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'The Red Suitcase' directed by Fidel Devkota has been selected for the 80th Venice Film Festival.

The Nepali film, which portrays the impact of foreign employment in Nepali society, was selected for the festival under the Horizon category, said Devkota.

This is the third Nepali film that made it to the Venice Film Festival after 'Kalo Pothi' and 'Seto Surya'. Both of the films had foreigners as producer and cinematographer.

'The Red Suitcase' has become the first Nepali film completely made by a domestic production group to be selected in the Venice Film Festival.

Director Devkota wrote the screenplay of the film that features artists such as Saugat Malla, Bipin Karki, Pravin Khatiwada and Shristi Shrestha among others.

The Venice Film Festival will be held from August 30 to September 9 in Venice, Italy.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 500 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 112, 700 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 112, 200 per tola on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 112, 150 per tola. It was traded at Rs 111, 650 per tola.

Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1, 465 per tola today.

The integrated check post (ICP) along the Nepal-India border in Nepalgunj has not been brought into operation even after one and a half months of its inauguration.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had jointly inaugurated the ICP in Nepalgunj-Rupaidiya in June.

They had inaugurated the check post remotely from Hyderabad House, the Office of the Indian Prime Minister. The ICP is expected to facilitate improved cross-border connectivity between Nepal and India.

Chief of Building Division Office in Nepalgunj, Bijay Keshar Khanal, said that the ICP has not been brought into operation as the construction company has not handed over the building to the government. Likewise, the tasks of the physical works are still ongoing.

Similarly, the jobs of human resource management and security arrangement are likely to compete soon, he added.

Khanal stated that it could take some two more months for the operation of the ICP in Nepalgunj.

The Chinese government has removed Qin Gang from the post of foreign minister and replaced him with Wang Yi.

“China’s top legislature voted to appoint Wang Yi as foreign minister … as it convened a session on Tuesday,” the Xinhua news agency reported. “Qin Gang was removed from the post of foreign minister.”

The announcement came a month after Qin’s last public appearance.

His ministry had said the 57-year-old was off work for unspecified health reasons, but the lack of detailed information on his whereabouts fuelled a swirl of speculation.

Law Minister Dhanraj Gurung said that a commission will be formed to investigate the property of high-level leaders.

Speaking at a program organized on the occasion of BP memorial week on Tuesday, Minister Gurung said that a commission will be formed to investigate the property of high-level leaders and to establish good governance.

“The property of high-level leaders should be investigated to establish good governance. As it has already been written in the policy and programs of the government that the property of high-level leaders will be investigated, I have to say that a commission will be formed sooner or later to investigate the property of high-level leaders,” he said.

He made it clear that the transformation will start from here.

Minister Gurung said that they will be proved as the leaders of the same group if the property of the high-level leaders is not investigated.

Saying that if Dhanraj Gurung and Shekhar Koirala are of different Congress, he challenged the government to investigate their property first.

He further said that the government will keep on opening the big files of corruption.

Minister Gurung said that he as a minister has also suggested Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to do the same.

“As a minister, I have told the Prime Minister to move ahead. We will keep on opening the files of corruption one after another.  Whoever will be, we will not hesitate to open the files,” he said, adding, “I have already said that the leaders involved in the corruption will be brought to justice.”

Minister Gurung said that he is also ready to quit the post of minister for the same.

Nepali Congress former general secretary Dr Shashank Koirala said that there is no alternative to Nepali Congress in the Nepali politics.

Stating that the Nepali Congress led all changes that took place so far in the country, he said that if unity is intact within the party, no force could defeat it.

The NC is the vehicle for the country's development and the only one party that can bring economic prosperity in the country, Koirala said.

The leader was speaking at a tea reception organized here in honor of NC office-bearers and members on Tuesday.

NC President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Vice President Purna Bahadur Khadka, General Secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa, Joint General Secretaries Bhishma Raj Aandembe, Badri Prasad Pandey and Jiban Pariyar, party spokesperson and Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat and leader Dr Shekhar Koirala were present on the occasion.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 36. 19 points to close at 2,164.31 points on Tuesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 7. 62 points to close at 411. 16 points.

A total of 7,716,277-units of the shares of 267 companies were traded for Rs 2. 91 billion.

Meanwhile, Kisan Lagubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Likewise, Nabil Debenture 2085 was the top loser with its price dropping by 6. 87 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 18 trillion.

Nepal’s total debt reached Rs 2221.678bn in 2022/23, which is equivalent to 41.28 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP). According to the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO), the country’s total debt surged by Rs 208.382bn in the last fiscal year. 

Of the total outstanding debt, Rs 1128.329bn is internal debt while Rs 1093.349bn is external debt. In the last fiscal year, internal debt increased by Rs 140.87bn while external debt increased by Rs 67.5bn.

The share of internal debt in the government’s public debt has increased in the last fiscal. In the past, the share of external debt in the government’s total debt used to be higher. However, the share of internal debt has increased since the government failed to get external loans as per the target in the last fiscal. 

The government will be spending more than a quarter of its revenue on repaying domestic and external loans in the current fiscal year. In the budget for the fiscal year 2023/24, the government has announced to spend as much as Rs 330.56bn in loan repayment which accounts for 26.47 percent of total projected revenue. 

As large amounts of internal loans will be matured in the current fiscal year, the government had to allocate a huge amount for repaying the internal loans. A total of Rs 275.78bn has been allocated for repaying domestic debts. In the new budget, as much as Rs 105.38bn has been allocated for repaying the interest on internal and external debts. 

While Nepal’s current debt level is not alarming, the country’s total debt doubled to Rs 2,000bn from just Rs 1,000bn in 2018/19, suggesting a staggering rise in a short period of time. The government started to raise loans on a large scale from internal and external creditors for post-quake reconstruction purposes from 2015/16.

Following a gradual decline in the early 2010s, Nepal’s public debt has risen significantly over the last seven years, especially after the country’s transition to fiscal federalism and the need to rebuild after the earthquake of 2015. The country’s total debt has increased from 25 percent of GDP in 2015/16 to 44 percent in 2020/21, with the largest increase in 2019/20 after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nepal’s total debt hit the Rs 2,000bn mark for the first time last fiscal year, 2021/22. The country’s total debt reached Rs 2013.296bn in FY 2021/22, which was equivalent to 41.47 percent of Nepal’s gross domestic product (GDP).

With rising debt, Nepali lawmakers agreed to cap the maximum external debt the country can receive from external creditors. According to the newly enacted Public Debt Management Act, external debt is capped at one-third of the previous fiscal year’s GDP.

The government has set a target of raising loans worth Rs 452.75bn in the current fiscal year 2023/24. Of the total debt targeted for 2023/24, Rs 212.65bn is external debt. 

In the last fiscal year, the government had targeted to raise Rs 498.26bn in loans. However, it ended up raising only Rs 358.11bn which was Rs 140.15bn less than the target. While the government managed to raise internal debt as per the target, it failed to meet the target for external debt in FY 2022/23. The government raised Rs 255.99 billion in internal loans in the last fiscal year against the target of Rs 256bn. However, it succeeded in getting only Rs 102.12bn in external loans against the target of Rs 242.26bn in the last fiscal year. 

Dhaniram Sharma, the spokesperson of the Finance Ministry also admitted that the government was not able to receive foreign loans as per the target in the last fiscal. “Since the physical progress of the programs and projects being implemented with foreign loans is not satisfactory, the government failed to receive foreign loans as per expectation,” he said.