Local levels unveil budget KMC presents largest budget of Rs. 25.41 billion

 Kathmandu, June 24

As required by the Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangement Act, 2017 and the Local Government Operation Act, 2017, five metropolis, 11 sub-metropolitan cities,   many municipalities and rural municipalities presented their budgets for the next fiscal year 2022/23 on Friday.

Of the six metropolitan cities in the country, five tabled their budget for the coming fiscal.

Among the metropolis, Pokhara, capital city of Gandaki province, couldn't table the budget while 28/28 municipalities and rural municipalities also failed to present the budget on the date set by the law (Asar 10) on Friday.

The Municipalities Association Nepal and National Association of Rural Municipalities confirmed the inability of 56 local governments to present the budget for the next fiscal.

The local governments have announced their budgets with a focus on a wide range of issues including physical infrastructure, waste management and good governance.

The largest city of the nation and the federal capital Kathmandu Metropolitan City presented a budget of Rs. 25.41 billion.

While making the budget public, Deputy Mayor of the KMC Sunita Dangol said that the majority of budget has been allocated for infrastructure development sector. A budget of Rs. 11.08 billion, (49.57 per cent), has been allocated for the infrastructure development.

Similarly, Rs. 4.46 billion, 19.96 per cent of the total budget, has been allocated for good governance and inter-related sector. For social sector, the KMC has earmarked Rs. 1.6 billion, 7.25 per cent, of the budget.

 Next door, Lalitpur Metropolitan City tabled a budget of Rs. 6.35 billion on Friday. Mayor of the metropolis Chiribabu Maharjan presented the budget that is Rs. 1.18 billion larger than the current year's estimate.

One of the highlights of the budget is that it has made it mandatory to arrange 10 per cent of the costs of construction projects implemented through consumer committees through public participation. However, this does not apply to constructions inside the World Heritage Sites.

The metro has also decided to operate a call centre to listen to public grievances, operate eight city buses, construct 25 parks and 34 smart toilets, and develop dedicated bicycle lanes. Lalitpur Metropolis also announced to establish 'Dr. Satya Mohan Joshi Academy'.

 Likewise, Birgunj Metropolitan City has announced a budget of Rs. 3.33 billion for 2022/23. The metropolis has allocated Rs. 2.69 billion for current expenditure and Rs. 1.26 billion for capital expenditure.

Deputy Mayor of Birgunj Imtiyaz Alam had presented the budget with a target to collect Rs. 950 million from its internal sources. Likewise, the city expects to receive Rs. 1.70 billion from the federal government in grants and revenue sharing. It is estimated that Rs. 79.7 million will be received from the state government as well.

Similarly, the RUDP project run by the Asian Development Bank is estimated to receive Rs. 126.1 million and Rs. 20 million from the Roads Board.

 Meanwhile, Bharatpur Metropolitan City has unveiled a budget of Rs. 5.74 billion for 2022/23.

Deputy Mayor of the Metropolis Chitrasen Adhikari informed that domestic sources will facilitate Rs. 1.50 billion while Rs. 1.92 billion will be received through inter-governmental fiscal handover, and Rs. 533 million from revenue sharing, and the remaining amount through provincial and federal government alongside donor agencies.

Bharatpur Metropolis has allocated Rs. 1.3 billion for the ongoing projects, and R. 725 million for wards' programmes with Rs. 25 million for each ward. It has earmarked Rs. 280 million for urban infrastructure like sewerage, public toilets, overhead bridge and project bank. Rs. 155 million is separated for agriculture and livestock development.

 Likewise, Biratnagar Metropolitan City has presented a budget of Rs. 3.62 billion for the coming Fiscal Year 2022/23. Deputy Mayor Shilla Nirala Karki presented the budget, which is less by Rs. 1 billion compared to the budget of the current fiscal year – Rs. 4.63 billion.

The size of the budget for the next year has been reduced on the basis of the real income of the local body which is the capital of the Province 1.

It is estimated in the budget that the metropolis will earn Rs. 2.32 billion from various sources including Rs. 456 million from the federal government in fiscal transfers, Rs. 211 million from the provincial government, Rs. 211 million from revenue sharing, Rs. 888 million from housing and land registration and Rs. 399 million from vehicle tax. It also expects to receive Rs. 721 million in conditional grants from the federal government, Rs. 1 billion in internal revenue, Rs. 15 million from the Roads Board, and Rs. 101 million from Municipal Development Fund in loans.

Biratnagar Metropolis' recurrent expenditure is Rs. 613.5 million. It has allocated Rs. 1.7 billion for infrastructure development, Rs. 472 million for supplementary programmes, Rs. 138 million for economic development in the areas of cooperatives, protection of consumer interest, tourism promotion, entrepreneurship development, livestock and veterinary and agricultural development, and Rs. 15.9 million for social development.

Similarly, Rs. 35.5 million has been allocated for forest environment and disaster management and Rs. 43.5 million for good governance and institutional development. The total cost of supplementary special conditional loan and association program is estimated at Rs. 1.26 billion.

 (With inputs from our correspondents Nawaraj Kattel/Rangeli, Shaligram Nepal/Bharatpur, Dipak Gautam/Birgunj)

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 June 2022.  

Agitating investors end their 'fast onto death'

Kathmandu, June 24

Coordinator of struggle committee formed for the expansion and reform of the capital market, Tilak Koirala, ended his 'fast onto death' on Friday.

He had been staging a sit-in at the entrance of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) at Khumaltar in Lalitpur for the last 10 days asking the capital market regulator to address various 19-demands.

Chairman of the Board Ramesh Kumar Hamal fed him juice to end the fast, said SEBON in a statement.

It said that some of the demands of the share investors are in the course of implementation while a few of them will be addressed in the near future. However, since some of the demands require coordination among the regulators of the capital and financial markets as well as the government, board and protestors have reached an agreement to forge necessary collaboration to fulfil those demands.

To implement the agreement, a committee is formed with the participation of SEBON and investors.

According to Hamal, investment from the non-resident Nepalis and reservations for migrant Nepali workers in the stock market would be facilitated soon.

Likewise, creating the SMEs platform at the Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) is also at the final stage. The NEPSE has formulated the procedure for it and a team currently is at the Indian stock exchange to get the technical know-how of it.

The board is also positive about addressing the confusion created by the halt of share trading for about a year during the merger or acquisition of the companies listed at the NEPSE.

Likewise, process to increase the capital of share brokers, tax discount on capital gain from the shares trading and issuing the Initial Public Offering of the NEPSE are in full swing.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 25 June 2022.  

Nepal fails to supply high-skilled professional to int’l markets

 Kathmandu, June 23

As the international markets continue to revive after the coronavirus ravaged the global economy for two years, number of Nepalis going abroad in search of jobs has witnessed an exponential growth.

But despite two decades track record of exporting human resources, Nepal has largely failed to supply high skilled and professional manpower to the Gulf countries and elsewhere.  According to the statistics of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), only eight high skilled and 48 professional human resources left country for job abroad in a month from mid-May to mid-June this year while the department had issued about 62,349 labour approvals during the same period.

However, the number of unskilled workers was 21,307 and skilled 35,801.

A month earlier, from mid-April to mid-May, high skilled and professional Nepali workers’ number going for foreign employment was 10 and 54 respectively while there were 15,794 unskilled workers among the total of 45,004.

Last year, during mid-May to mid-June, only 4086 Nepali workers obtained approval for foreign jobs. Of them, only one was high skilled and three were professional, and 1,565 were unskilled. Due to COVID-19 pandemic many countries, including Gulf countries and South Korea had stopped the recruitment process of foreign workers in 2020 and 2021.

Similarly, from mid-April to mid-May in 2021, six high skilled and 36 professional were leaving country for various jobs. The total number of Nepali migrant workers obtaining approval was 24,363 and about 11,626 among them were unskilled.

The statistics of the DoFE showed that about half of the Nepali migrant workers who left the country in the last fiscal year 2020/21 were unskilled. That year about 166,698 Nepali workers obtained approval for foreign jobs and 80,382 were unskilled while only 61 were high skilled professionals.

High skilled and professional human resources include engineers, doctors, IT professionals, pilots and managers.

However, it is unfortunate in the part of the country that it has failed to increase the number of high skilled and semi-skilled workers going for foreign employment even after the three decades’ experience in the sector.

“Initially, all the countries were sending low-skilled workers abroad but in the years following they reversed the situation while Nepal lag in the process,” said Director General of the DoFE, Shesh Narayan Poudel.

According to him, Nepal is not a preferred source country for the high-skilled manpower as education and training system here is yet to reform to the global standards.

This trend has contributed to the low income of Nepali workers in the foreign countries, they have low bargaining power and opportunity for skill enhancement and are forced to perform high-risk jobs, Poudel maintained.

Meanwhile, it has affected the remittance inflow as well. Had the number of semi-skilled and high-skilled workers been increased the size of remittance would have been increased significantly.

Experts have suggested reforming the school education and establishing polytechnic institutes across the country to train the youth in various skills.  

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 June 2022. 

NRNA supports NIC with Rs. 1.28 million

Kathmandu, June 22

The Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) has supported the National Innovation Centre (NIC) Rs. 1.28 million.

Executive President of the NRNA, Kul Acharya, handed over a cheque bearing the amount to Founder President of the NIC, Mahabir Pun at a programme on Wednesday.

Welcoming the gathering, Vice President of the NRNA, Mahesh Kumar Shrestha said that Nepalis from all over the world were supporting the NIC.

Thanking the association, Pun said that the growing import trade could be reduced, jobs could be created and country's revenue could be increased if only 5 percent of the goods could be produced in Nepal.

He stressed on the need to open the NICs in every municipality and province. In response, the NRNA said that it could provide a platform to new talented people by setting up an innovation center.

Acharya also said that places like the NIC are suitable for transferring the knowledge, skills and investments learned abroad to Nepal so the NRNA is always ready to support it. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 23 June 2022. 

GIBL to provide foreign exchange to Hajj pilgrims

 Kathmandu, June 22

Global IME Bank Limited is going to provide the facility of exchange of foreign currency including Saudi Riyal to all the Hajj pilgrims departing from Nepal for Hajj in 2022.

The bank has made arrangements to exchange foreign currencies from Kantipath, Thamel, Tinkune and Sinamangal branch offices.

The bank has also requested the pilgrims to contact the mobile number 9851165520 if they need any information regarding currency exchange.

Global IME Bank is providing banking and financial services to more than 2.8 million customers from around 875 service centers including 288 branches, 262 ATMs, 275 branchless banking services, 51 extensions and revenue collection counters and 3 foreign representative offices in 76 districts.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 23 June 2022. 

CNI, NEEP to cooperate on energy activity

Kathmandu, June 22

An agreement has been reached between the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and the Nepal Energy Efficiency Programme (NEEP) to cooperate in energy related activities.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two for the development and implementation of energy efficiency, energy audit, capacity building and energy related industries.

According to the MoU, the two organizations will assist in energy efficiency, energy testing and capacity building activities in the energy sector of the industries to increase the awareness of energy efficiency and energy testing in the industries.

CNI said in a statement that it has been promoting energy efficiency in industries since 2019. Likewise, NEEP is working in the field of green energy and energy efficiency with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating employment and meeting the growing energy demand.

The MoU was signed by Director General of CNI Deepak Raj Joshi and Managing Director of the NEEP, Amrit Abhamani Dhakal.

 Meanwhile, Tourism Committee of the CNI has honoured mountaineer and photojournalist Purnima Shrestha and Nepali film director and producer Abinash Bikram Shah, who won the 'special mention' award at the Cannes Film Festival for his film 'Lori'.

Shrestha had recently successfully climbed seven mountains with more than 8,000 metres height in Nepal. She also successfully climbed three mountains in one season.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 23 June 2022. 

Academy launches directory of 'martyr artistes'

Kathmandu, June 23

Nepal Academy has published an introductory directory on 'martyr artistes'. The book written and compiled by writer and critic, Tej Bilas Adhikari, has included the introduction of 182 artistes who lost their lives for national at different times.

According to Adhikari, although various historical documents mention the sacrifice of about 300 artistes, details of only 182 could be collected from various sources. The author has interviewed about 146 people related to the martyr artistes and also collected information about people who considered the martyr of the same category but their creation couldn't be found.

The book includes information about the first martyr author Subba Krishna Lal Adhikari, 'Library Parva' and 'Yogamaya Revolt'. It has given brief introduction about each artiste, their life, and creation.

Vice Chancellor of the academy, Dr. Jagman Gurung said that the publication of the directory is a step to express true honor and reverence to those artistes who sacrificed their life for the national cause.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 24 June 2022.