Kathmandu, June 10

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has said that the Monetary Policy 2018-19, which the central bank is expected to unveil next month, will primarily intend to maintain financial stability in the country, promote agriculture and boost investment in the infrastructure sector.

Addressing a discussion programme in the Capital today, NRB Governor Chiranjibi Nepal said that the monetary policy for the new fiscal year will adopt measures to support and achieve targets set in the fiscal budget 2018-19 including economic growth target, inflation projection and agricultural and infrastructural goals.

“The budget for fiscal year 2018-19 has set targets on the basis of the country’s improving business and economic climate in the last couple of years. The monetary policy will try to capture this momentum of growth in the country which will lead to achieving the set economic growth and development targets,” stated Governor Nepal.

Similarly, the governor mentioned that the monetary policy for next fiscal year will introduce a few specific measures to maintain inflation within the 6.5 per cent projection of the government for 2018-19 and prioritise stability in the financial sector.

Former finance minister Madhukar SJB Rana said that the central bank should address key financial issues like people’s access to financial institutions and the unstable financial policies through the monetary policy.

Similarly, former NRB governor Dipendra Bahadur Kshetry, who is also former vice chairman of the National Planning Commission, insisted that the central bank should not only introduce supportive measures to accomplish the budget’s targets but also improve its regulatory framework.

“The central bank has mandated banks to inject at least 25 per cent of their total loan portfolio to various identified productive sectors. But are banks lending as per this provision,” questioned Kshetry.

He also mentioned that banks and financial institutions are reluctant to issue loans to youths against collateral of their academic certificates as envisioned by the fiscal policy.

On the occasion, Gyanendra Dhungana, president of Nepal Bankers’ Association, said that the monetary policy that the central bank will introduce for fiscal year 2018-19 has to be expansionary and ease capital formation in the country. He also stated that the monetary policy should adopt a policy to promote mergers between banks and financial institutions and expand the limit of overdraft facility for business loans, which is currently at 15 per cent.

Saroj Kaji Tuladhar, president of the Nepal Financial Institutions Association, said that the monetary policy should address the margin lending issue in the secondary market, which the budget has failed to do. Citing that the current monetary policy has squeezed housing loans, he urged the central bank to increase the loan-to-value ratio on home loans by 10 per cent to 50 per cent in Kathmandu Valley.

Kathmandu, June 10

Due to the fear among investors that the government could implement the new system of calculating the capital gains tax (CGT) in the secondary market, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index plunged by 2.02 per cent or 25.43 points to land at 1231.64 points today — the first trading day of the week.

The Inland Revenue Department had issued a circular on June 1 stating that the method in which the capital gains tax is calculated would be revised. Not happy with the new method share investors had scrambled to talk to government officials on June 3. As the meeting with the finance ministry officials ended inconclusively, the share investors announced protests and halted transactions the next day.

Consequently, Nepse witnessed zero trading on June 4. However, the next day the government announced that the new method to calculate CGT would be put on hold till a study committee formed to look into the issue submitted its report in two weeks. It was after this announcement that share trading resumed.

Seeking anonymity, a stockbroker said, “Unless the study committee formed by the government regarding CGT submits its report and comes up with an appropriate solution the market will continue to go down.”

Today, the sensitive index, which measures the performance of class ‘A’ stocks, also went down by two per cent or 5.3 points to 259.16 points. The float index that measures the performance of shares actually traded also shed 2.1 per cent or 1.9 points to rest at 88.57 points for the day.

Similarly, of the 10 sub-indices at Nepse, nine landed in the red zone today. Trading subgroup did not witness any transaction today.

The insurance subgroup witnessed the heaviest loss going down by 3.37 per cent or 217.24 points to land at 6,235.44 points. Similarly, the hotels sub-index also declined by 2.92 per cent or 54.46 points to 1,811.99 points.

Likewise, the microfinance sub-index went down by 2.63 per cent or 43.96 points to rest at 1,626 points. The banking subgroup also descended by 1.81 per cent or 19.28 points to 1,045.5 points. Similarly, the hydropower subgroup shed 1.77 per cent or 27.27 points to land at 1,511.06 points.

Additionally, development banks sub-index shrunk by 1.51 per cent or 22.24 points to rest at 1,446.76 points. Likewise, others subgroup also went down by 1.25 per cent or 9.13 points to 719.37 points.

The manufacturing subgroup dipped by 1.16 per cent or 27.01 points to land at 2,306.74 points. Moreover, the finance sub-index also went down by 0.87 per cent or 5.47 points to close the day at 621.22 points.

Kathmandu, June 10

Altogether, 74,866 job aspirants appeared for the Korean Language Test (KLT) conducted by the Employment Permit System (EPS) of South Korea.

The EPS Korea Section, under the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), had conducted the KLT to fulfil labour demand for 2019 from South Korea, in the Capital and Pokhara on Saturday and today.

A total of 82,264 job seekers had submitted the KLT online application at EPS Korea Section in April.

As per Sovakar Bhandari, spokesperson for EPS Korea Section, 7,398 applicants did not attend the test. Meanwhile, 247 fake candidates who had appeared for the test on behalf of those who had submitted the online applications were arrested by the police.

The South Korean government will be providing employment opportunities to 7,100 Nepali workers in 2019, of whom 4,800 will be employed in production sector and remaining workers in the agriculture sector. The labour demand from South Korea stood at 10,200 in 2018 and 3,100 in 2017.

Meanwhile, the South Korean government, which has been taking Nepali workers on the basis of their KLT results, has mentioned that the job aspirants should from now on also possess required work skills. This means that along with clearing the KLT, job aspirants should also have sound skills and work ability to get a chance to work in South Korea.

Of the total applicants for KLT this year, 39,640 (30,179 males and 9,461 females) had applied for jobs in agriculture sector and 42,624 (39,208 males and 3,416 females) had applied for jobs in production sector.

This is the ninth series of the KLT and those selected through the KLT will be eligible to apply for jobs in South Korea. The validity of KLT will be for two years, which means that those who pass KLT cannot apply for jobs in South Korea after two years.

The South Korean government has set basic monthly salary of 1,236,000 won (around $1,075) for Nepali workers.

Over 50,000 Nepali workers have received opportunities to work in South Korea under the EPS so far and thousands of them have already returned to Nepal after completing their 58-month job placement in the country, according to EPS Korea Section.

KATHMANDU: The Kaleidoscope — All Nepal Architecture Students Design Competition 2017-18 — was launched on 23 December, 2017, with participation of 30 students from Acme Engineering College, IOE Pulchowk Campus, Kathmandu Engineering College, Nepal Engineering College, Himalaya College of Engineering, Khwopa Engineering College and Kantipur International College.

The event is a corporate social responsibility initiative of Asian Paints Nepal. The project was to design the University Student Centre of Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur. A total of 15 designs were shortlisted.

Of the 15 concepts, the top five winners were announced on Sunday.

The winner of the competition was Nekesh Maharjan from Kathmandu Engineering College.

The first runner-up and second runner-up were Anil Waiba and Gopi Nath Adhikari — both from IOE, Pulchowk Campus.

Finally, the two consolation prize winners were Eliza Shrestha from Nepal Engineering College and Santwana Malakar from Kathmandu Engineering College.