Submit your Article

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

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 22.65 points to close at 1,949.06 points on Monday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 2.95 points to close at 366. 21 points. A total of 5,255,086 unit shares of 258 companies were traded for Rs 1. 29 billion. Meanwhile, Unique Nepal Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 81 trillion.

Virendra Sharma is a member of the UK Parliament from the Labour Party. He has been holding this position since 2007. He has also been following Nepal for 40 years, and has always stood in favor of enhancing the Nepal-UK ties. Kamal Dev Bhattarai of ApEx talked to him during his recent visit to Kathmandu. Excerpts: How do you view the current state of bilateral relationship between UK and Nepal? The bilateral relationship is healthy, parties in both countries genuinely want to further nurture this relationship. Britain wants to assist in the infrastructure of this country. British people have a lot of respect for Nepali people. And that respect shows that there is a good relationship between Nepal and the United Kingdom. The key pillars of our bilateral relations are culture, trade and investment. Nepal should say what kind of assistance it needs from the UK. We have a lot of potential in bilateral relations, which has not been fully utilized. How could the situation be improved? It is for both parties to react. When you are negotiating, if one party is less demanding, the other party is less responding. I believe that both countries need to identify the potential in society which benefits not only the individuals but wide communities in the world. What is the current state of trade and investment between the two countries and how can it be enhanced?   First, a lot of people want to invest in and visit Nepal. Investment and tourism are two major areas Nepal needs to look at. Nepal needs to create that environment where people feel comfortable to come, feel safe to come, with the knowledge that their investment is safe and their life is safe. It is a responsibility of the Nepal government and Nepali people. In the same way, when Nepali people go overseas, including in Britain, they will look for the same facilities. It is the responsibility of the Nepal government to look at it seriously, so that we can enhance tourism and investment here. What are your suggestions to bring more investment from the UK to Nepal? I am not saying it (investment) is not there but perceptions could be wrong.  Nepal needs to identify the areas where it needs investment. Infrastructure, energy, climate change, water saving, natural resources and sharing of knowledge could be some areas. Why aren’t high-level visits taking place between the two countries? I share that concern, and I believe high-level visits create confidence to give momentum to bilateral relations. It is a mutual responsibility of both parties whether Nepal is putting pressure on the UK prime minister and others to come. I am not criticizing anybody but why is it not happening? It is a responsibility of both countries and people like myself to say why they should visit and what benefits it brings to not only the two countries but to the wider society.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Saturday directed the chiefs of security agencies to pay attention to the security of employees of the banks and financial institutions (BFIs). With cases of BFIs employees getting attacked and manhandled on the rise in recent days as some people have been inciting anti-banking activities,  PM Dahal instructed the security chiefs to arrange proper security for BFIs and their staff. Of late, financial institutions are in the news for the wrong reasons. While there have been protests against microfinance institutions (MFIs) for their alleged cases of exploitation of borrowers, BFIs are also in the line of fire for higher interest rates. The controversial businessman and medical college owner Durga Prasain has  launched a loan waiver campaign and has openly called his followers not to repay their debts and attack BFIs' staff if they come for loan recovery. Addressing a public rally in Jhapa in late February, Prasain called for a smear campaign on the CEOs and employees of BFIs. Subsequently, incidents of physical attacks against the employees of BFIs and MFIs were reported in various parts of the country. The BFIs' staff in Jajarkot, Mawakanpur, Myagdi, Sunsari, Udayapur, Kapilvastu, Rupandehi, and Kaski districts, among others, have been physically attacked and assaulted in past two weeks. This has forced the umbrella organizations of BFIs to issue strongly worded statements in which they have warned that they would be forced to discontinue the banking service if such activities continue. In a joint statement on Friday, the Nepal Bankers’ Association, Development Bankers’ Association of Nepal, Nepal Financial Institutions Association, and Nepal Microfinance Bankers Association said their employees have been physically assaulted, and offices padlocked and ransacked in more than half a dozen districts. Condemning such acts, these associations also called for legal action against those responsible for instigating such attacks, indicating Prasain. They also warned of discontinuing the banking service for the safety of their staff. As Prasain called for a smear campaign against bank employees, bankers said that it has created an environment of fear among the bank employees. A banker said that the bank employees have been terrified by the campaign. “That’s why we had demanded the security be provided to our offices and staff,” said the banker. Confederation of Banks and Financial Institutions Nepal, a grouping of bank promoters also condemned the obstructive activities to provide banking services and asked the government to ensure law and order. According to a senior official of the Home Ministry, after the bankers submitted a memorandum demanding security for their offices and staff, the Ministry issued a circular in the name of District Administration Offices to enhance vigilance and security around the offices of BFIs. But the official also said that only maintaining law and order would not solve the current rage against the banking sector.  “This is the result of the economic problems that the country is going through. So, it is necessary for the Nepal Rastra Bank and other regulatory agencies to address the genuine concerns of the bank customers,” he said. Nepal's economy is facing deeper troubles since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. The country’s economy sank to negative growth of 2.4 percent in the fiscal year 2019/20 because of Covid-related restrictions. Even though there was a slight recovery after the easing of restrictions later on, the economy has been facing a series of problems. In FY 2021/22, problems of depleting foreign exchange reserves, and widening balance of payment (BoP) gave way to a liquidity crunch in the banking sector. As a result, bank loans started to become costlier which affected the borrowers’ repayment capacity badly. “Not only in Nepal, but we have also seen protests across the world against the economic woes,” said the Home Ministry official, adding, “Agencies under the Home Ministry will look to maintain law and order. Since the problem is multifaceted, our efforts alone may not be adequate.” In Sri Lanka, the once powerful ruling Rajapaksha family was removed from power from street protests last year after an economic crisis engulfed the South Asian Island country. Nepal’s economy is also performing badly as both consumer and business demand have dwindled sharply over the past year. As a result, the government’s revenue collection has dropped dramatically, which is being called the lowest in over 50 years, in the current fiscal year and the government is struggling even to manage the budget for recurrent expenditure. “So, it is necessary to address not only the issue of the law and order but also the economic problems plaguing the country,” the Home Ministry official said.  

A Parliamentary Party meeting of the CPN-UML is underway at the Parliament building in New Baneshwor on Monday. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is seeking a vote of confidence from the Parliament meeting at 1 pm today. The UML has said that it would not give a vote of confidence to PM Dahal. Addressing the meeting, UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli said that a vote of confidence cannot be given to PM Dahal. “We cannot give a vote of confidence to Dahal as we do not have trust in him,” he said.