Millions stolen from HBL through debit card fraud

KATHMANDU, JAN 04 - 2012

Millions of rupees have been stolen from the accounts of depositors at Himalayan Bank Limited (HBL) through fraudulent use of debit cards . The bank has blocked all operations of its debit cards for the time being after the thefts were revealed.

HBL CEO Ashoke Rana said that debit card transactions had been blocked to secure depositors from such unauthorised activities by upgrading the entire

security system.  According to him, the money was withdrawn last week from New Delhi. “We have initiated an investigation after an accountholder complained,” added Rana.

A director of the bank said the unauthorised withdrawal amounts to less than Rs 4 million. The bank has suspected the hand of a fugitive former employee in the debit card fraud.  He added that HBL debit cards could be unusable for the next two weeks.

The central bank has also said that they had been informed about the fraud verbally. “We have asked HBL to provide details of the incident,” said Nepal Rastra Bank spokesperson Bhaskarmani Gnawali.

The bank said that it was now seeking to improve its security system by introducing Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which will block any hacking attempt on bank accounts.

The PCI DSS is a proprietary information security standard for organizations that handle cardholder information for major debit, credit, prepaid, e-purse and POS cards. According HBL CEO Rana, the central bank has also directed banks to go for such a system.

Meanwhile, in a notice published on Thursday, HBL has asked its debit card holders to contact their respective branches to replace the existing pin mailer with a new one for SCT and Master Debit Cards.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

NEA team leaves for India to discuss power purchase deal

KATHMANDU, JAN 03 - 2012

A high-level team from the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has left for India to negotiate another power purchase deal for next year.

The delegation is led by NEA managing director Rameshwor Yadav and includes Bhuwan Chettri, chief of the Load Dispatch Centre, Rajeshwor Man Sulpiya, general manager of the Transmission and System Operation Division, and Ganesh Prashad Raj, general manager of the Grid Development Division.

The NEA team has left for New Delhi  a month after it agreed to export another 70 MW. Including this amount, Nepal’s total energy imports from India come to 180 MW.

NEA spokesperson Sher Singh Bhat said that during his recent visit to India, the Indian government had agreed to supply as much energy as possible from points in Bihar state. Nepal imports energy from six points in Bihar. Bhat added that, except for the Siraha point, all the other five points were receiving energy to their full capacity.

“This visit led by the managing director holds no significance as India has recently approved the NEA’s proposal for additional energy,” said an NEA official who was a member of Bhat’s delegation. He added that it was useless negotiating for additional energy for next year when the country was presently suffering an energy crisis.

The official also claimed that even if India approves the request of the MD’s team for more energy, it wouldn’t be of much use as the existing cross-border transmission lines do not have the capacity to transport more electricity to Nepal.

Since the Energy Ministry and the NEA have failed to adopt strong measures to lessen the power crisis, the country is expected to face some 19 hours of load-shedding daily during the peak demand season.

NEA officials said that they had been surprised by the visit to India of the high-level team as its agenda had not been discussed with them. “We have not been told why the MD has left for India,” said a high NEA official, “Even if he has left for India to negotiate a power deal, it is not of current relevance. What is relevant presently is reducing the growing load-shedding this year.”

The MD’s team is scheduled to hold meetings with officials from Power Trading Corporation of India (PTC) and Power Grid India during the visit.

Though PTC has already agreed to provide an additional 150 MW to Nepal, the NEA has not been able to bring it to Nepal for lack of high-voltage transmission lines. The delegation is also scheduled to discuss speeding up work on the construction of cross-border transmission lines to ease power trading between the two countries.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

Interest in portfolio management rises

KATHMANDU, JAN 03, 2012

The bull run in stock market has stimulated portfolio management services offered by merchant bankers.

Anyone who wants to cash in on the ups and downs of the share market but does not have the expertise or time to invest in stock trading can obtain the services of a portfolio management company. Portfolio managers purchase and sell securities on behalf of their clients and manage their investment portfolio.

“The number of clients with us has increased as professionals who do not have the time to devote in investment but want to make money from the capital market have recognised the usefulness of having a professional manage their portfolio,” pointed out chief executive of Nabil Investment Pravin Raman Parajuli. Nabil Investment offers portfolio management services.

Among the 14 merchant bankers licensed by Sebon, 11 have been granted licence to operate as portfolio managers. Among them, only three are involved in providing portfolio management services. Nabil Investment, Beed Invest and Vibor Capital are the only merchant bankers that are managing the funds of their clients.

Beed Invest had started its portfolio management service in 2009. However, since the market was already headed south, many did not consider investing in stocks and in the last four years merchant bankers were not pushing for portfolio management service.

“A large number of people are not aware that portfolio management services that professionally manage their investment are available, but lately professionals with disposable wealth are opting for the services instead of putting the money in fixed deposits,” added Parajuli.

Portfolio Management Directive requires that portfolio managers only take up clients who can invest a minimum of Rs 300,000. They are allowed to purchase and

sell securities on behalf of their clients and settle the funds as well. They will also be acting as consultants regarding the sale or purchase of securities. Moreover, portfolio management is supposed to facilitate Non Resident Nepalis interested in investing in the Nepali secondary market.

As the stock market has once again started its bullish run, share prices have appreciated phenomenally making the capital market attractive once again.

“No other investment instrument provides returns as high as that of bullish share prices, so people are gaining interest in shares,” said share analyst Rabindra Bhattarai.

Source: THT

Nepal Sbi Bank Limited is issuing Rs 80 Million Reedemable 8% "NSBL Debenture 2079".

Issuance of "8% NSBL Debentures-2079" of Rs 80 million to general public.

The Bank has published Announcement Notice for the issuance of "8% NSBL Debentures-2079" amounting Rs.40 crores. Out of the total Rs.40 crores, Rs.32 crores shall be issued on private placement basis and Rs.8 crores shall be issued to the General Public through public offering.

Issue Open Date:                                          08.01.2013 (24.09.2069 BS)
Issue Closure Date (earliest):                      11.01.2013 (27.09.2069 BS)
Issue Closure Date (latest):                         22.01.2013 (09.10.2069 BS)

Details were published in Abhiyan National daily and prospectus published for the issue. Bank's Announcement Notice dated 01.01.2013 (17.09.2069 BS)

Ahwan Patra (Detailed Information)

Siddhartha Capital Limited is distributing 50 million units of (Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme-1) Certificate

Siddhartha Capital Limited is distributing 50 million units of (Siddhartha Investment Growth Scheme-1) Certificate worth Rs 500 million of Rs 10 face value to its applicants from today (16th Poush, 2069).

The information of distribution can be viewed here

Nijgadh airport, Tarai Fast Track to be taken forward together

KATHMANDU, JAN 01, 2012

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Post Bahadur Bogati on Monday said that development of two mega projects—Second International Airport (SIA) in Nijgadh, Bara and Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track—would be pushed ahead side by side.

Speaking at the 14th anniversary of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) here, Bogati said that his ministry was currently discussing the SIA with the Investment Board (IB).

The SIA project, which has been in cold storage for the past 22 months, has regained government attention. The IB, which is looking after the project, has planned to open global bidding for its construction, said IB sources. There are plans to call bids within the next three to six months.

Similarly, three Indian companies have been shortlisted for the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track project. The three companies are Reliance Infrastructure, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and Larsen and Turbo (L&T) Infrastructure Development Project.

Meanwhile, Minister Bogati said that the government was doing its best to develop the much-delayed regional international airport in Pokhara. He urged all the stakeholders not to over-politicise the issue. The proposed airport in Pokhara has not moved forward despite the efforts of the government to implement it.

On Feb 9, CAAN invited bids to build the project under the EPC model, but controversy arose after the lowest quote it received was 85 percent higher than the government estimate.

Ranjan Krishna Aryal, joint secretary at the ministry, said that state policy was unclear on development of airports in Nepal. A number of airports have been planned across the country without doing a proper business study. “There is a need for a balanced airport policy to determine where it is needed the most.”

CAAN director general Tri Ratna Manandhar said that the government had planned to construct seven new domestic airports. Among them, the ministry has approved the plan to build an airport at Sukilumba in Ilam, he added.

Similarly, plans to build airports at Gaighat, Udaypur, Shey Phoksundo in Upper Dolpa and Jamdaha in Siraha are at the evaluation phase. Likewise, planning has begun on airport projects in the Makalu Barun Valley and Arghakhanchi.

Manandhar said that the design estimate to upgrade Gautam Buddha Airport to a regional international airport had been finalised, and that a call for bids would be made. The CAAN, which has racked up accumulated losses of Rs 1.15 billion since its establishment, made a net profit of Rs 742 million in the previous fiscal year.

CAAN’s projected net profit in the last fiscal year stands at Rs 1.09 billion and accumulated profit at Rs 683 million. In the first 10 months of 2012, Tribhuvan International Airport handled 3.68 million travellers (2.36 million international and 1.31 million domestic).

Meanwhile, CAAN has honoured Buddha Air among domestic carriers and Qatar Airways among international carriers for their top performance in the Nepali aviation industry.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

SASEC Information Highway Project: Govt prepares to sign contract with South Korean company

KATHMANDU, DEC 31 - 2012

The government gearing up to sign a contract with South Korea’s ICRAFT Company for the execution of the South Asian Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Information Highway Project.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB)-supported project will link Nepal with India, Bangladesh and Bhutan through an optical fibre network.

The Ministry of Information and Communications issued a letter of acceptance (LoA) to the Korean firm on December 25.

In a tender invited by the ministry, ICRAFT had quoted the lowest bid of $ 1.94 million for the project. Two Chinese firms—Anhui Communications Services and ZTE Communication—had quoted $3 million and $3.51 million, respectively. Another Chinese firm Sichuan Qingfeng Communications had also proposed to undertake the project, but its proposal was rejected during preliminary evaluation as its bid security validity period was not sufficient.

Ministry officials said the work on the project will begin within the next month. “We have given a 28-day time to ICRAFT to submit performance bond and sign a contract,” said Sushil Ojha, spokesperson for the ministry.

The SASEC project has focused on three components—setting up cross-border regional connectivity with a backbone bandwidth capacity of 10 Gbps; making ICT accessibility in rural communities; and operating a resource and training centre. The project will open 30 community e-centres in rural areas, besides a research and training centre for development of ICT in the country.

The planned cross-country fibre link will help reduce the cost of using data and voice services. It is also seen as the best way to avoid dependency on satellite connections for communicating with countries around the world. As per the government target, the project is scheduled to be completed within the 8-10 months after the signing of the contract.

Under the project, the government will install an optical fibre link of more than 500km (skipping sections where fibre links have been laid by Nepal Telecom).

It will provide an alternate backbone route in Nepal for establishing cross-border connectivity through Cable Landing Station (CLS) in Rani, Biratnagar, by connecting to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) network in Jogbani, India, and another CLS in Birgunj connected to Raxaul, India.

About seven months ago, Nepal Telecom, on behalf of the government, had signed a contract with BSNL, Bangladesh Telecom Company and Bhutan Telecom to establish bilateral interconnections by building a fibre link. As per the government’s decision, the ministry will implement the project and hand it over to Nepal Telecom for operation and maintenance.

Source: The Kathmandu Post

Shortage, smuggling and record price for Gold

KATHMANDU, Dec 31, 2012

Customers of gold in 2012 had to suffer from various problems due to anomalies that crept into the country´s bullion market and impacts of global economic instability.

First, the price of gold remained too volatile and continued to break past records consistently, making life difficult for general public.

When the year 2012 began, the market had opened with gold priced at Rs 44,840 per ten grams (Rs 52,300 per tola). But as euro zone´s debt crisis and upheavals in global currency market drove investors to safe haven, gold price soon rallied with intermittent downward spirals. By mid-June, the bullion traders were already announcing new records. The trend continued till the price hit an all-time high of Rs 53,025 per ten grams (Rs 61,850 per tola) on November 25.

By the time the year ended, gold was hovering at over Rs 50,000 per 10 grams. This mainly hurt middle and low-income groups, who, irrespective of the price, had to buy gold for marriage and other social events.

Secondly, the market continued to reel under acute scarcity of gold almost throughout the year, as government continued to cap its supply in a bid to discourage imports, something which was contributing to dent country´s trade gap and balance of payment.

Such demand-supply mismatch, meanwhile, brought in the third problem -- rise in smuggling of the yellow metal from two next-door neighbors - India and China. In the second half of the year, illicit import from China rose, as limited circulation of Indian Currency (IC) in the market prompted unscrupulous traders to smuggle it to India to get IC that has been selling for up to Rs 168 per IC 100 (Rs 8 higher than the official rate) in the informal currency market in Nepal.

“The scarcity had surfaced since the very beginning, but it deepened to a bitter level in the second half of 2012, inviting different anomalies such as smuggling and black marketeering of gold in domestic market,” Tej Ratna Shakya, president of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers Association (Negosida), told Republica.

Latest in the series of gold smuggling, police confiscated 9 kg of gold in Kavre along Araniko Highway on December 4 and 3 kg of gold was found unattended at Tatopani Customs on December 17.

Gold supplies remained limited to 15 kg a day through around a dozen commercial banks, whereas daily demand stood at average 30-35 kg over the year.
“Amid short supply of gold, smuggling of gold recorded first time from China after many years. However, gold smuggling from India is frequent for many years due to open border with our country,” said Shakya.

Deepening shortage of IC in domestic market led to smuggling of the precious metal to the southern neighbor to earn IC which has been pricier in black markets of bordering towns.

“Though gold price in Nepali markets is higher by Rs 800 per tola compared to India, traders are selling gold for IC to earn more from it through black marketeering. We saw such a unique trend in 2012,” said Shakya. According to him, the ever lingering deficit also encouraged black marketeering of gold, making the precious metal more expensive by around Rs 1,000 per tola in comparison to the price recorded in international bullion market.

He also complained that the mismanagement of gold available in the market also resulted in the shortage. Though the gold distribution directives envisage that importer banks have to distribute the gold from eight different places outside the capital, they are issuing gold to dealer in limited cities.

Though the government attempted to control gold import, putting a cap of 15 kg per day, average import during the first four months of the year 2012/13 was worth Rs 74.56 million a day, up from Rs 70.6 million a day recorded during the same period of 2011/12.

Source: Republica

Agro insurance to encourage lending in agriculture sector

KATHMANDU, Dec 31, 2012

The agriculture and livestock insurance regulation, that the Insurance Board is planning to introduce, will support in encouraging financial institutions finance more agro projects.

Despite Nepal being an agriculture based country, the portfolios of financial institutions contain a negligible amount of agro loans. The agriculture sector is considered risky for its dependence on weather conditions and similar uncontrollable factors.

Thus, the introduction

of agro-insurance service is expected to stimulate lending to the sector as banks will also be assured that loans will not go bad.

“The absence of proper insurance of crops, livestock and poultry has deterred financial institutions from financing agro projects,” said spokesperson of Nepal Rastra Bank Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali.

In the first four months of the current fiscal year, financial institutions lent Rs 32.4 billion under agriculture heading, which is a fraction of the total lending made by financial institutions during the period that stood at around Rs 844 billion.

“The existence of such insurance schemes that mitigate risks will encourage banks to finance agro projects,” he added.

The regulator of the insurance sector in the country — Insurance Board — is ready to introduce its Agriculture and Livestock Insurance Directive soon that will provide functional clarity for non-life insurance companies to insure crops, livestock and poultry business.

“To promote commercial agriculture, agro-insurance is a prerequisite,” said chairman of Insurance Board Prof Dr Fatta Bahadur KC.

The insurance regulator has completed a draft of the directive that will make it obligatory for non-life insurance companies to issue insurance policies on crops, poultry and livestock.

According to the directive, insurance companies can insure commercial crops, livestock and poultry. The regulator has also determined the insurance premium ranging from five per cent to seven per cent of the sum assured in case of indemnity depending on the nature of the policy.

“Agro-insurance facility is a national necessity for a country like ours which is dependent on agriculture sector, and we are hopeful that the new facility to be launched by Insurance Board will contribute to commercial farming,” said chairman Dr KC.

At present, there is no

Insurance Board-licensed insurance company that provides crop and livestock insurance.

Some of the microfinance institutions, agriculture cooperatives and financial Non Government Organisations (NGOs) have been providing insurance of crop and livestock as part of their credit plus programme to their beneficiaries.

However, the coverage

of these institutions is limited and they only provide insurance for amounts less than Rs 100,000.

In order to provide more financing to agriculture in order to further commercialise the sector, Nepal Rastra Bank has asked the commercial banks in the country to increase their lending to the agriculture and energy sectors to 10 per cent by mid-July 2014.

Source: THT