Govt officials set to skip Geneva UN rights meet

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CROSS CURRENCY
USD EUR JPY GBP CHF CAD AUD INR NR
NR 87.5900 115.6451 9.3820 133.1762 94.1170 85.9526 89.6790 1.6015
INR 54.47 71.889 0.584 83.11 58.507 53.49 55.81 0.6244
AUD 0.9759 1.288 0.0104 1.489 1.049 0.958 0.0179 0.0112
CAD 1.0191 1.345 0.0109 1.5537 1.094 1.0438 0.0187 0.0116
CHF 0.9307 1.229 0.0099 1.419 0.9141 0.9533 0.0171 0.0106
GBP 0.6555 0.866 0.007 0.7047 0.6436 0.6716 0.0120 0.0075
JPY 93.22 123.23 142.8571 101.0101 91.7431 96.1538 1.7123 0.1066
EUR 0.7573 0.0081 1.1547 0.8137 0.7435 0.7764 0.0139 0.0086
USD 1.3205 0.0107 1.5256 1.0745 0.9813 1.0247 0.0184 0.0114
HOW TO READ THE TABLE
The chart shows the rates of nine world currencies. Move across the table to find rates of exchange between any two currencies.
One unit of the currency mentioned vertically is worth that amount in the currency mentioned horizontally.
Nari Wedding and
Gift Expo kicks off
The seventh edition of the Nari Wedding and Gift Expo
2013 kicked off at Bhrikutimandap in Kathmandu on
Thursday. Also, the sixth edition of Kopila Children Expo
2013 and Nepal International Consumer Expo (NICE)
2013 too began at the same venue. Organised by
Direction Nepal, the events which will run through
February 25 is expected to attract visitors from diverse
backgrounds. Pg: IV
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, FEB 21
GOVERNMENT expenditure
contracted in the first
half of the current fiscal
year as ministries and other government
authorities delayed
authorising their subordinate
agencies to spend the budget,
according to the mid-term review
of the budget for the current fiscal
year.
Government authorities are
yet to authorise their subordinate
implementing agencies to spend
55.66 percent of the budget, the
report said. As a result, government
expenditure shrank to Rs
104 billion as of first half of the
fiscal year from Rs 111 billion in
the same period a year ago.
As far as the capital expenditure
is concerned, it stood at just
Rs 7.66 billion down over the sixmonth
period — down from Rs
9.56 billion a year ago.
The Finance Ministry said it
authorised ministries and other
agencies to spend the budget
after the President endorsed
budget ordinances. The President
had endorsed two budget ordinances
— first on July 16, 2012,
authorising spending of the onethird
of the last fiscal year’s budget,
and second on November 22,
2012, for two-third budget spending.
According to the budget
review report, the Finance
Ministry authorised ministries
and other government agencies
to spend a total of Rs 267 billion.
But the latter only authorised
their subordinate agencies to
spend just Rs 119 billion — 44.34
percent of the amount authorised
to be spent.
Even several development
programmes and projects are yet
to get approval from the agencies
concerned. First priority (P1)
projects require the National
Planning Commission’s (NPC)
approval for implementation,
FOREX
U.S. Dollar 87.59
Euro 115.65
Pound Sterling 133.18
Swiss Franc 94.12
Australian Dollar 89.68
Canadian Dollar 85.95
Singapore Dollar 70.57
Japanese Yen 9.38
Chinese Yuan 14.04
Saudi Arab Riyal 23.36
Qatari Riyal 24.06
Thai Bhat 2.93
UAE Dihram 23.85
Malaysian Ringit 28.15
South Korean Won 8.06
Exchange rates fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank
PRITHVI MAN SHRESTHA
KATHMANDU, FEB 21
THE government has reintroduced the
policy of waiving off loans of the victims
of the decade-long conflict, people’s
movement and Madhesh movement.
This policy will be applicable to such loanees
of nine government-owned banks and financial
institutions.
A Cabinet meeting on Thursday decided
to waive off loans worth up to Rs 30,000 and
interest of loans up to Rs 100,000 taken from
Agriculture Development Bank Limited
(ADBL), Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), Sana
Kishan Bikas Bank (SKBB), Nepal Bank
Limited and five Grameen Bikas banks.
The then Maoists-led government
had also introduced a similar policy through
the budget for the fiscal year 2008-09,
waiving off loans up to the same amount of
conflict victims, small farmers and victims of
natural disasters.
“As we have been receiving complaints
that a few victims failed to get benefits of the
government’s programme four years ago, the
new policy has been adopted to enable them
to get the benefits,” said Joint Secretary
Mahesh Dahal, who was recently appointed
as the consul general for Hong Kong.
Private sector for fresh CA polls
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, FEB 21
NINE private sector bodies,
including the Federation of
Nepalese Chambers of
Commerce and Industry (FNCCI),
have said a fresh election is must to
resolve the political stalemate.
Organising a press meet on
Thursday, they underscored the need
for a national consensus government
to hold the new election. “For this,
the main responsibility lies with the
political parties,” they said. “The private
sector once again expresses its
commitment to the democratic system
and free market economy.”
The private sector is of the view
that the constitution should be written
by holding a Constituent
Assembly election through consensus
among the parties. “For this, the
parties should guarantee the election
at the earliest,” they said.
They, however, expressed dissatisfaction
over the proposed ninepoint
deal among the parties, saying
not a single word has been incorporated
in the deal to address the country’s
economic issues. “The private
sector is in favour of holding a fresh
Constituent Assembly election,” said
FNCCI President Suraj Vaidya. “But
economic agendas should not be
ignored.”
The private sector bodies also
stressed for consensus amongst the
parties on the common minimum
economic agenda. They also
demanded timely budget presentation
for the next fiscal year.
“Development work has been stalled
due to the presentation of the budget
without policies and programmes for
the last few years,” they said.
MID-TERM BUDGET REVIEW
Government expenditure
contracts in first half
Page III Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier AirAsia said Thursday its new airline joint venture with India’s
giant tea-to-steel Tata conglomerate may start operations by year-end
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013 | ekantipur.com
Conflict, stir victims to get loan waiver
The provision will be applicable to loanees of nine govt-owned BFIs
FNCCI’s Senior Vice President
Bhaskarraj Raj Karnikar stressed on
the need for consensus among the
parties at the time when the country
has been gripped by rampant corruption,
donation drive, capital flight,
deteriorating rule of law and low production,
among other issues.
Ichha Raj Tamang, president of
Nepal Land and Housing Developers’
Association, said timely election was
only solution to the current political
crisis.
Jay Ram Lamichanne, president
of the Federation of Contractors
Association of Nepal, said the country’s
economic growth has been projected
to fall to 3.8 percent this year,
while inflation is still in double digits.
“The country’s economy is getting
worse by the day as political actors
are concentrated only on their parties’
agenda,” said Lamichanne.
while second and third priority
projects are to be endorsed by the
line ministries.
According to the mid-term
review report, a majority of programmes
and projects under the
Ministry of Urban Development,
Ministry of Education and
Ministry of Irrigation were not
the approved until mid-January.
“A majority of the ministries have
been found failing to get
endorsed their programmes,”
read the report. “This shows that
ministries failed to comply with
authorisation too.”
The finance ministry had
asked ministries and government
agencies to get their programmes
and projects approved by the
NPC or by line ministries —
whichever mode is applicable.
During the review period,
expenditure in foreign-aided
projects has come down by 80.58
percent compared to the figure
during the same period last year,
according to the report.
This provision, however,
is expected to hit
the government-owned
banks’ profitability as
they will only be
compensated for the
waiver of the principal
amount, not interest
Those who were killed and injured during
the ‘people’s war, peoples’ movement’
and Madhesh movement could claim the
benefit until mid-April 2013, according to the
government decision.
The government has also decided it will
compensate the banks for the principle
amount, while the banks themselves should
bear the cost interest and penalty waiver.
This provision, however, is expected to
hit the government-owned banks’ profitability.
A senior ADBL official said he could say
nothing about the possible effects of the government’s
decision on his bank before
receiving the details of the decision.
He, however, said the bank would face
losses if they were forced to waive interest
and penalty of performing loans and the
ones that were taken later. Suspecting that
even non-victims could be the possible beneficiaries
under political pressure at the local
level, he said the criteria should strongly be
implemented.
Four years ago, the government had
compensated the banks with the amount of
the loans waived along with 10 percent interest,
which had been beneficial for government
BFIs. According to a Finance Ministry
source, the government had reimbursed a
total of Rs 6.4 billion under the programme
for years ago. ADBL had received more than
Rs 4 billion, while Nepal Bank Limited
received Rs 250 million, according to bank
officials.
Although the government has claimed
the programme is aimed at offering relief to
the victims, it will have far reaching consequences
for banking institutions, according
to experts. “The biggest impact of such a programme
four years ago was people developed
a tendency of not repaying loans with
hope that the government would waive off
such loans later,” said a central bank official.
“On the other hand, tax collected from the
people, which could have been spent for
development activities, were spent in the
name of benefiting victims.”
The central bank official also said Prime
Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s promise duting
his tenure as finance minister in 2008
that the government would also waive off
loans of the loanees of Grammen Bikas
banks encouraged many borrowers not to
repay loans timely. “As a result, Sudur
Pashchimanchal Grameen Bikas Bank and
Purbanchal Grammen Bikas Bank went into
red,” he said.
Economist Keshav Acharya said
waiving off loans is like injecting marijuana
(ganja) into loanees, which provokes them
not to repay loans. “We had completely
reversed this programme in 2009 by
giving certain benefits to the people
who repaid loans timely,” said Acharya, who
was the chief economic advisor at the
Finance Ministry during the Madhav Kumar
Nepal-led government.
Besides affecting the BFIs’ profitability,
the provision could also lead to the misuse of
government resources given the fact that
families of more than 18,000 people received
relief from the government four years
ago. But only 13,000 were actually killed
during the conflict.