Views of a Nepali Economist

Cottage Industry Development Committee (CIDC) will implement the programs in Tanahun, Baglung, Syangja, Solukhumbu, Illam, Taplejung, Rukum, Dhankuta, Darchula and Bajhang.

Federation of Nepal Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI) will execute it in Morang, Siraha, Saptari, Dhanusha, Bara, Makawanpur, Palpa, Kailali, Nawalparasi and Kanchanpur.

Bishal Chemical Industries, Samyam Enterprises and Bishal Jarda Factory...together evaded Rs 290 million in VAT, excise duty and income tax.

...as existing laws imposes 200 percent penalty for such evasion, the department has slapped penalty of Rs 580 million for the three firms.

Minister for Environment, Sunil Kumar Manandhar said the government was going to ban the use of plastic bags of less than 20 micron in the country to be effective from the next week.

The offenders will be fined between Rs. 500 to Rs. 50,000

...number of Nepalis leaving the country for overseas jobs increased by 52.15 percent, to 45,165 from mid-July to mid-August compared to the figure of the same period last year...A total of 29,685 Nepalis had gone abroad for jobs during that period last year.

Among last month's migrant workers, the number of male and female migrants was 43,163 and 2,002 respectively.

Qatar remained top host for Nepali job seekers, accepting 15,702 workers compared to other countries Malaysia (9671), Saudi Arabia (8538), United Arab Emirate (6873) and Kuwait (2088)

Cooperatives are holding deposits of Rs 150 billion as of the last fiscal year, up from Rs 70 billion a year ago, according to the Department of Cooperatives.

Their lending grew to Rs 105 billion last year from Rs 43.46 billion in the previous year.

Saving and credit cooperatives are the biggest receivers of public deposits. As of mid-March, such cooperatives held Rs 97.49 billion, while total deposits in all types of cooperatives stood at Rs 130 billion.

There are a total of 22,646 cooperatives in the country, of which 10,558 are saving and credit, 4,096 multipurpose, 3,144 agriculture, 1,748 dairy and 1,379 consumer. Likewise, there are 371 cooperatives in electricity production, 161 in vegetable and fruits production, 104 in tea production, 67 in coffee production, 61 in health sector, 51 in honey production, 73 in herbal production and 833 in other categories.

DoC statistics show that 2,922 new cooperatives were registered last year.

Price to earning ratio (PE ratio)...one of the major investment indicators of the stock market...is calculated by dividing share price by per share earning.

Stock analysts say an average PE ratio of 15 is justifiable for commercial banks.

...the PE ratio came down sharply over the last year along with the freefall in the stock market.

Currently, Nepal Investment Bank, Agriculture Development Bank, Nepal Bangladesh Bank and Lumbini Bank have PE ratios less than 10.

A majority of the 17 banks that published financial results of the last fiscal year saw their PE ratio standing between 10 and 20. This is a sharp fall compared to the previous year when the ratio was above 20. Last year, Machhapuchhre Bank’s PE ratio was as high as 56.90 followed by Global Bank with 52.48. Now, Global’s ratio has come down to 13.85. The Standard Chartered’s ratio came down to 25.92 from 42.23. Other banks witnessing PE ratio above 20 are DCBL Bank and Citizens Bank International.

Daily operations of these banks have been affected for the last few weeks due to strikes called by the trade union affiliated to the Nepali Congress (NC)

In both banks, reforms measures have been carried out with foreign aid. RBB is under the reform process as per the World Bank-sponsored Financial Sector Reform Programme, while Asian Development Bank has aided the reforms in ADBL.

Although the financial sector reform programme will end in December, RBB will still remain as a sick bank with negative net worth of billions of rupees.

The central bank has also failed to appoint a CEO in Nepal Bank Limited for the last four years even after five attempts. Currently, NRB’s own management team is running the oldest bank of the country.

Labels: ADBL, cooperatives, evasion, interbank lending, microfinance, migration, RBB, remittance, stock market, VAT

# posted by Mukesh Khanal @ 2:57 PM