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Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and party General Secretary Gagan Thapa have filed their nominations for the Parliamentary Party leader. Senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel proposed Deuba’s nomination and Vice-President Purana Bahadur Khadka seconded the proposal. Similarly, Shekhar Koirala proposed Thapa’s nomination and Dhanraj Gurung and Bishwo Prakash Sharma seconded the proposal. The election to choose the Parliamentary Party leader will be held on Wednesday. The voting will begin at 8 am and end at 10 am tomorrow at the party’s Parliamentary Party office in Singhadurbar.      

Nepali Congress leader Shekhar Koirala said that he proposed Gagan Thapa as the candidate of the Parliamentary Party as per the wishes of the young generation. During a meeting held on Tuesday, Koirala said that he proposed Thapa as the candidate of the Parliamentary Party leader as he is in favor of generational transformation. Leader Koirala made it clear that Thapa is his candidate. “Gagan is dynamic. Youths also want him to be the Parliamentary Party leader. I proposed him as the candidate of the Parliamentary Party leader as I am in favor of party transformation,” he said. NC central member Ajay Babu Shivakoti said that the meeting has decided to field General Secretary Thapa as the candidate of the Parliamentary Party leader. Meanwhile, party President Sher Bahadur Deuba is preparing filed candidacy for the post of Parliamentary Party leader from the establishment faction.  

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Tuesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 100, 400 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 100, 500 per tola on Monday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 99, 900 per tola today. Similarly, the price of silver has dropped by Rs 5 and is being traded at Rs 1, 375 per tola.

Nepal and Bangladesh enjoy cordial and multi-faceted ties. The two countries formally entered the bilateral relationship in 1972, and over the years they have cooperated in many areas. Currently, they are working to expand their ties with a key focus on connectivity, trade, and energy, among other areas. In this context, Kamal Dev Bhattarai of ApEx talks to the Ambassador of Bangladesh to Nepal, Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury. How do you evaluate the current state of the Nepal-Bangladesh relationship? I think the relationship is most cordial. We have great warmth, confidence, and appreciation for each other at leadership and the people-to-people level. Perhaps more than our shared history and civilizational linkages, the similarities in our socio-economic and geopolitical realities have drawn us closer. On most issues, we have a common position. What are the key areas of cooperation between the two countries? The key areas in which our relationship developed over the years are trade, investment, connectivity, tourism as well as cultural and educational cooperation. For decades, Nepal has been the most favorite foreign destination for Bangladeshi travelers. Our attraction is not only for the majestic Himalayas, but also for the warmth and hospitality of Nepali people. In Bangladesh, too, we are developing our tourism sector. Our endeavor will now be to attract Nepali tourists to Bangladeshi tea gardens, mangrove forests, sea-beaches and archaeological sites. Education sector cooperation is one of the main pillars of our relationship. Many Nepali students are currently studying in Bangladeshi medical colleges. I firmly believe that such cooperation in the public and private sector will have a long-lasting impact in strengthening our bonds. However, the warmth in our relationship could not be translated into meaningful trade between the two countries. Being smaller economies with resource constraints and lower level of social development, I think, our initial efforts for industrialization and service sector development were geared toward creating market access in western countries. Our economies were also not ready to complement each other at that stage. Now that we are on strong footings of specializations, we see a lot of opportunities for trade amongst ourselves in coming years. Realizing this, we are currently engaged in negotiations for a preferential trade agreement between our two countries. If that materializes, our trade volume will increase significantly. What are the recent initiatives that have been taken to enhance connectivity between the two countries? Last year, we signed a document to facilitate movement of goods through the Rohanpur-Singhabad railway route, along the Bangladesh-India border. This is the second such route for transporting Nepali goods overseas through Bangladesh. We have declared long ago that we will welcome passage of Nepalese cargo through our seaports as a mark of our commitment to regionalism and abiding friendship to the people of Nepal. We are now working under a sub-regional framework called BBIN for goods transport. In future, we also want to connect two more airports to establish seamless connectivity. Using the same platform, we are currently engaged in discussions to import electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh through India. The ultimate goal is to have a dedicated line for transmission of electricity. Could you please shed some light on high-level exchanges between the two countries? We have had exchange of visits at the highest political levels in recent years. Our prime minister came to Nepal twice in her present tenure to attend SAARC and BIMSTEC summits. Our president also visited Nepal in 2019. Last year, Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari visited Bangladesh to attend the birth centenary of our father of the nation and the golden jubilee celebrations of our independence. Ministerial visits also take place quite frequently. The future of SAARC is uncertain at the moment. What are your suggestions for the revival of this regional body? There is an overall uncertainty in our situation. We are all facing natural and manmade calamities like environmental degradation, pandemics, wars, recessions, etc. In such a difficult scenario, when doors of cooperation are being shut because of increasing nationalism, we have no option but to work in unison in all multilateral and regional platforms. Unfortunately, some of the prospective platforms, like SAARC, could not function as expected due to political reasons. I think we should de-link politics from trade and development. Only through dialogue can we solve our problems. What are the future prospects of Nepal-Bangladesh relations? Energy cooperation is a very prospective area. Bangladesh is energy hungry while Nepal will soon become energy surplus. That is a perfect scenario for complementing each other’s needs. We are also engaged in discussions on Bangladesh’s possible investment in hydropower projects in Nepal. Also in the area of water sector cooperation, we are willing to work together for a basin-wide management of our water resources for mitigation of floods, augmentation of flow in lean season, and exploiting potentials for generation of hydropower. Agriculture is another area of cooperation, as we have a huge potential to strengthen our food security. We may also have joint ventures in areas of IT, garments and pharmaceuticals in special economic zones that we are building in our countries. Lastly, if we can establish smooth connectivity for movement of goods as well as passengers, our relations will further strengthen and people will enjoy its direct benefits. What do you like most about Nepal? I am enjoying my stay in Nepal thoroughly. Nepal has a very rich cultural heritage. Different communities speak different languages and live in peace, which is exemplary for the world. Moreover, Nepal has a very educated and enlightened civil society, who have emotional attachment for art, culture, literature and their unique architecture. Again, the people of Nepal are most cordial, warm and hospitable toward foreigners. So, not only me, all the foreigners live here very comfortably and happily. I consider myself very lucky to be posted to this beautiful country with beautiful, enlightened, warm and friendly people.

Come early next year, gadget lovers will get to buy flagship models of Samsung, Xiaomi, and iPhone through authorized distributors again. Nepali consumers were deprived of high-end mobile phones after the government enforced import restrictions in April this year. With the government lifting restrictions on the import of smartphones costing over $300, authorized distributors of Samsung, Xiaomi, and iPhone have initiated the process to start importing high-end phones. After the import restrictions were imposed, the flagship models' imports were halted for eight months. While the government had put a ban on importing mobile phones above $300, the flagship models of Samsung, Xiaomi, and iPhone continued to enter the country through the grey market. Now, authorized distributors say the flagship models will hit the market by late January or early February. According to Pranaya Ratna Stapit, Director at Samsung Nepal, Samsung's two flagship series phones - Galaxy Fold 4 and Galaxy S22 will be introduced to the market by mid-January 2023. While the S22 series was introduced early this year in the Nepali market, its imports were discontinued after the import restrictions. The S22 series is Samsung's current flagship model. According to Sanjay Agrawal, Executive Director at Ramesh Corp (Mobile and Consumer Durables), the latest flagship phone from Xiaomi stable will hit the market by February. "The new flagship model, Xiaomi-13 will be introduced by early February," said Agrawal whose company Teledirect Pvt Ltd is the official distributor of Xiaomi and Redmi phones in Nepal, "Note 12 and 13 series of Redmi will also be introduced." While Apple announced the new iPhones on September 7, the iPhone 14 series - the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max- will be officially available in the Nepali market from January. The imports of mobile phones have taken a huge beating in the first four months of the current fiscal year due to import restrictions. With the government imposing import restrictions on mobile phones above $300, the import of mobile phones has declined by a whopping 50.36 percent in the first four months of FY 2022/23. According to the Department of Customs, Nepal imported mobile phones worth Rs 10.10 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal. Such imports stood at Rs 20.35 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year (FY 2021/22). In terms of quantity, mobile phone imports have declined by 71.96 percent this year. Nepal has imported 729,395 units of mobile phones in the current fiscal compared to 2.60 million units in the first four months of the last fiscal year.  Flagship phones to hit the market From Samsung Fold 4 S22 series From Xiaomi Xiaomi 13 From Apple iPhone 14 pro iPhone 14 pro max

At a time when dark clouds of uncertainty have shrouded the country's economy, cooperative institutions have landed into financial problems leading to the collapse of such financial institutions one after another. Last week, the officials of Sunaulo Diyalo Savings and Credit Cooperative in Indrachowk, Kathmandu, went out of contact, while its depositors filed complaints against the institution at the Cooperative Department of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC). The depositors sought government intervention to recover Rs 400 million that they said they'd deposited at Diyalo. Gautam Shree Multipurpose Cooperative in Kuleshwor, Kathmandu, faced similar problems a few months ago. The operators of the cooperative have been accused of embezzling nearly Rs 2 billion in deposits by its members. Over 1,100 depositors took to the Department of Cooperatives under the Ministry of Land Management, Co-operative and Poverty Alleviation, after they failed to get back their deposits of over Rs 1.75 billion. Likewise, Asta Savings and Credit Cooperative in New Road, Kathmandu, has also been facing similar issues. Two weeks ago, 35 depositors filed complaints to recover Rs 6 million from the cooperative, after the cooperative operators suddenly went out of contact. Paritosh Poudyal, Chairman of the Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions, said malpractices in the city and town-based cooperative institutions are the main problem behind the current crisis in the cooperative sector. “The cooperatives that have their money heavily in asset class investments such as real estate and stock trading than production-oriented business, have been seen landing into financial troubles,” he said. With growing cases of misconduct by cooperative institutions, the regulators have been receiving an increasing number of complaints. The records with the KMC show that it has registered complaints against six cooperatives accused of embezzling more than Rs 40 million deposited by their members in the first four months of the current fiscal year. Devendra Poudel, Director at KMC's Cooperative Department, said many cooperatives landed into problems due to their investment in real estate and the stock market. According to him, cooperatives were unable to return the money of depositors after these sectors crumbled over the past year. He said it has become necessary to make it mandatory for the cooperatives to maintain some reserves at the Nepal Rastra Bank. "Also, the members of cooperatives themselves need to be aware of the financial situation of their respective institutions which will help to avoid problems in the future," he said. Although the number of failing cooperatives has increased significantly over the past two years, the government has hardly taken any measures to penalize the misconduct of the operators of such financial institutions. Most of the depositors of Oriental Cooperative have failed to get back their money over the past decade despite Oriental being declared problematic for the past few years. Instead, the government declared Oriental a problematic cooperative for the second time on September 22 and asked the depositors to submit claims for the amounts embezzled by the cooperative's operators. Due to the government’s dilly-dallying it is unclear whether those who've lost their deposits will ever get back the doused amounts. Keshab Prasad Poudel, Chief of the Office of Problematic Cooperative Management Committee, cited the lack of proper documents related to deposits and loans of the 'troubled cooperatives' as one of the reasons for non-action against the operators of such institutions. "Government’s commitment to resolving the issues is also important in this context," he mentioned.

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Vice-Chairman and former Speaker Subash Chandra Nembang held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a new power sharing. Nembang reached Khumaltar this morning and formally proposed Dahal to become the prime minister. During the meeting, the duo discussed a new power sharing, government formation and contemporary political issues. Vice-Chairman Nembang stressed that the left parties should come to the same place. He was of the opinion that the UML-Maoist Center government should be formed by splitting the ruling coalition. “Let the Maoist Center be ready to leave the alliance and cooperate with the UML. The UML is ready to accept you as the prime minister,” a leader said, quoting the dialogue of the two leaders. “Other posts will be shared in consensus among the senior leaders of the UML-Maoist Center.” “Leave the alliance now, UML is ready to hold discussion and cooperate with the Maoist Center. Let’s take politics ahead through a new course to take the country towards the path of stability,” the leader said. Nembang proposed a new power sharing deal with Dahal and not to include the CPN (Unified Socialist) in the government for now. “The UML is not ready to bring the CPN (Unified Socialist) in the new government. Let’s make a coalition without the CPN (US),” he said. The UML intensified meetings with senior leaders after President Bidya Devi Bhandari called on the political parties to form a new government within December 25. Earlier, CPN (Maoist Center) General Secretary Dev Prasad Gurung had held a meeting with UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli at the latter’s residence in Baluwatar. Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Dahal have been staking claim for the post of prime minister within the ruling coalition. Though Deuba had promised Dahal before the elections that he will make him the prime minister of a new government, no formal discussions have been made about the power sharing and future prime minister yet. Utilizing this opportunity, the UML has been trying to break the coalition and form its new alliance. UML leader Bishal Bhattarai had announced that the UML would move ahead if the ruling coalition failed to garner a majority. The Maoist Center has been bargaining power with the UML and the Nepali Congress parallelly. Earlier, the ruling coalition parties had decided to give continuity to the incumbent alliance. The Maoist Center, a key partner of the alliance, however, has been holding intensive talks with the UML in recent times. Second rung leaders of the UML and the Maoist Center have been mounting pressure on the Chairman duo Oli and Dahal to move forward together.    

Solar power project developers have called the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to return to the old power purchase agreement (PPA) rate of Rs 7.30 per unit for electricity generated from solar projects. They have argued that PPA less than this rate is unfeasible for them to produce electricity. NEA had been concluding PPAs with developers at a predetermined price of Rs 7.30 per unit as per the 'Working Procedure on Grid Connected Alternative Electric Energy Development-2017'. However, in March this year, the state-owned power utility decided to set a maximum fee of Rs 5.96 per unit to be paid to solar power producers. NEA solicited proposals from developers on November 28 to build grid-connected solar installations. The authority intends to purchase a maximum of 100MW of electricity from such solar power plants that the private investors are looking to build at 16 different places across the country. Solar power project developers have however been against the price cap set by the NEA arguing that it is not scientific. “Our executive committee meeting reached a conclusion after the calculation that less than Rs 7.30 per unit is not feasible to recover the cost in 10 years,” said Prakash Bikram Basnet, President of Solar Electric Manufacturers’ Association of Nepal. “We have also decided that our member companies won’t participate in the bid invited by the NEA until our demand is addressed.” According to Basnet, 123 solar energy companies are members of the association currently. “As many as 15 of them are involved in large-scale commercial projects,” he informed. He said that implementation of the maximum price cap imposed by NEA would mean the developers have to wait 12-15 years to recover the investment. “As the solar plants should be returned to the government including the lands covered by it after 25 years, there will be little time left to make profits from the investment,” said Basnet. NEA decided to abolish the three-year fixed pricing system and only accept bids for solar energy earlier in January. It took the step to introduce a competitive pricing mechanism in light of the declining cost of solar energy globally. Under open bidding, solar energy costs in India reached a record low of INR 2 per unit in November 2020. However, proponents of solar energy say prices of solar modules, which account for about 40 percent of costs, increased by 20 cents per watt in foreign markets like Singapore and China. According to Basnet, prices of iron and steel, cables, and shipping expenses have increased. International reports also suggest that solar and wind energy prices have risen due to supply chain constraints. However, NEA is not in favor of revising the rate as sought by the private developers. According to NEA Spokesperson Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai, the authority has set the PPA rate based on global market trends. "Those who want to participate in the bid are welcome. We have not forced them to join the bid," he said. As per NEA’s tender notice, only the companies that offer prices less than Rs 5.94 per unit will be eligible to sell electricity to NEA after developing the plant. This is for the first time that the state-owned power utility sought to buy solar power through a competitive bidding process. The bid notice states that Requests for Proposals (RfPs) must be submitted by February 26. The solar project must be finished within 18 months of the day the NEA and developer signed the PPA, according to the bid notification. The bidders cannot offer to deliver less than 1MW at the delivery point. Depending on the location, they can provide a maximum capacity set for particular places ranging from 10MW to 30MW. The bidders can propose any solar photovoltaic power-producing technologies. The developer will also be responsible for evacuating power from the plant to the nearby NEA substation, reads the RFP notice. Solar energy currently makes up a very small portion of the nation's energy mix. As of the previous fiscal year, which concluded in mid-July, up to 44 megawatts of solar energy had been connected to the national grid, according to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation. This accounts for only 1.94 percent of Nepal's total installed capacity of power projects. According to the energy ministry, Nepal generated 2268MW of electricity overall in the middle of July. As part of implementing the government policy to raise the percentage of alternative renewable sources like solar and wind to 10 percent of the total installed capacity, the power monopoly made a drive to buy solar energy in large quantities.