Mediciti hospital in Lalitpur.</p>

<p>He was 65.</p>

<p>NICCI&rsquo;s President Shreejana Rana told <em>New Business Age</em> that Saurya SJB Rana died today due to post surgery complications from the heart bypass surgery performed last Thursday.</p>

<p>He is the President of Tara Management Pvt Ltd that has investments in various companies including Sipradi Companies, Bhote Koshi Power Company Pvt Ltd and joint venture cigarette manufacturer Surya Nepal Private Ltd, among others.</p>

<p>Rana was also the president of Nepal Automobiles Dealers Association.</p>

<p>His last rites are being performed at Pashupati Aryaghat.</p>

<p>Business leaders paid their last tribute to the late businessman Saurya SJB Rana at Pashupati.</p>

<p>Hari Bhakta Sharma, former President at Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), said that the death of Rana is a loss of a good entrepreneur for the country.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I am very sad to hear about the death of Immediate Past President of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industries Saurya SJB Rana,&rdquo; wrote Sharma in his Facebook post. &ldquo;The country has lost a good entrepreneur,&rdquo; said Sharma in his condolence message.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
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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)

Bullion

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

Petroleum

Petrol	1 Liter	106.00
Diesel	1 Liter	95.00
Kerosene	1 Liter	95.00
LP Gas	1 Cylinder	1375.00