KATHMANDU: Economic Digest, a daily morning email digest, is basically a relatable summation of important business news from Nepal into easy-to-understand summaries.
Nepal govt, World Bank to seal US$100 mln deal this week
The Nepal government and World Bank are inking a deal on the subsidized loan of US$ 100 million this week.
Out of US$ 200 million announced by the World Bank for the infrastructure development for electricity, the Nepal government had received US $100 in 2019.
The World Bank had put forth some conditions stating that the Nepal government should make some amendments to the existing Electricity Act to qualify for the subsidized loan.
The Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation has already prepared a draft accordingly. The Council of Ministers has approved it and sent it to the parliament.
The Ministry in the provision has allowed hydro projects to run for 40 years as per the demand of the World Bank.
Similarly, the local government can grant permission to the hydro project up to 3 megawatt and up to 20 megawatt by the provincial government as per provision.
FMTC begins to sell electric induction stove
Food Management and Trading Company (FMTC) has started selling an electric induction stove of Baltra company.
The company has begun to sell infrared stoves after the demands for the stoves went up of late, said Director General of FMTC Netra Subedi.
The price of the stove has been fixed at Rs 4,000. The company is preparing to import stoves from China once the stoves received on grant are sold out, informed Deputy Director General Shreemani Khanal.
The electric stoves donated by China to Nepal during the 2015 mega earthquake had been sold during the coronavirus-induced lockdown in Nepal.
China loses WTO dispute against EU
Despite fighting for market-economy status for four years, China lost its battle last week. Beijing allowed a landmark World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute which was aimed to force the European Union (EU) to recognize China as a market economy in trade investigations, lapsed on June 15.
The case was first brought in 2016. However, China lost an interim ruling on the matter in 2019. China currently provides the EU with more legal certainty to fight the low-price Chinese exports with artificially high tariffs.
The resolution, however, has been a setback for Beijing as the EU steps up efforts to limit China’s ‘expansionist practices’ into Europe.
The EU also announced an unprecedented effort to block China’s subsidies to exporters the same day China allowed the dispute to lapse.
The EU is also likely to unveil a proposal to protect European companies from Chinese takeovers. China has decided to drop the matter after the WTO rejected the claim that Beijing’s 2001 agreement to join WTO automatically granted it the right to be treated as a market economy.
This means that the EU can even continue to impose higher duties on under-priced Chinese imports on a case-by-case basis. In fact, the United States and the EU do not consider Chinese prices reliable.
Govt to lay off unnecessary govt staffers
The government is making preparations to lay off government employees to deal with the looming financial crisis posed by the coronavirus pandemic in the country.
The homework is being done to reduce the unnecessary expenditures incurred in administrative and unproductive sectors.
The government has decided to implement the report submitted by the Public Expenditure Review Commission led by Economist Dilli Raj Khanal to this effect.
This preparation has been done to take forward the development works and economic activities hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
The government in its budget speech had expressed commitment to implement the commission’s report.
(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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