60 BFIs have C-ASBA system

Kathmandu, Feb. 22:

The CDS and Clearing Limited Thursday said that 60 banks and financial institutions were involved in the C-ASBA (Centralised Application for ASBA-based Issuance) system so far.  

“The participation of BFIs in the new technology-based system is very encouraging. About 139,502 investors have obtained the C-ASBA Registration Number (CRN) so far,” said Chief Executive Officer of the CDSC, Dev Prakash Gupta.

The CDSC is fully implementing the C-ASBA system from Friday. It was piloting the new system since August 2017.

Its implementation will facilitate the investors in buying the Initial Public Offering (IPO) shares from their homes.

The customers of C-ASBA member banks can obtain the CRN from any branch of the bank.

With the full implementation of C-ASBA, the investors interested in buying the IPO of the Raswagadhi and Sanjen hydroelectricity projects should apply through the new system.

However, the IPO applicant of these two companies should visit the respective bank.

The contributors of the Employees’ Provident Fund should submit the copy of their fund identity card, CRN and IPO form at the bank in order to apply for the shares of Rasuwagadhi and Sanjen.

Private sector must contribue three-fifth in infrastructure: NPC

Kathmandu, Feb. 27: The private sector must contribute nearly three-fifths of the investment needs in tourism, industrial and transport infrastructure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says the National Planning Commission (NPC).

The apex planning body in the country has said that the private sector was expected to invest more heavily in industry, energy, physical infrastructure, housing, urban infrastructure and tourism, according to the 'SDGs – Status and Roadmap: 2016-2030' recently published by the NPC.

"A preliminary estimate of the annual investment required for the entire SDG period, i.e., 2016 -2030, ranges between 42 to 54 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). About Rs. 1,770 billion - approximately 49 per cent of the GDP - per year is needed over the entire duration of the SDGs," reads the report.

The report said that the government investment requirement was expected to be the lowest in tourism followed by energy, industry and urban infrastructure – mainly housing.

"The government should shoulder about 55 per cent of the SDG investment requirement, starting with sectors like poverty reduction, followed by agriculture, health, education, gender, water and sanitation, transport infrastructure, climate action and governance," said the NPC.

The World Bank Group had estimated that Nepal needed to invest 7-11 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in transport, power, water and sanitation services, communication and other key infrastructure sectors between 2011 and 2020.

It said that Nepal had invested 5.3 per cent of the GDP in those four sectors against the need of about 10 per cent.

According to Swarnim Wagle, former vice-chairman of the NPC, the country needs to fill in the gap in key infrastructure sectors.

Addressing the last press meet at his office last week, he had said that there should be better physical connectivity such as roads, railways and aviation, as well as digital connectivity support business and investment.

The report has made special mention on the financing gap. Water and sanitation, energy, transport, industrial and urban infrastructure comprise 58 per cent of the financing gap while social sectors, including poverty, health, education and gender, comprise 31 per cent of the financing gap.

"The financing gap in agriculture will likely be minimal after irrigation, rural roads and electrification investments are made in the early years," mentions the strategic document.

It also said that given the existing pattern of domestic equity financing, the pattern of credit allocation and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows, the annual average private financing of the SDGs is about Rs. 382 billion.

The financing gap in the private sector will have to be met by reorienting non-SDG investments towards the SDGs, mobilising larger volumes of equity, bank financing and attracting large FDI, especially in industries and physical infrastructure. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 28 February 2018. 

Non-biodegradable plastic producers to be punished

Kathmandu, Feb. 27: Minister for Population and Environment Lal Babu Pandit said on Tuesday that the government would punish producers of non-biodegradable plastic producers.

Setting a timeframe of six months for non-biodegradable plastic producing companies to make the necessary changes, he vowed to formulate policies to put a ban on the producers and take stringent action against them that do not adhere to the government rule.

Non-biodegradable plastic products have severe repercussions on the environment as they do not degrade and pollute the environment when they burn, he said while speaking at an interaction.

He also said the government would not allow vehicles without green stickers, a sign that a vehicle has passed the emission test, to ply on the roads of metropolitan and sub-metropolitan cities from April 14 – the first day of the Nepali New Year.

“We are all set to implement a ban on every good that is imported without following the government-set measures. The government won’t let any stone unturned to improve the environment,” said the newly-appointed minister.

He further said that the ministry was adopting policies to make the brick kilns environment- friendly.

He pledged that within a year the capital city would be clean enough for the people to go about without having to put on a mask.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 28 February 2018. 

India positive to review 1950 treaty: EPG

Kathmandu, Feb. 25: The Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations Sunday said that India was positive on reviewing all the past treaties and agreements reached with Nepal, including the treaty of 1950. 

As both the neighbours are ready to take the relations between the two countries to newer heights, the EPG is prescribing win-win solutions which will address the concerns of both the countries, said Bhagat Singh Koshyari, India Coordinator of the EPG at a press meet organised following the conclusion of the 7^th meeting of  the EPG in Kathmandu. 

The meeting had begun on Saturday and concluded today.

“I would like to assure one and all on behalf of the Indian government that, we won’t let anyone be disappointed in terms of Nepal-India bilateral relations,” he said.

 Koshyari is also a leader of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.

Nepal Coordinator of the EPG Bhekh Bahadur Thapa said that the meeting deliberated on various bilateral issues such as reforms in the past treaties, border management and encroachment and security matters. 

“There were also discussions on security sensitivity, water resources, trade and cultural relations. We are hopeful for the reforms in the bilateral relations as the discussions were very positive,” he said.

The EPG from both the countries has prepared drafts on all the pertinent issues. 

Thapa said that the EPG is trying to build similar opinion in terms of the management of open border and national security. He also said that the EPG would submit its report to the government within the given timeframe. 

Thapa is a former Foreign Affairs Minister, Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank, and Ambassador of Nepal to the United States of America and India. 

The next meeting of EPG will be held in New Delhi, India in the last week of March.

It has another five months’ time till July 2018. The date is non-extendable.

It met in July 2016 for the first time. 

According to Thapa, the next meeting in New Delhi will also discuss on the topics and refine the draft proposals, only then the draft will be given the final shape. 

The government, through a Cabinet decision, had decided to form the EPG in January 2016 in line with the agreement reached between the two countries, signed by the then Foreign Affairs Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj during the joint commission meeting of Nepal-India held in Kathmandu in July 2014. 

EPG Nepal team have Thapa, Nilambar Acharya, Rajan Bhattarai and Surya Nath Upadhyaya while the Indian team include Koshyari, Jayant Prasad, BC Upreti and Mahendra P. Lama. 

Published in The Rising Nepal, 26 February 2018. 

 

‘Nepal needs productivity, formality, connectivity’

Kathmandu, Feb. 24: Former Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission Swarnim Wagle said that Nepal need to give priority to enhancing productivity, formality and connectivity.

“Should the country achieve development goals at the faster rate, high-end technology should be applied, technology transfer should be promoted in agriculture, tourism and industry sector and production cost should be lowered,” he said addressing ‘CEO Unplugged 2018’ conference on Saturday.

Similarly, he said that formalizing informal sectors would promote decent wages, job security and dignity, and will strengthen the tax base of the country. It will have positive impact on social protection.

According to him, there should be physical connectivity such as roads, railways and aviation, as well as digital connectivity to support business and investment.

Founder of Mahato Group of Industries, Upendra Mahato mentioned that the changing innovations should be local and the major change should be global.

"Your thought of change should always be constant but honesty, labour and dedication will always lead you to the door of success,” he said.

Chairman of the IME Group Chandra Dhakal said that an entrepreneur should focus on how the product of a certain service will be received by the consumer, should learn about the expectation of a government from the enterprise, and if the business motive gets fulfilled or not.

The event was organised by Glocal Pvt. Ltd. in collaboration with King’s College.

EPG member suggests forging trilateral energy cooperation

Kathmandu, Feb. 23: A member of the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG) and Indian professor Mahendra P. Lama said that Nepal lost the game in energy cooperation with India and China. 

“In both India’s ‘Act East Policy’ and China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative, energy is a core content. Nepal started well, but somewhere it lost the track,” Professor Lama said while delivering a lecture on ‘India and Nepal in the 21^st Century: Aspirations and Challenges’ organised by the Institute of Integrated Development Studies (IIDS). 

The founding vice-chancellor of the Sikkim University said as Nepal lost the track in tapping the energy potential, the standard track became that of “don’t do it yourself and don’t let others do it.”

According to him, both ways Nepal lost the game and undermined its unparalleled comparative edge.

However, he pointed towards a better future as Nepal-India-China energy tri-junction has gradually emerged as a crucial geographical area for cross-border energy exchanges. 

“Besides the politico-historical participation of India and China in the development of Nepal’s hydro power resources, there are several factors that are likely to trigger a vibrant energy exchanges among these countries,” he said. 

He urged the governments of both three countries to put the people-to-people level relations at top slot and the government-to-government level relations at the bottom spot. 

“However, the very nature of state formation, foreign policy orientation and governance structure and power echelons on both sides of the border somehow put the government-to-government relations at the top spot,” he said. 

“I feel this overwhelming domination of governments underplaying and even neglecting the other three core interactive terrains invariably creates some sort of awkward situation that is known as bilateral chicaneries and imbroglios.”

He said that historically Nepal-India relations had been firmly established in four distinct interactive terrains – at the people-to-people level, civil society level, business-commercial level and government-to-government level. 

According to him, India and Nepal should rethink and renegotiate their relationship and let the people-to-people institution lead the relationship along with civil society level and business-commercial level interaction, and let the government to government deliberations, negotiations and operational details are carried out to facilitate and consolidate the role of these three core actors. 

He suggested India, Nepal and other South Asian countries to sign a convention to collectively work on the issues of migration outside the SAARC region to protect each others’ migrant community, coordinate a collective position on immigration policies of the destination countries, collective bargaining with the developed market economies and other labour importing countries on making labour market more liberal, check human smuggling and irregular migrants and even provide skills to potential migrants. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 24 January 2018. 

EU supports learning centre in Panauti

Kathmandu, Feb. 23:

Ambassador of the European Union to Nepal Veronica Cody Friday laid the foundation stone for an integrated learning centre for solid waste and natural resource management in Panauti Municipality.

She also handed over a pick-up truck and tricycles for garbage collection and other gadgets required for solid waste management to the municipality authorities.

The learning centre will have around 100 women trainers as ‘multipliers’ who will capacitate other women in the municipality on effective ways of rain water harvesting, harnessing energy from biogas plants and disseminate knowledge on how a compost plant can be made by utilising degradable wastes.

Cody highlighted that state restructuring is only one of the many challenges that Nepal is facing today in trying to build up its economy, further develop infrastructure and provide a healthier and safer environment in which communities can live and grow.  

Mayor of the Municipality Bhim Neupane said that the city was working towards enlisting Panauti in the World Heritage list.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 24 January 2018.

Shrinking spread rate troubles microfinance companies

Kathmandu, Feb. 22: Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have complained that they are experiencing severe problems due to the shrinking spread rate due to the liquidity shortage in the banking industry.

As the MFIs are not allowed to mobilise deposits, they have to rely on the deprived sector lending of the commercial banks, development banks and financial institutions.

But the recent liquidity crisis has led to increase in the interest rates up to 14 per cent which has created problems for the class ‘D’ banks.

Following widespread complaints that the microfinance companies are charging exorbitant interest rates up to 28 per cent, the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), through the Monetary Policy 2016/17, had set the ceiling of the interest rate for the MFIs at 18 per cent.

“The microfinance banks have just 4 per cent spread. The commercial banks have sent us letters saying that they will charge 14 per cent interest in the loan they provide us. It is almost difficult to meet the operational costs in such tight spread,” President of the Nepal Microfinance Bankers’ Association (NMBA) Ram Chandra Joshee said in a symposium of board officials of the FMIs, Building Pathways to Strengthen the Microfinance Sector.

He said that while mobilising loans in the remote areas, the operation cost could go up to 10 per cent.

The NRB recently set the spread of the commercial banks at 5 per cent while the small MFIs have the spread rate less than that.

Joshee said that the liquidity crisis has redirected the small clients of the commercial banks to the microfinance banks, but the latters don’t have enough funds to satisfy the needs of the customers.

Deputy Governor of the NRB Shiva Raj Shrestha assured the microfinance bankers that the liquidity crisis won’t be prolonged and the situation would improve by April.

“The NRB is aware of your problems, and is discussing the possible solutions. But you mustn’t be worried as the liquidity crisis will be solved within a couple of months. If you see the trend of the past years, money comes to the banking system by April,” he said.

According to him, it is the responsibility of the Board of Directors to make prudent decisions and guide the organisation towards the right path keeping intact the true essence and fundamentals of microfinance. 

Saying that the new MFIs are centred in and around the cities, he urged the MFIs to go to the areas where the banking service has not reached yet.

Chief of the Banks and Financial Institutions Regulation Department at the NRB Narayan Prasad Paudel said that the central bank was in communication with the NMBA regarding the spread rate issue and would find a solution soon.

Chairman of the Centre for Self-help Development (CSD) Shankar Man Shrestha urged the MFIs to follow the prudence practices.

“We need to stay rooted to the fundamentals of microfinance and stop actions that jeopardise the well being of clients and long term sustainability of organisations and harm the reputation of microfinance,” he said.

The two-day symposium is organised by the CSD in cooperation with the NMBA. It will conclude on Friday.