Submit your Article

The Nepal Insurance Authority (NIA) has awarded licenses to two companies to operate micro-insurance services. Guardian Micro Life Insurance and Nepal Micro Insurance received the licenses from the authority. NIA issued letters of intent (LoI) to seven companies, of which three are life and four are non-life, to operate micro-insurance business in the last week of November 2022. Guardian Micro Life Insurance, Crest Micro Life Insurance, and Liberty Micro Life Insurance received LoIs for life micro-insurance. Similarly, Trust Micro Insurance, Nepal Micro Insurance, Star Micro Insurance, and Protective Micro Insurance received LoIs for non-life micro-insurance. On August 28, 2022, NIA invited applications for the establishment of at most one (life insurance or non-life insurance) micro-insurance company in each province. A total of 31 companies applied for micro-insurance licenses. According to the authority, only four companies have met the capital requirement to operate micro-insurance services. The minimum paid-up capital for a micro-insurance company has been set at Rs 750m. Guardian Micro Life Insurance, Crest Micro Life Insurance, Nepal Micro Insurance, and Protective Micro Insurance have raised the required capital, according to NIA. The authority has granted additional 45 days to three companies to meet the capital requirement. NIA has also issued the Micro Insurance Directive 2023 and set the business limits of micro non-life and small life insurance companies. As per the directive, micro non-life insurance companies will be allowed to insure up to Rs 5m. Similarly, micro-life insurance companies can provide insurance with a sum assured of less than Rs 500,000. Micro non-life insurance companies will be allowed to insure vehicles used in the cottage industry and agriculture sector which include tractors, trailers, thresher machines, tempo, and motorcycles. Raju Raman Poudel, executive director of NIA, said that micro-insurance companies are required to provide micro-insurance services targeting the poor, low-income groups, residents of backward areas, and marginalized communities. "The concept of micro-insurance came up after large insurance companies did not show much interest in providing insurance to people from marginalized groups and communities," said Poudel, adding, "Therefore, we have directed the micro-insurers to target people from low-income groups and marginalized communities."

Finance Minister Prakash Saran Mahat has directed the Department of Customs (DoC) to submit the latest progress report on import and export at each customs point across the country. Addressing the Customs Management Seminar organized by the Department of Customs on Monday, Mahat sought reasons from the department for the low revenue collection from customs points. Mahat asked the director general of DoC to submit the actual data to the ministry to find out if revenue collection slumped due to a decline in the import of goods or smuggling. Stating that revenue leakage in the customs points including the Tribhuvan International Airport has become rampant, the finance minister asked high officials of DoC to consider the issues seriously. According to Mahat, serious discussions have been held also with law enforcement agencies to control the leakage of revenue. He urged the customs officials to monitor it in coordination with the security agencies. "Revenue collection has dropped in many customs points. There is news of revenue leakage from these points. The same is the case at Bhairahawa, Birgunj, and Rasuwa custom points," he said. The decline in imports has hit the government's revenue collection hard. According to 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 250.64bn till mid-March, which was Rs 333bn a year ago. The country's total imports have declined by 18 percent in the review period. Nepal has imported goods worth Rs 1,057bn in the eight months of FY 2022/23 compared to Rs 1,308bn during the same period of FY 2021/22. With the domestic economic activities also decreasing, the government's inland revenue collection has also suffered along with import-based revenue. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has been able to achieve about 80 percent of the revenue collection target in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. The department had set a target of raising Rs 353.91bn by mid-March, 2023. However, it succeeded in raising only Rs 281.99bn which is 79.67 percent of the target. According to IRD, income tax collection stood at Rs 117.07bn against the target of Rs 158.25bn. The department collected Value Added Tax (VAT) worth Rs 68.77bn against the target of 82.43bn. The revenue collection from excise duty is also below the target. The department has collected excise duty worth Rs 64.81bn against the target of Rs 76.82bn. The department also missed the target for house rent tax and health service tax. The education tax is the only heading in which the IRD has managed to meet the target.

The government of Nepal has deported a Korean national for misusing his tourist visa. The Ministry of Home expelled Yeon He Lee after the Department of Immigration, in the course of an investigation launched on the basis of a complaint, found  the Korean national’s involvement in propagating Christianity in Nepal, according to Jhalak Ram Adhikari, the department’s director-general. The secretary-level decision of the ministry has also barred the Korean national from returning to Nepal for a year. The immigration department deported him to Seoul on a Korean Air flight on Monday evening. Acting on the complaint regarding the Korean national’s alleged involvement in spreading Christianity, the department had directed the Tourist Police to produce him in person. Subsequently, tourist police produced the foreign national at the department on March 20. In the course of questioning at the department on March 21, the foreigner reportedly failed to come clean on the charge of misusing his visa for propagating the faith.    The Korean national had obtained his tourist visa on February 13, 2023, which was to expire on May 23. Before that, he had been staying in Nepal on a business visa and running a business, which has been closed. 

I’m a 22-year-old student who is also working on the side. I don’t have any problem with studies but when it comes to work, I have a lot of issues. I feel like I’m not good enough. I work hard every day, try to do my best and push myself to do better despite not having the mental capacity to move any further. No matter how good I do or how much I improve, I still feel like I don’t deserve to be appreciated. I think I’m a fraud who’s lying to everyone, including myself. Some have said I might have imposter syndrome. Honestly, I don’t know. All I know right now is I want to get rid of this feeling. Please help!—AA Answered by Tashi Gurung, counseling psychologist, Happy Minds First of all, I think it’s amazing that you have been managing to do good in your academics as well as be a job holder at the same time. Juggling all of that takes effort and time management, which you seem to have done really well so far. So give yourself some credit for that.  Secondly, I’m a bit confused on what’s making you feel like you don’t deserve to be appreciated. From my perspective, there can be two reasons. One is that your colleagues and higher ups refrain from appreciating or acknowledging your effort despite you working hard every single day.  If that’s the case, I think the best solution would be to start a conversation with your colleagues. Letting them know how you feel might help you change certain aspects of their behavior towards you. Secondly, there might be people who feel the same as you do. Having someone relate to your situation can also be helpful and therapeutic. You both can help each other out to make the workplace environment a little better.  Sometimes, people feel inadequate irrespective of what their workplace is like. This is directly related to our past traumas, especially the traumas we’ve dealt with as a child. Many of us have grown up in an environment where we were always told to do better, compared with others, and we weren’t acknowledged  despite having certain accomplishments. Those are the things that push one to have imposter syndrome. That has an impact even when we become an adult. The trauma still lingers. Not getting appreciation from people growing up can make you feel like you don’t deserve to be appreciated at all. I hope you know that’s not true.  I would suggest you figure out the instances that have pushed you to feel this way. Once you’ve identified that, just ask yourself this: How would you treat the younger you if you were the parents? You would be kind, compassionate, acknowledge their effort, never compare them with others, push them to do better while also making sure their mental health is good. You need to treat yourself the same way too. Accept yourself and give yourself the same acknowledgment as you would give to your younger self. Nurturing yourself and your mental health is the best way to deal with having imposter syndrome.