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A Slovakian national, who was on a visit to Khumbu region of Solukhumbu, has died of altitude sickness. Police said that he died at Gorekshep in Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality-4 of the district. Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality-4 Chairman Laxman Adhikari said that there has been a problem in rescuing the body due to bad weather. Police said that they have been facing difficulties to get the complete details of the deceased as the communication service has also been affected.  

Nepal is preparing to propose to further enhance cooperation between India and Nepal in the energy sector during the proposed visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to the southern neighbor. While the formal announcement of Dahal’s visit to India is yet to be confirmed, Nepali officials say that the visit could take place next month. Nepali officials have started a groundwork for setting Nepal’s agenda for the upcoming visit of the Prime Minister. According to a senior official of the Ministry of Energy Water Resources and Irrigation, signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding the development of the 480MW Phukot Karnali hydroelectric project could be on the list. Nepal is also seeking India’s approval for selling 50MW of Nepal’s electricity to Bangladesh through the southern neighbor’s existing transmission infrastructure. “We are holding internal discussions on keeping these matters on our agenda for discussion during the Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to India,” said the official. When it comes to exporting electricity to Bangladesh is concerned, India had earlier said that it would allow passage for exporting 50MW of power to Bangladesh provided Nepal proposes the project whose power will be sold to Bangladesh. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has recently proposed to the Indian side that it seeks to sell the power generated from the Likhu-4 Hydropower Project to Bangladesh. “This can be accomplished during Prime Minister Dahal’s visit to India,” the energy ministry official said. Nepal and Bangladesh in August last year had decided to request the southern neighbor to allow the export of 40-50 MW of Nepali electricity to Bangladesh in the initial phase by using the high-voltage Baharampur-Bheramara cross-border power transmission links. Nepali officials said that even though the export of 50MW of power from Nepal to Bangladesh would largely be a symbolic move, it would be a milestone for setting the ground for trilateral energy cooperation between Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. The energy-hungry Bangladesh has also been urging India for the pathway to import hydropower from Nepal. As Indian territory lies between the two countries, it is necessary that the southern neighbor facilitates the power trade between Nepal and Bangladesh. Currently, talks are going on between Nepali officials and India's NHPC Limited for the latter's involvement in the development of the Phukot Karnali Hydropower Project. The government-owned Vidyut Utpadan Company Limited (VUCL) is developing the project which is located in the Sannitriveni Rural Municipality of Kalikot district. As per the understanding reached with India, VUCL and NHPC will now jointly develop the project. Once the formal agreement is signed, the construction of the project will start by establishing a joint venture company between VUCL and NHPC. During the Energy Secretary-Level Joint Steering Committee meeting held in India last month, it was decided that the NHPC will join the VUCL as a co-developer to develop the project. An energy ministry source earlier had told the Annapurna Express that a draft Memorandum of Understanding was prepared during the meeting. “Once it is approved by the Cabinet, a formal MoU will be signed,” said an official of the ministry. According to energy ministry sources, NHPC will have a 51 percent stake in the joint venture. It has been proposed that Nepal will get 21.9 percent free electricity from the project. NHPC will have to arrange loan investments and guarantee the market for electricity generated from the project. VUCL received the license to develop the Phukot Karnali Hydropower Project in 2017. The company has already started the works including the acquisition of land. The company was looking for a foreign investment partner to take the project ahead. The Phukot Karnali will be the third hydropower project in Nepal in which the NHPC is involved. Last year, the company signed an MoU with Investment Board Nepal (IBN) to develop the 750 MW West Seti Project and 450 MW SR-6 Project. The Indian company has already received a survey license for the West Seti and SR-6 Joint Storage Hydroelectric Project.

After widespread criticism, the government has rolled back its decision to reduce subsidies on chemical fertilizers within a week. A meeting of the cabinet of ministers on Monday decided to continue the subsidies on chemical fertilizers. According to the government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma, the government has decided to keep the subsidies unchanged for the time being. Speaking to reporters, she said the necessary decision will be taken to make the subsidies more systematic and scientific in the future after a detailed study about the subsidies on chemical fertilizer is conducted. On March 13, the Fertilizer Supply and Distribution Management Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) decided to reduce the subsidies on chemical fertilizers by 11.78 percentage points. By slashing the subsidy, the government increased the market prices of chemical fertilizers. The ministry had increased the price of Urea by about 78 percent while that of DAP and Potash by 16 and 29 percent, respectively. Among the chemical fertilizers imported into Nepal, the share of Urea is 56 percent while that of DAP and Potash is 42 percent and 2 percent, respectively. With Monday's decision, the government subsidy on Urea fertilizer will remain at 80 percent, on DAP at 59 percent earlier, and on Potash at 58 percent. The government has been subsidizing 70.82 percent of the import of chemical fertilizers. The March 13 decision had brought it down to 59.04 percent. While slashing the subsidy, the MoALD had said that it plans to limit the subsidies to 50 percent. As the country has to spend a lot of budget on subsidies due to the ever-increasing price of chemical fertilizers in the international market, the ministry claimed that the fertilizer price has to be adjusted. The government had allocated Rs 15bn for the import of chemical fertilizers in the current fiscal federal budget. Since the amount was insufficient, the MoALD said that an additional Rs 23.5bn has been managed to ensure the fertilizer imports. According to the ministry, the annual demand for chemical fertilizer in the country is 520,000 tons. However, the government has been failing to supply fertilizers as per the demand. According to the ministry, there is an agreement to import 333,500 tons of chemical fertilizers for the current financial year. So far 237,500 tons have been imported and the remaining 94,000 tons are to be imported. Despite the import, it has been estimated that there will be a shortage of 90,000 tons of fertilizers for the upcoming paddy plantation season.

The CPN (Unified Socialist) formed a three-member task force under the headship of party Chairman Madhav Nepal to carry out necessary homework on the issue of joining the government. A Secretariat meeting of the party held at the party office in Aloknagar on Tuesday formed the task force, party spokesperson Jagannath Khatiwada said. He said that party Chairman Madhav Nepal, Vice-Chairman Pramesh Hamal and General Secretary Ghamshyam Bhusal are in the task force. The meeting also discussed contemporary political issues, leaders said.

Continental Trading Enterprises, the authorized distributor of Kia vehicles for Nepal, has launched the new Kia Carens MPV in the Nepali market. One of the best-selling cars in the Kia stable, the Kia Carens comes up with a premium cabin and styling look. "The Carens is not just another car, it is the car with a perfect combination of safety, space, and style that makes it an ideal car for modern families," the company said in a press statement. Kia Carens has received the prestigious Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) award for 2023. The MPV was announced as the winner at the 18th edition of ICOTY awards that concluded recently. “The Carens has registered its best-ever monthly sales of 7,900 units in January 2023, bettering the previous best of 7,895 units in June 2022, and has cumulatively sold 70,656 units in India since its launch a year ago,” reads the statement. According to Kia, the most remarkable features of the Carens are its 10 robust hi-safety packages, which come standard across all variants. It includes six airbags, ESC (electronic stability control), VSM (vehicle stability management), BAS (brake assist), HAC (hill-start assist control), DBC (downhill brake control), ABC (anti-lock brake system), all-wheel disc brakes, highline tire pressure monitoring system, and rear parking sensors. The new Kia Carens MPV comes in two petrol engine variants, a 1.5-liter unit with 115bhp and 144 Nm of torque and a 1.4-liter turbo petrol with 140bhp and 242 Nm of torque. The company said that only a six-speed manual is offered with the 1.5-liter petrol, while the 1.4-liter turbo petrol also benefits from a 7-Speed DCT option. Carens also comes in manual and automatic transmission variants. The Luxury Plus trim also gets steering-mounted paddle shifters with 7-speed DCT or the 6-speed automatic. The three-row MPV boasts a long list of comfort and convenience features in addition to generous dimensions. The MUV comes up with a 10.25-inch infotainment display, digital instrumentation, sunroof, roof-mounted aircon vents with adjustable airspeed for the 2nd and the 3rd row, seat back mounted tray table with a cup holder with tablet and smartphone notch. It also boosts ventilated front seats, 64-color ambient lighting, an air-purifier, Bose Audio system, among others. The MPV comes in seven-seater configurations, with a large boot space with 216 liters of luggage space, expandable to a massive 645 liters with the third row folded. Price    Model Variant Price Carens Premium Rs 4.89 million Carens Prestige Rs 5.29 million

The price of gold has increased by Rs 500 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, 800 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 109, 300 per tola on Monday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 109, 300 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1,340 per tola today.

Two persons died and 26 other sustained injuries in a tractor accident in Joshipur Rural Municipality-7 of Kailali district on Monday. According to the District Police Office, Kailali, the deceased have been identified as Chahana Chaudhary (15) and Dilrani Chaudhary (46) of Bhajani Municipality-9. The accident took place when the tractor (Se 1 Cha 8870) heading towards Bhajani from Sugarkhal of Kailali went out of control and turned turtle last night. Police said that they are searching for the tractor driver Suraj Chaudhary of Bhajani.

With the sharp rise in non-performing loans (NPLs) of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) in this fiscal year, the loan loss provisions of BFIs have also increased. The amount for provisioning of BFIs including microfinance institutions has increased by 130 percent in the last one year. The latest statistics of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) show commercial banks, development banks, finance companies, and microfinance institutions have set aside a total of Rs 45.31bn for loan loss provisions till mid-February 2023 compared to Rs 19.70bn during the same period of the last fiscal year. The total provisioning amount of BFIs increased by Rs 25.61bn in the last 12 months. According to NRB, the provisioning amount of commercial banks went up by 131 percent to Rs 29.52bn by mid-February 2023 which was Rs 12.78bn till mid-February 2022. Similarly, the provisioning amount of development banks and finance companies reached Rs 4.38bn and Rs 932m, respectively, during this period. The microfinance institutions (MFIs) have kept Rs 10.47bn for provisioning, according to the central bank statistics. These data show the provisioning amount of all types of banks and financial institutions has increased over the past year. Bankers say provisioning has increased mainly due to a surge in bad loans in the banking system. With loan recovery and debt servicing becoming difficult, BFIs have been forced to provision huge amounts for NPLs. The average NPLs of BFIs (commercial banks, development banks, and finance companies) have increased to 2.63 percent by mid-February 2023, up from 1.31 percent in mid-February 2022, while MFIs have seen their NPLs jumping to almost 5 percent during the review period. "When bad loans increase, the provisioning amount also increases," said Prakash Kumar Shrestha, Executive Director of NRB, "BFIs have not been able to recover their loans in recent days due to economic recession. Such loans have been classified as bad loans now." With the slowdown in market demand and economic activities coupled with higher interest rates, borrowers as well as traders are finding it difficult to pay back their loans. Meanwhile, NPLs of some banks went up due to mergers and acquisitions. This problem has been seen in the banks with low NPL merged with banks with high NPLs. Kumari Bank is one such example. The merger between Kumari Bank and NCC Bank increased the NPLs of the former as the latter has higher NPLs. Amid rising NPLs and provisioning amounts, the profits of BFIs have taken a beating. Bankers say profits have been affected as banks have to set aside huge amounts for the provisioning of bad loans. The net profit of BFIs (commercial banks, development banks, and finance companies) has decreased marginally in this fiscal. According to NRB, BFIs' net profit stood at Rs 44.84bn till mid-February 2023 compared to Rs 44.90bn in mid-February 2022. The profit of MFIs has decreased by a whopping 55 percent. The MFIs' profit stood at Rs 3.32bn in February 2023 compared to Rs 7.40bn in mid-February 2022. Box Rising Provisioning Amount