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Weekly Round Up (9 - 15 December 2013)

  3 min 43 sec to read

•Switzerland has agreed to provide a financial assistance of Rs 1.09 billion to Nepal for the implementation of the second phase of the Local Governance and Community Development Program (LGCDP II). Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi and Swiss Ambassador to Nepal, Urs Herren, signed an agreement to this effect on behalf of their respective governments amid a function in the Capital on December 11.The program will be implemented by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development for two years from July 16, 2013 to July 15, 2017, according to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Finance (MoF). The total cost of LGCDP II is US$ 1362 million out of which US$ 236 Million will be provided by Nepal’s development partners including Switzerland.LGCDP II aims to improve local governance for effective service delivery, local development and citizen empowerment through investment in sectors such as Local Government Restructuring, Federal Governance, Fiscal Decentralization, Fiduciary Risk Reduction, Result Based Management, Capacity Development, Social Mobilization, Child Friendly Local Governance, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion, and Livelihood Improvement Schemes. The project covers all the 75 districts, 58 Municipalities and 3,915 Village Development Committees, according to the MoF.
 
•The government will be holding the second round of talks with the Saudi Fund for investment in the 20 MW Budhiganga Hydropower Project. A government team comprising representatives from the finance, energy and law ministries and the Department of Electricity Development (DoED) will head for Saudi Arabia in the third week of December to hold the talks, according to a source at DoED. “The Saudi Fund has shown interest to invest in the Budhiganga Project. It has already agreed to provide a soft loan of around USD 20 million and has already forwarded a draft proposal for the same. We will be discussing the same proposal,” the source explained. The first round of talks between the two sides was held in Kathmandu a few months back. The source further added that a team of the Saudi Fund will come to Kathmandu “soon after” the second round of talks to hold the third round of talks. “We are supposed to sign the loan agreement during the third round of talks,” said the source.
 
•The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has collected Rs 49.5 million in fines from those found guilty of corruption and abuse of authority, according the latest annual report of the commission. Chief Commissioner Lokman Singh Karki presented the Commission’s 2012/13 report to President Dr Yadav at a function held at the Rastrapati Bhawan on December 9. The report says that the CIAA had received 11,298 complaints in the year, of which 6,672 were resolved. Over 440 cases were registered in the regional administration offices, of which 145 were resolved. The CIAA filed 96 cases, including 16 that carried over from the previous fiscal year, at the Special Court. The Commission won 76 of these cases. In this year’s Corruption Perception Index published by Transparency International, Nepal has climbed to the 116th position from 139th in the previous year.
 
•The government on Dec 12 decided to provide a loan of Rs 1.65 billion to the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). The Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) will provide Rs. 850 million and the Citizens’ Investment Trust will provide Rs. 800 million, according to Minister for Information and Communications and government spokesperson, Madhav Prasad Poudel. The Government of Nepal will stand guarantee for the loan, Poudel added. The Cabinet meeting also decided to give a green signal to the Ministry of Urban Development to move ahead with the ongoing negotiations with the Asian Development Bank for signing an agreement for a financial aid worth Rs. 2.42 billion for the Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project.
 
•In the fourth month (Kartik) of the current fiscal year, the year-on-year change in consumer inflation has reached 10 percent, says the latest monthly regular report from Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). This is 0.5 per cent less than the consumer inflation for the same period of the last fiscal year. The NRB has set the target of keeping the average inflation rate within 8 percent in the current fiscal year. The inflation rate which remained in single digit for three consecutive months of the current fiscal year reached double digit (10 per cent) in the fourth month. According to experts, this is because of excess money supply to the banks for various reasons.

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