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A person died and 35 others were injured when two passenger buses collided with each other at Phalakapur in Lamahi Municipality-3 of Dang district along the East-West Highway on Friday. The deceased has been identified as Shova Pariyar (43) of Ramtigadhi Rural Municipality-7, Rolpa. Her body has been kept at the Lamahi Hospital for postmortem. DSP Rajan Gautam of the District Police Office, Dang said that the bus (Na 5 Kha 4898) heading towards west from east collided head-on with another bus (Ju 2 Kha 758) at around 6 am today. Among the injured, 13 are said to be in critical condition. They are undergoing treatment at various hospitals. Police said that they are looking into the incident.

President Ram Chandra Paudel is scheduled to address the joint meeting of the Federal Parliament to table the government's policy and programs for the upcoming fiscal year on Friday. The Federal Parliament Secretariat said that the President will address the meeting of the Federal Parliament at 4:00 this afternoon in the Federal Parliament Building, Naya Baneshwor. As per the constitutional provision, the President shall address either a meeting of any House or a joint sitting of both Houses of the Federal Parliament, and summon the MPs. This is the first address to the parliament after Paudel's election to the post of the President. The President shall address the first session after election to the House of Representatives and a joint sitting of both Houses of the Federal Parliament after the commencement of the first session of each year, the constitution states. In today's meeting, leaders of the political parties, chiefs and representatives of the constitutional bodies, high-ranking officials of the government and chiefs of diplomatic missions in Nepal will attend the meeting for observation. After the joint meeting, the separate meetings of the House of Representatives and National Assembly would take place. Likewise, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal would table the copies, read out by the President in the joint meeting of the Federal Parliament, of the policy and programs of the government in the separate meetings of the two Houses.

The ongoing police probe into the Bhutanese refugee scam has given the people a glimmer of hope. Fed up with chronic corruption, misrule and instability over the decades, people want a free, fair and transparent investigation into this scandal that has netted a few powerful figures. But some of the recent developments are making the conscious citizenry wonder if efforts are underway to influence the probe. Ever since the arrests started in connection with this scam, top leaders of major political parties have huddled together more than once. It is natural for the birds of a feather to flock together, but these birds are quite different from each other, right? There was a time when these figures would never get tired of hauling each other over the coals and presenting themselves as holier than thou. At a crucial juncture of the probe, what has made them go for marathon parleys? Some kind of national emergency that the fourth estate is unaware of? Anyway, the conduct of top leaders of major political parties is giving ground for suspicion based on which fertile minds are busy developing their own conspiracy theories. In the wake of these hush-hush talks, people have started suspecting that the top brass may be trying to shield themselves as well as their kith and kin. To retain public faith in the investigation and lessen the damage to Nepal’s image in international fora, the government should publicize the findings of the probe on a regular basis by engaging the media—both national and international. How about conducting a regular press briefing to deal with rumors surrounding the scam and bring the facts to the fore? This can help retain public faith in the investigation and discourage conspiracy theorists. It can also be an effective way to engage the international community, which is also a stakeholder in this case as it has given shelter to more than one lakh Bhutanese citizens of Nepali origins, driven away from their motherland by a dictatorial regime. While carrying on with this probe, the plight of these people should not be forgotten nor the state of affairs in Nepal that is literally forcing the people to ‘flee’ by paying human traffickers. The silver lining in this dark cloud is that the scam has given the government a golden opportunity to cleanse the governance system and restore public faith in it. If conducted properly, this probe will mark the start of a mega-probe into a series of cases of corruption, including policy corruption, that have rendered the country gravely ill. The government should not squander this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As for the people, they should stay ever vigilant to ensure that the government stays the course. After all, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.  

Police on Thursday arrested Bhutanese refugee leader Teknath Rijal in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. He was dragged into the case after those arrested in the scam mentioned his name during the statement they gave to the investigators, SSP Dan Bahadur Karki of the District Police Range, Kathmandu said. Police said that Rijal has been taken to the court to extend the remand.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 32.30 points to close at 1, 877.32 points on Thursday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 5.23 points to close at 358. 18 points. A total of 4,422,186-unit shares of 2694companies were traded for Rs 1. 47 billion. Meanwhile, Himalaya Urja Bikas Company Limited and Aatmanirbhar Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited were the top gainers today, with their price surging by 10. 00 percent. Similarly, NIBL Growth Fund was the top loser as its price fell by 3.14 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 73 trillion.

President Ram Chandra Paudel is going to address the joint meeting of both houses of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) at 4 pm on Friday. Speaker Devraj Ghimire informed the Parliament that President Paudel will address the joint meeting of both houses at 4 pm tomorrow. Following this address, a meeting of the House of Representatives will be held at 6 pm. The government is going to unveil the policy and programs of the fiscal year 2080/2081.  

Now, companies working as payment system operators (PSOs) and payment service providers (PSPs) will be able to go for mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Amending the Payment and Settlement Bylaw 2020, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has allowed PSOs and PSPs to go for mergers or acquire organizations of similar nature. However, after receiving in-principle approval from the central bank, the PSOs and PSPs cannot cancel the merger/acquisition process without the approval of the NRB. NRB has said that it can direct payment companies having cross-holding structures of shares to go for a mandatory merger or acquisition. According to the central bank, if directors of payment companies own more than 10 percent of shares in other payment companies, such entities can be directed to merge or acquire each other. Guru Prasad Paudel, Chief of Payment Systems Department of NRB said that the amendment of the bylaw has opened the way for the merger of payment-related companies. With this, PSOs such as Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL), Nepal Electronic Payment System (NEPS), Smart Choice Technologies, and Nepal Payment Solutions can merge with each other. Similarly, PSPs like Esewa, Khalti, and IME Pay can go for the merger. Currently, there are 10 PSOs and 27 PSPs currently operating in Nepal. Of the 10 PSOs, three are international companies. Visa Worldwide of Singapore, Mastercard of Singapore, and Union Pay International of China have been operating as PSOs. NRB officials say the policy of merger has been brought in as the number of PSOs and PSPs has increased but their business has not grown as expected. In a bid to consolidate the payment industry, the central bank has already increased the paid-up capital of entities involved in the digital payment business. Issuing a new licensing policy in the second week of January, the central bank increased the paid-up capital for payment service providers (PSPs) and payment system operators (PSOs). As per the new arrangement, the paid-up capital of PSPs operating devices other than payment cards has been fixed at Rs 50 million. The paid-up capital of PSPs operating payment cards and other devices has been fixed at Rs 250 million. Similarly, the paid-up capital of PSOs has been fixed at Rs 400 million, while PSOs handling payment transactions outside Nepal through payment instruments issued in the country have to raise their paid-up capital to Rs 800 million. NRB has set a deadline of 2028 for the existing PSPs and PSOs to meet the new paid-up capital requirement. The companies that have already obtained licenses from the central bank, have to maintain the paid-up capital as prescribed by the NRB by mid-July 2028. Digital payment in Nepal has grown multifold, particularly after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. According to the latest NRB statistics, Nepal has now more than 17.56 million wallet users. Similarly, there are 2.04 million mobile banking users in the country. NRB data shows 368,764 new customers have been added to mobile banking in the last one month. The NRB statistics show a total of 3.05 million mobile banking customers have been added in the last one year, i.e., from mid-April 2022 to mid-April 2023. The number of digital wallet users has increased by 5.85 million. According to NRB, transactions worth Rs 207.45 billion were done through mobile banking in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April 2023). Similarly, transactions worth Rs 19.92 billion were done through digital wallets.  

Nepal and Bangladesh have agreed to jointly develop the Sunkoshi-3 Hydropower Project. The South Asian countries decided to build the 683 MW storage-type hydel with an aim to supply the generated power to Bangladesh during the fifth meeting of the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on energy cooperation held in Dhaka on Monday and Tuesday. Both sides have agreed that the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of the project within the next six months. The proposed project will be built in the area bordering the Kavrepalanchok and Ramechhap districts in central Nepal at an estimated cost of $1.45bn. In recent years, Bangladesh has been keen on energy cooperation with Nepal to meet its ever-increasing demand for electricity. Both countries had agreed to develop the Sunkoshi-3 through a joint venture investment during the fourth meeting of the working group in late August 2022. The JSC meeting also agreed to work on a tripartite agreement with India for the export of 40 MW of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh. As Indian transmission lines have to be used to materialize the power export, both countries decided to bring the Indian agency on board. As per the understanding, NEA, BPDB, and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) of India will finalize a tripartite deal. According to Madhu Bhetuwal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Bangladesh will notify India about the agreement reached with Nepal. "After completing the necessary process, the tripartite agreement will be signed as soon as possible," said Bhetuwal. It's been a year since talks for electricity exports from Nepal to Bangladesh gained momentum. Nepal's quest for finding a market for its electricity beyond India was further emboldened after Bangladesh expressed readiness to import 40-50 MW of power from Nepal during the energy secretary-level JSC meeting of the two countries held in Kathmandu in the last week of August. Nepal and Bangladesh last year agreed to request India for the passage of 40-50MW of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh through the existing transmission infrastructure of India. Both sides have been making efforts to bring India on board for this purpose. In the fourth meeting, both sides agreed that Nepal would provide an environmental impact assessment report of the Sunkoshi III project to the Bangladeshi side and later would respond with its opinion. According to Bhetuwal, Nepal has already sent the feasibility study report and environmental impact assessment report of Sunkoshi III to Bangladesh. The steering committee meeting also discussed in detail the construction of hydropower plants in Nepal under the joint investment of Bangladesh and Nepal, the import of electricity from Nepal using existing interconnection grid lines over India, and the construction of new transmission lines. The joint technical team has been instructed to study the possible options and submit a report within 6 months for a dedicated transmission line between Nepal and Bangladesh. As part of the new transmission line to be constructed exclusively within the territory of India, the matter will be determined through the Bangladesh-India-Nepal tripartite agreement. The meeting also discussed the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Indian developer GMR Energy on the import of 500 MW of electricity from the 900MW Upper Karnali Hydroelectric Project. The Bangladeshi side has informed that PPA will be signed between BPDB and GMR soon. GMR received a letter of intent in 2019 to sell electricity to Bangladesh.