KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Oli has reiterated the government’s priority on good governance and development.

PM Oli said there is no option to speedy and multi-dimensional development to realize the goal of ‘Prosperous Nepal and Happy Nepalis’.

Inaugurating the 8th International Trade Fair 2019 organized by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) in Kathmandu today, the Prime Minister dubbed Nepal as a country with abundant possibilities for development.

He expressed the commitment to give more priority to domestic investment. He, however, emphasized on giving equal priority to foreign investment and technology since domestic resources were not enough for the country’s development.

Prime Minister Oli also assured the private sector that the government was willing to work in tandem with them.

Around 85 domestic stalls, and 90 stalls from China, 40 from Bangladesh, 10 from India, and two from Pakistan are kept in the exhibition that will run until April 1.

KATHMANDU: The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) today clarified that there has been no change in the pricing of petroleum products now.

The decision has been made keeping in mind the interest of the people although the price of petroleum products has gone up in the international market.

NOC Spokesperson Birendra Goit said as per the new price list received on March 16 from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the price of petrol has increased by Rs 2 per liter.

KATHMANDU: While the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has been talking about the smart city and smart waiting shed, city commuters in Kathmandu are compelled to stand on the crammed pavement and streets while waiting for crowded public transports.

Either the passenger sheds are in a dilapidated state or they are occupied by street vendors, or there are none causing sufferings for the commuters.

Despite government efforts to fix hitches the problems, passengers continue to face difficulties, mostly during peak hours.

Khabarhub came across serpentine queues at Ratna Park waiting for public transport. Moreover, there were cases of overloading along the routes such as Ratna Park-Narayanthan, Ratna Park-Tinkune route, among others.

“We have been experiencing this every day,” Ram Acharya of Budhanilakantha told Khabarhub, who was in the queue waiting for a public transport adding such a situation is common during morning and evening hours.

When asked to shed light on the experiences, most of the passengers said, “Imagine the situation during the rainy season.”

Many passengers have to say that public transport is so packed they even could not breathe properly. But they said the passengers have no option but to get into the overcrowded buses and micros.

Meanwhile, Spokesperson at the KMC, Ishwor Man Dangol said they are planning to establish smart waiting sheds considering the passengers’ trouble.

“We have formed a separate team to study about the location and the condition of the sheds and submit a report,” he said adding, “The team will submit the report in a week.”

The smart waiting sheds will have all information such as the arrival and departure of buses, routes, and fare, among others.

KATHMANDU: Casinos operating in various places, including Kathmandu are yet to settle over Rs 1.32 billion in revenue.

Casinos, which were operated by flouting the government’s rules, had remained closed for a certain period of time. However, the casinos resumed their operation following the Supreme Court’s interim order not to close down the mini-casinos operated by three and four-star hotels.

According to the Casino Regulations 2013, casinos are required to renew their license every year by paying 50 percent of the operating license fee. Likewise, the operators are required to apply for the renewal a month before its expiry, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) stated.

While big casinos and mini-casinos are yet to settle their outstanding royalty of around Rs 20 million and Rs 10 million respectively.

According to the OAG report, five companies are yet to clear the arrears amounting to Rs 70 million in renewal fee this year. Casinos operators are required to pay an annual royalty of Rs 30 million as set by the Financial Act 2017-18.

Currently, a total of 29 casinos are yet to clear a total of Rs 290 million dues, according to Bishnu Prasad Rijal, the spokesperson at the OAG. However, the Department of Tourism has not taken action against them.

While big casinos and mini-casinos are yet to settle their outstanding royalty of around Rs 20 million and Rs 10 million respectively.

Sources at the Department of Tourism said only those casinos operating by taking advantage of the SC interim order have been found flouting the rules. The OAG has accused the Department of Tourism of failing to take action against them.

Director General of the Department of Tourism, Dhundi Raj Ghimire states, “It is, in fact, challenging to collect revenue from the casinos. Earlier, the Internal Revenue Department was collecting revenues from casinos. Currently, the Department of Tourism collects revenue from the casinos.”

Ghimire claimed that there have been some positive indications since he took charge as the Director General of the Department of Tourism. The Department has raised a total of 1.13 billion so far, including Rs 660 million last year.

It has also been revealed that casinos are being operated from four places with a single license. As per the provision in the Finance Act, a casino can be operated from only one place with a single license.

The following casinos are yet to clear the outstanding dues, and have been operating for the last two and a half years following the Supreme Court’s interim order.

Hotel Yak and Yeti Casino

Radisson Hotel Casino Rad

Casino Rock International

Happy Hour Mini Casino

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KATHMANDU: Nepal Telecom (NT) has introduced the roaming service for pre-paid mobile.
Prior to this, the service was available only in post-paid mobile phones. The pre-paid mobile roaming service will also be available in India and China from today.
The NC has begun the ‘out-bound roaming’ service. The prepaid mobile phone users are entitled to the new service without deposits. Prior to this, the post-paid mobile phone users had to deposit Rs 10,000 to have an access to this service. According to NT managing director Dilliram Adhikari said the company plans to further diversify its services and the new decision was of part of such plan.
Similarly, the company is to provide two GB data per month in a 900 package for GSM postpaid customers. The scheme shall come into effect from today. Similarly, new customers of GSM postpaid mobile phones to be registered from February 6 to February 20 will be given free one GB ‘all time’ data and 100-minute phone calls per month till three months.
Under the touristic package, five GB data, 50 minutes’ phone calls within the NT network, 50 SMS and a 100-minute international call services are available at Rs 500. The ceiling of these services is double in the package of Rs 1,000. The schemes were announced on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the NT.
NT makes profit of Rs 45 billion
The company in the fiscal year 2074/75 BS (2017-18), earned a profit of Rs 45.27 billion and the figure was Rs 44.59 billion in the previous fiscal year. Last fiscal year, company’s net profit increased by 13.73 percent compared to the previous year and touched Rs 17.48 billion. Company’s income in per unit share was increased and reached 116.56 percent in that period.
The company has a significant contribution to the government revenue as it paid over Rs 26.20 billion in total (as tax and non-tax category) to the government in the fiscal year 2017-18. The number of its customers till last mid-December has reached 21,098,000. The figure was 17,600,000 in the previous fiscal year. The increase was 13.51 percent. Its present tele-density is 72.5 percent. The company has connected all the 77 districts in seven provinces with this wire and wireless and data services.

Chinese state-owned firms bought at least 1 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans on Friday, a day after high-level bilateral talks yielded progress toward a trade deal and a Chinese commitment to buy more U.S. soybeans.

The purchases are slated for shipment between April and July, with a large share expected from U.S. Gulf Coast export terminals, three traders with knowledge of the deals said.

One trader with direct knowledge of the deals said total purchases were around 2.2 million tonnes. The other two traders said the sales were similar to three recent waves of buying in which state-owned firms booked 1 million to 1.5 million tonnes of soybeans.

But the market’s gains were restrained by worries that Chinese purchases will hardly dent massive soybean stockpiles in the United States and around the world. The looming harvest of a large soy crop in Brazil, the world’s top supplier, further capped prices.

“It certainly is good to see some concessions and more buying interest from China, but this is a concession in terms of a larger trade agreement. Brazilian offers are cheaper than we are so it’s just part of the negotiation,” said Terry Linn, analyst with Chicago-based brokerage Linn & Associates.

Friday’s purchases by state-owned firms were believed to be destined for China’s state reserves, and thus immune from high import tariffs on U.S. beans. The 25 percent tariffs, imposed last summer in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, remain in place for U.S. soy imports by commercial crushers in China.

Exports to China have plummeted this season during a bitter trade dispute, with swelling supplies sending prices to near decade lows last autumn and U.S. farmers struggling to turn a profit.

China has been buying most of its soybeans from Brazil, which is in pace to harvest a bumper crop in the coming months.

Friday’s sales bring China’s total purchases of the 2018 U.S. soybean harvest to at least 6.5 million tonnes, a fraction of its traditional annual haul from the United States of more than 30 million tonnes.

Trump hails progress in trade talks with China
Through January of 2017, more than 29.4 million tonnes of that season’s harvest had already been shipped to China, with another 4 million tonnes sold and awaiting shipment, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

Benchmark Chicago Board of Trade March futures climbed to $9.31-1/4 a bushel on Friday, the highest point for a most actively traded soy contract Sv1 since mid-June. Beijing slapped steep tariffs on U.S. soybeans on July 6, effectively halting all U.S. shipments to their top customer.

Before Friday’s sales, China had previously booked an estimated 5 million tonnes of U.S. soybeans in three waves of purchases since U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to a trade war detente on Dec. 1.

After high-level trade talks in Washington this week, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He announced on Thursday China would buy an additional 5 million tonnes.

(REUTERS)

KATHMANDU: The national flag-carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has obtained an air operator’s certificate (AOC) by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to conduct flights to Japan. According to NAC assistant spokesperson Nawaraj Koirala, its new A 330 wide-body aircraft was granted the AOC for Kathmandu-Osaka flights on Friday.

The NAC had purchased two wide-body aircrafts on different dates in the past eight months. The NAC would very soon seek permission from an aviation regulating body abroad (Japan) towards that end. It plans to launch the Kathmandu-Osaka flight in the next one month.

It dreams of operating the Kathmandu-China flight as well by the end of March. The NAC has already managed human resources to handle the flights in both destinations. A list of NAC presently available foreign flights includes New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok and Qatar.

The process is underway to connect China, South Korea, and the Saudi Arabia with the NAC straight flights in near future. It presently owns two international wide-body aircrafts, two narrow-body aircrafts and one Boeing for the operations of international flights.

BEIJING, Jan. 30: Japanese automaker Toyota Tuesday began a recall of 4,682 Lexus sedans imported into China due to defective airbags, according to China’s market regulator.
Filed by Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., the recall will involve one Lexus IS 250C manufactured on Jan. 15, 2014, and 4,681 Lexus GX 400 manufactured between Jan. 6, 2014 and Feb. 13, 2017, the State Administration of Market Regulation said in a statement.
The front passenger airbags, produced by Japanese manufacturer Takata, have defective inflators that could fracture and send potentially fatal shrapnel into passengers when airbags are activated, the administration said.
Defective Takata airbags have been linked to a number of deaths and injuries worldwide, prompting massive recalls of affected vehicles throughout the world.
The company will replace the defective airbags free of charge. (Xinhua/RSS)

BHARATPUR, Jan 29: The Federation of Computer Association Nepal, Chitwan is organizing the Fourth CAN Info-Tech-2075 from February 8 to 12 in Bharatpur, Chitwan.

The IT fair aims at spreading awareness and importance of information, technology and entertainment sector, the organizers said.

Bhanu Sharma, President of the CAN Federation, Chitwan informed that the fair with the slogan with ‘Chitwan’s Prosperity: Information and Technology’, is expected to help built a tech-friendly workforce and expose new technology of IT.

A total of 80 stalls will be set up featuring various electronic appliances like mobiles, smart televisions, printers, laptops and desktop computers.

The fair is expected to be visited by around 150,000 people, according to the organizers.

New Delhi: Jet Airways is offering up to 50% off on domestic and international flights under its Republic Day sale. Under the offer, up to 50% discount is applicable on base fare in Première and Economy from India to select destinations in Europe on flights operated by Jet Airways and their codeshare partners Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

The offer is valid on tickets booked between January 24 and January 30, 2019. The offer is applicable on one way and return journey and will not be available for travel to Muscat and Sharjah. To avail the discount, travel from India to international destinations must commence on or after January 24, 2019.  According to Jet Airways website, for travel in Première, the tickets must be purchased a minimum of eight days prior to departure for travel on or after February 1, 2019. For travel in Economy, tickets must be purchased a minimum of 15 days prior to departure for travel on or after February 8, 2019. Tickets can be booked online through the Jet Airways website.

The discount offer is applicable on select booking classes only. Child/infant discount, date change, flight change, refund charges, weekend surcharge, blackout period, travel restriction and/or flight restriction will be applicable as mentioned in carrier’s fare rule. Worth mentioning here is that Jet Airways reserves the right at any time, without prior notice to add, alter, modify, change or vary all or any of these terms and conditions or to replace wholly or in part, the offer by another offer, whether similar to above offer or not, or to withdraw it altogether.