NEPAL BHUTAN TRADE TALKS 24,25 MAY

NEPAL, BHUTAN TRADE TALKS 24, 25 MAY

Kathmandu, 6 May: Nepal, Bhutan trade talks will be held in Thimpu 24, 25 May.
Officials of the two South Asian countries will discuss a trade treaty for which an agreement has been reached.
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GHALE GAON FESTIVAL FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 6 May: A three-day Ghale Gaon festival is being inaugurated by Defence Minister Bishnu Paudel later Friday.
The village attracts thousands of trekkers every year to view the Himalayan peaks of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges from a close distance.
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NEPALI PEACEKEEPERS NOT DIRECTLY BLAMED FOR DEADLY CHOLERA OUTBREAK IN HAITI

Kathmandu, 6 May: Experts charged by the United Nations with probing the cause of deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti pointed on Wednesday to faecal contamination by a riverside UN peacekeepers’ camp as likely cause, but a UN spokesman said that could not be seen as conclusive, Reuters reports from Port-au- Prince, Haiti.
The four-member UN-appointed panel, named by UN chief Ban K-moon in January, carefully avoided apportioning any direct blame or responsibility to UN peacekeepers, citing ‘a confluence of circumstances’ behind the epidemic,
The four experts from Latin America, the US and India had been asked to investigate the source of the Haitian cholera outbreak, which has killed more than 4,800 people since October, although the death rate has slowed down considerably.
The panel was set up following accusations by Haitians that Nepali soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping mission in a Haiti, or MINUSTAH, were the source of cholera, through leakage from latrines at their camp at Mirebalais in central Haiti.
A widespread belief in Haiti that the disease came from the peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic, sparked some anti-UN riots last year in the poor Caribbean nation.
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LPG BOTTLER CAUGHT TAAMPERING WITH CYLINDERS
BEDRAJ POUDEL
Kaathmandu, 6 May: In the first ever instance of an LPG bottler tampering with cylinders, the Sunsari District Administration Office (DDA) on Thursday sealed Nepa Petroleum Trade Link Private Limited based in Khanar, Sunsari, The Kathmandu Post reports.

Nepa Petroleum Trade Link owned by Shiva Ghimire, former president of Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association, has been found tampering with LPG cylinders.

Ghimire is also the owner of Sugam Gas that had hit the market just six months ago. The plant of Sugam Gas is in Naubise, Dhading. However, work to change the foot rings of cylinders had been going on here for some time now. And, these cylinders used to be sent to Naubise.

According to the market monitoring team of the DDA, an estimated 20,000 cylinders of 24 gas bottlers were seized from the premises of Nepa Petroleum Trade Link. The value of the cylinders is estimated at Rs 40 million.

Gas bottling companies have to import LPG cylinders from India that cost them Rs 2,000 per unit. However, Sugam Gas, instead of importing cylinders, used to collect other gas companies’ empty cylinders, remove the foot rings, and attach foot rings bearing the batch number of Sugam Gas. The DAO team also confiscated 3,192 Sugam Gas foot rings, 975 cylinders of other companies whose foot rings were cut off and four cylinders of other companies on which foot rings of Sugam Gas were attached.

In the raid, the DAO team found cylinders of several companies including Sahara, Himal, Everest, Siddhartha, Prima, Shri Krishna, Narayani, Manoj, Surya, Saibaba, Om, HP, Koshi, Lokpriya, Subhidha, Bhanu, Sagar, Trishul, Nobel, Lumbini and Shree.

President of Koshi Gas Bijaya Hari Sharma said such cylinders are prone to explosion as they are wielded by putting on a valve. “Any sort of wielding on a gas cylinder after the company’s final examination is dangerous,” he said.

The DAO raided Ghimire’s plant following complaints form Nepal Gas Sellers’ Association. Earlier on Wednesday, a monitoring team of the police, revenue office and the Department of Standards returned to Khanar after the Sunsari CDO refused to issue a raid order.

However, CDO Ram Prasad Thapaliya said he refused to give such an order on Wednesday as the issue was not clear. He said he will decide on how to initiate action against Nepa Petroleum after consulting with gas bottlers, sellers and consumer forums. Sunsari DAO has said it will initiate action against Sugam Gas after the submission of a field report. Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology’s regional chief Sashi Bhusan Yadav said action could be taken against Ghimire’s firm as per the Quality Control Act, Nepal Oil Corporation Act, Consumer Protection Act and Black Market Act. President of Gas Sellers’ Association Gyaneshwor Aryal said companies involved in such activities should be penalised. “There are 300,000 such cylinders in the market which may explode any time,” he said.

He said they have already informed the Nepal Oil Corporation about the company’s malpractice. “NOC must immediately scrap the purchase delivery order (PDO) which is needed to bring gas from India,” he added. He also demanded that the seized cylinders not be allowed to use.

LP Gas Industries’ Association President Sawarmal Agrawal also said the authorities should show no mercy on those involved in such malpractices. “It is a matter of public safety,” he said. “Such a situation arose as the NOC awarded PDO even to companies having no cylinders of their own,” he said.
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NRB TO CAP BANK DIRECTORS’ PAY

Kathmandu, 6 May: In its bid to strengthen corporate governance of banks and financial institutions, the central bank is mulling over bringing a regulation to cap pays and perks of banks and financial institutions’ board members, The Himalayan Times reports.

This will be an extension of the regulation that had put a cap on the remuneration of chief executive officers of commercial banks. The recent instances of liquidation of Nepal Bikas Bank and Samjhana Finance have brought to light the reckless decisions of the board of directors that invited the failure of these financial institutions, jeopardising the funds of numerous depositors. Gurkha Development Bank was also declared problematic as the chairman and board members were found to be involved in illegally using the bank’s funds which has affected the financial health of the Class-B financial institution.

“NRB is collecting suggestions from Nepal Bankers Association, Nepal Development Bankers Association and Nepal Finance Company Association before finalising the regulation,” said Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali, spokesperson for the central bank, adding that the central bank is doing homework on how to introduce any such directive to regulate the allowances and facilities being given to the directors.

“If a regulation is introduced then a guideline will be set regarding the payment and facilities for directors of banks and financial institutions so that they are not able to demand any unreasonable perks that might harm the banks and financial institutions’ financial standing,” he added.

Moreover, by regulating the facilities and remuneration of the directors, the central bank also aims at reducing the operation cost of banks and financial institutions. The directors’ pay and perks are directly related to company’s expenses. Higher their pay and perks, lower the return of shareholders as the ‘uncontrolled’ pay and perks eat into the profits.

The monetary policy for fiscal year 2010-11 had mentioned that ‘necessary provisions will be introduced to make compensation of promoters, chief executive officers and other high-class officials of banks and financial institutions compatible and acceptable to the capacity of the financial system of the country and for their complete transparency’. This will be another such attempt at promoting corporate governance in banks and financial institutions.

The guidelines made public in December 2011 had put the cap on the salary and benefits being doled out to the chief executives of commercial banks. The regulation had directed to provide fixed annual compensation not exceeding five per cent of total average expense for all employees over the last three years.

The bankers have widely flayed the salary regulation by the central bank as intervention in the internal matter of a bank and being against the norms of free market economy. The central bank issued the guidelines to curb the high risk taking tendencies among the chief executives in the view of obtaining added perks and benefits that would have eventually pushed the whole financial system to collapse.
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