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Weekly Round Up (04 - 10 November 2013)

  3 min 23 sec to read

•As the election is round the corner, the poll-opposing CPN-Maoist –led 33-party alliance has vowed to enforce the 10-day long banda that it has announced as part of the protest programmes in a bid to foil the CA polls. The Banda has drawn criticisms from various quarters. The international community led by the UN has issued a press release last week condemning the banda by the CPN-Maoist. The international community has said that such programme will violate the political rights of the people and is against the law of Nepal. It has also urged the CPN-Maoist-led alliance to withdraw the banda programme immediately. Likewise, Federation of Nepal Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) have also urged the CPN-Maoist to withdraw the banda. FNCCI president Suraj Baidya has even warned to defy the banda if CPN-Maoist does not withdraw it immediately. 
 
•Though the peak tourism season is approaching, entrepreneurs have predicted that the number of tourist arrival may go down this year as the political uncertainty looms ahead due to the CA polls. As the country is likely to observe disturbances, violence and protests before and after the polls, the US has issued a travel alert to its citizens while travelling to Nepal. The US is the fourth largest tourist market source to Nepal. The hotel entrepreneurs have also said that the tourists have started cancelling their reservations at the hotels. Tourism entrepreneurs have lamented that the political uncertainty in Nepal has painted a negative picture of the country in the international front resulting adverse impact to their business. 
 
•Malaysia has hiked its visa fee by six folds. Malaysia, which is one of the most sought destinations for the Nepali workers, has increased its visa fee to Rs 4,200 from Rs 700. The hike of the visa fee will add on the burden to the aspiring Nepali workers for the Malaysia. Though the government has set a ceiling of Rs 80,000 for the manpower company to charge the aspiring worker, the manpower agencies have been opposing the ceiling amount complaining that such amount was not practical as that does not include the commission amount to be paid in Malaysia. The manpower companies are charging more than that ceiling amount. With the rise of the visa fees, the ceiling amount set by the government will be more impractical.
 
•Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has called proposals from the commercial banks to deposit the amount worth Rs 2.26 billion that the central bank has in different funds. The NRB has asked the interested commercial banks to submit the proposals by Monday. The interested banks can apply with the proposed interest rate. The NRB has also set some criteria for the commercial banks who can apply for such fixed deposit amounts. According to the NRB, only those commercial banks are eligible to apply that are operating for at least two years and have issued shares to the public.
 
•The Nepali currency has once again slumped past the Rs 100 mark per dollar last week. Nepal Rastra Bank, the central monetary authority, fixed an exchange rate of Rs 100.32 per US dollar last Saturday. Nepali currency had continued to weaken for last 3 months and had hit the lowest of Rs 109.03 on September 4. The last time the Nepali currency had dropped past Rs 100 mark was on August 20. 
 
•As the Tihar festival concludes, the gold price has also started falling. According to the Federation of Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association (NEGOSIDA), the gold was traded at Rs 56,400 per tola on November 1, the eve of the Tihar festival. However, it decreased by Rs 400 on per tola last Friday. The precious yellow metal was traded at Rs 56,000 per tola on the day. A trader attributed the price fall to the decrease of demands in the market as well as the fluctuation of the bullion price at the international market.

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