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The business of non-life insurance companies has grown by almost six percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. The 18 non-life insurance companies operating in Nepal have collected a total of Rs 23.06 billion in insurance premiums till mid-February, 2023 which was Rs 21.81 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year. Insurance sector experts say the growth rate of the non-life insurance business is not encouraging. "The non-life insurance business has been affected this year due to the economic slowdown and high inflation," said Raju Raman Paudel, Executive Director of the Nepal Insurance Authority (NIA). Among the insurance companies, Shikhar Insurance tops the chart when it comes to the premium collection in this fiscal year. The company collected Rs 2.98 billion in premiums till mid-February 2023. Neco Insurance is in the second position with premiums totaling Rs 1.75 billion followed by Rastriya Beema Sansthan at Rs 1.69 billion. As insurance companies are more concentrated in the federal capital and cities, NIA officials say that there is an imbalance in the provincial business of insurance companies. The share of Bagmati Province in the non-life insurance business is the highest while that of Karnali Province is the lowest. The NIA data shows, of the total premium collection, Bagmati Province contributes 66.46 percent. Non-life insurance companies collected premiums totaling Rs 15.32 billion in the Bagmati Province till mid-February. The share of other provinces in the non-life insurance business is less than 10 percent. As per the NIA data, Lumbini Province has a 9.25 percent share in the non-life insurance business, while Province 1 has an 8.67 percent share. Similarly, the share of Madhesh Province is 6.29 percent, Gandaki Province is 5.73 percent, Sudur Pashchim Province is 2.63 percent, and Karnali Province is 0.93 percent.

A Cabinet meeting has started at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singhadurbar on Monday. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called the Cabinet meeting after the eight ministers of the CPN-UML tender their resignation. Earlier this afternoon, the UML had decided to pull out of the government. After the UML, Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Rastriya Swatantra Party quit the government, only the CPN (Maoist Center) and Janamat Party are in the government.    

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 3. 65 points to close at 2,023. 54 points on Monday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 0. 84 points to close at 383. 01 points. A total of 5,120,888 unit shares of 259 companies were traded for Rs 1. 89 billion. Meanwhile, Swabhimaan Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 73 percent. Likewise, Rapti Hydro and General Construction Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 6. 43 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 92 trillion.

The next fiscal year's federal budget will be smaller than the current fiscal year. With the government struggling to manage financial resources due to a widening gap between income and expenditure, the National Planning Commission (NPC) has set the next fiscal year's government expenditure ceiling at Rs 1688.40 billion. The ceiling set by the NPC is smaller by Rs 105.43 billion than the budget for this fiscal year. The then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had brought the budget of Rs 1793.83 billion for FY 2022/23. However, the Finance Ministry on February 12, trimmed the budget size during the mid-term review by 13.59 percent after realizing that raising the required resources from all sources, particularly revenue and foreign aid, is unachievable. The revised budgetary allocation now amounts to Rs 1,549.99 billion from Rs 1,793.83 billion earlier. The Finance Ministry will prepare the next fiscal year's budget based on the NPC ceiling. According to NPC Member Ram Prasad Phuyal, the ceiling has been lowered for the next fiscal in view of weak revenue mobilization and the decline in foreign assistance. "The budget ceiling for the next fiscal year has been fixed after analyzing various factors such as contraction in revenue mobilization, decline in foreign loans and grants, and additional pressure on payment of the foreign debt due to fluctuation in foreign exchange," said Phuyal. NPC estimates that the government revenue collection will total Rs 1,403 billion for the next fiscal year. The body has set foreign assistance targets (grants and loans) at Rs 201 billion and internal loans at Rs 230 billion for FY 2023/24. Based on the ceiling, ministries will have to propose programs and projects for the next fiscal year, following which discussions will be held to finalize them. Although NPC sets the ceiling of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the Finance Ministry generally does not follow the recommendations of the NPC. The National Resources Estimation Committee headed by the NPC Vice Chairman Min Bahadur Shrestha has fixed the ceiling of the federal budget for the next three fiscal years. The NPC has set the budget ceiling of Rs 1,880 billion and Rs 2,088 billion for FY 2024/25 and FY 2025/26 respectively. Similarly, the revenue target for 2024/25 and FY 2025/26 has been set at Rs 1,606 billion and Rs 1,831 billion respectively. NPC has estimated that the country's economy will grow by 4.5 percent in the current fiscal year, 6 percent in FY 2023/24, 7.5 percent in 2024/24 and eight percent in 2025/26.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party has decided to continue its support to the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government. After the Central Committee held on Monday, party Deputy General Secretary Kabindra Burlakoti said that the party will not withdraw the support extended to the Dahal-led government immediately. The party, however, has already pulled out of the government. Burlakoti said that the party will continue its support to the government until the next development in Nepali politics. He said that the party has not made any decision on the presidential election yet. Saying that the meeting has decided to take part in the by-election in Chitwan-2, Burlakoti said that the party will be registered with the Election Commission soon.  

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has extended the deadline for submitting bids for developing solar plants and supplying electricity till March 13 amid solar manufacturers showing unwillingness to participate in bids complaining about the price cap on solar power. Issuing a tender notice on November 28, the state-owned power utility had invited bids from the solar manufacturers setting the deadline for February 26. In an addendum notice, the NEA extended the deadline till March 13 while also notifying the bids will be opened at 2 pm on the same day. The NEA plans to buy a maximum of 100 MW of power from such solar plants proposed to be developed by the private sector at 16 locations across the country. This is for the first time that the state-owned power utility sought to buy solar power through bids. It is the biggest move by the NEA to buy grid-connected solar power with just 44MW of solar power being connected to the national grid till the last fiscal year 2021/22. In January last year, NEA decided to purchase solar energy only through a competitive bidding process, ending the fixed rate regime of the previous three years. NEA officials say the move is also aimed at bringing down the prices of solar power amid declining prices of solar power over the last decade. In March last year, the state-owned power utility decided to cap the maximum rate to be offered to solar power generators at Rs5.94 per unit. Earlier, NEA used to sign power purchase agreements with solar power developers at a fixed rate of Rs 7.30 per unit. Solar power manufacturers have however long been complaining that the price cap imposed by the NEA was impractical and the solar projects could not be developed within the price limit. “NEA only saw prices drastically coming down in neighboring India,” said Ram Bahadur Bhandari, Managing Director of Suryodaya Urja, a company involved in larger solar plants in Nepal. “But it failed to see the facilities being provided by the Indian government such along the scale of solar plants in India.” According to him, solar developers in India develop high-capacity solar plants which give economies of scale helping to reduce per-unit cost. “The Indian government has also been generous to provide cheap or free lands to develop the solar plants and offer tax concessions.” As per the tender notice, bidder(s) can propose a maximum capacity set for specific locations ranging from 10MW to 30MW based on the location. They however cannot propose to deliver less than 1MW at the delivery point. The bidder can choose any solar photovoltaic power generation technology. As per the notice, the developer will also be responsible for evacuating power from the plant to the nearby NEA substation. Nepal has a long way to go to realize its potential in solar energy. According to the Nepal Energy Sector Synopsis Report-2022, the country has the potential to generate around 2,100MW of solar electricity. Nepal also aims to generate a total of 15,000 MW of electricity by 2030 of which 5-10 percent will be generated from mini and micro-hydropower, solar, wind, and bio-energy projects. “The policy of NEA has not been friendly to promote solar energy,” said Bhandari. “So, we have abandoned our plan to develop a solar plant in Bardiya despite buying lands for the same because of the price cap imposed by the NEA.”

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 200 per tola in the domestic market on Monday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 101, 800 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 102, 000 per tola on Sunday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 101, 300 per tola. It was traded at Rs 101, 500. Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 5 and is being traded at Rs 1,255 per tola today.

The CPN-UML, the second largest party in the Parliament, has decided to quit the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government. A Secretariat meeting held on Monday has also decided to withdraw the support extended to the Dahal-led government, party Vice-Chairman Bishnu Paudel said. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Paudel said that he would tender his resignation today itself.