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Rainfall along with wind and storm is likely to take place in some parts of the country due to the influence of monsoon wind. According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, light to medium rainfall is taking place in some areas of Karnali, Gandaki, Bagmati and Koshi provinces with partial to general changes across the country. There will be general changes across the country this afternoon. Light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning is likely to occur in a few places of Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Lumbini, Gandaki and Bagmati provinces. The Division informed that heavy rainfall is predicted in some areas of Karnali, Lumbini and Gandaki provinces. Storm is likely to take place in several areas of Lumbini, Gandaki and Bagmati provinces and in some areas of remaining provinces, stated a bulletin published by the Division. There will be general changes across the country tonight. According to the Division, light to moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning is likely to take place in some areas of Lumbini, Gandaki, Madhes and Koshi province. Noting that surface and air travel, health, agriculture and tourism sectors will possibly be affected due to heavy rainfall with thunderstorms, the Division has urged one and all to adopt necessary safety precautions.

Bakra-Eid, the second biggest festival of the Muslim community, is being observed across the country today. The festival is observed on the 70th day of Eid-ul-fitr or Ramadan. On this day, the Muslims visit the nearest mosque after a morning bath and attend a mass prayer to read the Namaj. After completing the reading of the Namaj, they exchange greetings by hugging one another. On the occasion, there will be a crowd of Islam religious people in mosques across the country, including Nepali Jame Masjid (mosque) in Durbar Marga, Kathmandu and Kashmiri Masjid. The festival will be observed up to coming Saturday. Meanwhile, the government has given a public holiday for Thursday (today) to mark the occasion Eid-al Adha, the Bakra-Eid.  

President Ram Chandra Paudel has been discharged from the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Center. He was admitted to the Centre on June 17 and has returned to his official residence this afternoon after being discharged following various tests and treatment. His health condition is reported to be normal, according to the Office of the President. Meanwhile, President Paudel has thanked the doctors and other health workers involved in his treatment as well as all those who expressed concern over his health and wished him good health and speedy recovery.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday endorsed the budget presented by the government for the next fiscal year 2023/24 by a majority. Earlier on May 30, Finance Minister Prakash Saran Mahat had unveiled a budget of Rs 1.75 trillion for the next fiscal year 2023/24 beginning mid-July. Minister Mahat this afternoon presented a budget proposal for the endorsement in the Parliament meeting. The proposal was endorsed by a majority in the Parliament today. CPN-UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, Rastriya Swatantra Party and Janamat Party voted against the budget. They did not cast their votes saying that the budget was not balanced. Before presenting the budget, CPN-UML and Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmakers obstructed the Parliament meeting. They obstructed the meeting demanding that the district election offices be included as a part of the Appropriation Bill. Later, Speaker Devraj Ghimire postponed the meeting for 15 minutes to find consensus on the issue. In the meeting held for the second time, Speaker Ghimire announced that the finance minister’s proposal to endorse the budget was passed by a majority. Soon after, UML whip Mahesh Bartaula demanded a division of the budget saying that the proposal to not pass the budget was excessive. Later, the Speaker proceeded ahead with the process. Speaker Ghimire had given three minutes to correct the vote. But none of the lawmakers corrected their vote. Then the Speaker announced that the 147 lawmakers voted in favor of the budget and 108 against it. Nepali Congress and CPN (Maoist Center) had issued a whip to endorse the budget. Before the budget was presented in the Parliament, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal answered the questions raised on the various titles of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Secretariat of the National Planning Commission, the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President under the Appropriation Bill, 2080 during the discussion. The lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties had been saying that they would not allow the budget to be endorsed without amendment. The CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Janata Samajbadi Party, which had been saying that they would not vote until the budget is endorsed, cast their votes after discussions with the prime minister and finance minister. Now, the National Assembly should endorse the budget passed by the House of Representatives.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 35. 37 points to close at 2,150.99 points on Wednesday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 9. 76 points to close at 402. 75 points. A total of 13,342,996-unit shares of 280 companies were traded for Rs 5. 97 billion. Meanwhile, Himalayan Life Insurance Limited and BPW Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited were the top gainers today with their price surging by 10. 00 percent. Likewise, Ingwa Hydropower Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 6. 64 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 15 trillion.

Independent power producers (IPPs) have said that 500 MW of electricity is being wasted after Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) forced them to reduce the load (electricity generation). According to Independent  Power Producers Association Nepal (IPPAN), 30 hydropower projects have been forced to reduce their power generation by the NEA. The NEA has instructed IPPs to reduce their load at a time when it is not able to maintain a regular electricity supply to the country's industrial corridors. The NEA’s instruction has come at a time when hydropower projects are in a position to operate their plants to full capacity due to the surge in water levels in rivers. IPPAN on Monday held a discussion with the promoters of power plants who’ve been forced to reduce load, in which promoters said that they cannot even pay the bank’s interest by running the project at half capacity. According to IPPAN, they (IPPs) are ready to shut down the power plant for 5/6 months if NEA is ready to pay them as per the PPA. IPPAN President Ganesh Karki said that even if power generation is reduced, they should be paid the money as per the PPA. “NEA has signed a PPA with the private hydropower project in ‘take or pay’ modality. Hence, NEA must buy the power from the IPPs while the IPPs also must supply the quantum of power as mentioned in the PPA,” said Karki. After the Nepal Electricity Authority instructed independent power producers (IPPs) to reduce their power plants’ power generation capacity due to low load demand, the IPPs have said that NEA has to pay the money to them as per the power purchase agreement (PPA). According to Mohan Dangi, senior vice-president of IPPAN, more than 30 power projects having a combined capacity of 500 MW are facing this problem. “Even my project is facing this issue. The authorized capital of my company is Rs 400m but have lost Rs 220m due to not being able to sell electricity,” said Dangi. According to Arjun Gautam, the promoter of the Super Dordi B hydropower project, there is a transmission line that can carry 360 MW of electricity in the Dordi corridor, but the NEA has not purchased electricity accordingly. IPAAN Vice President Uttam Bhlon Lama said it was illegal to sign the load reduction agreement without informing the bank that invested 70 percent of the loan. The NEA, on its part, has sighted the problem of transmission lines to carry the load across the country. While electricity generation has increased by almost 600 MW in the last one year, not much infrastructure has been added to the transmission and distribution side. The lack of transmission infrastructure, according to the NEA has made it unable to deliver electricity as per the demand. However, the authority has not made public its official opinion on this. The NEA Executive Director Kulman Ghising, during a press conference a few days ago, said that there was a problem in the power supply as the transmission lines were overloaded.  

Bagmati Chief Minister Shalikram Jammakattel has assured of the establishment of a public university in the province. Inaugurating the Office of the Province High Education Council today, the Chief Minister who also serves as the Council Chair said the Council has its role in preparing policies and strategies for higher education and providing general policy-level guidelines for the operation of the University. As he said, the Council would play a role for producing human resources required for the province. Chief Minister Jammakattel said the Council will promote autonomy for province-level universities, non-profitable community academic institutes and the constituent colleges. He announced that the province government prioritized the production of skilled technical human resources. On the occasion, Khubiram Adhikari, Chief of the Education Development Division, Ministry of Social Development, said that the Provincial Higher Education Act was certified on March 28, 2022, shedding light on the procedures regarding the establishment of the Council, its management, and about the Province Higher Education Regulations-2079 BS and so on. There shall be a 15-member council committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister and the Ministry of Social Development shall function as the Council Secretariat. Various province ministers including Bahadur Singh Lama and Yubraj Dulal were present in the event presided by Council vice-chair and social development minister Kumari Moktan.  

In what could indicate the quantum of capital flights taking place from Nepal, the amount of money deposited by Nepalis in Swiss banks has surged by 61.92 percent in 2022. According to the Annual Banking Statistics 2022 of Switzerland’s central bank, the deposits of Nepali individuals and firms in Swiss banks have reached Rs 70.764bn (482.542m Swiss francs), from Rs 43.701bn (298m Swiss francs) in 2021. The data of the Swiss National Bank also reveals that among the South Asian countries, only India will have larger deposits than Nepal in Swiss banks in 2022. The deposits of Nepalis are higher than the money parked by Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankans. According to the report, the deposits of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka in 2022 stood at 388.650m Swiss francs, 55.267m Swiss francs, and 66.539m Swiss francs, respectively. While the deposits from countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh declined in 2022, the deposits from Nepal surged remarkably. As it is a tradition for Swiss banks to not disclose the details of their clients (depositors), it is hard to ascertain the names and numbers of Nepalis with deposits in Swiss banks. Since they maintain a high level of secrecy in banking operations, Swiss banks have been blamed for long for fostering money-laundering as critics accuse the financial institutions of keeping money earned from illegal activities including serious crimes, tax evasion, corruption, and arms trafficking. Bankers in Nepal attribute the rise in deposits in Swiss banks to the trend of depositing commissions earned through multi-billion government contracts in foreign banks as well as a surge in illegal practices in trade such as over-invoicing when using letters of credit (LCs) for importing goods and services from overseas. Government officials and bankers say trade mispricing accounts for the bulk of illicit outflows from countries like Nepal. According to them, over-invoicing has emerged as one of the methods employed in trade-based money laundering schemes, facilitating the transfer of a larger sum from the importer to the exporter. As Nepali commercial banks don’t usually deposit their foreign currency in Swiss banks, bankers and government officials assume the funds parked in Swiss banks belong to affluent Nepalis. According to a former government secretary, the deposits in Swiss banks are largely kickbacks that politicians receive for large deals. The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is also showing its attention to over-invoicing practices to check the capital flight. The central bank recently cautioned the chairpersons of banks and financial institutions (BFIs), expressing concern over the escalating trend of over-invoicing when LCs are used for importing goods and services from overseas. Central bank officials say they have received reports of certain BFIs and businessmen opening LCs at inflated prices exceeding the actual value of the goods, resulting in the outflow of capital. While the central bank has not made any public statements regarding capital flight through over-invoicing, NRB Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari warned during an interaction with the chairpersons of BFIs on June 6 that the NRB could take action against BFIs found to be facilitating capital flight through over-invoicing. “It has been found that a group of BFIs and businessmen has been involved in the practice of opening LCs at prices surpassing the actual value of the goods and services and the capital has been illicitly transferred out of the country. This is a serious matter,” a BFI chairman, who was present at the meeting, quoted Adhikari. “It is necessary to stop this trend immediately. If the BFIs do not stop it, we will be forced to take action against the banks found involved in such practices.” The law of the land bars Nepalis from investing abroad or opening accounts in foreign banks. But the law hasn’t been able to stop capital flight. Bankers say leading international private banks used to visit Nepal to meet high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). “But the frequency of visits by representatives of leading private banks like HSBC, Credit Suisse, UBS, Deutsche Bank, EFG, Citi Bank, and Coutts has declined in recent years,” said a former banker. Apart from Switzerland, new destinations such as Singapore and Dubai have emerged as lucrative destinations for wealthy Nepalis to park their money abroad. While many countries are seriously working to curb the illicit outflow of money, the government in Nepal has never taken capital flight as a major issue. After the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) Nepal, in its NepaLeaks investigation in January 2019, revealed the involvement of 55 Nepalis and non-resident Nepalis in moving money from Nepal to offshore destinations, the then Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada had formed a committee to investigate the matter. However, not much has been heard about the committee’s work after its formation.