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Gold price hit a record high of Rs 110, 000 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association, the yellow metal has increased by Rs 2,900 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 107, 100 on Friday, the Association said. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 109,600 per tola today. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 35 per tola and is being traded at Rs 1,345 per tola.  

At a time when the inflow of remittances has surged due to the increasing number of Nepalis going for foreign employment and a strong US dollar, remittance outflow from Nepal has declined marginally in the seven months of the current fiscal year. Data published by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) show remittance outflow has declined by 0.56 percent in the review period. According to NRB, foreigners working in Nepal have sent Rs 4.01bn through official channels in the seven months of FY 2022/23 compared to Rs 4.03bn during the same period of FY 2021/22. With more foreigners now coming to Nepal to work, the remittance outflow from the country has been increasing gradually in the past few years. Outward remittances in FY 2021/22 stood at Rs 7.67bn according to central bank data. NRB officials say remittance going out of the country is the money sent by foreigners who came to Nepal for work after obtaining a work permit. This number does not include Indians who do not require work permits to live and work in Nepal. As per the existing legal arrangements, foreign workers who come to work here are allowed to send 75 percent of their earnings to their home country and have to spend 25 percent of the money in Nepal. Foreign nationals are also working in multinational companies, hydropower projects, banks, and insurance companies operating in Nepal. The number of expats is high in companies with foreign direct investments, development assistance projects, and banks with foreign investments. Of late, there has been growth in the number of Chinese technical workers working in Nepal in hydropower and other infrastructure projects. The decline in outward remittance in FY 2022/23, according to NRB officials, might be due to the decline in the number of people coming to Nepal for work. "There is no study on this matter," said Prakash Kumar Shrestha, Executive Director of NRB, adding, "As of now, the size of outward remittance is not big and hence we've not prioritized and studied this aspect." NRB data show foreign nationals, except Indians, have sent around Rs 32bn in remittances to their country in the last five years. As per NRB, Rs 31.87bn were sent from FY 2017/18 to FY 2021/22. While there is an assumption that Nepalis working in India send huge sums of money back to their country, the reality is remittance outflow to India from Nepal is much higher than what Nepal receives from the southern neighbor. The World Bank data shows Indians working in Nepal remit home thrice the amount Nepalis remit from India. According to the World Bank's Bilateral Remittance Matrix, Nepal received remittances worth $1.02bn from India in 2017, whereas remittance outflows from Nepal to India stood at $3.01bn. According to the statistics of the Labor Department, there are currently 2, 316 foreign workers in Nepal. The citizens of 73 countries have come to Nepal for employment and received work permits to work in the country. The department says the majority of foreigners receiving work permits are Chinese. The Labor Department says currently, 1,635 Chinese citizens are working in Nepal. Similarly, 94 citizens from the UK have received work permits followed by 93 citizens from the US. Remittance Outflow from Nepal (First Seven Months)

The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal (FCAN) has demanded the government to pay Rs 60bn immediately to the contractors. Making public the 27-point Kathmandu Declaration after its 24th Annual General Meeting, FCAN has said that the government is yet to make the payment of the works that have already been completed. Speaking on the occasion, FCAN President Rabi Singh said the government has not yet cleared the bills presented in the last fiscal year for the completed works. " Contractors are facing financial difficulties as they have not received payments for the works they've already accomplished," he said. He said that the contracts that the state cannot pay immediately should be terminated as per the law and should be taken forward only when the resources are arranged. According to Singh, contractors have not been able to process many contracts since the government has failed to provide the money. "The budgetary operation is currently in deficit. In this situation, it would be better to terminate the contract if the government is not in a position to make payments to the contractors," he said. FCAN is of the view that the government should issue a white paper if it is unable to make payments to the contractors. It has also demanded that the recent price increment should be adjusted in the contract amount. An agreement was reached between the federation and the government on May 26, 2022, to address the excessive and unexpected increase in the price of construction materials. "Based on that agreement, guidelines should be issued for the price adjustment," said FCAN. Similarly, the federation has requested to extend the deadline of the contract projects which are sick. According to FCAN, the works of the projects that are under construction have been affected due to elections, crusher shutdown, excessive royalty collected by the local level at various places, non-availability of project sites due to delay in compensation, payment issue, and liquidity problems, among others. Such projects' deadlines should be extended, said FCAN. Similarly, the federation also demanded that 20 percent of the mobilization advance should be compulsorily provided as stated in the Public Procurement Act. In addition, it has also demanded that the demands of the contractors should be fully addressed while amending the Public Procurement Act.  

With revenue collection continuing to remain poor, the mismatch between government expenditure and income has widened further. Data show the government treasury is in deficit by Rs 156 billion by mid-March 2023. According to the latest statistics of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government's expenditure has reached Rs 779.23 billion by mid-March while the income totaled Rs 622.78 billion. The government has been able to meet only 42.7 percent of the revenue target during the eight months of the current fiscal year while the total expenditure has reached 43.44 percent of the annual target. The dramatic decline in revenue forced the government to trim the federal budget of Rs 1.793 trillion by 14 percent to Rs 1.549 trillion through the mid-term review of the budget. While the recurrent expenditure has increased, development expenditure has remained dismal as before. FCGO data shows that by mid-March, government recurrent expenditure stood at 51.4 percent, capital expenditure at 22.1 percent, and fiscal management at 37.4 percent. The non-improvement in revenue collection has been a worrying factor for the government which is struggling to meet the expenses. In the eight months of the current fiscal year, revenue collection totaled Rs 582.77 billion, of which Rs 526.47 billion is tax revenue and Rs 56.29 is non-tax revenue. The decline in imports has hit the revenue collection hard. According to the Department of Customs (DoC), revenue from imports has declined by 25 percent in the eight months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period of the last fiscal year. DoC collected revenue worth Rs 250.64 billion till mid-March, which was Rs 333 billion a year ago. The country's total imports have declined by 18 percent in the review period. Nepal has imported goods worth Rs 1,057 billion in the eight months of FY 2022/23 compared to Rs 1,308 billion during the same period of FY 2021/22.