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The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 17. 38 points to close at 1,901.99 points on Monday. Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 2. 88 points to close at 362. 22 points. A total of 5,620,381-unit shares of 277 companies were traded for Rs 1. 97 billion. Meanwhile, River Falls Power Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10. 00 percent. Likewise, Shivam Cements Ltd was the top loser with its price dropped by 4. 50 percent. At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 2. 77 trillion.

After signing a memorandum of understanding to develop the 480MW Phukot Karnali Hydropower Project in the Kalikot district, Nepal’s Vidyut Utpadan Company Limited (VUCL) and India’s NHPC Limited will sign a joint venture agreement. The state-owned companies of the two countries signed the MoU on developing the project during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s visit to India from May 31 to June 3. VUCL is the current license holder of the project. After establishing a joint venture company in Nepal, the new company will be issued the license to develop the project. “We will now work towards signing a joint venture agreement and establishment of the joint venture company in Nepal,” said an official of VUCL. “We plan to do all these works within a year.” As per the MoU, the Indian company will have a 51 percent stake in the company while the VUCL will have a 49 percent stake. According to the official, the Indian company has also sought to increase the capacity of the project because it will be able to sell more power in the wet season in the Indian market. “A condition of the MoU says that the capacity of the project will be updated,” said the official of VUCL. “Currently, the project has been designed by taking into consideration the domestic market. With the involvement of an Indian company, it wants to optimize the capacity in line with the market needs of India.” The capacity of the 900MW Arun 3 project was also increased from 300MW. According to the VUCL official, there has not been a concrete agreement on whether all the power produced by the company will be exported or parts of the energy will be sold within Nepal. The official said the joint venture company producing as much power as possible would be in the interest of the company if all the power could be sold. The project will use the flow from the Karnali River for power generation and the generated power will be fed into the integrated power system of Nepal. This project is conceived as a Peaking Run-of-River (PRoR) type scheme. It is the second state-owned Indian company to venture into Nepal’s hydropower project after SJVN Limited, which is developing three power projects in Nepal’s eastern Arun river—Arun-3, Lower Arun, and Arun-4 hydropower project. NHPC Limited has also bagged the 740MW West Seti and 450MW Seti River-6 project. The Investment Board Nepal bundled these two projects in a single package to make them attractive to investors. Four years after China’s Three Gorges Corporation pulled out from the West Seti Project in 2018, an Indian company has moved ahead to develop this project. Now, one state-owned Indian company will be developing a number of projects in the eastern region of Nepal while another state-owned Indian company will be developing several projects in the western side of Nepal. NHPC jumped into investment in Nepal after Nepal and India issued a joint vision statement on power sector cooperation in April last year. With India not willing to buy electricity generated from the project employing Chinese investors or contractors, Nepal has been forced to seek Indian investors if it wants to export surplus power to its southern neighbor, which has so far been the only external buyer of the electricity. Currently, India’s state-owned entities are increasingly involved in hydropower development in Nepal, there is a scope for attracting the private sector too, according to private sector representatives. An office bearer of the Independent Power Producers' Association (IPPAN) said that the private sector of India has also been closely watching how the state-owned companies will develop the project in Nepal. “The state-owned companies are offering a certain portion of electricity that will be generated from the Phukot Karnali project to Nepal free of cost. But I doubt if the private sector will be able to do so because they have to raise financial resources from the market,” the IPPAN official said.  

After Bajaj and TVS, Royal Enfield has also started assembling motorbikes in Nepal. The Indian two-wheeler brand on Friday said its assembly plant in Birgunj, set up in collaboration with the Triveni Group of Nepal, has become operational. The complete knocked-down (CKD) assembly unit has an annual capacity of 20,000 units. Royal Enfield also launched its first set of locally assembled motorcycles—the new Classic 350 and the SCRAM 411. The Classic 350 will be available at Rs 499,000 and the Scram 411 will be available at Rs 660,000. The new facility is Royal Enfield’s fifth CKD assembly unit in the world after Brazil, Thailand, Colombia, and Argentina. “This new CKD facility in Nepal is in line with our ambitious global expansion strategy of investing in markets with huge potential to grow,” said B Govindarajan, CEO of Royal Enfield. The motorcycle market in Nepal is on a confident rebound journey, and Royal Enfield sees huge potential for the market to grow substantially, the company said in a press statement. With the market expected to grow at 10-15 percent in upcoming years, the company believes that the trend of premiumization of motorcycles will only increase in the country. The local partner of Royal Enfield in Nepal is Triveni Group. The group's subsidiary company Alfa Automotive Pvt. Ltd. is the official dealer of Royal Enfield in Nepal. Triveni had registered a company named TG Auto Group Pvt Ltd for motorcycle assembly at the Department of Industry. As of now, Golchha Group's Hulas Auto Craft has been producing Bajaj motorcycles in Nepal at its assembly plant in Nawalparasi. Similarly, Shankar Group has also started assembling TVS motorcycles in Nepal at its Simara-based plant. After the government incentivized the establishment of automobile assembly plants in the country, Nepali business houses having authorized dealerships of international motorcycle brands have shown their interest in setting up such assembly plants in Nepal. A year ago, the government led by the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba through a substitution bill announced a 50 percent excise duty exemption on two-wheelers, four-wheelers, and assembly kits imported by companies to be assembled in Nepal. The government, however, increased the excise duty on 125cc to 250cc two-wheelers by 10 percent while those with engine capacity between 500 cc and 800 cc by 20 percent. This has forced major automobile dealers to set up assembly plants in the country. The authorized dealers of Yamaha, Hero, Honda, and Suzuki motorcycles have also already started the process to set up an assembly plant. MAW Enterprises, the authorized dealer of Yamaha motorcycles in Nepal, has registered MAW Auto Industry to assemble Yamaha two-wheelers. MAW has planned to set up a plant in Tankisinwari, Morang for the purpose. Meanwhile, Syakar Trading, the authorized distributor of the leading Indian motorcycle brand Honda has started the process to set up assembly plants in Nepal. Syakar has registered Himal Moto Pvt. Ltd. to assemble Honda two-wheelers in Nepal. Likewise, NGM Pvt. Ltd., the authorized distributor of Hero two-wheelers in Nepal, has registered NGM Engineering and Sales Pvt. Ltd. to assemble Hero motorcycles and scooters. Not to be left behind in this race, Vishal Group is also stepping into the automobile assembly business. The group, which is the official dealer of Suzuki motorcycles in Nepal, has recently registered Global Automobiles Pvt Ltd for the assembly of motorcycles, scooters, and three-wheelers.

After furious stock investors resorted to protest against the provision in the budget for the next fiscal year that has kept the stock transactions above Rs 5 million in the income tax slab, the government has said that the existing arrangement related to capital gains tax (CGT) is the final tax on the income from share trading. The Finance Ministry relented to the demand of agitating share investors on Sunday after the latter threatened to close the Nepse Trade Management System (TMS). Currently, the government levies a five percent CGT on income from long-term trading of shares (shares that are sold after a year of purchase) and 7.5 percent CGT on short-term trading (shares that are sold in less than a year of purchase). The Finance Ministry invited the associations of share investors for talks on Sunday where the government agreed to continue the existing tax arrangement on share trading. During the talks, Finance Minister Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat himself assured that the current 5 percent and 7.5 percent provision of CGT will be taken as the final tax. Minister Mahat urged the investors to avoid panic and said that no additional taxes will be levied on profits earned from share trading. The government in the new Financial Bill has incorporated the earnings of the share investors under the income tax bracket apart from the existing capital gains tax. As per the new provision, if a Nepali citizen declares income from share or real estate trading from FY 2019/20 to 2021/22, until mid-April, 2024, the 50 percent tax levied in accordance with Income Tax Act, 2058 will be waived. After the government declared imposing income tax for the earnings of shares transactions, the stock market reacted negatively, losing 92 points last Tuesday and Wednesday. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) issued statements twice last week but that failed to pacify the stock investors. According to the government's new policy, the person concerned had to pay additional tax on the income after tax as per the income tax limit. If that is implemented, the investor would have to pay up to 39 percent tax according to the income limit. Tilak Koirala, one of the stock investors who led the agitation said that the government has backed away from the decision to impose additional tax on share trading. "Now, CGT will be the final tax on share trading," he said. As per the agreement reached on Sunday at the Finance Ministry, section 29 of the Financial Bill, 2080 will now be deactivated through the parliamentary process. As the government has proposed an additional tax on share trading, it must be passed by the Parliament before it is implemented. According to Koirala, there has been an agreement with the finance minister that section 29 would be deactivated. While Sunday's talk has thwarted possible face-offs between the government and investors, capital market experts said the government needs to bring a clear policy on taxes and other issues. Niraj Giri, former Executive Director of the Securities Board of Nepal, said that the government needs to bring a clear policy on taxes and other issues. "Questions have been raised with the government introducing new arrangements in the Financial Bill and backtracking from implementing it. So, the government should bring a clear policy regarding the capital market because it is susceptible to even small policy changes," he said. Nepse post 53 points gain on Sunday After the agreement between the government and stock investors, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) surged by 53.03 points on Sunday. On Sunday, the Nepse index opened at 1,866.35 points and then went to an intraday low of 1,865.73 points before reaching an intraday high of 1,925.11 points and ultimately closed at 1,919.37 points. All the sub-indices at Nepse turned green on Sunday with the hotel sub-index recording the highest gain. The daily turnover of Nepse reached Rs 1.65 billion on Sunday. The share prices of 217 companies increased on Sunday while three companies decreased.