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The Chinese government is to give 21 drones to the Nepal Police.

A Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday decided to accept 21 drones provided by the Chinese government.

The Public Security Department of Tibet has decided to provide 21 drones to the Home Ministry.

Chinese ambassador Chen Song on May 8 had informed Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha the Chinese government had decided to provide the drones to Nepal.

The Chinese government had decided to provide drones to Nepal government to monitor the border area.

The Home Ministry is preparing to give the drones to the security agency.

The main opposition party CPN-UML obstructed the House proceedings today as well.

As soon as the meeting began, the UML lawmakers stood from their respective seats as a gesture of protest.

All the agenda of the meeting has been removed following the obstruction.

UML lawmaker Surya Bahadur Thapa Chhetri demanded that the government form a high-level probe committee to investigate the gold smuggling case.

The ruling party lawmakers too stood from their respective seats when Chhetri was expressing his views. 

Speaker Devraj Ghimire requested the lawmakers to take their seats.

The UML lawmakers picketed the rostrum and started sloganeering after the ruling parties' MPs stood from their seats.

The CPN-UML has been demanding the formation of a probe committee to investigate the smuggling in of 100 kgs gold that had passed undetected through Tribhuvan International Airport on July 18.

In the meeting, Speaker Ghimire had urged the UML lawmakers to cooperate in the operation of the House business as discussions are on from various angles on the topic related to the gold smuggling scam and the Home Minister has already briefed the House about this matter.

"Parliament is the forum for raising people's voices. There are several issues like incidents of floods and landslides, among other topics, to be raised in Parliament at present," the Speaker reminded the lawmakers.

Today's meeting of the House has been postponed after the UML lawmakers continued the obstruction and sloganeering despite the Speaker's requests to allow the House to carry out its business.

The next meeting of the House of Representatives has been scheduled for 1 pm on Friday.

Doctors at Nepalgunj Medical College Teaching Hospital have removed a one kilogram tumor from the uterus of a female patient. The surgery was performed by a team led by gynecologist Dr Yubaraj Karki.

“Her tumor weighed 1.7 kg. There were other 10-12 tumors of 10 grams to 300 grams. All of them have been removed by surgery,” said Dr Karki. 

The patient, who hails from Rajapur Municipality, Bardiya, had been living with the tumors for the past five years at least. Doctors in Kathmandu had discovered a tumor in her body during an ultrasound examination four years earlier. 

“The doctors had said that there was a tumor when I was pregnant with my son. The stomach used to ache when the child was growing inside me. My lower abdomen used to ache a lot,” recalled the woman.

She was advised to undergo a surgery to get her tumor removed, but she could not afford the fee at the time. She finally decided to seek medical help after suffering severe stomach pain and profuse menstrual bleeding. Considering her financial background, the hospital decided to perform the surgery for free. The Annapurna Post, sister publication of The Annapurna Express, also played a crucial role to facilitate her surgery. 

“I got a new life after the surgery,” said the woman, thanking everyone who helped her get a free surgery.  

Kumar Adhikari, head of the hospital administration, said in case of poor patients, the hospital has been conducting surgeries with discounts ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent.

He also informed that the hospital has given free health services to 9,171 people from Banke, Bardia, Kailali, Dang and Surkhet districts in the fiscal year 2022/23.
“We gave discounts worth Rs 26.5m on surgeries, health checkups, ICU, NICU, beds and medicines in the fiscal year 2022/23,” said Adhikari.  

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 41.06 points to close at 2,060.91 points on Wednesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 7.48 points to close at 393. 05 points.

A total of 5,010,716-unit shares of 265 companies were traded for Rs 1. 88 billion.

Meanwhile, Himalayan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 9. 83 percent.

Likewise, Century Debenture 2088 was the top loser as its price fell by 9.99 percent.

At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 05 trillion.

With a significant surge in non-performing loans (NPL), commercial banks find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to distributing dividends to their shareholders from the profits of the last fiscal year. 

In the last fiscal year, while banks’ net profit surged by 25.03 percent, their distributable profit declined by 26 percent as they have to set aside a significant amount for regulatory adjustment. The profit of the banks reached Rs 70.17bn, but their distributable profit, which they can distribute to the shareholders, is only Rs 31.9bn. 

As per the unaudited reports of the banks, the average dividend ratio for commercial banks has declined by two percent points to 11.51 percent. This is in contrast to the 13.51 percent in the fiscal year 2021/22.  The dividend ratio may come down further after the final audit, according to bankers.

In the past few years, there has been a decline in the ability of banks to distribute dividends. The most significant capacity for dividend distribution by banks in the past decade occurred during the fiscal year 2012/13, reaching 22.25 percent.

In FY 2021/22, the distributable profit of banks stood at Rs 29.46bn, which was even lower than that of FY 2022/23. However, banks' dividend distribution capacity was higher than the last fiscal year.

Bankers attribute the decline in dividend distribution capacity to rising NPL and surge in provisioning amount. Krishna Bahadur Adhikari, the CEO of Nepal Bank, said that the reduction in dividend capacity can be attributed to the recent economic downturn. “The economic crisis has led to difficulties in recovering loan interests. And, a significant amount has to be set aside for provisioning for the bad loans,” said Adhikari. 

The unaudited financial report of the 20 commercial banks for the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year shows NPLs of all have surged in FY 2022/23 compared to FY 2021/22. The NPLs of banks have reached 2.8 percent, marking a staggering increase of 122.22 percent compared to FY 2021/22. The NPL of commercial banks stood at 1.26 percent in FY 2021/22.

With the sharp rise in NPLs, the loan loss provisions of banks have also increased. As per the unaudited financial reports for the fourth quarter, the amount for provisioning has increased by 94.37 percent. Banks have set aside Rs 25.93 bn for loan loss provisions till mid-July, 2023 compared to Rs 13.34bn during the same period of the last fiscal year. The total provisioning of banks increased by Rs 12.59bn in the last 12 months.

Banks have been experiencing a progressive decline in their capability to distribute dividends following increments in their paid-up capital. Over the recent years, banks have been augmenting their paid-up capital through mergers, acquisitions, and issuing bonus shares as dividend payments. Nevertheless, the growth in income and profits of these banks has not matched the proportional increase in capital. Sudesh Khaling, the CEO of Everest Bank, explains that due to this phenomenon, banks are facing a situation of reduced average dividend capacity.

According to Khaling, distributing the bonus shares of banks means automatically reducing the dividend capacity for the next year. “In the past few years, banks focused on giving bonus shares. They (banks), however, have not been able to earn income and profit, which has resulted in the weakening of their dividend distribution capacity,” said Khaling. 

Khaling said that when banks distribute bonus shares, they effectively decrease their dividend capacity for the following year. He noted that over recent years, banks have primarily emphasized providing bonus shares. “However, banks have struggled to generate income and profits, leading to a decline in their ability to distribute dividends,” said Khaling.

According to Nepal Financial Accounting Standard (NFRS), uncollected interest should also be reported as income, so there has been a significant increase in the net interest income of most banks. However, due to a non-recovery of the interest at the end of mid-July, the banks are under pressure when it comes to distributable profits.

Amongst the commercial banks, Everest Bank stands out with the capacity to offer the most substantial dividend payout derived from the earnings of the previous fiscal year. It has the potential to allocate dividends of up to 40.5 percent to its shareholders. The NIC Asia Bank can distribute dividends of 31.98 percent from the profit of the last fiscal year. Standard Chartered Bank Nepal can provide dividends of up to 28.99 percent.

Notably, both Kumari Bank and Himalayan Bank will be unable to distribute dividends for the preceding fiscal year due to their negative distributable profits.

The online service of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) has been disrupted.

Department's Information Officer and Director Kabiraj Uprety said that the service was interrupted to migrate the file server of the FEIMS system.

As a result, applications for labor permits cannot be registered online at present, the Department said.

Uprety, however, said that one can see and make changes to the documents already uploaded before this.

According to him, the service would be restored by Friday.

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba held a meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Wednesday after ruling Janata Samajbadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav warned of quitting the government.

Yadav, who was miffed with the government after the Home Ministry signed a five-point agreement with Gaur massacre victims, met Nepali Congress President Deuba on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the Janata Samajbadi Party Chairman expressed his dissatisfaction with the Congress President Deuba over the agreement signed with Gaur massacre victims.

According to a source, Yadav had even warned Deuba that they would leave the government.

Saying he would hold a discussion with the Prime Minister on the issue, Deuba, in response, urged Yadav not to take unpleasant decision like quitting the government.

Leader Yadav even told Congress President Deuba that he was not satisfied with the working style of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

After the meeting with Yadav, Congress President Deuba, Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak and Krishna Sitaula among other leaders had reached Baluwatar to meet Prime Minister Dahal.

They discussed issues like ending House deadlock and Gaur massacre.

On March 21, 2007, cadres of the then Madhesi Janadhikar Forum and Maoist had a clash in Gaur-based Rice Mill.

As many as 27 persons had lost their lives in the incident.

The families of those who died and injured in the incident had been staging demonstrations putting forth various demands.

On Tuesday, the government and the representatives of the Gaur massacre victims signed a five-point agreement at the Home Ministry.

Struggle Committee Chairman Rup Sagar Devi and Home Ministry spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai had signed the agreement.

According to the agreement, complaints pertaining to the incident filed with the police will be investigated and the guilty will be brought to book.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the percious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 112, 000 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 112, 100 per tola on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 111, 450 per tola. It was traded at Rs 111, 550.

Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1,390 per tola today.