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The price of gold has increased by Rs 200 per tola in the domestic market on Wednesday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 109, 700 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 109, 500 per tola on Monday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 109, 200 per tola. It was traded at Rs 109, 000. Similarly, the silver of silver has dropped by Rs 500 and is being traded at Rs 1,415 per tola today.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 17.36 points to close at 1,905.68 points on Tuesday. Similarly, the sensitive index surged by 4.27 points to close at 363. 65 points. A total of 2,700,570-unit shares of 264 companies were traded for Rs 885 billion. Meanwhile, Taragoan Regency Hotel Limited was the top gainer today, with its price surging by 8.00 percent. Sunrise Bluechip Fund was the top loser as its price fell by 10.00 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 77 trillion.

In a first, the Department of Industry (DoI), the government agency responsible for providing services to foreign investors, has developed a mechanism to approve foreign direct investments (FDIs) through the online channel. The mechanism allows the department to approve FDI worth Rs 100 million automatically. The government has already published a notice in this regard in the Nepal Gazette and the system will be implemented on Jestha 1. “Through the newly-developed mechanism, the government can approve FDI worth Rs 100m,” said Ram Chandra Tiwari, Director General of DoI. In the federal budget for the current fiscal year, the government has announced that foreign investment of up to Rs 100m will be approved through an automatic system. Accordingly, DoI has prepared the necessary software infrastructure. In addition, the amendment process of the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Regulation, 2077 BS has also been initiated to give it legal recognition. According to Tiwari, DoI has made necessary changes to the regulations and has sent it to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies for approval. The ministry will complete the process and send it to the cabinet for authorization. “We will implement the mechanism after the cabinet approves the regulations,” said Tiwari. “We also aim to increase the FDI threshold through the system in the near future.” At present, approvals of foreign investment proposals require going through paperwork which many investors see as tedious. As a result, there was a lot of trouble in getting foreign investment approved. However, after the implementation of the mechanism, investors can get approval for investments up to Rs 100m online without having to visit the DoI office. In addition, the department will also send the necessary documents to the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) and include the documents in the registration process. However, investors will have to go to OCR to register the companies themselves. The introduction of the mechanism is expected to ease the approval process for foreign investments. According to Tiwari, the services will be more effective with the implementation of the new system. However, the investments to be approved by other ministries and agencies will not be done through this system. The technology has been developed in such a way that only investments in the areas specified in the regulations can participate in the automated process. Foreign investors can invest 100 percent or through a joint investment agreement with Nepali partners. The information on investment approval will be automatically sent to the bodies concerned such as the Nepal Rastra Bank and OCR etc. through the system. This system has already been implemented in Nepal's neighboring countries including India and Bangladesh. In Nepal, most FDIs are less than Rs 100m. So far, DoI has approved 5,545 FDI projects amounting to Rs 421bn.

With strong lobbying by the private sector in the last few days, the major political parties have agreed to make changes in the Bill to Amend the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority Act, 1991. The lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties have submitted seeking amendments to the Bill which has provisioned to bring the private sector under the jurisdiction of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The apex bodies of the private sector strongly opposed the Bill after it was endorsed by the National Assembly recently. The Bill has provisioned that the anti-graft body will have the authority to investigate private sector bodies which are connected with the wider public interest. The Bill has widened the definition of public entities by incorporating the entities wholly and partly owned by the government, banks and financial institutions, commissions, corporations, academies and councils, among others. According to Ekram Giri, Spokesperson of the Federal Parliament Secretariat, many proposals for amendment have been received for the Bill related to CIAA. "The deadline for submitting the amendment proposal was Sunday. Many amendments have been proposed," he said, "We will move forward by integrating it." Lawmakers of Nepali Congress Arju Rana, Ramhari Khatiwada and Shyam Ghimire, Premlal Maharjan of CPN (UML), Sumana Shrestha of Rastriya Swatantra Party and Rajendra Pandey of CPN (Unified Socialist) have registered their amendments. If the Bill is endorsed by the House of Representatives incorporating the amendments of the parties, the private sector will be out of the purview of the CIAA. The bill passed by the lower house has to be endorsed by the National Assembly again. The Federation of Nepal Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), and Nepal Chambers of Commerce (NCC) jointly met the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (UML) Chairman KP Sharma Oli arguing that provisions in the bill will discourage the private sector and worsen the investment climate in the country. The private sector delegation was of the view that there are already around two dozen state and government agencies including Nepal Rastra Bank, Nepal Insurance Authority, the Department of Money Laundering Investigation, and the Department of Revenue Investigation to check the irregularities of the private sector. During the meeting with the FNCCI delegation, Prime Minister Dahal committed that the government would not make any law to control the private sector. Nepali Congress President Deuba and UML Chairman Oli also have assured that the private sector will not be discouraged.