KATHMANDU: Economic Digest, a daily morning email digest, is basically a relatable summation of important business news from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries.
World Bank approves $450 million in loan
The World Bank has approved a $450 million in loan to help Nepal. The amount would be used to improve Nepal’s roads and set the course for post-COVID-19 economic recovery through greater cross-border trade, more jobs, especially for women, and better road safety.
According to the World Bank, the Nepal Strategic Road Connectivity and Trade Improvement Project will enhance regional road connectivity by improving the Nagdhunga-Naubise-Mugling road and upgrading the Kamala-Dhalkebar-Pathlaiya road.
The project will also enhance infrastructure, facilities, and sanitation at border crossing points to ease trade constraints and spur agricultural exports, the World Bank states in a press release.
SC stays govt’s June 21 deadline to clear tax
Interpreting the lockdown period as the ‘zero time’, the Supreme Court has issued an interim order in the name of the government that the tax can be cleared within 30 days of the day the lockdown is lifted.
Hearing the writ petition filed by advocates Sirjana Adhikari and Thaneshwar Gautam on Wednesday, a joint bench of Justices Anil Kumar Sinha and Manoj Kumar Sharma issued an interim order ruling that the entrepreneurs can clear the tax within 30 days once the lockdown is lifted.
The SC has directed the government not to implement the notice issued by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD). The IRD had issued a notice stating that the tax must be cleared by June 21.
Bharatpur gets medical appliances from China’s Gurmu City
The Gurmu City of China has donated medical appliances worth Rs 1.1 million to Bharatpur Metropolitan City to help its fight against COVID-19.
Receiving the supplies and handing over to the goods section of the metropolis amid a function at Miteri Bridge at Tatopani, the bordering area between Nepal and China, metropolis Mayor Renu Dahal instructed the concerned to use the appliances in the best possible way.
The donated appliances included 10,000 pieces of surgical masks, 960 pieces N95 masks, 120 sets of personal protective equipment and 120 pieces of thermal guns.
DoR spends Rs 3 billion in the construction, repair of roads during lockdown
The Department of Roads (DoR) has spent about Rs 3 billion in the construction, expansion and repair of roads across the country during the two-month lockdown.
Similarly, DOR has spent around 15 percent of total in the Kathmandu Valley for blacktop and repair roads. Likewise, over 12,000 potholes were maintained inside the valley and now the Kathmandu city is free from potholes.
All 33 divisions of the department were involved in some work on roads, bridges and periodic maintenance even after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus infection, Keshab Kumar Sharma, Director-General at DoR, said.
Some 41-km of the road in the Kathmandu Valley has been blacktopped and repaired from March 24, 2020 to May 23, 2020, Sharma said, adding that works worth Rs 400 million had been completed within the period inside the valley alone, The Rising Nepal reported.
(Compiled and prepared by Swastik Aryal and Nitish Lal Shrestha)
Nepal Economic Digest is a daily morning email digest, basically relatable summations of the most important business news, happenings from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries.
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