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The Election Commission has directed 82 political parties to make public their audit report. A meeting of the poll body held on Wednesday directed 82 parties that have submitted the audit report for the fiscal year 2078/2079 within the given time to publish the report through the concerned party’s office, website, mass media (newspapers, radio, television etc), social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) within seven days and inform the Commission about it. According to sub-section (1) of Section 41 of the Act on Political Parties, 2073, there is a legal provision that political parties that are registered with the Commission must be audited by a licensed auditor within six months of the end of the fiscal year and submit the audit report to the Commission within a month. Muskan Sena Nepal Party, Shiva Sena Nepal, Aam Aadmi Party Nepal, Rastriya Janmukhi Party Loktantrik and Nepal Communist Party Loktantrik, which have not submitted the audit report for the fiscal years 2077/78 and 2078/79, have been directed to furnish clarification why they should not be taken action as per clause (a) of sub-section (5) of section 54 of the Political Parties Act, 2073.  

CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli urged the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to carry out investigations into all corruption cases. He said so while addressing the Central Committee meeting held at the party headquarters in Chyasal of Lalitpur. Chairman Oli said that the corruption watchdog should not be scared to investigate the corruption cases. He was referring to the cantonment corruption case. The former prime minister further said the people involved in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam should not be spared. Oli opined that the party would protest if attempts were made to implicate the innocent and let the guilty off. The central committee meeting began today. He said that attempts were made to implicate someone in a prejudiced manner in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. The UML Chair said that during the meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had urged not to spare those involved in the scam and not to implicate innocent people. He further said that the party suspended party secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi to help with the investigation into the scam. Saying people making Nepalis stateless and sending people to foreign land illegally are traitors, he questioned why the people arrested earlier in this scam were released. Chairman Oli said he during the Premiership of Girija Prasad Koirala had suggested resolving the problem by sending Bhutanese refugees to third countries after it was not possible to repatriate them to Bhutan. He added that he during his term as Foreign Minister had urged the then US President George W. Bush to resolve the Bhutanese refugee problem. Similarly, UML General-Secretary Shankar Pokhrel opined that the 'mission grassroots' launched with a plan to strengthen the CPN-UML as the strong national force would be reviewed. Discussion would be held on 10 different topics, including political report of Oli, report of central body, report of mission grassroots, action plan of provinces, division of work of central committee members in the meeting. The meeting would run till May 13.  

In a bid to implement the long-delayed Mobile Device Management System (MDMS), the government has decided to exempt customs duty on a new smartphone brought by migrant workers while returning home. The Cabinet meeting on Tuesday decided to amend the Baggage Rules, 2016 allowing the migrant workers to bring in a new mobile set, in addition to their phone. However, the returnees will have to submit a legal work permit for at least six months to get the customs duty waiver on the extra handset. Earlier, the government had planned to enforce the MDMS from December 30, 2022, but later withdrew the implementation following a strong uproar. The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) halted the full implementation of the MDMS following the instruction from Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The Finance Ministry had levied an 18 percent customs duty if returnee migrant workers were found to have brought more than one handheld device from abroad. Nepali migrant workers abroad launched a ‘no remittance’ campaign on social media, stating they will stop sending remittances to Nepal to protest the rule. According to Punya Bikram Khadka, Spokesperson at Department of Customs (DoC), the new arrangement will come into effect once DoC receives the cabinet decision in written form. The cabinet decision will be published in the Nepal Gazette first. "Once it is published, we will start the implementation," he said. NTA Chairman Purusottam Khanal said that the authority will now move toward the implementation of MDMS. "Since the cabinet has amended the Baggage Rule, we are technically ready to implement the system," he said. Once the MDMS is implemented, NTA can block smartphones that have been brought to Nepal without customs clearance. MDMS has been expected to end the import of ‘gray’ mobile sets as the authority can block such smartphones. According to mobile phone importers, around 30-40 percent of the smartphone market in Nepal is of ‘gray’ handsets with about Rs 12-15bn worth of mobile devices imported to Nepal illegally every year. The enforcement of MDMS has come at a time when the domestic mobile phone market is going through a slowdown. “The MDMS implementation could provide some respite to handset dealers,” said Deepak Malhotra, President of Mobile Phone Importers’ Association. According to him, it is high time that the government enforces the mechanism effectively. The domestic mobile phone business is currently going through a lean patch with a slowdown in demand as sales have fallen by more than 40 percent, say importers. According to them, mid-range phones dominate the market and even that segment is not doing well currently. They say it is the government that will also benefit from the implementation of MDMS as all types of imports will become legal and more revenue will be added to the state coffers. MDMS is a security system that enables NTA to implement policies that secure, monitor, and manage end-user mobile devices. It is expected that once MDMS comes into force, the sales of ‘gray’ devices in the market will stop as SIM cards on unregistered phone sets will not work. NTA has built a centralized system that keeps a record of mobile phones after their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is registered with it. Every mobile phone has a unique 15-digit IMEI number and such numbers of officially imported mobile phones are initially registered by the importing company. As per the law, the telecom regulator has to provide a type approval for the phones before the handsets are imported. The existing arrangements allow NTA to determine the genuineness of mobile handsets in the country by examining their IMEI numbers.  

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 3. 34 points to close at 1,838.59 points on Thursday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 71 points to close at 353. 09 points. A total of 2,105,657-unit shares of 259 companies were traded for Rs 578 billion. Meanwhile, Aatmanirbhar Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 6. 10 percent. Likewise, Forward Microfinance Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top loser with its price dropping by 5. 99 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 68 trillion.

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba held a meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday. Deuba had reached Baluwatar to meet Prime Minister Dahal prior to the party’s office bearers meeting. Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka and Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud were present in the meeting. It has been learnt that they discussed the issue of fake Bhutanese refugee scam in the meeting. The office bearers meeting was called after Congress leader and former home minister Bal Krishna Khand was arrested in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. The office bearers meeting was also held on Wednesday. The meeting discussed whether to suspend central member Khanda from the party’s post or not. But the meeting ended without making a decision. The meeting to be held today will take the decision on the same issue. Former office bearers are also called to attend the meeting today.  

Nepal has received the highest monthly inflow of remittances in Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April). According to the latest macroeconomic report of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), remittance inflow amounted to Rs 109.1bn last month. The country has been receiving monthly remittances above Rs 100bn for the last five months. With the surge in remittance inflow, the country's forex reserves, and balance of payment both have improved, said NRB. The central bank report shows a continuous improvement in the external sector of the economy. NRB officials say that the policy efforts of the government and the central bank implemented a year ago, aimed at controlling imports and credit expansion, have worked as expected. According to them, the challenge now is to maintain the pace of improvement. “Amid the growing problems in the external sector, the central bank introduced a tight monetary policy, a 100 percent margin provision while opening letters of credit (LC) while the government enforced import restrictions on 10 goods,” said Prakash Kumar Shrestha, Executive Director of NRB, “These measures helped us to avert a looming crisis. While the indicators are positive currently, we need to tread with caution.” According to the NRB report, Nepal’s balance of payment (BOP) is at a surplus of Rs 180.17bn in the first nine months of FY 2022/23 compared to a deficit of Rs 268.26bn in the same period of FY 2021/22. In US Dollar terms, BOP remained at a surplus of Rs 1.37bn in the review period compared to a deficit of 2.25bn in the same period of the last fiscal year. The country's forex reserves increased by 17.9 percent in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. The report said Nepal's forex reserves stood at Rs 1433.73bn in mid-April, 2023 from Rs 1215.8bn in mid-July 2022. In US dollar terms, the gross foreign exchange reserves increased by 14.8 percent to Rs 10.94 billion in mid-April 2023 from Rs 9.54 billion in mid-July 2022. In the report, NRB has stated that the current level of foreign exchange reserves is sufficient to cover merchandise imports for 11 months, and merchandise and services imports for 9.4 months. Meanwhile, continuously growing tourist arrivals helped the growth of the country’s tourism income by 94.3 percent. Nepal has earned Rs 44.17bn as tourism income in this fiscal year compared to Rs 22.73bn in the last fiscal year. Inflation resurges in Chaitra The NRB report shows consumer inflation has surged in Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April) compared to Falgun (mid-February to mid-March). Consumer inflation stood at 7.76 percent in Chaitra compared to 7.44 percent in Falgun. Food and beverage inflation stood at 6.93 percent whereas non-food and service inflation rose to 8.42 percent. Under the food and beverage category, the price of the restaurant & hotel sub-category increased by 14.68 percent, spices by 14.67 percent, cereal grains & their products by 13.72 percent, fruit by 11 percent, and tobacco products by 10.83 percent. Under the non-food and services category, the price of the health sub-category increased by 10.39 percent, housing and utilities by 9.54 percent, recreation and culture by 8.81 percent, furnishing and household equipment by 8.74 percent, and education by 8.67 percent.

The government is planning to extend the duration of survey licenses of power projects. The government has registered an amendment bill to the Nepal Electricity Act, 1992 at the House of Representatives with an arrangement that the duration could be extended by a maximum of two years in case of special circumstances. The amendment proposal was included in the Some Nepal Acts Amendment Bill registered at the house. As per the Nepal Electricity Act, 1992, the term of license to be issued for the survey of electricity can be of five years at maximum. “The duration of the survey license could be extended by a maximum of two years if the survey could not be carried out due to incidents like natural calamity, general strikes, and curfew,” the Amendment Bill states. The Department of Electricity Development (DoED) has so far issued survey licenses for 123 hydropower projects having a combined capacity of 12,351.929 MW. Similarly, DoED has issued survey licenses for 47 solar projects with a combined capacity of 1,248.59 MW. A senior DoED official said there is a need for an extension of the survey license duration in the situation of natural calamities and other crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and major political upheavals that can disrupt the surveys. “We also felt the need to extend the survey license period for large storage-type hydropower projects,” the official said. “It takes enormous time to study large projects.” However, the DoED official said for smaller power projects and run-of-the-river (ROR) type projects, the existing five-year term of survey license is sufficient. Besides unavoidable circumstances, the government’s policy has also been hindering the efforts of completing the survey at the earliest date possible. “For example, license holders show no hurry to carry out surveys if a power purchase agreement (PPA) is not guaranteed,” the official said. For example, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) halted the PPA signing with the developers of the run-of-the-river type projects for the last three years citing the financial risks for it while buying more power in the rainy season. In February, the state-owned power utility decided to sign a PPA with the developers of ROR projects under the ‘take or pay’ modality for up to 1,500 MW. NEA's decision came eight months after a Cabinet meeting directed the authority to do so. The extension of the survey license could, however, slow down the process of project development. “Genuine developers do not want to extend the duration of the survey license because of the high renewal fee,” the official said. A developer of a power project from 1MW to 5MW needs to pay Rs 1 million per year in licensing fees. Similarly, a developer of over 500 MW projects needs to pay Rs 6 million annually in fees.

The gold is being traded at Rs 111, 600 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 111, 050 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 15 and is being traded at Rs 1,430 per tola today.