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The Teku-based Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital has started administering the booster dose vaccine against coronavirus from today. Lilanath Bhandari, Emergency In-charge at the Hospital, said that the vaccine will be administered from 10 am to 3 pm. “The booster dose vaccine will be administered from today. We have started administering the booster dose vaccine targeting mainly the people who are going abroad,” he said. Nepal had received an additional booster dose vaccine against the Covid-19 on Monday. Nepal had received 345, 600 doses of vaccine on Monday. Earlier on February 13 and 16, Nepal had received 345, 600 doses of vaccine. Germany will provide 1.5 million doses of vaccine to Nepal. So far, Nepal has received 1, 036, 800 doses of vaccine. Nepal has yet to get 463, 000 doses of vaccine.      

NHPC India Limited is all set to get one more hydropower project development contract in Nepal. The government is preparing to bring the Indian firm as a co-investor to develop the Phukot Karnali Hydropower Project. Nepali officials have agreed to make NHPC, an Indian government entity, a co-developer of the 480 MW semi-reservoir project. Sources at the Energy Ministry said an understanding was reached between Nepal and India to this effect during the Energy Secretary-level JSC meeting that concluded on Saturday. A member of the Nepali team present in the meeting also confirmed the two sides agreed to make NHPC a partner in the Phukot Karnali project. The agreement, however, was not mentioned in the official press statement. "A draft MoU was prepared during the meeting," said the Nepali team member. "Once it is approved by the Cabinet, a formal MoU will be signed." The Phukot Karnali Hydropower Project is located in Sannitriveni Rural Municipality of Kalikot district. The government-owned Vidhyut Utpadan Company Limited (VUCL) is developing the project. As per the understanding reached with India, now, VUCL and NHPC will 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. Energy Ministry sources said 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 had received the license to construct the Phukot Karnali Project in 2017. The company has already started the project works including land acquisition. The company was looking for a foreign investment partner to take the project ahead. Phukot Karnali will be NHPC’s third hydropower project in Nepal. Last year, the company had 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 while it has applied for the same for SR-6. According to IBN, NHPC has recently submitted the preliminary report of the West Seti Project. NHPC is set to submit a detailed project report (DPR) of the project within 21 months.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 500 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 102, 500 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 103, 000 per tola on Wednesday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 102, 000 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 10 and is being traded at Rs 1,285 per tola today.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba held a meeting on Thursday. Congress President had reached Baluwatar this morning to meet Prime Minister Dahal. During the meeting, they discussed the presidential election. According to a Baluwatar source, the duo discussed the possible candidate for the presidential election from the Nepali Congress. The Nepali Congress has put forward the names of senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula. Earlier on Wednesday, the Congress leaders including President Deuba discussed the issue of presidential election with the Prime Minister. During the meeting with Prime Minister Dahal, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli floated a proposal to make CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal the new President. Prime Minister Dahal and Nepali Congress President Deuba are exercising to reinstate the five-party alliance formed before the election. Dahal, who was appointed as the Prime Minister on December 26, had made an agreement to make the UML candidate the new President. But, after the Nepali Congress gave a vote of confidence to Prime Minister Dahal, he has been saying that the President should be appointed based on consensus.  

The Tibetan community of Nepal celebrated their new year, Lhosar, in the presence of members of the diplomatic community. The Tibetan community celebrated their new year 2150 (Rabbit Year) in Jawalakhel ground on Thursday. The new year of Tibetans started on Tuesday. On the occasion, they worshiped the portrait of their religious leader Dalai Lama. US Ambassador to Nepal Dean R Thompson, Australian Ambassador to Nepal Felicity Volk and Swiss Ambassador to Nepal Elisabeth von Capeller among representatives of various diplomatic missions were present in the program.  

Provincial governments’ budget spending has remained poorer than that of the federal government, according to the mid-term budget review report. The overall expenditure of the provincial government stood at 16.21 percent against the federal government's expenditure of 32 percent during the first six months of the current fiscal year. According to the review report for the fiscal year 2022/23, provincial governments spent Rs 49.53 billion against the total allocation of Rs 305.5 billion. Capital expenditure of the provinces has remained poorer than recurrent expenditure, a common situation resembling the federal government. As per the report, the average capital expenditure of seven provincial governments stood at 12.45 percent during the first half of the current fiscal year. Among the provinces, Province 1 tops the chart when it comes to spending. The overall expenditure and capital expenditure of the Province 1 government stood at 24.88 percent and 19.27  percent respectively. Madhes province has the lowest overall expenditure of 10.9 percent and Karnali province is the poorest in terms of spending capital budget at just 9 percent. The federal government has admitted that all three layers lack spending capacity.  “On one hand, the budget transferred to the provinces and local levels as part of the fiscal transfer remains stuck in the banks,” states the mid-term review of the budget. “On the other hand, the federal government has been forced to mobilize internal loans to cover the deficit of the budget.” But officials in the province say that it was natural for provinces to struggle to spend resources because they don’t have enough human resources. “During the employment adjustment process, most of the government employees stayed at the center. Even after five years since the provinces were set up, they are still facing a shortage of human resources,” said an official of the Bagmati province. “Around 2600 vacancies have been created for our province but there are only around 1400 employees working.” In recent years, the federal government has been sending many small projects to the provinces and the local government for their implementation. “While projects to be implemented are increasing, human resource requirements have not been addressed. Hence, it is natural that the allocated budget is not spent,” said the official of Bagmati province. With provincial and local governments relying heavily on fiscal transfer from the central government, the report emphasized that they should be able to mobilize more resources from the areas under their jurisdictions. In the fiscal year 2020/21, the provincial government collected just Rs 15.14 billion from their internal resources, which is just 17.69 percent of the total revenue collected by provincial governments including the amount received through revenue sharing. The report has also called for improving spending capacity and cash and fund management capacity. State of Provincial Governments' Expenditure (First Six Months)

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 33.57 points to close at 2,080.38 points on Wednesday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 4.81 points to close at 396. 34 points. A total of 4,779,796 unit shares of 269 companies were traded for Rs 1. 80 billion. Meanwhile, Liberty Energy Company Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 9. 80 percent. Adarsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top loser as its price fell by 10.00 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 00 trillion.

As a series of anomalies come to light, Nepal Rastra Bank plans to tighten its grip on microfinance institutions (MFIs). Of late, MFIs have been embroiled in controversies with issues of multiple lending, and high-handedness adopted for loan recovery. The central bank has now said that it will introduce a provision whereby one person cannot take loans from multiple MFIs. In addition to this, the NRB is also planning to cap the dividends of the MFIs. Revati Prasad Nepal, who heads the Microfinance Institutions Supervision Department at NRB, says the central bank is preparing a policy that will prohibit borrowers from taking loans from multiple MFIs. While the central bank had introduced a policy of discouraging multiple banking five years ago, it could not be implemented effectively. The central bank had directed the MFIs that they should grant loans only after ensuring that borrowers have not taken loans from more than one institution. And, such loans should be within the limit as prescribed by the central bank. MFIs can grant loans up to Rs 700,000 without collateral and Rs 1.5 million with collateral. Later, the central bank introduced a provision, whereby MFIs have to do 100 percent provisioning if the loans exceed the limit. However, the issue of taking loans from multiple MFIs continued. Nepal said that the central bank will introduce provisions immediately to discourage this trend. "The problems we have now are due to the micro-finances providing loans beyond the specified limits. We are now planning to tighten the credit flow," said Nepal. The central bank officials are of the view that there should be a cap on the dividends of the MFIs. "The basic principle of microfinance is to offer financial services in rural areas to financially vulnerable individuals and small businesses that don’t have access to traditional lending resources," said an NRB official, "However, with the surge in the number of microfinance companies, they have become more profit-oriented." As MFIs have deviated from their basic principle, the NRB is of the view that there is a need to limit their dividend distribution. However, NRB officials said the Banks and Financial Institution Act (Bafia) should be amended for this. "If there is a need for such intervention, the central bank will move toward this direction," he said. "The current mess in the microfinance sector is a result of micro-finance companies operating as commercial banks." Loan recovery became complicated for micro-finance institutions as their primary lenders—micro and small enterprises—were badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been cases were borrowers either committing suicide or absconding from villages after failing to pay exorbitant interests of the MFIs, who have been charged of using coercive measures to recover their loans. According to microfinance expert Dr. Man BK, the microfinance sector landed in trouble as it operated beyond its principles. "The microfinance sector in Nepal was run under a corporate model when it should have been run under a community financing model," he said. BK argues that both commercial banks and microfinance institutions are being run under the same model. "The regulator has allowed MFIs to be listed in the stock market and also given free hand when it comes to dividend distribution," said BK.