Kathmandu, June 12

Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has suggested the government to review the provision of ‘free visa, free ticket’ for foreign employment services.

“The provision of ‘free visa, free ticket’ for foreign job-seekers must be reviewed and a new criteria must be introduced,” said a study made by NRB.

Nepal has been sending workers to Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman under the ‘free visa, free ticket’ provision.

The study has also suggested that the government must maintain diplomatic agreements for foreign employment services with the governments of labour destinations. “It is necessary to properly manage and build the capacity of the staffers at the Department of Foreign Employment, establish necessary infrastructure and reduce the pressure of labour approval,” the report adds.

The study has urged the government to keep an eye on manpower agencies so that they adhere to the basic principles of foreign employment as stated by the country’s laws. It has also stated that manpower firms must maintain good governance and their institutional capacity must also be strengthened. “The manpower agencies are not registered as public limited companies but it is necessary that they practise good governance.”

The report has also mentioned that if a manpower company issues a fake contract letter to a worker, the concerned firm must be held liable for the loss that the worker faces.

The NRB study has also suggested that the manpower companies must be transparent regarding their income and expenses, must flow the actual information to the public, establish a board of directors, and ultimately convert to a public limited company.

The study has also urged the government to motivate and encourage foreign migrant workers to go for overseas jobs through genuine manpower companies. The government should also ask labourers going abroad to be aware of the hiring company in the destination, the report adds. “Looking at the current trend, one out of five workers who go abroad does so through illegal channels.”

The NRB study has also suggested the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security to classify and rate the manpower companies as per their performance.

“The government must rate the manpower firms in terms of number of workers sent, income of the manpower company, and the labour and financial condition of the hiring company that the concerned agency has sent workers to,” the report says. It has also urged the ministry to take into account the grievance handling procedure of the manpower company.

The study has suggested that if a company has a poor rating, it must be given one opportunity to improve and if it does not do so then its licence must be revoked.

Kathmandu, June 12

The meeting of the board of directors of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) – the national flag carrier – has approved the purchase of two 158-seater narrow-body Airbus-320 aircraft for the company on Monday.

The NAC management had recently forwarded a proposal for the purchase of the two narrow-body planes to the NAC board and it was approved by the board of directors, according to Rabindra Shrestha, spokesperson for NAC.

“We have been given a go-ahead by the board of directors to start the process of issuing a global tender to buy the aircraft.”

Earlier, NAC had formed a study committee to look into the feasibility of buying two narrow-body aircraft. The committee had submitted its final report in March, which stated that NAC could further enhance its services to foreign destinations with the new planes.

“We have a plan to acquire the two narrow-body Airbus planes before the end of 2019. We will soon publish a global tender for the purpose,” added Shrestha.

NAC already has two aircraft of the same make in its fleet.

Currently, NAC has been flying to New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai. After acquiring the new aircraft, NAC plans to add more destinations to its schedule.

“The study committee had suggested NAC that the demand for the national flag carrier had been gradually increasing and the corporation needed to add more aircraft to its fleet to maintain that momentum,” informed Shrestha.

Kathmandu, June 12

Stakeholders have suggested Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to bring an expansionary Monetary Policy for the fiscal year 2018-19 in the backdrop of the country facing the crunch of investment capital.

Citing that the country will require investment of over Rs 500 billion in the next fiscal year to meet its economic growth target of eight per cent, they said that an expansionary monetary policy will ensure supply of money in the market and control interest rates – both of which are crucial to achieving economic growth target and keeping inflation within the targeted 6.5 per cent rate.

“Amid lack of adequate investment funds, it will be tough for the government to achieve the targeted economic growth rate in 2018-19. In such a situation, the central bank should draft a monetary policy that is as expansionary as possible even if it adds to the inflationary pressure to some extent,” said Gyanendra Dhungana, president of Nepal Bankers Association (NBA), at an interaction programme organised by NRB today.

Meanwhile, Dhungana also asked the central bank to look into the possibility of scrapping the credit-to-core capital plus deposit (CCD) ratio limitation in the banking sector through the monetary policy citing that liquidity could be controlled even by maintaining the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR).

Other private sector representatives at the event urged NRB to addresses various lapses of the budget that have demoralised the business community through the monetary policy.

“Among others, the government’s policy to scrap VAT rebate system on different essential goods and the inability of the budget to ensure stability in interest rates in the banking sector are discouraging. The monetary policy should address these bottlenecks of doing business in Nepal,” said Shekhar Golchha, senior vice-president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Kamalesh Kumar Agrawal, vice-president of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC), said that the monetary policy should be expansionary and ensure production and supply of goods. Similarly, he also stressed on the need to limit interest rates on loans in banking sector within nine per cent, redefine productive and non-productive sectors and allow the use of high-denomination Indian currencies in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, Nara Bahadur Thapa, executive director of NRB, said that the monetary policy for 2018-19 will basically focus on accelerating the current economic growth momentum, narrowing down trade deficit, increasing the flow of loan to small and medium enterprises, controlling rising interest rate and increasing people’s access to financial services.

“The market is already witnessing inflationary pressure and it will likely increase in the next fiscal year. The monetary policy will be prepared by adopting cautious measures to control inflation,” said Thapa.