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A truck and a bus collided with each other at the Koshi Barrage Bridge on the border of Sunsari and Saptari on Friday.

Police said that the truck (Me 1 Kha 3007) heading towards east from west collided head-on with the bus (Me 2 Kha 1765) at the bridge of Koshi Barrage towards Sunsari at 7:40 am today.

The truck fell into the Koshi River after colliding with the bus en route of Solukhumbu from Kakadbhitta carrying passengers, police said.

It has been assumed that the truck that fell off the bridge was swept away by the mighty Koshi.

“After the truck fell off the bridge, the truck was seen swept away by the river,” a policeman, who was at the incident site, said, adding, “Now the truck is no longer visible.”

According to DSP Raj Kumar Rai, spokesperson at the District Police Office, Sunsari, the fence of the 10 number gate of the Koshi Barrage after the truck and bus collided with each other.

Rai said that the three persons traveling in the truck that fell into the Koshi River were rescued safely.

DIG Rameshnath Bastola, Chief of Koshi Provine, has directed the police to be active in searching for the truck that fell into the river.

At least 19 persons were injured when a passenger bus met with an accident at Dasdhunga in Chitwan on Friday.

The bus (Pradesh 01-006 Kha 5237) heading towards Kathmandu from Kakadbhitta met with an accident at around 5 am today.

DSP Bijay Pandit of the District Police Office, Chitwan said that the bus fell some 10 meters down the road.

He said that the injured are undergoing treatment at the Bharatpur Hospital and Purano Medical College.

The injured are said to be in normal condition.

A team of 25 persons including SP Rameshwor Karki, Chief at the District Police Office, Chitwan, had reached the incident site to carry out rescue operations.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs, Donald Lu, is arriving in Nepal on Friday.

He will arrive in Kathmandu via India.

The government has been saying that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) endorsed by the Parliament will be fully implemented from August.

Assistant Secretary Lu is arriving in Kathmandu to discuss the same issue.

During this stay in Nepal, the Foreign Ministry said that he is scheduled to hold discussions with the concerned stakeholders on the MCC, a source said.

The US Assistant Secretary said that he is scheduled to hold discussions with the officials of Foreign Ministry, leaders of various political parties and ministers.

He is scheduled to return home tomorrow.

This is Doland Lu’s third visit to Nepal.

Earlier, he had visited Nepal on November 17, 2021 and November 28, 2022.

At that time, he held meetings with the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and top leaders of various political parties.

Both Houses of Federal Parliament have passed the budget presented by the government for the upcoming fiscal year 2080/81 BS (2023/24).

Today's meeting of the National Assembly passed the Appropriation Bill, 2080, received from the House of Representatives with a majority.

In the meeting, Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat presented a proposal for the passage of the Appropriation Bill, 2080.

Before this, a proposal for cutting the expenses of different headings under the Appropriation Bill, 2080, was rejected by a majority of the members.

The respective ministers had responded to queries raised in the course of deliberation on different topics under the Appropriation Bill, 2080 in the meeting.

The House of Representatives passed the budget for the coming fiscal year on June 28. The government had presented the budget for fiscal year 2080/81 in both Houses of the Federal Parliament on May 29.

With the passage of the budget from both Houses, the way for the implementation of the budget has opened from July 17.

The government has said discussions are on regarding implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project. Nepal and China signed an agreement on the BRI project in 2017.

Delivering a statement in the National Assembly meeting today, Minister for Foreign Affairs, NP Saud said, "Discussions are being held between the two countries regarding implementation of BRI."  

Though the agreement on BRI was reached in 2017, no decision has been made so far on the modality of moving ahead the projects. Before this, Ambassador of China to Nepal, Chen Song had claimed during the inauguration of Pokhara International Airport on January 1, 2023 that a project under the BRI had been implemented.

Foreign Affairs Minister Saud however said that no project has been moved ahead under the BRI before this as well.

He  said that a feasibility study of the Kerung-Kathmandu Railway and the Inter-country Power Transmission Line between the two countries is being carried out. These projects were signed during the visit of China's then Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Nepal in March 2022.

Stating that diplomatic initiatives were being made to build independent view in international relations on the basis of merits and demerits, he said, "Nepal's diplomatic efforts are directed towards building independent opinion on international issues on the basis of merits and demerits, voting and making the international ties just, fair, responsible and cooperative."

During the deliberation on budget and programme allocated for the Foreign Ministry and subordinate bodies under the Appropriation Bill, 2060, former Foreign Minister Bimala Paudyal Rai enquired whether Nepal deviated from the non-aligned foreign policy. 

Stating that Nepal has been strengthening and expanding relations with other countries including neighboring countries on the basis of universal equality, mutual respect and benefit, Minister Saud mentioned that Nepal has been able to  achieve credibility and respect in the world due to the independent, balanced, impartial and objective point of view it has adopted.

Foreign Minister Saud had participated in the Summit of Non-Aligned Movement held at Baku of Azerbaijan from July 3-6. The Foreign Minister briefed the upper house of the Federal Parliament about his address in the Summit.

"I had expressed the commitment of the Government of Nepal on collaboration for further highlighting the relevance and significance of the Non-Aligned Movement in the changing international scenario as well as laid emphasis on solidarity and collaboration of Non-Aligned Movement member countries for the resolution of burning political and economic issues of the world. Therefore, I would like to make it clear that Nepal's commitment towards adopting non-aligned foreign policy is consistent," he said.

The Cooperative Sector Reform Suggestion Task Force has recommended that the registration of savings and credit cooperatives be suspended for a one-year period in metropolitan cities, sub-metropolitan cities, and municipalities.

While there are more than 31,000 cooperatives in the country, the majority of those who’ve turned problematic are savings and credit cooperatives.  Hence, the task force suggested the suspension of registration and extension of their work area.

“Through the amendment of some Nepal Acts, by amending the Cooperative Law, the registration of savings and credit cooperatives in metropolitan cities, sub-metropolitan cities, and municipalities, and permission to expand their scope of work should be stopped for one year,” reads the recommendation of the task force. The task force submitted the report to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday.

Amid rising incidents of cooperatives turning problematic and misusing the depositors’ money, the government in the second week of May formed the task force headed by National Planning Commission member Jayakant Raut.

According to Raut, the task force has suggested freezing the bank accounts, immovable property, and passports of the directors of cooperatives that have turned problematic.

The task force has also suggested fixing the loan limit to be given to directors of cooperatives as well as members of the audit committee. It has also recommended that directors who've taken loans from their organizations should pay such loans within six months. 

Depositors have lost billions of rupees due to the lack of effective regulation of savings and credit cooperatives by the government. In the absence of effective regulation, deposits worth billions of rupees are at risk as several cooperative operators indulged in reckless investments. 

According to the Department of Cooperatives, problems have been observed in about 100 cooperatives. Although the department does not have a definite data, billions of rupees of depositors have sunk in those cooperatives.

Depositors have not got back Rs 14bn from Shiva Shikhar Multi-purpose Cooperative. Kedar Nath Sharma, the former president of the cooperative has been recently arrested by the police from India. 

Similarly, Dev Kumar, director of Image Savings and Credit Cooperative, is absconding after defrauding depositors’ money worth Rs 2.5bn.

According to government data, there are 30,879 cooperative institutions across the country. These cooperatives’ total share capital is  Rs 94bn while their savings stand at Rs 477bn. Their loan disbursement is estimated at Rs 426bn.

With the government struggling to strike a balance between income and expenditure, the budget has widened further. The statistics of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO) show the government’s federal budget is in deficit by Rs 422bn. 

The budget deficit has increased as revenue could not be collected as targeted while liabilities increased in areas of salary, pension, social security allowances, and domestic & external debts among others. 

According to the latest statistics of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government’s expenditure reached Rs 1383.55bn by July 11 while the income totaled Rs 960.83bn.

The government has been able to meet only 64.5 percent of the revenue target with only four days left to end the current fiscal year while the total expenditure has reached 77.13 percent of the annual target. 

According to Finance Ministry officials, the budget deficit may exceed Rs 5bn by the end of the fiscal year, and there is a possibility that the government treasury account will be negative by Rs 1.5bn. The government’s treasury account has already become negative by nearly Rs 1bn. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the government's treasury account has become negative by Rs 98.85bn. 

Since the beginning of Ashad, the last month of the fiscal year, the government has stopped all large payments including Rs 80bn meant for public works. 

Such is the state that the government has used the resources allocated for capital expenditure to pay the interest on the loans. Rs 36bn was earmarked for development projects such as Budhigandaki Hydropower Project, Nijgadh International Airport, and Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway.

After the money collected from its revenue collection was not enough to pay for the salaries of the government employees and to cover the administrative expenses, the government has for the first time taken the money from the development budget and spent it to pay the interest on the loan. Rs 36bn earmarked for development projects including Budhigandaki, Nijgadh Airport, and Kathmandu-Nijgadh Fast has been transferred to pay the principal and interest of the loans.

Finance Ministry officials admitted that the amount was transferred from other titles to pay the principal and interest of the internal loans since the amount allocated for paying loans remained insufficient due to the surge in the interest rates this year. 

The dramatic decline in revenue forced the government to trim the federal budget of Rs 1.793trn by 14 percent to Rs 1.549trn through the mid-term review of the budget. 

The non-improvement in revenue collection has been a worrying factor for the government which is struggling to meet the expenses. As of July 11, revenue collection totaled Rs 940.90bn, of which Rs 818.52bn is tax revenue and Rs 86.46 is non-tax revenue.

The decline in imports has hit the revenue collection hard. According to the Department of Customs (DoC), revenue from imports has declined by 23 percent in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period of the last fiscal year. DoC collected revenue worth Rs 344.03bn till mid-June, which was Rs 446.79bn a year ago. 

The country’s total imports have declined by 16 percent in the review period. Nepal has imported goods worth Rs 1,480.98bn in the first 11 months of FY 2022/23 compared to Rs 1,763.22bn during the same period of FY 2021/22. 

Dhaniram Sharma, spokesperson of the Finance Ministry accepted that the budget deficit in this fiscal will be a bit bigger than in earlier years. It is seen that there will be a budget deficit this year. 

The Besisahar-Chame road – the only road section linking hilly Lamjung district and mountainous Manang district – is to remain closed for two days from today.

The Besisahar-Chame road project office said that the road will remain closed from 10 am today to 5 pm on Friday for the construction of two wooden bridges over the Timang Power House Rivulet and Syarku Rivulet.

Engineer at the project office, Suman Adhikari said that the two wooden bridges, one in Chame Rural Municipality-1 over the Timang Power House Rivulet and another in ward-2 over the Syarku Rivulet, are being constructed.

He further said that vehicular movement has been brought to a grinding halt along the road stretch for the purpose.

"Wooden bridges were constructed in the area two years back. Now the wooden materials used in the bridges are deteriorating so the plan is to replace the wrought-out materials with new ones. It has become an urgent need to avoid any accidents on the bridge through which loaded vehicles also pass through", he further said.

The wooden bridge to be constructed over the Timang Bridge will have nine-meter length and four-and-a-half-meter breadth.

Another wooden bridge with seven-meter length and four-meter breadth will be constructed over the Syarku Rivulet.