Submit your Article

The public debt till mid-January of the current fiscal year (2024-25) has crossed the Rs 2,536bn-mark. According to the Public Debt Management Office, Nepal’s total public debt has exceeded 44 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with Rs 102bn added to the public debt in the past six months.  

At the beginning of the current fiscal that commenced on July 16, public debt stood at Rs 2,434.9bn, and it rose by Rs 102.3bn to reach Rs 2,536.13bn by Jan 15 constituting 44.46 percent of the GDP, the office stated in its report. The contribution of foreign debt to the total public debt is 51.31 percent amounting to Rs 1,301.41bn while the ratio of external debt to the GDP is 22.81 percent.

Of the total public debt, the internal debt liability amounts to 48.68 percent (Rs 1,234.71bn)—21.64 percent of the GDP—whereas external debt makes up 22.81 percent of GDP.

The government has the target of raising Rs 547bn as public debt in the current fiscal and it has raised Rs 240.8bn or 43.89 percent of the annual target by mid-January or the first half-yearly of the current fiscal. The government had the target of raising Rs 330bn as internal debt in the current fiscal and it has raised Rs 181.5bn (54.86 percent).

It has the target of mobilizing Rs 217bn in external loans in 2024-25 and until Jan 15, it has raised
Rs 59.3bn. The government had allocated Rs 402.85bn for reimbursement of the principal and interest of the public debt in the current fiscal. Principal and interest worth Rs 182.4bn has been paid by mid-January, per the report. The expenditure made for paying the principal and interest until Jan 15 is 3.2 percent of the total GDP.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Monday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs 157, 000 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 157, 100 per tola on Sunday.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,860 per tola today.

The government has collected Rs 9.82bn as capital gains tax from share transactions in the first half of 2024/25.

According to the CDS and Clearing Ltd—the agency providing centralized depository, clearing, and settlement services for share transactions—the total CGT collection from share trading between mid-July 2024 to mid-Jan 2025 has reached Rs 9.82bn.

Nearly half of the CGT collection during the period came from the first month of the current fiscal year (mid-July to mid-Aug), when Rs 4.23bn was collected from securities trading. The sixth month, Poush (mid-Dec to mid-Jan), recorded the lowest CGT collection so far this year. According to the CDS and Clearing Ltd, Rs 580.7m was collected from share transactions in Poush.

CGT collection in Bhadra (mid-Aug to mid-Sept), Ashwin (mid-Sept to mid-Oct), Kartik (mid-Oct to mid-Nov), and Mangsir (mid-Nov to mid-Dec) was Rs 2.57bn, Rs 586.55m, Rs 758.78m, and Rs 1.4bn, respectively.

Share trading during the first month of the current fiscal year (mid-July to mid-Aug) was higher than the entire collection of fiscal year 2023/24, when the government raised Rs 4.15bn as CGT from share trading.

CGT collection is tied to the market capitalization—the market price of listed shares in the secondary market. When market capitalization is high investors get a high selling price for their securities which translates to higher CGt for the state. Market capitalization had surged to Rs 4.765trn in mid-August, Rs 1.099trn higher than a month before.

Individual investors are required to pay CGT at rates of either five percent  or 7.5 percent, depending on the duration of shares held. Investors who sell shares within a year of purchase are considered short-term investors and are levied a 7.5 percent CGT. Likewise, those who sell after one year are categorized as long-term investors and are subjected to a five percent CGT. Institutional investors, on the other hand, are required to pay a 10 percent tax on their share transaction profits.

The highest CGT collection from share trading was in 2020/21, when the government mobilized Rs 15.54bn.

CGT collection is closely tied to market capitalization, which reflects the average value of shares of companies listed on the secondary market.

The farmers in Lamjung district have earned almost Rs 220 million by selling 150 metric tonnes of cardamom in the current fiscal year.

Senior Agricultural Officer of Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project Implementation Unit Office in Lamjung, Hari Bahadur Mijar, shared that the farmers in the district made a decent amount of income by supplying cardamom at a rate ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,400 per kilogram.

But the production has decreased this year compared to the last year.

The farmers sold cardamom worth Rs 240 million in the last fiscal year despite selling the product at Rs 1,200 per kilogram.

Likewise, the district produced 380 metric tonnes of cardamom and earned Rs 200 million in the year 2079/80 BS.

As per the data, the production of cardamom has decreased in Lamjung but the price has soared.

The Marsyangdi Rural Municipality in Lamjung has produced the highest quantity of cardamom.

Sanjapu village in Marsyangdi Rural Municipality alone produced 6,700 kilograms of cardamom in this year.

Around 60 households in the village there earned almost Rs 150 million from cardamom, Chairman of Sanjapu Cardamom Farmers' Group Kamkashi Gurung stated.

The Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project Implementation Unit Office said that cardamom farming is done on 750 hectares of land in the district.