August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his…
August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his…
August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port.…
August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of…
August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16) midnight.…
August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.…
August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus…
August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special…
August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition.…
August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work…
August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks.…
August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their…
August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online…
August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices.…
August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines.…
August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19.…
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12336', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Clears Way for Bhatta to Assume office at IBN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.</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:Arial">After a preliminary hearing on Sunday (August 16), a division bench of high court judges Thakur Prasad Sharma and Ishwar Raj Acharya decided not to give continuity to interim order issued earlier to bar Bhatta from assuming office in capacity of the CEO of Investment Board.</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:Arial">Bhatta can now start regular work at the board. He was appointed CEO of the board on August 5.</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:Arial">Information Officer at the high court, Dhruva Subedi, informed that high court judges Sharma and Acharya decided not to give continuity to the interim order issued by a single bench of chief judge Nahakul Subedi ordering the government not to implement its decision to appoint Bhatta as CEO of the board until the next hearing on August 16. </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:Arial">Advocate Jaya Bahadur Bhujel had filed a writ petition on August 10 challenging the appointment of Bhatta as the CEO of Investment Board. Bhujel argued that Bhatta lacks the experience required to be appointed as the CEO of investment board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12083', 'image' => '20200817031036_20200812104902_1597201344.Sushil_bhatta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 15:10:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Working to Release Edible Goods Stuck at Birgunj Dry port', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. Those goods, including peas, pepper, dates and beetle nuts were being imported without the prior approval from the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government has finally decided to back off from its stance to hold the food items.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> The Customs Department had sought the opinion of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies regarding the customs clearance of goods stopped at the port.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">An official from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed New Business Age that the ministry is preparing to allow the import of the goods with the approval from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">"If the Ministry of Agriculture decides to allow the import, our ministry will take a one off decision to allow the entry of those goods. We have already initiated the homework for this," a senior official at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed NBA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, customs officials are also in favour if allowing the entry of goods that have already arrived.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is preparing to take the proposal to release the goods to the cabinet if the agriculture ministry gives approval.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12082', 'image' => '20200817022208_1597613433.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 14:21:28', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fertilizer Shortage to Ease After 20 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India. The fertilizers, which are being imported by the agriculture ministry, were stuck at a port in Gujrat for four months before finally arriving at Kolkata port about two weeks ago. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Out of 21,500 metric tons of urea purchased by the ministry, only 250 metric tons is arriving in Birgunj on Monday (August 17). The country is currently reeling under acute shortage of urea, which is essential for good harvest. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The total demand for urea this season is 30,000 metric tons but the ministry has a stock of very little urea left.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior agriculture expert Sishir Pun told New Business Age that the Nepal-bound urea will take at least 20 more days to arrive here from Kolkata.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Salt Trading Corporation had purchased the chemical fertilizers from Dubai-based Multi Commodities before the lockdown. The goods got stranded in Gujrat due to the lockdown imposed by the governments of both India and Nepal.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Farmers require urea after plantation of paddy. </span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12081', 'image' => '20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 12:26:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16) midnight. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16)<strong> </strong>midnight<strong>. </strong></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:Arial">As per the new price adjustment, petrol will now be sold for 105 rupees per liter and diesel and kerosene for 91 rupees per liter each.</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:Arial">The prices of cooking gas and aviation turbine fuel however remain unchanged.</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:Arial">NOC said it decided to increase the price of petroleum products due to the increase in price of fuel in the international market, informed NOC spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyaya. </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:Arial">The prices have been revised as per the new price list sent from Indian Oil Corporation. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12080', 'image' => '20200817103943_petrol_diesel_.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 10:39:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12332', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Bilateral Trade with China Declines due to Covid-19 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was not an exception. Both import and export to China declined in the review period.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was affected much before the government imposed lockdown on March 24. The border between the two countries was closed in late January after the deadly disease surfaced in Wuhan city of China. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the data maintained by the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TPEC), Nepal’s export to China in fiscal year 2019/20 declined by 54 percent compared to the previous year. Nepal exported goods worth Rs 1.11 billion to China during the review period against the export of goods worth Rs 2.11 billion in the preceding year (FY 2018/19). </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s export to China had been declining although the two countries had signed a transshipment agreement three years ago. However, the major reason for the decline last year has been attributed to the closure of border to contain the spread of coronavirus. Nepal’s trade with China is almost nil in the last six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s two main transit points in the northern border – Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani – has remained closed after coronavirus started spreading in China. Although the two customs points reopened after five months, the situation is yet to normalize.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Landslides have caused additional problem in cross-border movement of cargo vehicles. Many containers have been stranded across the border due to road obstruction caused by natural disasters.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12079', 'image' => '20200816062909_1597524482.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 18:28:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12331', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dividend Capacity of Commercial Banks Decline', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It is evident from the unaudited financial statements of the commercials banks towards the end of last fiscal year that there has been a decline in the dividends to be distributed to the shareholders.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The financial statements published by the banks show that the twenty-six commercial banks may distribute a dividend of 11.14 per cent on average. This rate is approximately 7.75 per cent less than the previous year. Twenty-eight commercial banks had distributed dividend on an average of 18.92 per cent from the profits of the fiscal year 2075/76. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nabil Bank has the potential for distributing the highest dividend. Nabil Bank had a distributable profit of 3.4 billion in the last fiscal year. The bank has a potential dividend rate of 30.13 per cent. Nabil had the capability of giving 35.34 per cent dividend in the previous fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Everest Bank has the potential of distributing 19.66 per cent dividend. The financial statements of Nepal Bank show that it can distribute 19.59 per cent dividend from the profits of the last fiscal year. The bank’s statements show that the company has a distributable profit of Rs 2.21 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the financial statements of the previous year, Standard Chartered has the capacity to pay 18.92 per cent dividend, NIC Asia Bank 14.83 per cent and Himalayan Bank 13.97 per cent. Similarly, Prime, Lakshmi, and Nepal SBI Bank's ability to pay dividends is around 11 per cent. The government-owned Banijya bank has the capacity of distributing 11.50 per cent dividend. Similarly, the dividend capacity of Machhapuchhe, Prabhu, Bank of Kathmandu and NMB Bank is around 10 per cent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhuwan Dahal, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sanima Bank that has a capacity of a potential dividend of 12.72 per cent, said that they had already expected the decline in the bank’s profit and distributable profit after the deterioration of the bank’s condition in the fourth quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dahal, who is also the chairman of Nepal Bankers’ Association, said that the bank was not able to do expected businesses due to the pandemic. According to him, the condition of the banks is deteriorating even after the exemption given by Nepal Rastra Bank on loan classification and loan-loss management. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The bank’s condition worsened even after receiving the exemption on loan classification and loss management. The conditions would be much worse if we hadn’t received the exemption,” Dahal told New Business Age, adding, “Many people used to comment on banks’ earning a lot. They must know about the reduction in profits and distributable profits now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sunil KC, the CEO of NMB Bank, believes that the dividend they are distributing is fine. He said that the profit and distributable profit of the bank decreased because they had done provisioning (loss management) more than what was required by Nepal Rastra Bank in this condition.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The CEO of Prabhu Bank Ashok Sherchan pointed that the allowances provided by the government to the debtor has reduced the interest income of banks, which ultimately reduced the profit and the dividend. According to him, the financial statements were affected by a reduction of 10 per cent on interest to borrowers and reduction of 2 per cent on interest on loan. “The interest income of a single bank was reduced by about 40 to 45 per cent due to the discount on the interest on loan from Chaitra (mid-March/mid-April) to Ashad (mid-June/mid-July). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The income of overall commercial banks declined by around Rs 10 billion because of this. The income of banks, despite their performance, declined due to the monetary policy and the directives of the central bank,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The dividend rate of Global IME Bank, which had merged with Janata Bank, has come down to a single digit. Gobal IME Bank was successful in making a distributable profit of Rs 1.73 billion. Chandra Dhakal, the CEO of Global IME Bank, said that the bank has the potential of distributing a dividend of 9.13 per cent. He also added that all of the sectors have been affected by this pandemic. “Banks are facing a situation where they need to save other businesses as well as themselves. This is also why the profits and the dividends of all banks have decreased,” he stated. He believed that the income of banks are still dependent on how long the coronavirus affects the economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Civil Bank has the lowest potential for dividends as of now. The bank has a dividend capacity of only 3.15 per cent. The distributable profit of Civil Bank is Rs 252.1 million.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Rastra Bank has directed all of the banks to allocate 20 per cent from their net profit to their reserves and 1 per cent to the social security fund before separating the remaining fund as the distributable profit. The banks can then distribute dividends from the distributable profit.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12078', 'image' => '20200816052053_IMG_20200816_171837.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 17:14:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12330', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Shangri~La Village Resort Bags ‘Special Awards’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards.', 'content' => '<p><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/TC_2020_LL_GREEN_BG_CMYK-mm.jpg" style="height:384px; width:364px" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards. The resort made the announcement in a recent press statement.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the resort, it has been awarded the 2020 Travellers’ Choice Award by Tripadvisor and the 2020 Customer Service Awards by Agoda based on ratings by its guests. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The resort has also expressed its gratitude to its customers for the “wonderful support”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“With this (achievement) our entire team is overwhelmed with the support we have received and feel more initiated to serve our guests. We are all set to welcome our guests again with the new hygiene standards and safety protocols,” the statement reads.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Shangri~La Village Resort is a resort located at Gharipatan that offers magnificent view of snow peaks and is just 5 minutes' drive from Pokhara Airport and a 7-minute drive from Phewa Lake.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12077', 'image' => '20200816024648_shangri-la-village-pokhara.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:45:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12329', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'East-West Electric Railway in Dispute ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. The Department of Railway has signed a multi-year contract of Rs 28 billion for the construction of track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section of the electric railway in collusion with construction entrepreneurs by violating the existing rules.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Public Procurement Regulation-2064, a multi-year contract can be signed only after completing the basic works. However, the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission have turned a blind eye to this provision for the construction of 106 km track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">To move forward the multiyear contract, the MoF must ensure resources and the NPC must agree in principle that it is a ‘National Pride Project’. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department had called for tender for the construction of the 106km long track bed on June 28 and July 1, where only domestic construction companies could participate. The government announced the tender notice of more than Rs 25 billion at a time when the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has been weakening the economy and causing severe shortage of resources. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Therefore, the dispute over this tender has reached the Patan High Court. A contractor says that an average of 2.5km will be divided among each construction company after the tender is divided into 54 packages. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tej Kumar Kurumbang had filed a case at the High Court on August 2 seeking the court intervention to scrap the tender bid alleging that it had participated only limited construction companies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Balram Mishra, director general of the department, said that the legal problem has been resolved after the court ordered the railway department to move ahead with the work on August 10. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Following the court order, the bidding process has already started," Mishra said, "More than 125 construction companies have applied for the tender.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12076', 'image' => '20200816022943_1597524353.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:29:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12328', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Urge Government to Reopen Tourism Industry ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The government had earlier decided to reopen hotels and restaurants from July 30 and allow air service from August 17 but later revoked the decision due to rise in cases of coronavirus in recent days.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although other businesses have resumed operation, those associated with the tourism sector are yet to reopen.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 21 organisations has drawn the government’s attention to create a conducive environment for reopening the tourism industry from September 1.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">They have also warned of protest if the government further extends the date for reopening the tourism industry.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The 21 organisations include Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) among others.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers last week had decided to extend the ban on operation of hotels and long-distance vehicles till September 1. However, tourism entrepreneurs complain that the government did not let them resume their service despite fulfilling all the protocols set by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12075', 'image' => '20200816115453_20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 11:54:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12327', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Impact of Lockdown on Banks’ Financial Statements', 'sub_title' => 'Net Profit of 5 Banks Decline by an Average of 13.21%', 'summary' => 'August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. ', 'content' => '<p><em>CEO of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah (R) and actress Priyanka Karki during a programme in this file photo.</em></p> <p> </p> <table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse"> <tbody> <tr> <td rowspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid black; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Bank</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Profit (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Interest Income (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid #70ad47; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">EPS (Rupees)</span></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Bank Of Kathmandu</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.49</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.89</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.77</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.26</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.53</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Citizens</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.11</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.46</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.88</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.68</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">12.92</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.49</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nabil</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.56</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.23</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.02</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.15</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">37.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">50.57</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nepal</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.55</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.81</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.61</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">6.18</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">22.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">26.99</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Siddartha</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.09</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.25</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">21.38</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.07</span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><em>Source: Fourth Quarterly Report of the Previous Fiscal Year of the Respective Banks</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. The lockdown has affected many indicators such as the banks’ interest income, profit, distributable profit, earning per share, etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had enforced the lockdown from March 24 to July 23 in order to control the spread of coronavirus. Banks had to face the lockdown for 20 days in their third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. The annual financial statements of the last fiscal year have been affected due to the absence of economic as well as banking activities during the lockdown period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As of Thursday (August 13), commercial banks including Nabil, Nepal Bank, Citizens Bank International, Siddhartha Bank and Bank of Kathmandu have published their annual financial statements of the last fiscal year. According to these statements, the net profit of all of these five banks have decreased by an average of 13.21 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Their interest income, operating profit and the earning per share have also decreased. In addition, the banks claimed that their distributable profits have also decreased as compared to the previous year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As compared to the previous year, the net profit of Bank of Kathmandu, Citizens, Nabil Bank, Nepal Bank and Siddhartha Bank have decreased by 22.21 per cent, 23.72 per cent, 15.85 per cent, 1.55 per cent and 7.30 per cent respectively.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Interest from loans is the major source of income for banks. However, Nepal Rastra Bank extended the interest payment period till the end of Ashad (mid-July) considering the impact of the lockdown on debtors. In addition to this, the central bank also directed the banks to reduce the interest rates on loans by 2 percentage points. As a result, the banks could not earn the interest income that they had expected in the early days. Banks informed that the interest they did collect was less than anticipated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The banks were expecting to collect the interests within the end of Ashad (mid-July). However, Nepal Rastra Bank announced that the loan payment period would further be extended under the monetary policy after which, the debtors didn’t pay the loan and the interest that they owed to the banks. As a result, other indicators of the financial statements also had to suffer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Banks mostly invest on the industrial sector by providing them with loans. They had also increased their investments in the tourism sector due to the tourism year (Visit Nepal 2020). Banks are currently not in a position to recover these loans because of the impact of the lockdown on the tourism sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, there have been no income from the Letter of Credit (LC) transactions and foreign currency exchange. Bankers stated that the income of banks have decreased due to these reasons while the expenses remained the same, which ultimately led to a decrease in the profit as well as other indicators.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bankers say the rate of profit was already not very satisfactory in the beginning of the previous fiscal year. The rate of profit had already shrunk to a single-digit number in the beginning of the year of the same banks that used to earn a double-digit rate of profit in the previous years. However, they noted that the profits might become negative by the end of this fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah said that the lockdown has greatly affected the banking sector in a small period of time. He believed that the extension of the loan payment period and the decrease in the interest rates were the reasons for the decrease in the profits of banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Rastra Bank directed the banks to reduce their interests on loan but not on deposits. In addition to this, the expenses related to salary of the employees, operating costs remained the same,” he said, adding, “We had to face expenses like these in the fourth quarter with no income. As a result, our annual financial statements got affected.” He added that the financial statements of Nabil Bank needs to be looked at positively despite the decrease in profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He explained that the banks need to focus more on making their financial statements instead of focusing on the profits. “If we become profit-centric now, we may have to face another challenge again. That’s why we need to move forward with policies that reduce the operating cost and protects the customers.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Surendra Bhandari, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kumari Bank said that the profit and the distributable profit of Kumari Bank has decreased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Acquisition of Deva Bikash Bank has not impacted Kumari Bank as much as we had thought it would,” he said, “It is very much evident that the profit of all of the banks have decreased in the last fiscal year. This is seen in the financial statements of the banks that have been published so far. All of the banks are facing a common challenge right now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> Gunakar Bhatta, the spokesperson for Nepal Rastra Bank, said that the banking sector will get revived quickly if the economic activities resume in the coming days. “The banks have made a huge sacrifice right now. Many policies introduced by the Nepal Rastra Bank have made things easier for them,” he said, “If the economic activities keep going in this rate, the banks will get revived in no time.”</span></span><br /> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12074', 'image' => '20200814035203_20190329015431_DSC_0854(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 15:49:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12324', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank Tells BFIs to Bear Expenses of Covid-19 Infected Employees ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A notice issued by the central bank on Thursday has directed BFIs to provide salary and other expenses to the employees living in isolation, and arrange additional leave as well as provision to work from home for staffers who are in quarantine. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Likewise, the central bank has also directed the BFIs to provide their service with maximum 50 percent staffsin districts where more than 200 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Meanwhile, an employee at the head office of NRB has tested positive for coronavirus. The employee of the Financial Management Department tested positive for Covid-19 during PCR test on Wednesday. NRB has asked the employee to stay in self-isolation and has also sealed the department where the infected person used to work. The employee was on leave since a week due after complaining of common cold. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The PCR report of 20 other employees of the department turned out negative. According to NRB, they have been asked to stay in self-quarantine for 14 days although their report is negative. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Spokesperson of NRB Dr Gunakar Bhatta informed that everyone in the bank have been adopting precautions and maintaining physical distancing at work. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other employees of NRB had tested corona positive prior to this as well. An employee of Birgunj-based provincial office of NRB had also tested positive last Sunday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12072', 'image' => '20200814013129_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 13:30:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12325', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Company Registrar’s Office to go Digital from August 17', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The office had started online service seven years ago and has decided to fully adopt digital means after two weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Company Registrar’s Office has also made it mandatory for all companies that have been registered in accordance to the Companies Act 2063 to follow online registration process. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Once this new system comes into operation, all the companies have to go through online registration process. They will have to submit all the documents digitally.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Registrar at the office Tulsiram Gaire informed New Business Age that all the records will be kept electronically from August 17 onwards.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, all companies whether newly registered or old ones will have to submit their annual report and audit report through electronic means.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the digitalization process would help in getting details of all the companies registered at the office. The number of such offices stands at around 237,000. Officials say it will be easy to update information and to access information about the board members and other office bearers of the companies, and learn about their capital once the Company Registrar’s Office goes digital.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">As the government office prepares to impose online registration process, entrepreneurs complain that the registration process will be full of hassles due to technical glitches. They say that they are facing difficulty in availing online service from the office at present.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Our fellow business entrepreneurs have been complaining about the difficulty in online registration because the website of the Company Registrar’s Office often goes down,” said Krishna Dulal, chairman of NADA, adding, “It would be commendable if the concerned authorities move ahead with this process in a well managed way.”</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, the Company Registrar’s Office downplayed the technical problems saying that the companies might have faced some problems because the website is being upgraded at the moment.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The problem will be fixed in 2 to 3 days once the upgrading of the website is complete,” said Deputy Registrar Gaire.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12071', 'image' => '20200814021355_1597275518.1 Compani-Rajistar-ko-Office_final.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 14:13:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12323', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Directs Government to Submit Report on Discarded Vehicles', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A division bench of Supreme Court justices Anil Kumar Sinha and Hari Prasad Phuyal on Wednesday (August 12) issued the order seeking detailed information of such vehicles and the government’s plan to manage them. The apex court has asked the government to submit the report within six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Supreme Court issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by advocate Padam Shrestha on August 3. In the petition, advocate Shrestha argues that the government has been dumping vehicles at the junkyard although they can be used after repair. The petitioner has also alleged of financial irregularities and misuse of state coffers in procuring new vehicles when the discarded vehicles are in condition to operate.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers as well as 21 other ministries have been made defendants in the case.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">In the petition, advocate Shrestha had demanded a mandamus order for keeping proper data of such vehicles and operating those that are fit for use after repair. The vehicles that are not useable should be auctioned and the money deposited in the state coffers, reads the petition.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The bench noted that the issues raised by the petitioner are of serious nature and of public importance and therefore concluded that the matter needs a detailed study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has also ordered the government to form a probe committee having representation of concerned stakeholders. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has been asked to foot the bill for the study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Advocate Shrestha says that the government has been misusing fund from the state coffers by spending millions of rupees for vehicles every year despite having adequate number of vehicles at its disposal. He pointed out to the report of the Auditor General’s Office that has clearly recommended the government not to purchase any new vehicle for a certain period but the government has been ignoring the report.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12070', 'image' => '20200814122358_1597376285.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 12:23:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12322', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DDA Preparing to Increase Price of Medicines', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. The DDA is preparing to send a work procedure to the Ministry of Health and Population to adjust the price of medicines as per the understanding reached between the department, the ministry and drug manufacturers on July 26. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers of Nepal had organised a protest since early July putting forth various demands including a ban on import of 30 different kinds of drugs that are manufactured in sufficient quantity in Nepal, price adjustment and granting permission for sale of sanitizers only by registered companies.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Following the protest, the Council of Ministers on July 6 formed a three-member committee headed by joint secretary Dr Bikas Devkota of the ministry to study the demands of the drug manufacturers. DDA Director General Narayan Prasad Dhakal and president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal Narayan Chhetri were members of the committee.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee had pledged to fulfill demands of the drug manufacturers within three weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“During the meeting on July 26, the committee had pledged to forward the work procedure for increasing the price of medicines to the ministry, which in turn would implement it,” said Chhetri.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers had been demanding a review of prices of medicines that were fixed more than 16 years ago.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Director General of DDA Dhakal said that the work procedure has recommended increasing the prices of 100 different kinds of medicines.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12069', 'image' => '20200814105316_1597373355.asas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:52:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12321', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Industries Reduce Production by Half due to Infection of Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. </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:Calibri">The industrialists informed that production in their industries has been affected due to shortage of workers due to the panic of Covid-19 infection.</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:Calibri">The industries in the corridor have been forced to reduce their production capacity to 60 percent due to the surge in cases of the contagious coronavirus.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip, a multinational company, has already stopped its production for some days after more than 20 of its workers were infected with Covid-19 on August 9. The multinational company employs about 500 workers and initially had two infected cases. </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:Calibri">After the second round of tests of the factory workers confirmed 20 workers were infected, Budhiganga Rural Municipality had issued an order to seal the industry.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip has been producing galvanized sheets and iron rods and exporting them to India and other countries. It is the prime exporter of such sheets and iron rods in Nepal. </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:Calibri">Chief of the administrative department of the industry, Diwas Nepal, informed that the production of the industry has been stalled after the surge in cases of coronavirus among the factory worker. "Now the industry is closed, we are in isolation within the industry," Nepal added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12068', 'image' => '20200814100506_1597274314.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:04:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/indexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12336', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Clears Way for Bhatta to Assume office at IBN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.</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:Arial">After a preliminary hearing on Sunday (August 16), a division bench of high court judges Thakur Prasad Sharma and Ishwar Raj Acharya decided not to give continuity to interim order issued earlier to bar Bhatta from assuming office in capacity of the CEO of Investment Board.</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:Arial">Bhatta can now start regular work at the board. He was appointed CEO of the board on August 5.</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:Arial">Information Officer at the high court, Dhruva Subedi, informed that high court judges Sharma and Acharya decided not to give continuity to the interim order issued by a single bench of chief judge Nahakul Subedi ordering the government not to implement its decision to appoint Bhatta as CEO of the board until the next hearing on August 16. </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:Arial">Advocate Jaya Bahadur Bhujel had filed a writ petition on August 10 challenging the appointment of Bhatta as the CEO of Investment Board. Bhujel argued that Bhatta lacks the experience required to be appointed as the CEO of investment board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12083', 'image' => '20200817031036_20200812104902_1597201344.Sushil_bhatta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 15:10:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Working to Release Edible Goods Stuck at Birgunj Dry port', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. Those goods, including peas, pepper, dates and beetle nuts were being imported without the prior approval from the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government has finally decided to back off from its stance to hold the food items.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> The Customs Department had sought the opinion of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies regarding the customs clearance of goods stopped at the port.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">An official from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed New Business Age that the ministry is preparing to allow the import of the goods with the approval from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">"If the Ministry of Agriculture decides to allow the import, our ministry will take a one off decision to allow the entry of those goods. We have already initiated the homework for this," a senior official at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed NBA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, customs officials are also in favour if allowing the entry of goods that have already arrived.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is preparing to take the proposal to release the goods to the cabinet if the agriculture ministry gives approval.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12082', 'image' => '20200817022208_1597613433.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 14:21:28', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fertilizer Shortage to Ease After 20 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India. The fertilizers, which are being imported by the agriculture ministry, were stuck at a port in Gujrat for four months before finally arriving at Kolkata port about two weeks ago. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Out of 21,500 metric tons of urea purchased by the ministry, only 250 metric tons is arriving in Birgunj on Monday (August 17). The country is currently reeling under acute shortage of urea, which is essential for good harvest. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The total demand for urea this season is 30,000 metric tons but the ministry has a stock of very little urea left.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior agriculture expert Sishir Pun told New Business Age that the Nepal-bound urea will take at least 20 more days to arrive here from Kolkata.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Salt Trading Corporation had purchased the chemical fertilizers from Dubai-based Multi Commodities before the lockdown. The goods got stranded in Gujrat due to the lockdown imposed by the governments of both India and Nepal.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Farmers require urea after plantation of paddy. </span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12081', 'image' => '20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 12:26:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16) midnight. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16)<strong> </strong>midnight<strong>. </strong></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:Arial">As per the new price adjustment, petrol will now be sold for 105 rupees per liter and diesel and kerosene for 91 rupees per liter each.</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:Arial">The prices of cooking gas and aviation turbine fuel however remain unchanged.</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:Arial">NOC said it decided to increase the price of petroleum products due to the increase in price of fuel in the international market, informed NOC spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyaya. </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:Arial">The prices have been revised as per the new price list sent from Indian Oil Corporation. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12080', 'image' => '20200817103943_petrol_diesel_.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 10:39:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12332', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Bilateral Trade with China Declines due to Covid-19 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was not an exception. Both import and export to China declined in the review period.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was affected much before the government imposed lockdown on March 24. The border between the two countries was closed in late January after the deadly disease surfaced in Wuhan city of China. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the data maintained by the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TPEC), Nepal’s export to China in fiscal year 2019/20 declined by 54 percent compared to the previous year. Nepal exported goods worth Rs 1.11 billion to China during the review period against the export of goods worth Rs 2.11 billion in the preceding year (FY 2018/19). </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s export to China had been declining although the two countries had signed a transshipment agreement three years ago. However, the major reason for the decline last year has been attributed to the closure of border to contain the spread of coronavirus. Nepal’s trade with China is almost nil in the last six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s two main transit points in the northern border – Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani – has remained closed after coronavirus started spreading in China. Although the two customs points reopened after five months, the situation is yet to normalize.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Landslides have caused additional problem in cross-border movement of cargo vehicles. Many containers have been stranded across the border due to road obstruction caused by natural disasters.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12079', 'image' => '20200816062909_1597524482.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 18:28:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12331', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dividend Capacity of Commercial Banks Decline', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It is evident from the unaudited financial statements of the commercials banks towards the end of last fiscal year that there has been a decline in the dividends to be distributed to the shareholders.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The financial statements published by the banks show that the twenty-six commercial banks may distribute a dividend of 11.14 per cent on average. This rate is approximately 7.75 per cent less than the previous year. Twenty-eight commercial banks had distributed dividend on an average of 18.92 per cent from the profits of the fiscal year 2075/76. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nabil Bank has the potential for distributing the highest dividend. Nabil Bank had a distributable profit of 3.4 billion in the last fiscal year. The bank has a potential dividend rate of 30.13 per cent. Nabil had the capability of giving 35.34 per cent dividend in the previous fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Everest Bank has the potential of distributing 19.66 per cent dividend. The financial statements of Nepal Bank show that it can distribute 19.59 per cent dividend from the profits of the last fiscal year. The bank’s statements show that the company has a distributable profit of Rs 2.21 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the financial statements of the previous year, Standard Chartered has the capacity to pay 18.92 per cent dividend, NIC Asia Bank 14.83 per cent and Himalayan Bank 13.97 per cent. Similarly, Prime, Lakshmi, and Nepal SBI Bank's ability to pay dividends is around 11 per cent. The government-owned Banijya bank has the capacity of distributing 11.50 per cent dividend. Similarly, the dividend capacity of Machhapuchhe, Prabhu, Bank of Kathmandu and NMB Bank is around 10 per cent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhuwan Dahal, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sanima Bank that has a capacity of a potential dividend of 12.72 per cent, said that they had already expected the decline in the bank’s profit and distributable profit after the deterioration of the bank’s condition in the fourth quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dahal, who is also the chairman of Nepal Bankers’ Association, said that the bank was not able to do expected businesses due to the pandemic. According to him, the condition of the banks is deteriorating even after the exemption given by Nepal Rastra Bank on loan classification and loan-loss management. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The bank’s condition worsened even after receiving the exemption on loan classification and loss management. The conditions would be much worse if we hadn’t received the exemption,” Dahal told New Business Age, adding, “Many people used to comment on banks’ earning a lot. They must know about the reduction in profits and distributable profits now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sunil KC, the CEO of NMB Bank, believes that the dividend they are distributing is fine. He said that the profit and distributable profit of the bank decreased because they had done provisioning (loss management) more than what was required by Nepal Rastra Bank in this condition.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The CEO of Prabhu Bank Ashok Sherchan pointed that the allowances provided by the government to the debtor has reduced the interest income of banks, which ultimately reduced the profit and the dividend. According to him, the financial statements were affected by a reduction of 10 per cent on interest to borrowers and reduction of 2 per cent on interest on loan. “The interest income of a single bank was reduced by about 40 to 45 per cent due to the discount on the interest on loan from Chaitra (mid-March/mid-April) to Ashad (mid-June/mid-July). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The income of overall commercial banks declined by around Rs 10 billion because of this. The income of banks, despite their performance, declined due to the monetary policy and the directives of the central bank,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The dividend rate of Global IME Bank, which had merged with Janata Bank, has come down to a single digit. Gobal IME Bank was successful in making a distributable profit of Rs 1.73 billion. Chandra Dhakal, the CEO of Global IME Bank, said that the bank has the potential of distributing a dividend of 9.13 per cent. He also added that all of the sectors have been affected by this pandemic. “Banks are facing a situation where they need to save other businesses as well as themselves. This is also why the profits and the dividends of all banks have decreased,” he stated. He believed that the income of banks are still dependent on how long the coronavirus affects the economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Civil Bank has the lowest potential for dividends as of now. The bank has a dividend capacity of only 3.15 per cent. The distributable profit of Civil Bank is Rs 252.1 million.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Rastra Bank has directed all of the banks to allocate 20 per cent from their net profit to their reserves and 1 per cent to the social security fund before separating the remaining fund as the distributable profit. The banks can then distribute dividends from the distributable profit.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12078', 'image' => '20200816052053_IMG_20200816_171837.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 17:14:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12330', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Shangri~La Village Resort Bags ‘Special Awards’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards.', 'content' => '<p><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/TC_2020_LL_GREEN_BG_CMYK-mm.jpg" style="height:384px; width:364px" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards. The resort made the announcement in a recent press statement.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the resort, it has been awarded the 2020 Travellers’ Choice Award by Tripadvisor and the 2020 Customer Service Awards by Agoda based on ratings by its guests. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The resort has also expressed its gratitude to its customers for the “wonderful support”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“With this (achievement) our entire team is overwhelmed with the support we have received and feel more initiated to serve our guests. We are all set to welcome our guests again with the new hygiene standards and safety protocols,” the statement reads.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Shangri~La Village Resort is a resort located at Gharipatan that offers magnificent view of snow peaks and is just 5 minutes' drive from Pokhara Airport and a 7-minute drive from Phewa Lake.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12077', 'image' => '20200816024648_shangri-la-village-pokhara.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:45:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12329', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'East-West Electric Railway in Dispute ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. The Department of Railway has signed a multi-year contract of Rs 28 billion for the construction of track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section of the electric railway in collusion with construction entrepreneurs by violating the existing rules.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Public Procurement Regulation-2064, a multi-year contract can be signed only after completing the basic works. However, the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission have turned a blind eye to this provision for the construction of 106 km track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">To move forward the multiyear contract, the MoF must ensure resources and the NPC must agree in principle that it is a ‘National Pride Project’. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department had called for tender for the construction of the 106km long track bed on June 28 and July 1, where only domestic construction companies could participate. The government announced the tender notice of more than Rs 25 billion at a time when the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has been weakening the economy and causing severe shortage of resources. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Therefore, the dispute over this tender has reached the Patan High Court. A contractor says that an average of 2.5km will be divided among each construction company after the tender is divided into 54 packages. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tej Kumar Kurumbang had filed a case at the High Court on August 2 seeking the court intervention to scrap the tender bid alleging that it had participated only limited construction companies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Balram Mishra, director general of the department, said that the legal problem has been resolved after the court ordered the railway department to move ahead with the work on August 10. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Following the court order, the bidding process has already started," Mishra said, "More than 125 construction companies have applied for the tender.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12076', 'image' => '20200816022943_1597524353.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:29:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12328', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Urge Government to Reopen Tourism Industry ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The government had earlier decided to reopen hotels and restaurants from July 30 and allow air service from August 17 but later revoked the decision due to rise in cases of coronavirus in recent days.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although other businesses have resumed operation, those associated with the tourism sector are yet to reopen.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 21 organisations has drawn the government’s attention to create a conducive environment for reopening the tourism industry from September 1.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">They have also warned of protest if the government further extends the date for reopening the tourism industry.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The 21 organisations include Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) among others.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers last week had decided to extend the ban on operation of hotels and long-distance vehicles till September 1. However, tourism entrepreneurs complain that the government did not let them resume their service despite fulfilling all the protocols set by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12075', 'image' => '20200816115453_20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 11:54:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12327', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Impact of Lockdown on Banks’ Financial Statements', 'sub_title' => 'Net Profit of 5 Banks Decline by an Average of 13.21%', 'summary' => 'August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. ', 'content' => '<p><em>CEO of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah (R) and actress Priyanka Karki during a programme in this file photo.</em></p> <p> </p> <table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse"> <tbody> <tr> <td rowspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid black; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Bank</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Profit (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Interest Income (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid #70ad47; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">EPS (Rupees)</span></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Bank Of Kathmandu</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.49</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.89</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.77</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.26</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.53</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Citizens</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.11</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.46</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.88</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.68</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">12.92</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.49</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nabil</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.56</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.23</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.02</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.15</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">37.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">50.57</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nepal</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.55</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.81</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.61</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">6.18</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">22.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">26.99</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Siddartha</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.09</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.25</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">21.38</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.07</span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><em>Source: Fourth Quarterly Report of the Previous Fiscal Year of the Respective Banks</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. The lockdown has affected many indicators such as the banks’ interest income, profit, distributable profit, earning per share, etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had enforced the lockdown from March 24 to July 23 in order to control the spread of coronavirus. Banks had to face the lockdown for 20 days in their third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. The annual financial statements of the last fiscal year have been affected due to the absence of economic as well as banking activities during the lockdown period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As of Thursday (August 13), commercial banks including Nabil, Nepal Bank, Citizens Bank International, Siddhartha Bank and Bank of Kathmandu have published their annual financial statements of the last fiscal year. According to these statements, the net profit of all of these five banks have decreased by an average of 13.21 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Their interest income, operating profit and the earning per share have also decreased. In addition, the banks claimed that their distributable profits have also decreased as compared to the previous year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As compared to the previous year, the net profit of Bank of Kathmandu, Citizens, Nabil Bank, Nepal Bank and Siddhartha Bank have decreased by 22.21 per cent, 23.72 per cent, 15.85 per cent, 1.55 per cent and 7.30 per cent respectively.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Interest from loans is the major source of income for banks. However, Nepal Rastra Bank extended the interest payment period till the end of Ashad (mid-July) considering the impact of the lockdown on debtors. In addition to this, the central bank also directed the banks to reduce the interest rates on loans by 2 percentage points. As a result, the banks could not earn the interest income that they had expected in the early days. Banks informed that the interest they did collect was less than anticipated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The banks were expecting to collect the interests within the end of Ashad (mid-July). However, Nepal Rastra Bank announced that the loan payment period would further be extended under the monetary policy after which, the debtors didn’t pay the loan and the interest that they owed to the banks. As a result, other indicators of the financial statements also had to suffer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Banks mostly invest on the industrial sector by providing them with loans. They had also increased their investments in the tourism sector due to the tourism year (Visit Nepal 2020). Banks are currently not in a position to recover these loans because of the impact of the lockdown on the tourism sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, there have been no income from the Letter of Credit (LC) transactions and foreign currency exchange. Bankers stated that the income of banks have decreased due to these reasons while the expenses remained the same, which ultimately led to a decrease in the profit as well as other indicators.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bankers say the rate of profit was already not very satisfactory in the beginning of the previous fiscal year. The rate of profit had already shrunk to a single-digit number in the beginning of the year of the same banks that used to earn a double-digit rate of profit in the previous years. However, they noted that the profits might become negative by the end of this fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah said that the lockdown has greatly affected the banking sector in a small period of time. He believed that the extension of the loan payment period and the decrease in the interest rates were the reasons for the decrease in the profits of banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Rastra Bank directed the banks to reduce their interests on loan but not on deposits. In addition to this, the expenses related to salary of the employees, operating costs remained the same,” he said, adding, “We had to face expenses like these in the fourth quarter with no income. As a result, our annual financial statements got affected.” He added that the financial statements of Nabil Bank needs to be looked at positively despite the decrease in profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He explained that the banks need to focus more on making their financial statements instead of focusing on the profits. “If we become profit-centric now, we may have to face another challenge again. That’s why we need to move forward with policies that reduce the operating cost and protects the customers.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Surendra Bhandari, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kumari Bank said that the profit and the distributable profit of Kumari Bank has decreased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Acquisition of Deva Bikash Bank has not impacted Kumari Bank as much as we had thought it would,” he said, “It is very much evident that the profit of all of the banks have decreased in the last fiscal year. This is seen in the financial statements of the banks that have been published so far. All of the banks are facing a common challenge right now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> Gunakar Bhatta, the spokesperson for Nepal Rastra Bank, said that the banking sector will get revived quickly if the economic activities resume in the coming days. “The banks have made a huge sacrifice right now. Many policies introduced by the Nepal Rastra Bank have made things easier for them,” he said, “If the economic activities keep going in this rate, the banks will get revived in no time.”</span></span><br /> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12074', 'image' => '20200814035203_20190329015431_DSC_0854(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 15:49:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12324', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank Tells BFIs to Bear Expenses of Covid-19 Infected Employees ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A notice issued by the central bank on Thursday has directed BFIs to provide salary and other expenses to the employees living in isolation, and arrange additional leave as well as provision to work from home for staffers who are in quarantine. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Likewise, the central bank has also directed the BFIs to provide their service with maximum 50 percent staffsin districts where more than 200 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Meanwhile, an employee at the head office of NRB has tested positive for coronavirus. The employee of the Financial Management Department tested positive for Covid-19 during PCR test on Wednesday. NRB has asked the employee to stay in self-isolation and has also sealed the department where the infected person used to work. The employee was on leave since a week due after complaining of common cold. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The PCR report of 20 other employees of the department turned out negative. According to NRB, they have been asked to stay in self-quarantine for 14 days although their report is negative. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Spokesperson of NRB Dr Gunakar Bhatta informed that everyone in the bank have been adopting precautions and maintaining physical distancing at work. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other employees of NRB had tested corona positive prior to this as well. An employee of Birgunj-based provincial office of NRB had also tested positive last Sunday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12072', 'image' => '20200814013129_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 13:30:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12325', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Company Registrar’s Office to go Digital from August 17', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The office had started online service seven years ago and has decided to fully adopt digital means after two weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Company Registrar’s Office has also made it mandatory for all companies that have been registered in accordance to the Companies Act 2063 to follow online registration process. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Once this new system comes into operation, all the companies have to go through online registration process. They will have to submit all the documents digitally.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Registrar at the office Tulsiram Gaire informed New Business Age that all the records will be kept electronically from August 17 onwards.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, all companies whether newly registered or old ones will have to submit their annual report and audit report through electronic means.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the digitalization process would help in getting details of all the companies registered at the office. The number of such offices stands at around 237,000. Officials say it will be easy to update information and to access information about the board members and other office bearers of the companies, and learn about their capital once the Company Registrar’s Office goes digital.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">As the government office prepares to impose online registration process, entrepreneurs complain that the registration process will be full of hassles due to technical glitches. They say that they are facing difficulty in availing online service from the office at present.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Our fellow business entrepreneurs have been complaining about the difficulty in online registration because the website of the Company Registrar’s Office often goes down,” said Krishna Dulal, chairman of NADA, adding, “It would be commendable if the concerned authorities move ahead with this process in a well managed way.”</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, the Company Registrar’s Office downplayed the technical problems saying that the companies might have faced some problems because the website is being upgraded at the moment.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The problem will be fixed in 2 to 3 days once the upgrading of the website is complete,” said Deputy Registrar Gaire.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12071', 'image' => '20200814021355_1597275518.1 Compani-Rajistar-ko-Office_final.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 14:13:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12323', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Directs Government to Submit Report on Discarded Vehicles', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A division bench of Supreme Court justices Anil Kumar Sinha and Hari Prasad Phuyal on Wednesday (August 12) issued the order seeking detailed information of such vehicles and the government’s plan to manage them. The apex court has asked the government to submit the report within six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Supreme Court issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by advocate Padam Shrestha on August 3. In the petition, advocate Shrestha argues that the government has been dumping vehicles at the junkyard although they can be used after repair. The petitioner has also alleged of financial irregularities and misuse of state coffers in procuring new vehicles when the discarded vehicles are in condition to operate.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers as well as 21 other ministries have been made defendants in the case.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">In the petition, advocate Shrestha had demanded a mandamus order for keeping proper data of such vehicles and operating those that are fit for use after repair. The vehicles that are not useable should be auctioned and the money deposited in the state coffers, reads the petition.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The bench noted that the issues raised by the petitioner are of serious nature and of public importance and therefore concluded that the matter needs a detailed study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has also ordered the government to form a probe committee having representation of concerned stakeholders. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has been asked to foot the bill for the study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Advocate Shrestha says that the government has been misusing fund from the state coffers by spending millions of rupees for vehicles every year despite having adequate number of vehicles at its disposal. He pointed out to the report of the Auditor General’s Office that has clearly recommended the government not to purchase any new vehicle for a certain period but the government has been ignoring the report.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12070', 'image' => '20200814122358_1597376285.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 12:23:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12322', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DDA Preparing to Increase Price of Medicines', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. The DDA is preparing to send a work procedure to the Ministry of Health and Population to adjust the price of medicines as per the understanding reached between the department, the ministry and drug manufacturers on July 26. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers of Nepal had organised a protest since early July putting forth various demands including a ban on import of 30 different kinds of drugs that are manufactured in sufficient quantity in Nepal, price adjustment and granting permission for sale of sanitizers only by registered companies.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Following the protest, the Council of Ministers on July 6 formed a three-member committee headed by joint secretary Dr Bikas Devkota of the ministry to study the demands of the drug manufacturers. DDA Director General Narayan Prasad Dhakal and president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal Narayan Chhetri were members of the committee.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee had pledged to fulfill demands of the drug manufacturers within three weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“During the meeting on July 26, the committee had pledged to forward the work procedure for increasing the price of medicines to the ministry, which in turn would implement it,” said Chhetri.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers had been demanding a review of prices of medicines that were fixed more than 16 years ago.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Director General of DDA Dhakal said that the work procedure has recommended increasing the prices of 100 different kinds of medicines.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12069', 'image' => '20200814105316_1597373355.asas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:52:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12321', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Industries Reduce Production by Half due to Infection of Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. </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:Calibri">The industrialists informed that production in their industries has been affected due to shortage of workers due to the panic of Covid-19 infection.</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:Calibri">The industries in the corridor have been forced to reduce their production capacity to 60 percent due to the surge in cases of the contagious coronavirus.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip, a multinational company, has already stopped its production for some days after more than 20 of its workers were infected with Covid-19 on August 9. The multinational company employs about 500 workers and initially had two infected cases. </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:Calibri">After the second round of tests of the factory workers confirmed 20 workers were infected, Budhiganga Rural Municipality had issued an order to seal the industry.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip has been producing galvanized sheets and iron rods and exporting them to India and other countries. It is the prime exporter of such sheets and iron rods in Nepal. </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:Calibri">Chief of the administrative department of the industry, Diwas Nepal, informed that the production of the industry has been stalled after the surge in cases of coronavirus among the factory worker. "Now the industry is closed, we are in isolation within the industry," Nepal added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12068', 'image' => '20200814100506_1597274314.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:04:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 60 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Notice (8): Undefined variable: file [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12336', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Clears Way for Bhatta to Assume office at IBN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.</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:Arial">After a preliminary hearing on Sunday (August 16), a division bench of high court judges Thakur Prasad Sharma and Ishwar Raj Acharya decided not to give continuity to interim order issued earlier to bar Bhatta from assuming office in capacity of the CEO of Investment Board.</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:Arial">Bhatta can now start regular work at the board. He was appointed CEO of the board on August 5.</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:Arial">Information Officer at the high court, Dhruva Subedi, informed that high court judges Sharma and Acharya decided not to give continuity to the interim order issued by a single bench of chief judge Nahakul Subedi ordering the government not to implement its decision to appoint Bhatta as CEO of the board until the next hearing on August 16. </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:Arial">Advocate Jaya Bahadur Bhujel had filed a writ petition on August 10 challenging the appointment of Bhatta as the CEO of Investment Board. Bhujel argued that Bhatta lacks the experience required to be appointed as the CEO of investment board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12083', 'image' => '20200817031036_20200812104902_1597201344.Sushil_bhatta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 15:10:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Working to Release Edible Goods Stuck at Birgunj Dry port', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. Those goods, including peas, pepper, dates and beetle nuts were being imported without the prior approval from the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government has finally decided to back off from its stance to hold the food items.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> The Customs Department had sought the opinion of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies regarding the customs clearance of goods stopped at the port.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">An official from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed New Business Age that the ministry is preparing to allow the import of the goods with the approval from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">"If the Ministry of Agriculture decides to allow the import, our ministry will take a one off decision to allow the entry of those goods. We have already initiated the homework for this," a senior official at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed NBA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, customs officials are also in favour if allowing the entry of goods that have already arrived.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is preparing to take the proposal to release the goods to the cabinet if the agriculture ministry gives approval.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12082', 'image' => '20200817022208_1597613433.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 14:21:28', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fertilizer Shortage to Ease After 20 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India. The fertilizers, which are being imported by the agriculture ministry, were stuck at a port in Gujrat for four months before finally arriving at Kolkata port about two weeks ago. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Out of 21,500 metric tons of urea purchased by the ministry, only 250 metric tons is arriving in Birgunj on Monday (August 17). The country is currently reeling under acute shortage of urea, which is essential for good harvest. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The total demand for urea this season is 30,000 metric tons but the ministry has a stock of very little urea left.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior agriculture expert Sishir Pun told New Business Age that the Nepal-bound urea will take at least 20 more days to arrive here from Kolkata.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Salt Trading Corporation had purchased the chemical fertilizers from Dubai-based Multi Commodities before the lockdown. The goods got stranded in Gujrat due to the lockdown imposed by the governments of both India and Nepal.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Farmers require urea after plantation of paddy. </span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12081', 'image' => '20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 12:26:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16) midnight. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16)<strong> </strong>midnight<strong>. </strong></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:Arial">As per the new price adjustment, petrol will now be sold for 105 rupees per liter and diesel and kerosene for 91 rupees per liter each.</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:Arial">The prices of cooking gas and aviation turbine fuel however remain unchanged.</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:Arial">NOC said it decided to increase the price of petroleum products due to the increase in price of fuel in the international market, informed NOC spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyaya. </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:Arial">The prices have been revised as per the new price list sent from Indian Oil Corporation. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12080', 'image' => '20200817103943_petrol_diesel_.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 10:39:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12332', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Bilateral Trade with China Declines due to Covid-19 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was not an exception. Both import and export to China declined in the review period.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was affected much before the government imposed lockdown on March 24. The border between the two countries was closed in late January after the deadly disease surfaced in Wuhan city of China. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the data maintained by the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TPEC), Nepal’s export to China in fiscal year 2019/20 declined by 54 percent compared to the previous year. Nepal exported goods worth Rs 1.11 billion to China during the review period against the export of goods worth Rs 2.11 billion in the preceding year (FY 2018/19). </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s export to China had been declining although the two countries had signed a transshipment agreement three years ago. However, the major reason for the decline last year has been attributed to the closure of border to contain the spread of coronavirus. Nepal’s trade with China is almost nil in the last six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s two main transit points in the northern border – Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani – has remained closed after coronavirus started spreading in China. Although the two customs points reopened after five months, the situation is yet to normalize.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Landslides have caused additional problem in cross-border movement of cargo vehicles. Many containers have been stranded across the border due to road obstruction caused by natural disasters.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12079', 'image' => '20200816062909_1597524482.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 18:28:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12331', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dividend Capacity of Commercial Banks Decline', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It is evident from the unaudited financial statements of the commercials banks towards the end of last fiscal year that there has been a decline in the dividends to be distributed to the shareholders.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The financial statements published by the banks show that the twenty-six commercial banks may distribute a dividend of 11.14 per cent on average. This rate is approximately 7.75 per cent less than the previous year. Twenty-eight commercial banks had distributed dividend on an average of 18.92 per cent from the profits of the fiscal year 2075/76. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nabil Bank has the potential for distributing the highest dividend. Nabil Bank had a distributable profit of 3.4 billion in the last fiscal year. The bank has a potential dividend rate of 30.13 per cent. Nabil had the capability of giving 35.34 per cent dividend in the previous fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Everest Bank has the potential of distributing 19.66 per cent dividend. The financial statements of Nepal Bank show that it can distribute 19.59 per cent dividend from the profits of the last fiscal year. The bank’s statements show that the company has a distributable profit of Rs 2.21 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the financial statements of the previous year, Standard Chartered has the capacity to pay 18.92 per cent dividend, NIC Asia Bank 14.83 per cent and Himalayan Bank 13.97 per cent. Similarly, Prime, Lakshmi, and Nepal SBI Bank's ability to pay dividends is around 11 per cent. The government-owned Banijya bank has the capacity of distributing 11.50 per cent dividend. Similarly, the dividend capacity of Machhapuchhe, Prabhu, Bank of Kathmandu and NMB Bank is around 10 per cent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhuwan Dahal, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sanima Bank that has a capacity of a potential dividend of 12.72 per cent, said that they had already expected the decline in the bank’s profit and distributable profit after the deterioration of the bank’s condition in the fourth quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dahal, who is also the chairman of Nepal Bankers’ Association, said that the bank was not able to do expected businesses due to the pandemic. According to him, the condition of the banks is deteriorating even after the exemption given by Nepal Rastra Bank on loan classification and loan-loss management. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The bank’s condition worsened even after receiving the exemption on loan classification and loss management. The conditions would be much worse if we hadn’t received the exemption,” Dahal told New Business Age, adding, “Many people used to comment on banks’ earning a lot. They must know about the reduction in profits and distributable profits now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sunil KC, the CEO of NMB Bank, believes that the dividend they are distributing is fine. He said that the profit and distributable profit of the bank decreased because they had done provisioning (loss management) more than what was required by Nepal Rastra Bank in this condition.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The CEO of Prabhu Bank Ashok Sherchan pointed that the allowances provided by the government to the debtor has reduced the interest income of banks, which ultimately reduced the profit and the dividend. According to him, the financial statements were affected by a reduction of 10 per cent on interest to borrowers and reduction of 2 per cent on interest on loan. “The interest income of a single bank was reduced by about 40 to 45 per cent due to the discount on the interest on loan from Chaitra (mid-March/mid-April) to Ashad (mid-June/mid-July). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The income of overall commercial banks declined by around Rs 10 billion because of this. The income of banks, despite their performance, declined due to the monetary policy and the directives of the central bank,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The dividend rate of Global IME Bank, which had merged with Janata Bank, has come down to a single digit. Gobal IME Bank was successful in making a distributable profit of Rs 1.73 billion. Chandra Dhakal, the CEO of Global IME Bank, said that the bank has the potential of distributing a dividend of 9.13 per cent. He also added that all of the sectors have been affected by this pandemic. “Banks are facing a situation where they need to save other businesses as well as themselves. This is also why the profits and the dividends of all banks have decreased,” he stated. He believed that the income of banks are still dependent on how long the coronavirus affects the economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Civil Bank has the lowest potential for dividends as of now. The bank has a dividend capacity of only 3.15 per cent. The distributable profit of Civil Bank is Rs 252.1 million.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Rastra Bank has directed all of the banks to allocate 20 per cent from their net profit to their reserves and 1 per cent to the social security fund before separating the remaining fund as the distributable profit. The banks can then distribute dividends from the distributable profit.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12078', 'image' => '20200816052053_IMG_20200816_171837.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 17:14:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12330', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Shangri~La Village Resort Bags ‘Special Awards’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards.', 'content' => '<p><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/TC_2020_LL_GREEN_BG_CMYK-mm.jpg" style="height:384px; width:364px" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards. The resort made the announcement in a recent press statement.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the resort, it has been awarded the 2020 Travellers’ Choice Award by Tripadvisor and the 2020 Customer Service Awards by Agoda based on ratings by its guests. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The resort has also expressed its gratitude to its customers for the “wonderful support”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“With this (achievement) our entire team is overwhelmed with the support we have received and feel more initiated to serve our guests. We are all set to welcome our guests again with the new hygiene standards and safety protocols,” the statement reads.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Shangri~La Village Resort is a resort located at Gharipatan that offers magnificent view of snow peaks and is just 5 minutes' drive from Pokhara Airport and a 7-minute drive from Phewa Lake.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12077', 'image' => '20200816024648_shangri-la-village-pokhara.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:45:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12329', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'East-West Electric Railway in Dispute ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. The Department of Railway has signed a multi-year contract of Rs 28 billion for the construction of track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section of the electric railway in collusion with construction entrepreneurs by violating the existing rules.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Public Procurement Regulation-2064, a multi-year contract can be signed only after completing the basic works. However, the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission have turned a blind eye to this provision for the construction of 106 km track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">To move forward the multiyear contract, the MoF must ensure resources and the NPC must agree in principle that it is a ‘National Pride Project’. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department had called for tender for the construction of the 106km long track bed on June 28 and July 1, where only domestic construction companies could participate. The government announced the tender notice of more than Rs 25 billion at a time when the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has been weakening the economy and causing severe shortage of resources. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Therefore, the dispute over this tender has reached the Patan High Court. A contractor says that an average of 2.5km will be divided among each construction company after the tender is divided into 54 packages. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tej Kumar Kurumbang had filed a case at the High Court on August 2 seeking the court intervention to scrap the tender bid alleging that it had participated only limited construction companies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Balram Mishra, director general of the department, said that the legal problem has been resolved after the court ordered the railway department to move ahead with the work on August 10. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Following the court order, the bidding process has already started," Mishra said, "More than 125 construction companies have applied for the tender.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12076', 'image' => '20200816022943_1597524353.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:29:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12328', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Urge Government to Reopen Tourism Industry ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The government had earlier decided to reopen hotels and restaurants from July 30 and allow air service from August 17 but later revoked the decision due to rise in cases of coronavirus in recent days.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although other businesses have resumed operation, those associated with the tourism sector are yet to reopen.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 21 organisations has drawn the government’s attention to create a conducive environment for reopening the tourism industry from September 1.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">They have also warned of protest if the government further extends the date for reopening the tourism industry.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The 21 organisations include Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) among others.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers last week had decided to extend the ban on operation of hotels and long-distance vehicles till September 1. However, tourism entrepreneurs complain that the government did not let them resume their service despite fulfilling all the protocols set by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12075', 'image' => '20200816115453_20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 11:54:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12327', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Impact of Lockdown on Banks’ Financial Statements', 'sub_title' => 'Net Profit of 5 Banks Decline by an Average of 13.21%', 'summary' => 'August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. ', 'content' => '<p><em>CEO of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah (R) and actress Priyanka Karki during a programme in this file photo.</em></p> <p> </p> <table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse"> <tbody> <tr> <td rowspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid black; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Bank</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Profit (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Interest Income (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid #70ad47; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">EPS (Rupees)</span></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Bank Of Kathmandu</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.49</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.89</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.77</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.26</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.53</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Citizens</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.11</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.46</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.88</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.68</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">12.92</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.49</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nabil</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.56</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.23</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.02</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.15</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">37.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">50.57</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nepal</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.55</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.81</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.61</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">6.18</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">22.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">26.99</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Siddartha</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.09</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.25</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">21.38</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.07</span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><em>Source: Fourth Quarterly Report of the Previous Fiscal Year of the Respective Banks</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. The lockdown has affected many indicators such as the banks’ interest income, profit, distributable profit, earning per share, etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had enforced the lockdown from March 24 to July 23 in order to control the spread of coronavirus. Banks had to face the lockdown for 20 days in their third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. The annual financial statements of the last fiscal year have been affected due to the absence of economic as well as banking activities during the lockdown period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As of Thursday (August 13), commercial banks including Nabil, Nepal Bank, Citizens Bank International, Siddhartha Bank and Bank of Kathmandu have published their annual financial statements of the last fiscal year. According to these statements, the net profit of all of these five banks have decreased by an average of 13.21 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Their interest income, operating profit and the earning per share have also decreased. In addition, the banks claimed that their distributable profits have also decreased as compared to the previous year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As compared to the previous year, the net profit of Bank of Kathmandu, Citizens, Nabil Bank, Nepal Bank and Siddhartha Bank have decreased by 22.21 per cent, 23.72 per cent, 15.85 per cent, 1.55 per cent and 7.30 per cent respectively.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Interest from loans is the major source of income for banks. However, Nepal Rastra Bank extended the interest payment period till the end of Ashad (mid-July) considering the impact of the lockdown on debtors. In addition to this, the central bank also directed the banks to reduce the interest rates on loans by 2 percentage points. As a result, the banks could not earn the interest income that they had expected in the early days. Banks informed that the interest they did collect was less than anticipated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The banks were expecting to collect the interests within the end of Ashad (mid-July). However, Nepal Rastra Bank announced that the loan payment period would further be extended under the monetary policy after which, the debtors didn’t pay the loan and the interest that they owed to the banks. As a result, other indicators of the financial statements also had to suffer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Banks mostly invest on the industrial sector by providing them with loans. They had also increased their investments in the tourism sector due to the tourism year (Visit Nepal 2020). Banks are currently not in a position to recover these loans because of the impact of the lockdown on the tourism sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, there have been no income from the Letter of Credit (LC) transactions and foreign currency exchange. Bankers stated that the income of banks have decreased due to these reasons while the expenses remained the same, which ultimately led to a decrease in the profit as well as other indicators.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bankers say the rate of profit was already not very satisfactory in the beginning of the previous fiscal year. The rate of profit had already shrunk to a single-digit number in the beginning of the year of the same banks that used to earn a double-digit rate of profit in the previous years. However, they noted that the profits might become negative by the end of this fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah said that the lockdown has greatly affected the banking sector in a small period of time. He believed that the extension of the loan payment period and the decrease in the interest rates were the reasons for the decrease in the profits of banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Rastra Bank directed the banks to reduce their interests on loan but not on deposits. In addition to this, the expenses related to salary of the employees, operating costs remained the same,” he said, adding, “We had to face expenses like these in the fourth quarter with no income. As a result, our annual financial statements got affected.” He added that the financial statements of Nabil Bank needs to be looked at positively despite the decrease in profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He explained that the banks need to focus more on making their financial statements instead of focusing on the profits. “If we become profit-centric now, we may have to face another challenge again. That’s why we need to move forward with policies that reduce the operating cost and protects the customers.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Surendra Bhandari, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kumari Bank said that the profit and the distributable profit of Kumari Bank has decreased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Acquisition of Deva Bikash Bank has not impacted Kumari Bank as much as we had thought it would,” he said, “It is very much evident that the profit of all of the banks have decreased in the last fiscal year. This is seen in the financial statements of the banks that have been published so far. All of the banks are facing a common challenge right now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> Gunakar Bhatta, the spokesperson for Nepal Rastra Bank, said that the banking sector will get revived quickly if the economic activities resume in the coming days. “The banks have made a huge sacrifice right now. Many policies introduced by the Nepal Rastra Bank have made things easier for them,” he said, “If the economic activities keep going in this rate, the banks will get revived in no time.”</span></span><br /> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12074', 'image' => '20200814035203_20190329015431_DSC_0854(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 15:49:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12324', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank Tells BFIs to Bear Expenses of Covid-19 Infected Employees ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A notice issued by the central bank on Thursday has directed BFIs to provide salary and other expenses to the employees living in isolation, and arrange additional leave as well as provision to work from home for staffers who are in quarantine. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Likewise, the central bank has also directed the BFIs to provide their service with maximum 50 percent staffsin districts where more than 200 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Meanwhile, an employee at the head office of NRB has tested positive for coronavirus. The employee of the Financial Management Department tested positive for Covid-19 during PCR test on Wednesday. NRB has asked the employee to stay in self-isolation and has also sealed the department where the infected person used to work. The employee was on leave since a week due after complaining of common cold. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The PCR report of 20 other employees of the department turned out negative. According to NRB, they have been asked to stay in self-quarantine for 14 days although their report is negative. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Spokesperson of NRB Dr Gunakar Bhatta informed that everyone in the bank have been adopting precautions and maintaining physical distancing at work. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other employees of NRB had tested corona positive prior to this as well. An employee of Birgunj-based provincial office of NRB had also tested positive last Sunday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12072', 'image' => '20200814013129_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 13:30:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12325', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Company Registrar’s Office to go Digital from August 17', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The office had started online service seven years ago and has decided to fully adopt digital means after two weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Company Registrar’s Office has also made it mandatory for all companies that have been registered in accordance to the Companies Act 2063 to follow online registration process. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Once this new system comes into operation, all the companies have to go through online registration process. They will have to submit all the documents digitally.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Registrar at the office Tulsiram Gaire informed New Business Age that all the records will be kept electronically from August 17 onwards.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, all companies whether newly registered or old ones will have to submit their annual report and audit report through electronic means.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the digitalization process would help in getting details of all the companies registered at the office. The number of such offices stands at around 237,000. Officials say it will be easy to update information and to access information about the board members and other office bearers of the companies, and learn about their capital once the Company Registrar’s Office goes digital.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">As the government office prepares to impose online registration process, entrepreneurs complain that the registration process will be full of hassles due to technical glitches. They say that they are facing difficulty in availing online service from the office at present.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Our fellow business entrepreneurs have been complaining about the difficulty in online registration because the website of the Company Registrar’s Office often goes down,” said Krishna Dulal, chairman of NADA, adding, “It would be commendable if the concerned authorities move ahead with this process in a well managed way.”</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, the Company Registrar’s Office downplayed the technical problems saying that the companies might have faced some problems because the website is being upgraded at the moment.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The problem will be fixed in 2 to 3 days once the upgrading of the website is complete,” said Deputy Registrar Gaire.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12071', 'image' => '20200814021355_1597275518.1 Compani-Rajistar-ko-Office_final.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 14:13:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12323', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Directs Government to Submit Report on Discarded Vehicles', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A division bench of Supreme Court justices Anil Kumar Sinha and Hari Prasad Phuyal on Wednesday (August 12) issued the order seeking detailed information of such vehicles and the government’s plan to manage them. The apex court has asked the government to submit the report within six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Supreme Court issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by advocate Padam Shrestha on August 3. In the petition, advocate Shrestha argues that the government has been dumping vehicles at the junkyard although they can be used after repair. The petitioner has also alleged of financial irregularities and misuse of state coffers in procuring new vehicles when the discarded vehicles are in condition to operate.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers as well as 21 other ministries have been made defendants in the case.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">In the petition, advocate Shrestha had demanded a mandamus order for keeping proper data of such vehicles and operating those that are fit for use after repair. The vehicles that are not useable should be auctioned and the money deposited in the state coffers, reads the petition.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The bench noted that the issues raised by the petitioner are of serious nature and of public importance and therefore concluded that the matter needs a detailed study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has also ordered the government to form a probe committee having representation of concerned stakeholders. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has been asked to foot the bill for the study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Advocate Shrestha says that the government has been misusing fund from the state coffers by spending millions of rupees for vehicles every year despite having adequate number of vehicles at its disposal. He pointed out to the report of the Auditor General’s Office that has clearly recommended the government not to purchase any new vehicle for a certain period but the government has been ignoring the report.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12070', 'image' => '20200814122358_1597376285.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 12:23:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12322', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DDA Preparing to Increase Price of Medicines', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. The DDA is preparing to send a work procedure to the Ministry of Health and Population to adjust the price of medicines as per the understanding reached between the department, the ministry and drug manufacturers on July 26. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers of Nepal had organised a protest since early July putting forth various demands including a ban on import of 30 different kinds of drugs that are manufactured in sufficient quantity in Nepal, price adjustment and granting permission for sale of sanitizers only by registered companies.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Following the protest, the Council of Ministers on July 6 formed a three-member committee headed by joint secretary Dr Bikas Devkota of the ministry to study the demands of the drug manufacturers. DDA Director General Narayan Prasad Dhakal and president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal Narayan Chhetri were members of the committee.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee had pledged to fulfill demands of the drug manufacturers within three weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“During the meeting on July 26, the committee had pledged to forward the work procedure for increasing the price of medicines to the ministry, which in turn would implement it,” said Chhetri.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers had been demanding a review of prices of medicines that were fixed more than 16 years ago.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Director General of DDA Dhakal said that the work procedure has recommended increasing the prices of 100 different kinds of medicines.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12069', 'image' => '20200814105316_1597373355.asas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:52:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12321', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Industries Reduce Production by Half due to Infection of Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. </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:Calibri">The industrialists informed that production in their industries has been affected due to shortage of workers due to the panic of Covid-19 infection.</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:Calibri">The industries in the corridor have been forced to reduce their production capacity to 60 percent due to the surge in cases of the contagious coronavirus.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip, a multinational company, has already stopped its production for some days after more than 20 of its workers were infected with Covid-19 on August 9. The multinational company employs about 500 workers and initially had two infected cases. </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:Calibri">After the second round of tests of the factory workers confirmed 20 workers were infected, Budhiganga Rural Municipality had issued an order to seal the industry.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip has been producing galvanized sheets and iron rods and exporting them to India and other countries. It is the prime exporter of such sheets and iron rods in Nepal. </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:Calibri">Chief of the administrative department of the industry, Diwas Nepal, informed that the production of the industry has been stalled after the surge in cases of coronavirus among the factory worker. "Now the industry is closed, we are in isolation within the industry," Nepal added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12068', 'image' => '20200814100506_1597274314.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:04:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falseinclude - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
Warning (2): simplexml_load_file() [<a href='http://php.net/function.simplexml-load-file'>function.simplexml-load-file</a>]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "" [APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133]file not found!Code Context// $file = 'http://aabhiyan:QUVLg8Wzs2F7G9N7@nepalstock.com.np/api/subindexdata.xml';if(!$xml = simplexml_load_file($file)){$viewFile = '/var/www/html/newbusinessage.com/app/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp' $dataForView = array( 'articles' => array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( [maximum depth reached] ) ) ), 'current_user' => null, 'logged_in' => false ) $articles = array( (int) 0 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12336', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'High Court Clears Way for Bhatta to Assume office at IBN', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Patan High Court has cleared the hurdle for newly-appointed CEO of Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Sushil Bhatta, to assume his responsibilities.</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:Arial">After a preliminary hearing on Sunday (August 16), a division bench of high court judges Thakur Prasad Sharma and Ishwar Raj Acharya decided not to give continuity to interim order issued earlier to bar Bhatta from assuming office in capacity of the CEO of Investment Board.</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:Arial">Bhatta can now start regular work at the board. He was appointed CEO of the board on August 5.</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:Arial">Information Officer at the high court, Dhruva Subedi, informed that high court judges Sharma and Acharya decided not to give continuity to the interim order issued by a single bench of chief judge Nahakul Subedi ordering the government not to implement its decision to appoint Bhatta as CEO of the board until the next hearing on August 16. </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:Arial">Advocate Jaya Bahadur Bhujel had filed a writ petition on August 10 challenging the appointment of Bhatta as the CEO of Investment Board. Bhujel argued that Bhatta lacks the experience required to be appointed as the CEO of investment board. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12083', 'image' => '20200817031036_20200812104902_1597201344.Sushil_bhatta.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 15:10:05', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 1 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12335', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Government Working to Release Edible Goods Stuck at Birgunj Dry port', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 17: The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies has initiated the process to release all the edible goods that are currently held at Birgunj Dry Port. Those goods, including peas, pepper, dates and beetle nuts were being imported without the prior approval from the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC).</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The government has finally decided to back off from its stance to hold the food items.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> The Customs Department had sought the opinion of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies regarding the customs clearance of goods stopped at the port.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">An official from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed New Business Age that the ministry is preparing to allow the import of the goods with the approval from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. </span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">"If the Ministry of Agriculture decides to allow the import, our ministry will take a one off decision to allow the entry of those goods. We have already initiated the homework for this," a senior official at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed NBA.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Meanwhile, customs officials are also in favour if allowing the entry of goods that have already arrived.</span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-family:Calibri">The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is preparing to take the proposal to release the goods to the cabinet if the agriculture ministry gives approval.</span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12082', 'image' => '20200817022208_1597613433.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 14:21:28', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 2 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12334', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Fertilizer Shortage to Ease After 20 Days', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 17: It will take another 20 days for the full consignment of Nepal-bound urea fertilizers to enter the country due to the delay in ports of India. The fertilizers, which are being imported by the agriculture ministry, were stuck at a port in Gujrat for four months before finally arriving at Kolkata port about two weeks ago. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Out of 21,500 metric tons of urea purchased by the ministry, only 250 metric tons is arriving in Birgunj on Monday (August 17). The country is currently reeling under acute shortage of urea, which is essential for good harvest. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The total demand for urea this season is 30,000 metric tons but the ministry has a stock of very little urea left.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Senior agriculture expert Sishir Pun told New Business Age that the Nepal-bound urea will take at least 20 more days to arrive here from Kolkata.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Salt Trading Corporation had purchased the chemical fertilizers from Dubai-based Multi Commodities before the lockdown. The goods got stranded in Gujrat due to the lockdown imposed by the governments of both India and Nepal.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Farmers require urea after plantation of paddy. </span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12081', 'image' => '20200817122726_1597613093.Clipboard02.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 12:26:54', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 3 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12333', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'NOC Hikes Price of Petroleum Products ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16) midnight. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial">August 17: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has increased the price of petroleum product effective from Sunday (August 16)<strong> </strong>midnight<strong>. </strong></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:Arial">As per the new price adjustment, petrol will now be sold for 105 rupees per liter and diesel and kerosene for 91 rupees per liter each.</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:Arial">The prices of cooking gas and aviation turbine fuel however remain unchanged.</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:Arial">NOC said it decided to increase the price of petroleum products due to the increase in price of fuel in the international market, informed NOC spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyaya. </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:Arial">The prices have been revised as per the new price list sent from Indian Oil Corporation. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-17', 'modified' => '2020-08-17', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12080', 'image' => '20200817103943_petrol_diesel_.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-17 10:39:11', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 4 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12332', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Bilateral Trade with China Declines due to Covid-19 ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Nepal’s overall foreign trade declined during last fiscal year due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was not an exception. Both import and export to China declined in the review period.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s bilateral trade with China was affected much before the government imposed lockdown on March 24. The border between the two countries was closed in late January after the deadly disease surfaced in Wuhan city of China. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">According to the data maintained by the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TPEC), Nepal’s export to China in fiscal year 2019/20 declined by 54 percent compared to the previous year. Nepal exported goods worth Rs 1.11 billion to China during the review period against the export of goods worth Rs 2.11 billion in the preceding year (FY 2018/19). </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s export to China had been declining although the two countries had signed a transshipment agreement three years ago. However, the major reason for the decline last year has been attributed to the closure of border to contain the spread of coronavirus. Nepal’s trade with China is almost nil in the last six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Nepal’s two main transit points in the northern border – Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani – has remained closed after coronavirus started spreading in China. Although the two customs points reopened after five months, the situation is yet to normalize.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">Landslides have caused additional problem in cross-border movement of cargo vehicles. Many containers have been stranded across the border due to road obstruction caused by natural disasters.</span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12079', 'image' => '20200816062909_1597524482.4.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 18:28:37', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 5 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12331', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Dividend Capacity of Commercial Banks Decline', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.', 'content' => '<h1><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The profit and dividend capacity of all commercial banks have declined in the last fiscal year due to the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It is evident from the unaudited financial statements of the commercials banks towards the end of last fiscal year that there has been a decline in the dividends to be distributed to the shareholders.</span></span></h1> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The financial statements published by the banks show that the twenty-six commercial banks may distribute a dividend of 11.14 per cent on average. This rate is approximately 7.75 per cent less than the previous year. Twenty-eight commercial banks had distributed dividend on an average of 18.92 per cent from the profits of the fiscal year 2075/76. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nabil Bank has the potential for distributing the highest dividend. Nabil Bank had a distributable profit of 3.4 billion in the last fiscal year. The bank has a potential dividend rate of 30.13 per cent. Nabil had the capability of giving 35.34 per cent dividend in the previous fiscal year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Everest Bank has the potential of distributing 19.66 per cent dividend. The financial statements of Nepal Bank show that it can distribute 19.59 per cent dividend from the profits of the last fiscal year. The bank’s statements show that the company has a distributable profit of Rs 2.21 billion.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the financial statements of the previous year, Standard Chartered has the capacity to pay 18.92 per cent dividend, NIC Asia Bank 14.83 per cent and Himalayan Bank 13.97 per cent. Similarly, Prime, Lakshmi, and Nepal SBI Bank's ability to pay dividends is around 11 per cent. The government-owned Banijya bank has the capacity of distributing 11.50 per cent dividend. Similarly, the dividend capacity of Machhapuchhe, Prabhu, Bank of Kathmandu and NMB Bank is around 10 per cent. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bhuwan Dahal, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sanima Bank that has a capacity of a potential dividend of 12.72 per cent, said that they had already expected the decline in the bank’s profit and distributable profit after the deterioration of the bank’s condition in the fourth quarter due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dahal, who is also the chairman of Nepal Bankers’ Association, said that the bank was not able to do expected businesses due to the pandemic. According to him, the condition of the banks is deteriorating even after the exemption given by Nepal Rastra Bank on loan classification and loan-loss management. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“The bank’s condition worsened even after receiving the exemption on loan classification and loss management. The conditions would be much worse if we hadn’t received the exemption,” Dahal told New Business Age, adding, “Many people used to comment on banks’ earning a lot. They must know about the reduction in profits and distributable profits now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Sunil KC, the CEO of NMB Bank, believes that the dividend they are distributing is fine. He said that the profit and distributable profit of the bank decreased because they had done provisioning (loss management) more than what was required by Nepal Rastra Bank in this condition.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The CEO of Prabhu Bank Ashok Sherchan pointed that the allowances provided by the government to the debtor has reduced the interest income of banks, which ultimately reduced the profit and the dividend. According to him, the financial statements were affected by a reduction of 10 per cent on interest to borrowers and reduction of 2 per cent on interest on loan. “The interest income of a single bank was reduced by about 40 to 45 per cent due to the discount on the interest on loan from Chaitra (mid-March/mid-April) to Ashad (mid-June/mid-July). </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The income of overall commercial banks declined by around Rs 10 billion because of this. The income of banks, despite their performance, declined due to the monetary policy and the directives of the central bank,” he said.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The dividend rate of Global IME Bank, which had merged with Janata Bank, has come down to a single digit. Gobal IME Bank was successful in making a distributable profit of Rs 1.73 billion. Chandra Dhakal, the CEO of Global IME Bank, said that the bank has the potential of distributing a dividend of 9.13 per cent. He also added that all of the sectors have been affected by this pandemic. “Banks are facing a situation where they need to save other businesses as well as themselves. This is also why the profits and the dividends of all banks have decreased,” he stated. He believed that the income of banks are still dependent on how long the coronavirus affects the economy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Civil Bank has the lowest potential for dividends as of now. The bank has a dividend capacity of only 3.15 per cent. The distributable profit of Civil Bank is Rs 252.1 million.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:20px"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Nepal Rastra Bank has directed all of the banks to allocate 20 per cent from their net profit to their reserves and 1 per cent to the social security fund before separating the remaining fund as the distributable profit. The banks can then distribute dividends from the distributable profit.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12078', 'image' => '20200816052053_IMG_20200816_171837.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 17:14:45', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 6 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12330', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Shangri~La Village Resort Bags ‘Special Awards’', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards.', 'content' => '<p><img alt="" src="/app/webroot/userfiles/images/TC_2020_LL_GREEN_BG_CMYK-mm.jpg" style="height:384px; width:364px" /></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: Shangri~La Village Resort, Pokhara has been awarded with two special awards. The resort made the announcement in a recent press statement.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the resort, it has been awarded the 2020 Travellers’ Choice Award by Tripadvisor and the 2020 Customer Service Awards by Agoda based on ratings by its guests. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The resort has also expressed its gratitude to its customers for the “wonderful support”. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“With this (achievement) our entire team is overwhelmed with the support we have received and feel more initiated to serve our guests. We are all set to welcome our guests again with the new hygiene standards and safety protocols,” the statement reads.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Shangri~La Village Resort is a resort located at Gharipatan that offers magnificent view of snow peaks and is just 5 minutes' drive from Pokhara Airport and a 7-minute drive from Phewa Lake.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12077', 'image' => '20200816024648_shangri-la-village-pokhara.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:45:39', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 7 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12329', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'East-West Electric Railway in Dispute ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 16: The proposed East-West electric railway has courted controversy after the tender notice was called without securing resources and land acquisition. The Department of Railway has signed a multi-year contract of Rs 28 billion for the construction of track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section of the electric railway in collusion with construction entrepreneurs by violating the existing rules.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">According to the Public Procurement Regulation-2064, a multi-year contract can be signed only after completing the basic works. However, the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission have turned a blind eye to this provision for the construction of 106 km track bed of Kakadvitta-Inaruwa section. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">To move forward the multiyear contract, the MoF must ensure resources and the NPC must agree in principle that it is a ‘National Pride Project’. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The department had called for tender for the construction of the 106km long track bed on June 28 and July 1, where only domestic construction companies could participate. The government announced the tender notice of more than Rs 25 billion at a time when the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has been weakening the economy and causing severe shortage of resources. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Therefore, the dispute over this tender has reached the Patan High Court. A contractor says that an average of 2.5km will be divided among each construction company after the tender is divided into 54 packages. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Tej Kumar Kurumbang had filed a case at the High Court on August 2 seeking the court intervention to scrap the tender bid alleging that it had participated only limited construction companies. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Balram Mishra, director general of the department, said that the legal problem has been resolved after the court ordered the railway department to move ahead with the work on August 10. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">"Following the court order, the bidding process has already started," Mishra said, "More than 125 construction companies have applied for the tender.” </span></span></span></span></p> <p><br /> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12076', 'image' => '20200816022943_1597524353.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 14:29:12', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 8 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12328', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Stakeholders Urge Government to Reopen Tourism Industry ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 16: Stakeholders associated with the tourism sector have urged the government to lift a ban on flights and to reopen the hotel industry by preparing a proper work plan.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The government had earlier decided to reopen hotels and restaurants from July 30 and allow air service from August 17 but later revoked the decision due to rise in cases of coronavirus in recent days.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Although other businesses have resumed operation, those associated with the tourism sector are yet to reopen.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Altogether 21 organisations has drawn the government’s attention to create a conducive environment for reopening the tourism industry from September 1.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">They have also warned of protest if the government further extends the date for reopening the tourism industry.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The 21 organisations include Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN), Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal (TAAN), Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) among others.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A meeting of the Council of Ministers last week had decided to extend the ban on operation of hotels and long-distance vehicles till September 1. However, tourism entrepreneurs complain that the government did not let them resume their service despite fulfilling all the protocols set by the government.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-16', 'modified' => '2020-08-16', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12075', 'image' => '20200816115453_20200506031951_120_1571271950.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-16 11:54:13', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 9 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12327', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Impact of Lockdown on Banks’ Financial Statements', 'sub_title' => 'Net Profit of 5 Banks Decline by an Average of 13.21%', 'summary' => 'August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. ', 'content' => '<p><em>CEO of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah (R) and actress Priyanka Karki during a programme in this file photo.</em></p> <p> </p> <table cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse"> <tbody> <tr> <td rowspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid black; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Bank</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Profit (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:none; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Interest Income (Billion)</span></span></span></p> </td> <td colspan="2" style="background-color:#70ad47; border-bottom:1px solid #70ad47; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid #70ad47; border-top:1px solid #70ad47; vertical-align:top; width:134px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="font-size:14.0pt">EPS (Rupees)</span></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2077</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#a8d08d; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>2076</strong></span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Bank Of Kathmandu</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.49</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.89</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.77</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.26</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.53</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Citizens</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.11</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">1.46</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.88</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.68</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">12.92</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">17.49</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nabil</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">3.56</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.23</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.02</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">7.15</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">37.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">50.57</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Nepal</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.55</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.81</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.61</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">6.18</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">22.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="background-color:#e2efd9; border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">26.99</span></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:1px solid black; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><strong>Siddartha</strong></span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.09</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">2.25</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">5.58</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">4.66</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">21.38</span></span></p> </td> <td style="border-bottom:1px solid black; border-left:none; border-right:1px solid black; border-top:none; vertical-align:top; width:67px"> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">23.07</span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""><em>Source: Fourth Quarterly Report of the Previous Fiscal Year of the Respective Banks</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: The impacts of the four-month long lockdown, enforced by the government to control the spread of coronavirus, has been quite conspicuous in the previous fiscal year’s annual financial statements of commercial banks. The lockdown has affected many indicators such as the banks’ interest income, profit, distributable profit, earning per share, etc.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The government had enforced the lockdown from March 24 to July 23 in order to control the spread of coronavirus. Banks had to face the lockdown for 20 days in their third quarter and the entire fourth quarter. The annual financial statements of the last fiscal year have been affected due to the absence of economic as well as banking activities during the lockdown period.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As of Thursday (August 13), commercial banks including Nabil, Nepal Bank, Citizens Bank International, Siddhartha Bank and Bank of Kathmandu have published their annual financial statements of the last fiscal year. According to these statements, the net profit of all of these five banks have decreased by an average of 13.21 per cent.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Their interest income, operating profit and the earning per share have also decreased. In addition, the banks claimed that their distributable profits have also decreased as compared to the previous year. </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">As compared to the previous year, the net profit of Bank of Kathmandu, Citizens, Nabil Bank, Nepal Bank and Siddhartha Bank have decreased by 22.21 per cent, 23.72 per cent, 15.85 per cent, 1.55 per cent and 7.30 per cent respectively.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Interest from loans is the major source of income for banks. However, Nepal Rastra Bank extended the interest payment period till the end of Ashad (mid-July) considering the impact of the lockdown on debtors. In addition to this, the central bank also directed the banks to reduce the interest rates on loans by 2 percentage points. As a result, the banks could not earn the interest income that they had expected in the early days. Banks informed that the interest they did collect was less than anticipated.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The banks were expecting to collect the interests within the end of Ashad (mid-July). However, Nepal Rastra Bank announced that the loan payment period would further be extended under the monetary policy after which, the debtors didn’t pay the loan and the interest that they owed to the banks. As a result, other indicators of the financial statements also had to suffer.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Banks mostly invest on the industrial sector by providing them with loans. They had also increased their investments in the tourism sector due to the tourism year (Visit Nepal 2020). Banks are currently not in a position to recover these loans because of the impact of the lockdown on the tourism sector.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Furthermore, there have been no income from the Letter of Credit (LC) transactions and foreign currency exchange. Bankers stated that the income of banks have decreased due to these reasons while the expenses remained the same, which ultimately led to a decrease in the profit as well as other indicators.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Bankers say the rate of profit was already not very satisfactory in the beginning of the previous fiscal year. The rate of profit had already shrunk to a single-digit number in the beginning of the year of the same banks that used to earn a double-digit rate of profit in the previous years. However, they noted that the profits might become negative by the end of this fiscal year.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nabil Bank Anil Keshari Shah said that the lockdown has greatly affected the banking sector in a small period of time. He believed that the extension of the loan payment period and the decrease in the interest rates were the reasons for the decrease in the profits of banks.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Rastra Bank directed the banks to reduce their interests on loan but not on deposits. In addition to this, the expenses related to salary of the employees, operating costs remained the same,” he said, adding, “We had to face expenses like these in the fourth quarter with no income. As a result, our annual financial statements got affected.” He added that the financial statements of Nabil Bank needs to be looked at positively despite the decrease in profits.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">He explained that the banks need to focus more on making their financial statements instead of focusing on the profits. “If we become profit-centric now, we may have to face another challenge again. That’s why we need to move forward with policies that reduce the operating cost and protects the customers.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Surendra Bhandari, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kumari Bank said that the profit and the distributable profit of Kumari Bank has decreased.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">“Acquisition of Deva Bikash Bank has not impacted Kumari Bank as much as we had thought it would,” he said, “It is very much evident that the profit of all of the banks have decreased in the last fiscal year. This is seen in the financial statements of the banks that have been published so far. All of the banks are facing a common challenge right now.”</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> Gunakar Bhatta, the spokesperson for Nepal Rastra Bank, said that the banking sector will get revived quickly if the economic activities resume in the coming days. “The banks have made a huge sacrifice right now. Many policies introduced by the Nepal Rastra Bank have made things easier for them,” he said, “If the economic activities keep going in this rate, the banks will get revived in no time.”</span></span><br /> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12074', 'image' => '20200814035203_20190329015431_DSC_0854(1).jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 15:49:57', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 10 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12324', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Central Bank Tells BFIs to Bear Expenses of Covid-19 Infected Employees ', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">August 14: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has instructed banks and financial institutions (BFIs) to bear the expenses of PCR tests for their staffers.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">A notice issued by the central bank on Thursday has directed BFIs to provide salary and other expenses to the employees living in isolation, and arrange additional leave as well as provision to work from home for staffers who are in quarantine. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Likewise, the central bank has also directed the BFIs to provide their service with maximum 50 percent staffsin districts where more than 200 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Meanwhile, an employee at the head office of NRB has tested positive for coronavirus. The employee of the Financial Management Department tested positive for Covid-19 during PCR test on Wednesday. NRB has asked the employee to stay in self-isolation and has also sealed the department where the infected person used to work. The employee was on leave since a week due after complaining of common cold. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The PCR report of 20 other employees of the department turned out negative. According to NRB, they have been asked to stay in self-quarantine for 14 days although their report is negative. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Spokesperson of NRB Dr Gunakar Bhatta informed that everyone in the bank have been adopting precautions and maintaining physical distancing at work. </span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Other employees of NRB had tested corona positive prior to this as well. An employee of Birgunj-based provincial office of NRB had also tested positive last Sunday. </span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12072', 'image' => '20200814013129_nrb.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 13:30:56', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 11 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12325', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Company Registrar’s Office to go Digital from August 17', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Company Registrar’s Office has decided to digitalize its service from August 17 and provide all kinds of services to its customers through online medium.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The office had started online service seven years ago and has decided to fully adopt digital means after two weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Company Registrar’s Office has also made it mandatory for all companies that have been registered in accordance to the Companies Act 2063 to follow online registration process. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Once this new system comes into operation, all the companies have to go through online registration process. They will have to submit all the documents digitally.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Deputy Registrar at the office Tulsiram Gaire informed New Business Age that all the records will be kept electronically from August 17 onwards.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Likewise, all companies whether newly registered or old ones will have to submit their annual report and audit report through electronic means.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">It is believed that the digitalization process would help in getting details of all the companies registered at the office. The number of such offices stands at around 237,000. Officials say it will be easy to update information and to access information about the board members and other office bearers of the companies, and learn about their capital once the Company Registrar’s Office goes digital.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">As the government office prepares to impose online registration process, entrepreneurs complain that the registration process will be full of hassles due to technical glitches. They say that they are facing difficulty in availing online service from the office at present.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“Our fellow business entrepreneurs have been complaining about the difficulty in online registration because the website of the Company Registrar’s Office often goes down,” said Krishna Dulal, chairman of NADA, adding, “It would be commendable if the concerned authorities move ahead with this process in a well managed way.”</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Meanwhile, the Company Registrar’s Office downplayed the technical problems saying that the companies might have faced some problems because the website is being upgraded at the moment.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“The problem will be fixed in 2 to 3 days once the upgrading of the website is complete,” said Deputy Registrar Gaire.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12071', 'image' => '20200814021355_1597275518.1 Compani-Rajistar-ko-Office_final.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 14:13:20', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 12 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12323', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Supreme Court Directs Government to Submit Report on Discarded Vehicles', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Supreme Court has issued an order in the name of the government to submit a report on the status of government-owned vehicles that are lying unused in junkyards of government offices. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">A division bench of Supreme Court justices Anil Kumar Sinha and Hari Prasad Phuyal on Wednesday (August 12) issued the order seeking detailed information of such vehicles and the government’s plan to manage them. The apex court has asked the government to submit the report within six months.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Supreme Court issued the order in response to a writ petition filed by advocate Padam Shrestha on August 3. In the petition, advocate Shrestha argues that the government has been dumping vehicles at the junkyard although they can be used after repair. The petitioner has also alleged of financial irregularities and misuse of state coffers in procuring new vehicles when the discarded vehicles are in condition to operate.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers as well as 21 other ministries have been made defendants in the case.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">In the petition, advocate Shrestha had demanded a mandamus order for keeping proper data of such vehicles and operating those that are fit for use after repair. The vehicles that are not useable should be auctioned and the money deposited in the state coffers, reads the petition.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The bench noted that the issues raised by the petitioner are of serious nature and of public importance and therefore concluded that the matter needs a detailed study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The apex court has also ordered the government to form a probe committee having representation of concerned stakeholders. The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has been asked to foot the bill for the study.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Advocate Shrestha says that the government has been misusing fund from the state coffers by spending millions of rupees for vehicles every year despite having adequate number of vehicles at its disposal. He pointed out to the report of the Auditor General’s Office that has clearly recommended the government not to purchase any new vehicle for a certain period but the government has been ignoring the report.</span></span></span></span></p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12070', 'image' => '20200814122358_1597376285.Clipboard06.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 12:23:23', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => null, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 13 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12322', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'DDA Preparing to Increase Price of Medicines', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:10pt"><span style="font-family:Times"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:"Arial Unicode MS"">August 14: The Department of Drug Administration (DDA) has initiated the process of increasing the price of medicines. The DDA is preparing to send a work procedure to the Ministry of Health and Population to adjust the price of medicines as per the understanding reached between the department, the ministry and drug manufacturers on July 26. </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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers of Nepal had organised a protest since early July putting forth various demands including a ban on import of 30 different kinds of drugs that are manufactured in sufficient quantity in Nepal, price adjustment and granting permission for sale of sanitizers only by registered companies.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Following the protest, the Council of Ministers on July 6 formed a three-member committee headed by joint secretary Dr Bikas Devkota of the ministry to study the demands of the drug manufacturers. DDA Director General Narayan Prasad Dhakal and president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Producers of Nepal Narayan Chhetri were members of the committee.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The committee had pledged to fulfill demands of the drug manufacturers within three weeks.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">“During the meeting on July 26, the committee had pledged to forward the work procedure for increasing the price of medicines to the ministry, which in turn would implement it,” said Chhetri.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">The drug manufacturers had been demanding a review of prices of medicines that were fixed more than 16 years ago.</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:"Arial Unicode MS"">Director General of DDA Dhakal said that the work procedure has recommended increasing the prices of 100 different kinds of medicines.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12069', 'image' => '20200814105316_1597373355.asas.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:52:36', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ), (int) 14 => array( 'Article' => array( 'id' => '12321', 'article_category_id' => '1', 'title' => 'Industries Reduce Production by Half due to Infection of Workers', 'sub_title' => '', 'summary' => 'August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. ', 'content' => '<p><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Cambria"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">August 14: The production capacity of the industries has decreased by 40 percent in Sunsari-Morang Industrial Corridor after workers employed in the industries tested positive for Covid-19. </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:Calibri">The industrialists informed that production in their industries has been affected due to shortage of workers due to the panic of Covid-19 infection.</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:Calibri">The industries in the corridor have been forced to reduce their production capacity to 60 percent due to the surge in cases of the contagious coronavirus.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip, a multinational company, has already stopped its production for some days after more than 20 of its workers were infected with Covid-19 on August 9. The multinational company employs about 500 workers and initially had two infected cases. </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:Calibri">After the second round of tests of the factory workers confirmed 20 workers were infected, Budhiganga Rural Municipality had issued an order to seal the industry.</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:Calibri">Aarti Strip has been producing galvanized sheets and iron rods and exporting them to India and other countries. It is the prime exporter of such sheets and iron rods in Nepal. </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:Calibri">Chief of the administrative department of the industry, Diwas Nepal, informed that the production of the industry has been stalled after the surge in cases of coronavirus among the factory worker. "Now the industry is closed, we are in isolation within the industry," Nepal added.</span></span></span></span></p> <p> </p> ', 'published' => true, 'created' => '2020-08-14', 'modified' => '2020-08-14', 'keywords' => '', 'description' => '', 'sortorder' => '12068', 'image' => '20200814100506_1597274314.Clipboard01.jpg', 'article_date' => '2020-08-14 10:04:30', 'homepage' => false, 'breaking_news' => false, 'main_news' => true, 'in_scroller' => false, 'user_id' => '34' ) ) ) $current_user = null $logged_in = false $xml = falsesimplexml_load_file - [internal], line ?? include - APP/View/Elements/side_bar.ctp, line 133 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::_renderElement() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 1224 View::element() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 418 include - APP/View/Articles/index.ctp, line 157 View::_evaluate() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 971 View::_render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 933 View::render() - CORE/Cake/View/View.php, line 473 Controller::render() - CORE/Cake/Controller/Controller.php, line 968 Dispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 200 Dispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/Cake/Routing/Dispatcher.php, line 167 [main] - APP/webroot/index.php, line 117
| Currency | Unit |
Buy | Sell |
| U.S. Dollar | 1 | 121.23 | 121.83 |
| European Euro | 1 | 131.65 | 132.31 |
| UK Pound Sterling | 1 | 142.47 | 143.18 |
| Swiss Franc | 1 | 124.29 | 124.90 |
| Australian Dollar | 1 | 71.69 | 72.05 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1 | 83.90 | 84.32 |
| Japanese Yen | 10 | 10.94 | 11.00 |
| Chinese Yuan | 1 | 17.17 | 17.26 |
| Saudi Arabian Riyal | 1 | 32.27 | 32.43 |
| UAE Dirham | 1 | 33.01 | 33.17 |
| Malaysian Ringgit | 1 | 27.36 | 27.50 |
| South Korean Won | 100 | 9.77 | 9.82 |
Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)
| Fine Gold | 1 tola | 77000.00 |
| Tejabi Gold | 1 tola | 76700.00 |
| Silver | 1 tola | 720.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association
| Petrol | 1 Liter | 106.00 |
| Diesel | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| Kerosene | 1 Liter | 95.00 |
| LP Gas | 1 Cylinder | 1375.00 |
Update : 2020-03-25
