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Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the policy of the incumbent government is to do good work. He said so during a meeting held with the CPN (Maoist Center) Karnali Province leaders and cadres on Sunday. Saying that the prime minister has to win the trust of people by doing good works, Prime Minister Dahal said, “Nothing is impossible if we work wholeheartedly for the development and prosperity of the nation.” Expressing his happiness for being his party ahead of others in Karnali Province, he said that the current government is focused on developing that region. The prime minister directed the to be formed government in the Karnali Province to give priority for the economic development of the Karnali Province.

CPN (Maoist Center) leader Khagraj Bhatta has been elected as the party’s Parliamentary Party leader in Sudurpaschim Province. A meeting held at the Parliamentary Party Office of the Province on Sunday morning unanimously appointed Bhatta to the post. The Maoist Center said that Bhatta, who is also a Standing Committee member and an in-charge of the Maoist Center Sudurpaschim Province, was elected as the party’s Parliamentary Party leader in the province.  

The price of gold has increased by Rs 300 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 101, 700 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 101, 400 on Friday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 101, 200 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 5 and is being traded at Rs 1, 400 per tola today.

China has appointed Qin Gang, a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, as its new foreign minister, state radio reported on Friday, Reuters reported.

Qin, 56, and currently China’s ambassador to the United States, replaces Wang Yi, who has been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is expected to play a bigger role in foreign policy.

A rising star in the foreign ministry, Qin rose through various positions including as the ministry’s spokesman and postings at the Chinese embassy in Britain, according to Reuters.

He served as Xi’s chief protocol officer between 2014 and 2018.

Following his appointment, Qin will return to Beijing from Washington after 17 months as China’s 11th ambassador to the United States.

In an essay published in American bi-monthly magazine the National Interest this week, Qin gave an overview of China’s position on foreign policy and reiterated that China-U.S. relations were not a zero-sum game.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Friday. During the meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar, the duo insisted on further consolidating the Nepal-India ties, according to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. On the occasion, the ambassador handed a letter of congratulations to Dahal sent by his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

With the country's revenue administration falling far behind to meet the revenue collection target in the current fiscal year, the new leadership at the Ministry of Finance has started to get into action. The Central Revenue Leakage Control Committee (CRLCC) on Wednesday directed the bodies concerned to put maximum efforts to control revenue leakages. Official statistics show overall revenue collection has a stark shortfall of Rs 138 billion of the target in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The government in the federal budget targeted to raise Rs 1,403 billion in revenue for the fiscal year. However, after the first five months, only less than a quarter of the annual target (about 23 percent) has been collected. Similarly, the government had set a target of collecting Rs 464 billion in revenue from mid-July to mid-December this year. But the FCGO data shows a total of Rs 326 billion in revenue has been collected by mid-December. Given the current state of the revenue collection, it is likely that it will be difficult for the government to meet its recurrent and development expenditure targets. Wednesday's meeting, therefore, was a crucial one. The CRLCC meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel and Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane. The ministers took stock of the present condition of revenue collection and the measures taken to check revenue leakages. Minister Poudel asked all the bodies to put maximum effort to control all types of revenue leakage. Minister Poudel assured that the government is ready to provide all types of support required to control revenue leakage. Similarly, minister Lamichhane said the home administration would actively work to control revenue leakage taking place at the border checkpoints of the country. According to Ananda Kafle, spokesperson of the Finance Ministry, the meeting was held to tackle the challenges seen in revenue collection and possible actions that can be taken to control smuggling. Senior government officials including the Nepal Rastra Bank governor, finance secretary, home secretary, chiefs of security bodies, and the director general of the Inland Revenue Department, among others, were present in the meeting. With the country's imports decreasing by 20.71 percent, the customs revenue has also declined in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The new foreign trade statistics released by the Department of Customs (DoC) on Thursday show the government's custom revenue has shrunk by 29 percent. The department collected revenue worth Rs 154.13 billion in the first five months of FY 2022/23 compared to Rs 217.33 billion in the first five months of FY 2021/22. The customs revenue has been affected due to the import restrictions on four-wheelers and motorcycles above 150 cc as vehicles imported into the country have long been a major revenue source for the government. The government's internal revenue collection has also taken a beating this fiscal year as economic activities in the country go through a sharp slowdown. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) which is responsible for the administration of value-added tax (VAT), income tax, excise duties, health service tax, and education service fees in the country, has missed the revenue collection target in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The department missed the target by 14 percent as it collected revenue worth Rs 150 billion till mid-December against the target of Rs 155 billion. IRD's revenue collection in the first five months of this fiscal is lower than that of the same period of the last fiscal; in FY 2021/22, the department collected Rs 155 billion in revenue in the first five months. Revenue administration officials attribute multiple factors to the decline in the collection of revenues. According to them, import restrictions, and slackness in the financial market, weaker demands in the market have affected economic activities.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index has surged past the 2000 mark for the first time in four months. The benchmark index had dropped below 2000 points on August 27 amid a bearish run that began over a year ago. After the new government noted in its first meeting that problems in the country's capital market will be resolved in the coming days, the stock market bounced back 161.82 points in the last four trading days. On Thursday, the Nepse index surged by 56.87 points to close at 2,029.03 points. Shares of 257 listed companies were traded and the total turnover stood at Rs 2.86 billion. The confidence of stock investors seems to have returned after the new government assured that it would address problems in liquidity management and will work to bring down the persistently higher interest rates. Thursday's gain in Nepse has been attributed to the further easing of liquidity in the financial system with the Nepal Rastra Bank issuing a repo of Rs 50 billion for liquidity management of banks and financial institutions. All the subgroups recorded gains on Thursday. The banking subindices rose by 24 points, development bank by 116 points, finance by 87 points, hotel and tourism by 76 points, hydropower by 105 points, life insurance by 385 points, manufacturing by 112 points, microfinance by 113 points, non-life insurance by 348 points, and trading by 47 points. On Thursday's trading, the share price of 208 companies increased while 6 companies saw their share prices decrease. The price of 8 companies increased by around 10 percent hitting the circuit breaker. Himalayan Distillery Limited (HDL) had the highest turnover of Rs 121.4 million while the shares of Himal Dolakha Hydropower Company Limited (HDHPC) traded the most. The share prices of Himalaya Energy Development, Sanima Life Insurance, Srijanshil Microfinance increased by 10 percent on Thursday. Similarly, the share prices of Dhaulagiri Microfinance, Azod Insurance, Prabhu Life Insurance, Swetaganga Hydropower, and Reliance Life Insurance surged by 9.9 percent. Nepse after the formation of the new government  

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli held a meeting in Baluwatar on Friday. Oli reached Baluwatar to discuss the Common Minimum Program (CMP) of the government, distribution of ministries among the coalition partners and contemporary political issues. The first meeting of the ruling coalition has decided to make former prime minister Oli the coordinator of the ruling coalition parties. UML General Secretary Shankar Pokharel said that a high-level mechanism was formed under the headship of Oli to coordinate with the government. Senior leaders of the new ruling coalition will be in the mechanism. The mechanism will prepare a draft of the CMP of the government within five days. Pokharel said that a committee has been formed under the leadership of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel to fix the CMP of the government. Barshaman Pun of the CPN (Maoist Center), Dr Mukul Dhakal of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and Dr Dhawal Shumsher Rana of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party will be in the committee. Members from Janata Samajbadi Party, Janamat Party, and Nagarik Unmukti Party will also be added to the committee. Dahal became prime minister for the third time with the support of seven political parties including the CPN-UML.