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President Ram Chandra Paudel is going to address the joint meeting of both houses of the Federal Parliament (House of Representatives and National Assembly) at 4 pm on Friday. Speaker Devraj Ghimire informed the Parliament that President Paudel will address the joint meeting of both houses at 4 pm tomorrow. Following this address, a meeting of the House of Representatives will be held at 6 pm. The government is going to unveil the policy and programs of the fiscal year 2080/2081.  

Now, companies working as payment system operators (PSOs) and payment service providers (PSPs) will be able to go for mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Amending the Payment and Settlement Bylaw 2020, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has allowed PSOs and PSPs to go for mergers or acquire organizations of similar nature. However, after receiving in-principle approval from the central bank, the PSOs and PSPs cannot cancel the merger/acquisition process without the approval of the NRB. NRB has said that it can direct payment companies having cross-holding structures of shares to go for a mandatory merger or acquisition. According to the central bank, if directors of payment companies own more than 10 percent of shares in other payment companies, such entities can be directed to merge or acquire each other. Guru Prasad Paudel, Chief of Payment Systems Department of NRB said that the amendment of the bylaw has opened the way for the merger of payment-related companies. With this, PSOs such as Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL), Nepal Electronic Payment System (NEPS), Smart Choice Technologies, and Nepal Payment Solutions can merge with each other. Similarly, PSPs like Esewa, Khalti, and IME Pay can go for the merger. Currently, there are 10 PSOs and 27 PSPs currently operating in Nepal. Of the 10 PSOs, three are international companies. Visa Worldwide of Singapore, Mastercard of Singapore, and Union Pay International of China have been operating as PSOs. NRB officials say the policy of merger has been brought in as the number of PSOs and PSPs has increased but their business has not grown as expected. In a bid to consolidate the payment industry, the central bank has already increased the paid-up capital of entities involved in the digital payment business. Issuing a new licensing policy in the second week of January, the central bank increased the paid-up capital for payment service providers (PSPs) and payment system operators (PSOs). As per the new arrangement, the paid-up capital of PSPs operating devices other than payment cards has been fixed at Rs 50 million. The paid-up capital of PSPs operating payment cards and other devices has been fixed at Rs 250 million. Similarly, the paid-up capital of PSOs has been fixed at Rs 400 million, while PSOs handling payment transactions outside Nepal through payment instruments issued in the country have to raise their paid-up capital to Rs 800 million. NRB has set a deadline of 2028 for the existing PSPs and PSOs to meet the new paid-up capital requirement. The companies that have already obtained licenses from the central bank, have to maintain the paid-up capital as prescribed by the NRB by mid-July 2028. Digital payment in Nepal has grown multifold, particularly after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. According to the latest NRB statistics, Nepal has now more than 17.56 million wallet users. Similarly, there are 2.04 million mobile banking users in the country. NRB data shows 368,764 new customers have been added to mobile banking in the last one month. The NRB statistics show a total of 3.05 million mobile banking customers have been added in the last one year, i.e., from mid-April 2022 to mid-April 2023. The number of digital wallet users has increased by 5.85 million. According to NRB, transactions worth Rs 207.45 billion were done through mobile banking in the month of Chaitra (mid-March to mid-April 2023). Similarly, transactions worth Rs 19.92 billion were done through digital wallets.  

Nepal and Bangladesh have agreed to jointly develop the Sunkoshi-3 Hydropower Project. The South Asian countries decided to build the 683 MW storage-type hydel with an aim to supply the generated power to Bangladesh during the fifth meeting of the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on energy cooperation held in Dhaka on Monday and Tuesday. Both sides have agreed that the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of the project within the next six months. The proposed project will be built in the area bordering the Kavrepalanchok and Ramechhap districts in central Nepal at an estimated cost of $1.45bn. In recent years, Bangladesh has been keen on energy cooperation with Nepal to meet its ever-increasing demand for electricity. Both countries had agreed to develop the Sunkoshi-3 through a joint venture investment during the fourth meeting of the working group in late August 2022. The JSC meeting also agreed to work on a tripartite agreement with India for the export of 40 MW of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh. As Indian transmission lines have to be used to materialize the power export, both countries decided to bring the Indian agency on board. As per the understanding, NEA, BPDB, and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) of India will finalize a tripartite deal. According to Madhu Bhetuwal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Bangladesh will notify India about the agreement reached with Nepal. "After completing the necessary process, the tripartite agreement will be signed as soon as possible," said Bhetuwal. It's been a year since talks for electricity exports from Nepal to Bangladesh gained momentum. Nepal's quest for finding a market for its electricity beyond India was further emboldened after Bangladesh expressed readiness to import 40-50 MW of power from Nepal during the energy secretary-level JSC meeting of the two countries held in Kathmandu in the last week of August. Nepal and Bangladesh last year agreed to request India for the passage of 40-50MW of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh through the existing transmission infrastructure of India. Both sides have been making efforts to bring India on board for this purpose. In the fourth meeting, both sides agreed that Nepal would provide an environmental impact assessment report of the Sunkoshi III project to the Bangladeshi side and later would respond with its opinion. According to Bhetuwal, Nepal has already sent the feasibility study report and environmental impact assessment report of Sunkoshi III to Bangladesh. The steering committee meeting also discussed in detail the construction of hydropower plants in Nepal under the joint investment of Bangladesh and Nepal, the import of electricity from Nepal using existing interconnection grid lines over India, and the construction of new transmission lines. The joint technical team has been instructed to study the possible options and submit a report within 6 months for a dedicated transmission line between Nepal and Bangladesh. As part of the new transmission line to be constructed exclusively within the territory of India, the matter will be determined through the Bangladesh-India-Nepal tripartite agreement. The meeting also discussed the signing of a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Indian developer GMR Energy on the import of 500 MW of electricity from the 900MW Upper Karnali Hydroelectric Project. The Bangladeshi side has informed that PPA will be signed between BPDB and GMR soon. GMR received a letter of intent in 2019 to sell electricity to Bangladesh.

Police on Thursday arrested Nepal Haj Committee Chairman Shumsher Miya in connection with the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. Miya was apprehended from the premises of Singha Durbar this afternoon. He has been taken to the District Police Range, Kathmandu. It has been revealed that Miya used to give the government vehicles of Haj Committee to the people involved in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. With this, the number of people detained in the fake Bhutanese refugee case has reached 15. So far, police have arrested 15 individuals including former home minister Bal Krishna Khand, his personal secretary Narendra KC, the then home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, Indrajit Rai, security advisor of former home minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, and CPN-UML secretary Top Bahadur Rayamajhi for their alleged involvement in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam. Police are investigating the case.    

With capital expenditure continuing to remain dismal, the government has not been able to receive external loans as expected. According to the Public Debt Management Office (PDMO), as of the third quarter of the current fiscal year, the government received Rs 64.99 billion in foreign loans against the budgetary target of Rs 242 billion which is only around 27 percent of the target. Government officials say that the main reason behind the low foreign financial assistance, particularly the loans, is the government’s inability to expedite its capital expenditure. Nepal has a system of taking reimbursement of resources spent from domestic resources first. Most of the foreign loans are spent in the form of the capital budget. “When the government fails to spend capital budget, it cannot seek reimbursement of spent financial resources from the foreign donors,” said a senior official at the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO). “We also don’t have a culture of seeking reimbursement as easily as possible from the donors as well.” As of mid-January of this fiscal year, the reimbursement to be received by the government from the donors had stood at Rs 26.72 billion, according to the Ministry of Finance. Amid sluggishness in capital budget spending, the government has also downsized the foreign loans to be spent in the current fiscal year. The government now expects to spend Rs 170.53 billion in foreign loans in the current fiscal year, as per the mid-term review of the budget for the current fiscal year 2022/23. Nepal’s nearly 90 percent of total foreign loans come from multilateral donors such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank among others. According to the FCGO, the government’s capital expenditure as of May 16 stood at 33.45 percent. With less than two months remaining before the current fiscal year ends, the government’s capital spending will remain poor even in the current fiscal year. Contractors say that their works have been affected by the government’s failure to provide payments for the works they have already completed. In April, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that implementation of the ADB-funded projects in 2022 remained poor. “In 2022, the overall portfolio performance in Nepal was lower than expected, affected mainly due to insufficient project staff and high turnover, challenges in contract management, delays in environmental and land clearances, and disruption of the construction supply chain,” said Arnaud Cauchoi, ADB’s Country Director for Nepal during the country portfolio performance review meeting. As of 31 December 2022, ADB’s active portfolio in Nepal stands at around USD 3.2 billion supporting a broad range of key sectors including energy, transport, agriculture, water and urban infrastructure and services, rural development and natural resources, health, and education. According to ADB's Director General for South Asia Kenichi Yokoyama, Nepal needs to achieve better performance in the disbursement of resources to be eligible for more funding from the ADB. “Nepal needs to achieve at least USD 350 million to USD 450 million in disbursement per year to be considered for higher concessional resource allocations based on ADB’s performance-based allocation system,” said Yokoyama. “Higher disbursement is doable with collective efforts of the government and ADB by pursuing higher implementation disciplines.”  

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 300 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 109, 700 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 110, 000 per tola on Wednesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 109, 200 per tola. It was traded at Rs 109, 500 per tola. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,370 per tola today.

An Indian national died of altitude sickness in the Everest region. The deceased has been identified as Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus (59), the District Police Office, Solukhumbu said. DSP Deepak Shrestha of the District Police Office, Solukumbu said that Jesus, who had come to climb Mt Everest, was airlifted to Lukla from the base camp after she fell sick on Wednesday. She breathed her last during the course of treatment at the Pasang Lhamu Nicole Niquille Hospital at 6 am today, the hospital said.

Mitini Nepal, a Women led non-government organization (NGO) working for the rights and dignity of Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LBT) people since 2006, marked the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOTB) 2023 with the global theme “Together always: united in diversity” International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOTB) is a significant global observance held annually on May 17th. This date was chosen to commemorate the momentous decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases by the World Health Organization in 1990. The day serves as a platform to coordinate worldwide events aimed at raising awareness of LGBTQ rights violations, discrimination, and the oppression faced by LGBTQ communities globally. It presents an opportunity to mobilize action, initiate dialogues with the media, policymakers, public opinion, and wider civil society, and foster interest in the LGBTQ rights movement on a global scale. The fundamental principle that underpins this day is the recognition of the equal and inalienable rights of all individuals. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes the responsibility of every nation to protect and uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people. This day serves as a reminder of the importance of these principles in fostering freedom, justice, and peace throughout the world. This momentous decision was made after a comprehensive consultation process involving prominent LGBTIQ organizations from all corners of the world. The chosen theme holds immense significance as it not only encourages advocacy and celebrations but also fosters a sense of unity among individuals and communities. In the face of increasing challenges to the hard-won rights and progress of LGBTIQ communities globally, the power of solidarity, allyship, and community across diverse identities, borders, and movements has never been more vital. “It is during these critical times that we must stand together, embracing our differences and celebrating the strength of our diversity,” reads a statement issued by Mitini Nepal. The theme of unity in diversity emphasizes the importance of recognizing and appreciating the unique experiences, struggles, and contributions of all individuals within the LGBTIQ community. “By uniting as a collective force, we can effectively address the challenges and discrimination faced by LGBTIQ individuals worldwide,” reads the statement, adding “This theme acknowledges the immense value of collaboration and highlights the strength that comes from joining forces across various communities, movements, and identities. It is through this unity that we can truly bring about transformative change, not only for the LGBTIQ community but for society as a whole.” “As we embark on this journey, guided by the theme of "Together always: united in diversity," let us embrace the richness of our differences, recognize the power of our shared experiences, and work towards a world where every individual can live authentically, without fear of discrimination or persecution. Together, we can create a future where love, acceptance, and inclusivity prevail”, the statement further reads. This year, Mitini Nepal has celebrated the day with a grant event dividing the program into two sessions as formal and informal. In the formal session, the program was inaugurated by the Minister for Women, Children and Senior Citizen Surendra Raj Acharya. During the formal session, a storybook "Together always: united in diversity" published by Mitini Nepal which has included the inspiring eight stories that addresses the intersectional issues of LGBTI community was also launched by the Minister Acharya. One of the LGBTQ+ couple who are living together for long and family, who has accepted the community member has also been honored. Along with this, a factsheet on “Age discrimination impacts on older LGBTI persons in Nepal” was also launched by the minister. “We dream of the world and believe that everyone has a right to realize their potential and have the opportunity to live dignified lives as no-one should be judged on the ground of their sexuality and gender identity,” reads the statement. Every segment of the society must work together as we all have the right to make decisions about our own health, body, sexuality, life without fear, coercion, violence or discrimination. LGBTQ+ people are reporting an elevated risk of domestic and family violence, increased social isolation and anxiety as well as difficulties in accessing crucial sexual and reproductive health and rights. The economic crisis is also disproportionately affecting LGBTIQ+ people till now. IDAHOTB also highlights the challenges and inequities faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people throughout the world. However, positive change is happening as the campaigns show incredible progress that is some of the major achievements have been recognized around the world.