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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 5. 20 points to close at 1,866.68 points on Tuesday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 73 points to close at 351. 97 points. A total of 2,971,947-unit shares of 264 companies were traded for Rs 917 billion. Meanwhile, Kalinchowk Darshan Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 98 percent. Likewise, Prabhu Bank Debenture was the top loser with its price dropped by 9.29 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 70 trillion.

Struggling to provide electricity to industries, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has continued to cut power in the industrial zones in Terai. Particularly, the government-owned power utility has not been able to transmit power to the western Terai region during peak hours. Because of weak transmission infrastructure, NEA has been failing to take electricity from the eastern side of the country to the western side even though the country has been importing electricity in the winter from India by using the 400kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line. Besides poor local transmission infrastructure,  equally poor cross-border transmission infrastructure has also prevented the country from trading power through with about a dozen low-capacity cross-border lines whose capacity ranges from 33kV to 132kV. Nepal and India agreed to upgrade these low-capacity power lines to boost electricity trading during the 10th joint secretary-level Joint Working Group and the secretary-level Joint Steering Committee held in Jaipur, India on February 17-18. There has been certain progress in upgrading low-capacity lines. “Construction of a second circuit of 132kV Kataiya-Kusaha cross-border transmission line has already been completed,” said a senior official of NEA.  “It should be charged with electricity soon  which has not happened yet.” Likewise, Nepal has already completed constructing a second circuit of the 132kV Parwanipur-Raxaul power line. “The Indian side has notified us that they are constructing an inter-connection of the line between Old Raxaul and New Raxaul area as a part of the construction of a second circuit of the cross-border line,” the official said. Particularly, industries based in the Birgunj area are suffering due to power cuts in the winter as Nepal has not been able to buy extra power from Bihar while Nepal cannot transmit additional power brought through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line to the Birgunj area because of poor transmission infrastructure. In the last meeting, both sides agreed to improve the capacity of the Raxaul-Parwanipur power line by May this year. Likewise, Nepal has already built the Nepal section of the proposed  132 kV cross-border line between Mainaiya (Butwal)—New Nautanwa (India). “India has also decided to build part of the proposed power line on their side,” the NEA official said. During the last bilateral meeting in India, they had agreed to complete the new Butwal-Mainahiya power line by September this year. Similarly,  Nepal has already issued a tender for constructing a new 132 kV cross-border power line between the Nepalgunj-Nayantara line where a 33 kV line is available, according to the NEA. “The Indian government has also decided to build part of this cross-border line on its territory,” the NEA official said. The capacity of the Nepalgunj-Nantarapower line will also be improved by September this year. The two countries agreed to trade 70MW-80MW through the 132kV Tanakpur-Mahendranagar Cross Border Line. Currently, Nepal has only been importing power through this power line. Except for 400 kV  Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur, all other transmission lines have been used for trading power exclusively via government-to-government agreements.  The NEA official said improvement in these low-capacity power lines would pave the way for more cross-border power trade. “We can also address power supply problems in certain areas of the country due to poor domestic transmission infrastructure,” the official said.

The CPN-UML has left the government in Madhes Province. The ministers participating in the government from the CPN-UML submitted the resignation letter to Chief Minister Saroj Kumar Yadav. UML Madhes Province Parliamentary Party leader and Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development Saroj Kumar Yadav said that four ministers and one state minister resigned from the government. But the UML has decided not to withdraw the support extended to the government. Chief Minister Yadav removed the UML ministers from the government after the party left the government following a new power equation at the center. Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development Saroj Kumar Yadav, Minister for Women, Children, Youth and Sports Mohammad Jaid Alam, Minister for Home Affairs and Communications Satrudhan Prasad Singh, Minister for Law Raj Kumar Lekhi and State Minister for Home Affairs and Communications Keshav Raya tendered their resignation. Chief Minister Yadav has accepted the resignation of all the five ministers and also divided the ministries held by them.  

As the country's economy goes through a downturn, the cases related to banking offenses have surged in the current fiscal year. From large businesses to small businesses, as well as individuals have been struggling to pay their dues and fulfill financial obligations on time, which according to Nepal Police has resulted in a rise in banking offense cases. According to the data obtained from Nepal Police, 6,483 cases of banking offenses with the amount equal to Rs 8.57bn have been registered till mid-March 2023. The data show there have already been more banking fraud cases registered in the first eight months of FY 2022/23 than in FY 2021/22. According to Nepal Police, a total of 5,416 cases of banking fraud were registered in the last fiscal year. The majority of banking offense cases are related to cheque bounces. In this fiscal also, 99 percent of banking offense cases are of bad cheques. Of the total 6,483 banking fraud cases, 6,422 were related to bad cheques. As per the Banking Offense and Punishment Act, 2008, the non-payment of a written cheque three times due to the account holder’s failure to maintain the amount mentioned on the cheque is counted as a banking offense. The second most registered banking offense cases are of the cooperative institutions where the depositors have been denied to withdraw their deposited money. Experts attribute the rise in banking fraud to the current economic crisis. There has been an interruption in the flow of money in the market due to a prolonged liquidity crunch as well as the slowdown in aggregate demand. In addition, banks and financial institutions' higher interest rates have also hit small businesses hard. Companies and individuals issue cheques of a certain date to settle their business and personal transactions. However, due to the recent downturn in business, the ability of companies and individuals to pay their creditors has weakened. People often issue bad cheques to their creditors to avoid a difficult situation. Nepal Police Spokesperson Poshraj Pokharel said that the number of banking fraud cases has increased due to the recent economic crisis. According to police data, cases related to banking fraud have been increasing every year. There were only 755 banking offense cases registered by the Nepal Police in FY 2017/18 which continued to surge in the next two fiscal years. But there was some decline in the registration of fraud cases in FY 2020/21. However, in the last two years, banking offense cases have again started to increase. Along with the cases, the monetary amount of banking fraud has also surged. Banking offense cases

Finance Minister Prakash Saran Mahat on Monday met with stakeholders of the capital market including the Chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) and a delegation of stock investors, brokers and merchant bankers to discuss the issues and the ways to resolve the problems. Nevertheless, this initiative of the newly appointed finance minister failed to raise the confidence of weary investors as the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) plunged by 16.67 points on the second trading day of the week. Mahat first met the group of stock investors with whom he assured them of taking concrete steps to uplift the morale of the capital market. Then, he sat down with Sebon Chairman Ramesh Kumar Hamal and instructed him to bring forward concrete plans to reform the capital market. Unlike the appointment of Bishnu Poudel as finance minister in December 2022, the appointment of  Mahat has received a cold response from the stock market so far. The stock market lost 36.67 points in the two trading days after Mahat took charge of the Ministry of Finance. While the new finance minister is trying to bolster the morale of the private sector and stock investors, the stock market is yet to respond positively. The daily turnover also decreased on Monday compared to Sunday. Nepse recorded a daily turnover of Rs 920.24m on Monday against Rs 1.20bn on Sunday. On Monday, the Nepse opened at 1,888.61 points and hit an intraday high of 1,891.76 points before rising to the intraday low of 1,866.16 points and settling at 1,871.88 points. Along with the daily turnover, the number of trade shares also decreased on Monday. The number of shares traded decreased to 2.82m scripts from 3.78m on Sunday. Except for the trading sub-index, all the sub-indices turned red on Monday with the hydropower sub-index losing the most. Nabil Bank had the highest turnover of Rs 30.62m closing at a market price of Rs 589.9 per share. The shares of the Global IME Bank were the most traded on Monday.  

The price of gold has increased by Rs 1, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Tuesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 109, 000 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 108, 000 per tola on Monday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 108, 500 per tola. It was traded at Rs 107, 500. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1,400 per tola today.

Pokhara, a scenic city in western Nepal, is one of the major tourism centers in the country. However, the tourism industry in the city is mired in crisis. It was the Covid-19 pandemic that devastated the tourism sector followed by the liquidity crunch and skyrocketing borrowing rates that added to the difficulties of tourism businesses. In a conversation with Smita Adhikari of ApEx, Pom Narayan Shrestha, President of the Pokhara Tourism Council talks about the problems surrounding Pokhara tourism and the kind of support entrepreneurs are seeking from the government. Excerpts: Official data show a significant increase in tourist arrivals in the country lately. What is the real situation of tourism in Pokhara? Tourism in Pokhara is facing its worst period. The situation is even worse than during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is because almost 80 percent of tourism entrepreneurs here in Pokhara are in great difficulty in terms of repaying the loans they availed to recover from the losses of the pandemic. We have been looking for the government's support. If the government fails to bail us out immediately, the tourism industry in Pokhara will sink further. Why does the tourism industry in Pokhara and tourism entrepreneurs require prompt intervention from the government? We had held high hopes from Visit Nepal 2020 which the government launched in early 2020. However, the breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 hit us hard. The tourism entrepreneurs had undertaken special projects and borrowed a huge amount of money for business expansion in view of the tourism campaign. All those investments and expansions have turned into a liability due to the pandemic which forced us to shut down our hotel/restaurant properties for months. When the flow of tourists stopped suddenly after the global health emergency was announced, these investments remained unproductive. Almost 70 percent of tourism entrepreneurs have a high burden of loans at present. The government must take us out of this precarious situation. Has the tourism industry returned to the pre-pandemic level? Tourism in Pokhara is yet to come out from the impact of the pandemic. The arrival of tourists has not recovered to the pre-pandemic level. The Yeti Airlines aircraft crash further hit Pokhara tourism when it was trying to come out from the impact of the pandemic. The hotels in Pokhara experienced a lot of cancellations following the crash. How many people and organizations here in Pokhara depend on the tourism sector? How have they contributed to development? There are almost 1,300 hotels running in and around Pokhara. Among them, five percent are star hotel properties. Almost 60 percent of hotels in Pokhara have been providing high-standard services, especially targeting foreign tourists. Similarly, there are almost 200 trekking and travel agencies operating here. Hotels are actually the most influential taxpayers of Pokhara. Why should there be more focus on Pokhara to make it convenient for tourism? Pokhara has more resources than other cities in Nepal.  Pokhara is the entry point of world-renowned trekking routes like Annapurna and Mardi Trek. Almost half a dozen mountains over 8,000 meters such as Annapurna, Machhapuchhre, Manaslu, Dhawalagiri are located in this region. On the other hand, a number of wetlands and green hills along with scenic lakes have added value to Pokhara's tourism. The onus lies on the government to prioritize resource allocation for further improving tourism infrastructure and transforming Pokhara into an international tourism center in the true sense. Are you saying that Pokhara has been marginalized in regard to resource allocation? Yes, to some extent. It is because the government and the central bank have not brought programs and policies to support the tourism sector despite knowing the plight of this sector after the pandemic. We have frequently gone to various government agencies asking for a rescue but they did not hear us. Similarly,  Nepal Tourism Board is not working in productive ways as a huge amount of its budget has been frozen. The government also hasn't shown interest in cooperating with us while developing tourism infrastructures here. The Pokhara Regional International Airport is one example in this regard. What do tourism entrepreneurs want from the government which would help tourism in Pokhara regain its previous glory? We are looking for an extension of the time to repay the loans. We should be given an additional two years time to complete the loan repayment. However, banks and financial institutions have been knocking at our doors, pressing us to pay the loans immediately. We also want single-digit interest rates on our loans till the flow of tourists returns to the pre-pandemic levels.

I’m a 21-year-old student, whose panic attacks and anxiety have been worsening lately. I feel like I’m a burden to everyone and everything bad that happens is my fault. Sometimes, I blame everyone else for the terrible things that happen to me. It feels like I’m just looking for people to pin the blame on. Also, I constantly think of locking myself in a dark room because I feel lonely all the time. It happens in moments when I’m minding my own business or having a casual conversation. I don’t know what this is but I know it’s not normal. How can I get out of this?—RR Answered by Kapil Sharma, counseling psychologist, Nepal Institute of Mental Health Transitioning from a teenager to a young adult means going through a lot of changes mentally, so you might be facing some uncertainty issues. That is completely natural. But you have mentioned that your panic attacks and anxiety have been worsening lately which means the intensity of your problem is increasing. Usually, in these cases, some triggering factors push one towards mental breakdown, for instance, panic attacks. Figuring out what that triggering factor is is the first step to take.  You must address whether a certain situation makes you happy, sad, or angry. Sometimes, things around us trigger our breakdowns and, in most cases, we are unable to notice that. One thing I want you to do is to ask yourself why you are getting anxiety or a panic attack in situations like this. Look around yourself. There must be something or someone that triggered your reaction.  When you figure that out, you can move on to managing your emotions. For some, avoiding situations that make them emotionally and mentally unstable is the best solution. But you can also try another exercise, where you need to list down five good things about the person or a thing that has been bothering you psychologically. It will be difficult at first, but you will slowly get used to it with practice. Managing symptoms is one thing, but treating them is another. For that, I suggest you visit a psychiatrist as s/he will be able to give you a proper diagnosis. With proper medication, that is if needed, and the right guidance from a mental health professional, the process of healing will be much more comfortable for you.  Now, your tendency to repeatedly blame yourself has led you to believe that everything is your fault, which I hope you know isn’t true. You can help yourself by trying to figure out whether you have this feeling towards everyone, a particular group, or an individual. Also, it’s better to inquire if something is your fault, rather than making an assumption. That will help you gain self-confidence and stand up for yourself, which will eventually make you feel better. Also, you mentioned your tendency to blame others when you are suffering transcends what you are used to. Again, you should question and rationalize whether it’s just everyone or whether there are any specific people you are infuriated with. At times like this, it’s best to have someone by your side who can support and understand you emotionally.  I understand that sometimes it’s not easy to share your innermost thoughts and feelings. In times like that, express yourself by journaling, where there are no boundaries. You can be as honest as you can. Journaling will not only help you to identify things that have been dragging you toward loneliness but also help you reflect on yourself. It can be a way of answering questions like what you truly want, and how you can work on obtaining that.