KATHMANDU: CDMA network service will come to an end by 2022. The Radio Frequency Policy Determination Committee has decided to close the service by 2022, a report in Annapurna daily said.
On February 26, the management of Nepal Electricity Authority had recommended the Committee to this effect.
The Committee has taken this decision in line with the recommendation.
KATHMANDU: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), the only state oil monopoly, has not slashed the price of petroleum products despite huge profits it is making.
According to the price list sent by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the NOC is on profit of Rs 420 million in the period of two weeks (April 1 to 15), which comes around Rs 28 million in profit on a daily basis.
According to the new procedure, the NOC has to adjust the price of petroleum products as per the new price-list sent by the IOC. The IOC sends the price list twice a month – on 1st and 15th of every month.
The price which was adjusted on February 2 is still in effect.
KATHMANDU: National Development Council (NDC) has endorsed the concept paper of the 15th five-year plan (fiscal years 2019-20 to 2023-24) prepared by the National Planning Commission (NPC).
The NPC, now, will submit the concept paper by incorporating the suggestions given by the two-day meeting of the NDC at the Council of Minsters.
The 15th five-year plan will come into effect once the Council of Minsters approves it.
Meanwhile, the NDC has suggested to name the concept paper as first federal plan instead of 15th five-year plan among others.
BHAKTAPUR : Bird flu has been detected in a poultry farm in Bhaktapur district.
Following the discovery at the Utkrista Multipurpose Agriculture Farm at Tarkhagal of Dadhikot in Suryabinayak municipality, 2,985 chickens and 150 kilograms poultry feeds were destroyed in the presence of the police, said vet Dr. Chandra Dhakal of the Livestock Service Expert Centre.
District administration office has urged the farmers not to resort to such activities while urging the local people to remain alert.
KATHMANDU: Sajha Yatayat has brought 20 new city buses to operate in Kathmandu Valley. Mahendra Raj Pandey, manager at Sajha Yatayat said that the new buses have been bought from the amount of share of the organization purchased by Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Lalitpur Metropolitan City.
The buses have been brought from India and have now arrived at Raxaul. He said the buses would reach Kathmandu within few days and they would demand route permission from the government as per the need and demand.
The KMC had purchased the share of Rs 50 million and Lalitpur Metropolitan city bought share of Rs 10 million of the organisation.
The Sajha Yatayat had started its service first from 2019 BS. The service of Sajha Yatayat was closed due to various reasons in the intervening period. However, Sajha Yatayat has resumed it service since 2070 BS after purchasing new buses.
KATHMANDU: Mega Bank Ltd has begun a new service called ‘Mega Remit’ remittance service from Australia.
Mega Bank started this service in partnership with Aziz Forex and Finance Company, Australia.
The bank said money can be transferred to and from Australia within a few minutes through Mega Bank and its more than 2,300 agents across the country.
The non-resident students would be benefited from this service, the bank has said.
KATHMANDU: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has estimated Nepal’s economy to grow at 6.2 percent in fiscal year 2019, and 6.3 percent in FY 2020.
In a statement today, the ADB Country Director for Nepal Mukhtor Khamudkhanov said that the outlook is for a stable growth on the back of strong domestic demand, fueled by a larger budget allocation to subnational governments and accelerated post-earthquake reconstruction.
The statement said that the agriculture sector is likely grow from 2.8 percent in FY2018 to 4.5 percent in FY2019, owing to a good monsoon that is expected to boost paddy production to 5.5 million tons, a rise of 8.4 percent from the previous year.
Similarly, the industry sector is expected to expand by 7.1 percent in FY2019 buoyed by improved power supply and efforts to improve the investment climate, according to the statement.
The services sector, the ADB statement said, will likely grow by 6.4 percent in FY2019 with the expansion of wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants, and financial intermediation.
The update said the inflation is projected to rise to 4.4 percent in FY2019 from 4.2 percent in FY2018, partly reflecting somewhat higher inflation expected in India, stable oil prices, and higher government expenditures under the new federal structure.
Likewise, revenue collection, according to the statement, has primarily increased on higher import growth and an improvement of the tax system. The budget as of mid-January 2019 is in surplus by NRs173.3 billion owing to strong revenue growth and a marginal slowdown in recurrent expenses, it said.
Though capital expenditure has surged in the fiscal year through mid-February, its execution stands at only 22.5 percent, the ADB statement said.
This could again lead to a spending spree in the last month of the fiscal year, undermining the quality of capital projects, says the update.
With rising trade and current account deficit, Nepal increasingly faces the risk of external sector instability. Data to mid-February 2019 show that trade deficit has surpassed net invisible earnings, widening the current account deficit to $1.5 billion, marginally up from a deficit of $1.4 billion in the year earlier period. The current account deficit is projected to widen further to 9.3 percent of gross domestic product in FY2019, up from 8.2 percent a year earlier on increased imports of capital and consumer goods and services, notwithstanding a healthy growth of remittances and stable oil prices, according to the update.
“Challenges to smooth implementation of fiscal federalism and maintaining fiscal discipline at large could pose potential risks to the outlook. Nepal has the potential to achieve and sustain higher growth rate over a long period of time if these challenges are addressed,” Khamudkhanov said.
NEW YORK: U.S. private sector has added a total of 129,000 jobs in March this year, a report by a payrolls processor showed.
This is below economists’ expectations and the lowest since September 2017, U.S. media reported.
The private payroll gains in March earlier were revised up to 197,000 from an originally reported 183,000 increase.
The figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department’s comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday that included public and private-sector employment. (Agencies)
BEIJING: Ford Motor is planning to launch more than 30 new models in China over the next three years, the U.S. automaker said on Wednesday.
Ford had earlier said it would launch 50 new or significantly redesigned vehicles in China starting in 2018 and through 2025.
However, today’s announcement provided more clarity on the timeline.
Anning Chen, the automaker’s China operations chief said they are committing themselves to improving their relationships with Chinese joint-venture partners. (Agencies)
KATHMANDU: A flight number RA-231 of Nepal Airlines Corporation was canceled at a time when the plane was about to take off, with all the passengers aboard.
The national flag carrier of Nepal canceled its flight at the eleventh hour citing the new flights schedule that barres all flight operations from 10 pm to 8 am in the morning over the runway up-gradation.
However, speculations are rife that the flight was canceled due to some technical glitches of the aircraft itself, not because of the airport.
According to Dipak Ojha, an officer of the Immigration Department, the NA flight was canceled due to up-gradation of the runway. However, it has raised questions why this new flight schedule was applied to only the Nepal Airlines.
The NA flight RA-321 was supposed to take off at 9 pm from TIA and land at Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai at 12 am (Wednesday) as per the schedule made public, with 190 people on board, including 176 passengers and 14 crew members.