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The Transport Workers’ Association has withdrawn its protest programs following an agreement with the government on Tuesday. The meeting between the agitating transport workers and government representatives was held in Singha Durbar this morning. Nepal Transport Independent Workers’ Organization said that they decided to withdraw the protest programs after the government vowed to address their demands. The government called the transport workers for the meeting after they took to the streets putting forth 10-point demands. Issuing a statement on Monday, the three transport workers’ association—Nepal Transport Independent Workers’ Organization, All Nepal Transport Workers’ Union and Nepal Transport Workers’ Union—had announced that they would halt public transport services indefinitely in the Kathmandu Valley from today if the government did not heed to their demands. Earlier on Monday, transport workers and police personnel clashed in the Balaju area. The situation took an ugly turn after the transport workers set a police van on fire.              

Low capital spending on donor-funded projects and a decline in reimbursement from donors have forced the government to readjust the target for foreign grants and loans. The government has targeted to receive Rs 2,97.71 billion in foreign aid in the current fiscal year 2022/23. However, as things stand, meeting the target will be a daunting task for the government with only 11.61 percent of the targeted amount in foreign aid has been received during the first half, according to the mid-term review of the current fiscal year's budget. According to the review report, only Rs 34.57 billion including both grants and loans were received in the first six months of the current fiscal year. The country received grants amounting to Rs 8.12 billion (14.63 percent of target) and loans of Rs 25.46 billion (10.92 percent of target). At a time when the government has been struggling to meet the revenue target, failure to receive foreign aid as targeted will add to the pressure on the government’s treasury. As a result, the government downsized the budgetary allocation by 14 percent through the mid-term review of the budget. In the review, the target of foreign aid has also been reduced to Rs 38.45 billion in foreign grants, which was earlier Rs 55.45 billion. Likewise, the government expects to receive only Rs 170.53 billion in foreign loans or 70.39 percent of the initial target of Rs 242.26 billion. The finance ministry's statistics show in the last fiscal year, the government received only 45.65 percent of targeted foreign grants and 46.17 percent of target foreign loans. In the mid-term review report of the current fiscal year's budget, the main reason behind the sluggishness in receiving foreign aid is the low capital spending of the donor-funded projects. “The government receives reimbursement from the donors based on the capital spending in donor-funded projects. The impact of the low capital spending resulted in low reimbursement from the donors,” the report says. In terms of receiving foreign aid, it is not the situation of the current fiscal year; the government has hardly been able to receive foreign aid as targeted in the previous years too. In fact, expenditure under the heading of foreign aid usually remains poorer compared to domestic resources. For example, the government spent just 45.46 percent allocated budget for projects to be implemented with foreign grants in the last fiscal year, according to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO). Likewise, only 47.4 percent of the allocated amount under the heading of foreign loans was spent in the last fiscal year. The government’s total expenditure stood at 88.81 percent of the allocated amount, according to the FCGO. “The expenditure from the government’s own resources usually remains higher because its resources are spent in recurrent expenditure heavily,” said a senior FCGO official, adding, "As most of the resources under foreign aid are spent for development activities, low capital expenditure hampers the overall spending of foreign aid.”

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Afreen Akhtar arrived in Kathmandu on a two-day visit to Nepal on Monday. During her stay in Kathmandu, she will hold discussions with Nepal Army officials, the US Embassy said. Though the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) was endorsed by the Parliament, the State Partnership Program (SPP) remained controversial. Following which, the government said it would not participate in the scheme. The US, however, wants to implement the SPP in Nepal, according to a source. The source said that Akhtar will hold discussions with Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Parshuram Sharma and high ranking officials on the SPP. This is the third high-level visit from the United States within three weeks and since the formation of a new government under CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Earlier on February 7, Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), had arrived in Kathmandu. Before Power, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland had visited Nepal.

Struggling to maintain balance between expenditure and revenue, the government has readjusted the size of the current fiscal year budget. Presenting the mid-term review of the current fiscal year budget, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel on Sunday, announced that the finance ministry has reduced the size of the budget by 14 percent. Struggling to manage resources, Paudel and his team decided to reduce the size of the current budget in the mid-term review. High officials at the ministry accept that due to the decrease in revenue sources and foreign grants, there is no condition to meet the expenses according to the budget size presented by the then Finance Minister Janardan Sharma. Sharma had presented a federal budget of Rs 1,793 billion for the FY 2022/23 targeting economic growth of 8 percent which economists have termed unrealistic and unachievable given the economic headwinds. The finance ministry said the budget size has to be reduced as it has increasingly become difficult to meet the budget expenses due to poor revenue collection and a decline in foreign grants. Finance Minister Poudel reduced the size of the budget by Rs 244 billion. The budget size has been readjusted to Rs 1549.99 billion from earlier 1793.83 billion. The recurrent expenditure has been trimmed by Rs 161.31 billion and the capital expenditure by Rs 66.53 billion. Along with the total budget size, the revenue collection target has also been revised. According to Finance Minister Poudel, the new revenue target has been set at Rs 1244.75 billion. With foreign grants declining, the ministry has revised the target of grants from Rs 55.45 billion to Rs 38.45 billion. Similarly, the target for foreign loans has been readjusted to Rs 170.53 billion from earlier Rs 242.26 billion. Even the target for internal loans has been reduced as the government now plans to raise internal borrowing of Rs 240 billion from earlier Rs 256 billion. From increasing capital expenditure, axing recurrent expenditure, and tightening revenue leakage to improving revenue collection, Poudel, in his third stint as Finance Minister, has shouldered a big responsibility to resurrect the recession-mired economy. Poudel has acknowledged that while there has been some improvement in the tourism sector, the economic growth will not be as per the target as the manufacturing sector has failed to operate to its full capacity. "Resource management has become difficult. A policy of cutting non-essential expenses has been taken," said Poudel. "The government is struggling to manage expenses for public expenditure and paying the principal and interest of the loans," he further said.

•     The size of the budget trimmed by Rs 244 billion
•     The budget size has been readjusted to Rs 1549.99 billion from earlier 1793.83 billion
•     The recurrent expenditure has been trimmed by Rs 161.31 billion and the capital expenditure by Rs 66.53 billion
•     The revenue collection target has also been revised as the new revenue target has been set at Rs 1244.75 billion
•     The target of grants was revised from Rs 55.45 billion to Rs 38.45 billion.
•     The target for foreign loans has been readjusted to Rs 170.53 billion from earlier Rs 242.26 billion.
•     Internal loans target reduced to Rs 240 billion from earlier Rs 256 billion

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on June 14, 2022, announced that it has reached a three-point agreement with the agitating locals of the Lapsiphedi area of Shankarapur Municipality-3, over a planned construction of a transmission substation. With the locals disowning the agreement to end the agitation, the survey work being undertaken to construct the substation has continued to remain halted. According to NEA, the planned substation is a vital component of the under-construction 400KV Naya Khimti-Barhabise-Lapsiphedi transmission line, which is essential to meet growing power demand in the Kathmandu Valley. But, the locals have been protesting against the planned construction of a substation arguing that it is being built at a human settlement and demanding relocation of the substation to another place. After the locals obstructed the ongoing survey work for the substation, the state-owned power utility held talks with the representatives of the locals. In a press statement, the NEA said that the locals have agreed to discontinue the ongoing obstruction with local administration withdrawing the police mobilized at the project site. In line with the agreement, the NEA would suspend the drilling and survey works being undertaken at the proposed location for the substation for five days. The NEA had said that the locals would allow the NEA to carry out its work from the sixth day without causing any obstructions. However, a senior NEA official said that it has not mobilized the workforce to carry out any further work as a solution is being sought from the political levels. “As the issue has become politically charged with elected local representatives talking about relocating the substation, there is a need to seek a political solution to the dispute,” the official said. Surya Bahadur Tamang, ward-3 chairperson has been at the forefront of agitation against the planned substation. A coordination committee was formed headed by ward-7 chairperson Bishnu Prasad Shrestha to discuss with the locals on the positive and negative impact of the transmission line projects, and the demands of the locals. Krishna Chandra Poudel, undersecretary at the Area Administration Office, Sankhu, Surya Bahadur Tamang, ward-3 chairperson, Ranjit Tamang, president of Tamang Sarokar Samaj and locals Phurba Lama and Pawan Waiba were included as members of the committee. The committee was supposed to submit a report within five days after interacting with the locals, according to NEA. However, a member of the committee said that the committee failed to take any decisions with representatives of local stakeholders and didn't participate in the meeting. “The locals have a one-point agenda that the substation should be relocated,” the committee member said. It appears that there is a wider consensus among local political leaders on the fact that the substation should be relocated. The Shankarapur Municipality itself in its budget and program unveiled for the current fiscal year (2022-23) has promised to make efforts to relocate the proposed substation. “As the substation and the Tamakoshi transmission line will affect the settlement of indigenous nationalities, a request will be made to (concerned authority) for the relocation of the substation,” states the Municipality's budget and program 2022/23. With the locals refusing to take a step back from their stance, the future of the 400kV Naya Khimti-Barhabise-Lapsephedi transmission line has become uncertain at a time when the project is in its final phase of completion. According to NEA, construction of this substation at Bojhini, Lapsiphedi, and four transmission towers are the only remaining tasks to be completed before the transmission of electricity starts through this power line. Due to a delay in completing the construction of this high-capacity transmission line, the NEA has failed to bring the power generated from the country’s largest 456MW Upper Tamakoshi Project directly to the Kathmandu Valley. After the Upper Tamakoshi came into commercial operation in August 2021, its power has been transferred to Dhalkebar from where electricity is being transmitted to the eastern region of the country as well as Kathmandu. According to NEA, protests against the substation took place only after the politicians made it the election agenda. NEA officials say that there was no protest against the acquisition of lands for the substation in 2017. The power utility has already compensated 49 out of 50 landowners for acquiring the land in early 2018. Obstruction at Lapsiphedi is another example of the difficulty to construct the transmission line in Nepal at a time when the country is in greater need of transmission infrastructure to transmit growing power production in the country. Not only for domestic consumption, but the country also needs a better transmission infrastructure for exporting power. In fact, Nepal is set to hold talks with India for constructing additional two transmission line projects in the upcoming bilateral meeting scheduled to be held in late February.

Eight months after the government ordered the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to sign power purchase agreements (PPA) with run-of-the-river (RoR) hydropower projects for up to 1500 MW capacity, the state-owned power monopoly has finally decided to resume signing the PPAs addressing a major demand of the independent power producers (IPPs). The NEA board meeting on Thursday decided to do PPA for up to 1500 MW  under take or pay modality. The meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Rajendra Linden decided to move ahead with PPA of RoR projects on the basis of the date-wise chronological order of the Grid Connection Agreement. The electricity produced by these projects will be purchased on the basis of the principle of 'take or turn'. NEA will buy electricity generated from the projects at Rs 8.40 and Rs 4.80 per unit for the dry season and rainy season respectively. As of now, NEA has signed connection agreements with 136 projects for a combined capacity of 3,192 MW. NEA had stopped signing PPAs with the hydropower developers of the ROR projects three years ago citing the 'financial risks' involved in such power produced by such projects. According to NEA, buying more power will add more financial burden to the organization as it is experiencing power spillage during the rainy season due to low domestic consumption and inadequate access to the Indian market. In April 2018, the Ministry of Energy issued a white paper and decided to generate 15,000 MW of electricity in the next 10 years. Of the targeted 15,000 MW, PPAs were planned on the basis of the take-or-pay principle by keeping the ratio of reservoir and pump storage at 30 to 35 percent, peaking RoR at 25 to 30 percent, RoR at 30 to 35 percent and other alternative sources. A meeting of the cabinet of ministers on July 8, 2022, reviewed the production mix ratio and reduced it by 10 percent for reservoirs and increased it by 10 percent for RoR projects. As per the latest revision, the ratio of reservoir projects will be maintained at 20 to 25 percent, peaking RoR at 25 to 30 percent, RoR at 40 to 45 percent, and other alternative sources at 5 to 10 percent. With this, the limit for PPA for the RoR project increased from 5250 MW to 6750 MW.  According to the NEA Executive Director Kulman Ghising, with the latest decision, PPAs of the RoR projects can be signed until the limit of 6750 MW is reached. "The PPA of RoR projects was stopped about three years ago, as there was a possibility of a big financial risk to the authority due to the lack of market certainty for the sale of electricity during the rainy season," said Ghising. The NEA expects the developers to take 5–7 years to complete the projects. “By that time, the domestic demand for electricity will also increase significantly and our power exports to neighboring markets will also rise significantly,” said Ghising. “That’s why we've decided to resume the signing of PPAs.”

The Nepal Management Association, the apex body of the management professionals, honored Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of eSewa Money Transfer Ajesh Koirala with the ‘Manager of the Year 2022’ award. The Association honored Koirala with the award for his contribution to the management sector of Nepal. He was honored amidst a special function organized at Hotel Everest in Kathmandu on Saturday. Koirala thanked the Association for selecting and honoring eSewa. He said that they reached this stage with the love and support of Nepalis living abroad, operators of the company, staff and F One Soft Group.

The Government of Nepal has dispatched the first shipment of over 22 tons of relief materials containing medicines, medical equipment, warm clothing, and other basic essential items for the earthquake affected people of Turkey on Monday. The Government of Nepal has decided to send the relief materials as a gesture of solidarity in Turkey’s relief and recovery efforts following the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye on 06 February 2023. Earlier on 08 February 2023, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Bimala Rai Paudyal on a telephone conversation with her Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu extended heartfelt condolences to the people and Government of Turkey on the loss of precious lives and properties and expressed Nepal’s readiness to extend all possible support in solidarity with the people of Türkiye. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would like to extend its sincere gratitude to all the concerned government agencies, private sector and humanitarian organizations for their generous support and the Turkish Airlines for its offer to transport the relief materials, read a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.