Submit your Article

Secretary at the Vice President’s Office Tek Narayan Pandey has been arrested. He was apprehended for his alleged involvement in defrauding people on the pretext of sending them to the United States as Bhutanese refugees. Police said that they arrested Pandey for questioning after those detained in the same case mentioned his name during the interrogation. According to a preliminary investigation of police, Pandey was found involved in making fake Bhutanese refugees when he was the home secretary. He is accused of colluding with a racket involved in defrauding people of millions of rupees on the pretext of sending them to the United States as Bhutanese refugees. Earlier on Tuesday, police nabbed Indrajit Rai, security advisor of former Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, in connection with the same case.  

A sharp slowdown in economic activities, slackened domestic demand, tighter monetary policy, and persistent global headwinds have adversely affected Nepal's economy in the current fiscal year. Making public the National Account Statistics on Tuesday, the National Statistics Office (NSO) estimated that Nepal’s economy would grow by 2.16 percent in the current fiscal year 2022/23. With an acute liquidity crunch, higher interest rates, rising inflation, and sluggish market demand, the country’s economy has been under pressure from the start of FY 2022/23. The economy grew by a meager 1.7 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. In its economic growth projection for the second quarter, NSO said the gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been negative by 1.1 percent. However, NSO has expected that economic growth will be positive by the last quarter of the current fiscal year. Similarly, Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to be at Rs 5,381bn in FY 2022/23. Much lower than WB’s and ADB’s projections NSO’s GDP growth projection is much lower than what World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasted a month ago. Both WB and ADB have projected that Nepal’s economic growth would grow at 4.1 percent this year. On the other hand, the government set an ambitious growth rate target of eight percent in the budget of the current fiscal year. The per capita income growth of Nepalis has stagnated this year as the NSO estimated that per capita GDP will remain unchanged from last year’s $1399. Per capita income means an average income of a person in a year. The average per capita income of Nepalis increased by $122 in the last fiscal year. Economist Dr Biswas Gauchan has termed the NSO projection as realistic. “Given the current state of our economy which is grappling with higher inflation, high interest rates, and liquidity crunch, the growth projection is realistic,” said Gauchan. “However, for a developing country like Nepal, this growth rate cannot be termed as satisfactory.” Contraction in major sectors This year, the slump in the construction, mining, transport, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade sectors dragged the overall economic growth. The NSO has projected that the mining sector will grow by a meager 1.11 percent in FY 2022/23 compared to a growth of 8.84 percent in FY 2021/22. The construction sector which grew by 7.08 percent in the last fiscal year, is expected to remain negative by 2.62 percent in this fiscal year. Similarly, the wholesale and retail trade's growth has been projected to be negative by 2.96 percent in this fiscal compared to growth of 7.46 percent in the last fiscal. According to NSO, the growth of the manufacturing sector is likely to decelerate by 2.04 percent in FY 2022/23 due to higher interest rates, import restriction measures, and the slowdown in domestic consumption. Business community members have been saying that the mining and construction sectors have been going through a prolonged slump which has resulted in a sharp decline in the demand for cement, steel, and other construction materials. The demand for cement, steel, sand, and other construction materials has decreased with construction activities in the country coming to a halt. The NSO has stated that the electricity and accommodation (hospitality) sectors will have the highest growth in FY 2022/23. According to the projection, the electricity sector will grow by 19.36 percent while accommodation will grow by 18.56 percent. A gradual recovery in the tourism sector with a surge in tourist arrival has helped the hospitality sector. Ramprasad Thapaliya, Chief of NSO said that the contraction in economic activities has affected the country’s economic growth. “The National Account Statistics will help the federal government to prepare the budget for the next fiscal year,” he said, “We have made public the real state of the economy, based on which the government can bring the necessary policy interventions through the next budget.”

The government has decided to felicitate the players of Nepali cricket team that won the ACC Men’s Premier Cup with a cash prize of Rs 600, 000 each. A Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday decided to honor the players and head coach with Rs 600, 000 each and other officials with Rs 300, 000 each. In the match played at the TU Ground in Kirtipur on Tuesday, Nepal defeated the UAE by seven wickets to secure its place in the Asia Cup scheduled to take place in September 2023. Nepal had won against the same side in March, landing a berth in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifiers. Nepal will compete in Group A against Pakistan and India. Group B consists of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. Similarly, the government has decided to allocate the necessary funds in the budget of the next financial year to make the TU Ground of international standard.  

The government has decided to recommend the budget session of the Parliament for May 7. Information and Communications Minister Rekha Sharma said that the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday decided to recommend President Ram Chandra Paudel to convene the budget session for May 7. Now, the President will call the Parliament session on the recommendation of the government.    

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has decided to release Rs 6.9bn (about $52.8m) to Nepal in the second tranche of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF). After completing the first and second reviews of Nepal’s performance, the executive board of IMF agreed to provide the second installment of the loan. In the last week of February, the Nepal government and IMF reached a staff-level agreement on policies and reforms needed to complete the combined first and second review of the ECF arrangement. Nepal was expecting to receive the second installment in May 2022, but the Washington DC-based global lender delayed the second tranche of $ 395.9m in loan to Nepal till February 2023, stating that the country is yet to fulfill the obligations. The IMF had approved the $395.9m ECF for Nepal in January 2022 of which the Himalayan nation had already received the first installment of $110m. The funding was approved to assist Nepal’s Covid-19 response in mitigating the pandemic’s impact on health and economic activity, protect vulnerable groups, preserve macroeconomic and financial stability, and support sustained growth and poverty reduction. Issuing a press statement, the IMF said that the ECF arrangement had helped mitigate the impact of the pandemic and global shocks on economic activity and aims at protecting vulnerable groups, preserving macroeconomic and financial stability, and supporting sustained growth and poverty reduction. “The program is also helping to catalyze additional financing from Nepal’s development partners,” the statement reads. Even though the import restrictions helped to stabilize the declining foreign exchanges, the measures contributed to the reduction of the government’s revenue sharply in the current fiscal year forcing the government to cut funding for various development projects. The IMF praised Nepal for making continued progress with the implementation of the ECF-supported program despite a challenging global and domestic environment last year, including the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine. “The Nepali authorities have taken decisive actions to maintain a stable macroeconomic environment in the context of the post-Covid-19 recovery and global shocks. The much-needed monetary policy tightening last year, together with the gradual unwinding of covid support measures, helped moderate credit growth and lower inflation,” the IMF said. “While reform implementation has been slower than expected, in a difficult environment, the Nepali authorities remain committed to their economic reform program,” the statement quoted Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of IMF as saying. “Maintaining momentum on governance reforms is critical to cement recent gains in fiscal transparency,” said Bo. “Fiscal consolidation and further structural reforms are needed to support medium-term fiscal sustainability. Revenue mobilization, advancing fiscal federalism, addressing fiscal risks, and strengthening public investment management are important measures.” The IMF has also pointed out the asset quality of the Nepali financial system. Bank asset quality, according to the IMF, has deteriorated as higher lending rates depress borrowers’ repayment capacity. In fact, Nepal has committed to evaluating the situation of Nepal’s large 10 banks through external auditors to receive the ECF funding. A Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) official had earlier told the Annapurna Express that Nepal Rastra Bank would foreign auditors to identify the exact status of 10 commercial banks following the completion of the latest first and second review of the ECF-supported program. “The NRB is prioritizing the asset quality of banks, including through regulatory initiatives to ensure appropriate classification of loans, and is focused on advancing the financial sector reform agenda,” the IMF said. “Measures to improve the autonomy and accountability framework of the central bank and strengthen the AML/CFT framework and its effectiveness remain crucial.”

The price of gold has increased by Rs 1, 800 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 110, 600 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 108, 800 per tola on Tuesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 110, 050 per tola. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,425 per tola today.

A man working at the under-construction 900-megawatt Arun III Hydropower Project died after he was hit by a falling rock inside the project's audit-2 tunnel at Amarang of Makalu Rural municipality-5 on Tuesday. The deceased has been identified as Prem Rai (27) of Silichong Rural Municipality-5. The District Police Office, Sankhuwasabha said the incident occurred last night. Critically injured in the incident, Rai breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Sankhuwasabha District Hospital this morning. The injured have been identified as Samamati Walita (23) and Saimuddin Ali (23) of Guwahati, India.  They are receiving treatment at the same hospital. Over 300 workers including from India have been hired for the project. The lack of a health facility at the project site has caused problems for them during health emergencies. In some cases, they are likely to face life-threatening circumstances in absence of timely treatment.  I In addition to that, workers demand regular health-checkup services for them.

Identities of the people, who went missing in an avalanche at Boling in Byas Rural Municipality-1 of Darchula on Tuesday, have been ascertained. They had gone there to collect Yarshagumba. Among them, four are females and one is male, according to the Armed Police Force (APF), Number 50 Company, Chharung. The missing persons have been identified as Kamala Kunwar (38) and her son Prabin Kunwar (18) of Duhun Rural Municipality. Likewise, Nakni Dolma Thapa (45) Ishwori Thapa (28) and Chhimi Somo Thapa (15) of Jorayal rural Municipality have also gone missing in the avalanche. APF Deputy Superintendent of Police Ishwari Dutt Bhatt said they are struggling to carry out rescue operations due to continuous rainfall and snowfall since last night. At least five people went missing after an avalanche buried tents at Boling in Byas Rural Municipality-1 of Darchula. They were waiting for a favorable time to start Yarsa collections. However, some others managed to escape to safety. Following the incident, a 25-member APF team reached the site on Tuesday evening. But it returned to Chharung without carrying out rescue operations owing to rain and snowfall. According to DSP Bhatta, 20 people who managed to escape the possible consequences were later brought to Chharung and they are safe.