WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 207 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 34.0 C 14.5 C Saturday, September 19, 2020 | 03-06-2077 Dipayal Jomsom With festival season close, bank loans for imports halve, bankers’ data shows Low spending outlook around Dashain clearly suggests that Nepal’s economy, 82 percent of which is driven by consumption, will continue to slide, economists say. PRITHVI MAN SHRESTHA & SANGAM PRASAIN tees that a buyer’s payment to sellers KATHMANDU, SEPT 18 will be received on time and if the buyer is unable to make payment on In the first two months of the last fis- the purchase, the bank is required to cal year, NMB Bank had issued letters cover the due amount. of credit, or LCs in common usage, “Based on the issuance of L/C in worth Rs6.5 billion. During the same our bank and overall lending, I don’t period this fiscal year, it has issued think there will be as much consump- them worth just Rs3.5 billion. tion this Dashain as in the past years,” Most of the letters of credit issued said KC. in these two months are to import People consume more food during goods targeting Dashain and Tihar the festival season than at other times festivals, according to Sunil KC, the and they purchase new items includ- bank’s chief executive officer. ing garments, footwear, electronic In normal times this is also the peri- goods and automobiles, according to od the country’s commercial banks economists. would be busy issuing loans particu- The Nepal Automobile Dealers’ larly for importing goods for con- Association auto show, held before sumption during the festivals. But Dashain every year, attracted 80,000 loans too have gone down in the face visitors and did business worth Rs5 of the Covid-19 pandemic. billion last year. But this year the POST PHOTO: DEEPAK KC Commercial banks have lent just show has been postponed because of A footballer in action as young players have a morning practice session after the government relaxed coronavirus restrictions, at Sano Gaucharan in Kathmandu. Rs21 billion during this period, down the Covid-19 pandemic and may be from Rs54 billion in the same period held in February, according to last fiscal year, according to Nepal Surendra Pradhan, chief of the Bankers’ Association. Association’s secretariat. Issuance of letters of credit Economist Keshav Acharya pre- and lending for imports grows just dicts that consumption of almost After semblance of peace in ruling party, Secretariat before Dashain assuming that people everything will go down this year due spend lavishly and consumption to two factors: reduced income of peo- grows several times compared to ple and reduced movement of people other times. compared to previous years. meeting set to move to Parisdanda from Baluwatar Letters of credit are bank guaran- >> Continued on page 2 There had been sharp criticism of the prime minister’s official residence, a public property, being used for holding meetings of a political party. Office space and meeting halls in Dhumbarahi are congested and there is no sufficient room to hold the meet- ing by maintaining social distance but there is enough space at Parisdanda, according to Shrestha. During the unification of the two parties, top leaders from both sides had agreed to use the UML’s central office as the new party’s central office and the Maoist headquarters in Parisdanda as the offices of the par- ty’s sister wings. As soon as Oli became the prime minister in February, 2018, the party held Standing Committee meetings and Secretariat meetings in Dhumbarahi. But after the Prime Minister became ill and went to Singapore for treatment in August last year, the meetings of the top party committees were convened in Baluwatar although one Central Committee and one Standing POST FILE PHOTO Committee meeting were held at Scheduling of the Parisdanda meeting follows Dahal assuming a bigger role in the party. Dhumbarahi. Most Cabinet meetings also have ANIL GIRI tion of party vice chair Bamdev been taking place at Baluwatar since KATHMANDU, SEPT 18 Gautam to the National Assembly and his return from Singapore but after the handover of party reins of Pushpa Prime Minister Oli had a second kid- Following growing criticism of the Kamal Dahal. ney transplant in March all Cabinet ruling Nepal Communist Party hold- Following the unification in 2018, meetings, party meetings and other ing its meetings at the Prime the meetings of the party used to be small gatherings that he attends have Minister’s official residence, the next held at Dhumbarahi, formerly the been taking place at Baluwatar. meeting of the party’s Secretariat headquarters of the CPN-UML, Oli has hardly visited his office scheduled for Monday will for the first although leaders from both sides had inside Singha Durbar after his kidney time be held at the party’s offices at agreed to use the properties of transplant. Parisdanda in Koteshwor. Parisdanda and Dhumbarahi for dif- The Prime Minister’s Office, which The Parisdanda property—which ferent purposes and call both places was relocated to a new building inside used to be the headquarters of the the party headquarters. Singha Durbar after the old office was erstwhile Communist Party of Nepal But of late, most of the meetings of damaged in the 2015 earthquake, does (Maoist Centre) until its unification the nine-member Secretariat and the not have enough space for Cabinet with the Communist Party of Nepal 44-member Standing Committee were meetings maintaining distance, one (UML) in May 2018 to form the Nepal held at the Prime Minister’s official secretary at the Prime Minister’s Communist Party (NCP)—now houses residence, which had been criticised office told the Post. the offices of the party’s sister organi- both within and outside the party. “Prime Minister Oli’s health is frag- sations. “This is a welcome step and this ile due to the recent kidney transplant “Holding the meeting at Parisdanda should be given continuity,” said Bhim and the most important reason is gives a message that party unification Rawal, a standing committee member Covid-19,” said a ruling party leader is being strengthened,” said a who had been demanding that party close to Oli. “Therefore, he has to take Standing Committee meeting who did meetings be held outside Baluwatar. extra caution while meeting with peo- not want to be named. “To run the party in a system with ple and cannot frequently move out- The Secretariat meeting comes institutional memory and other rea- side Baluwatar.” after the rift in the party has nar- sons, party meetings should be held in Given the mandatory health proto- rowed following an abrupt end to the the party office.” cols, party meetings are taking place long drawn out Standing Committee The decision to hold the Secretariat at Baluwatar, he said. meeting. Tensions ran high when the meeting at Parisdanda was taken in Despite the situation and Oli’s rival faction demanded the resigna- view of the criticism the party had health, the practice of holding party tion of Prime Minister KP Sharma been facing for holding various meet- meetings at Baluwatar has drawn crit- Oli, but peace seems to have returned ings inside the Prime Minister’s offi- icism. to the ruling party with the nomina- cial residence, according to party “Holding party meetings inside the spokesman Narayan Kaji Prime Minister’s residence was total- Shrestha. ly a wrong practice,” said Chandi The Secretariat meeting was Shrestha, a former home secretary. supposed to be held at Parisdanda “Holding Cabinet meetings is fine due on Friday but due to the busy to his health. The Prime Minister’s schedule of Prime Minister KP official residence is a public property Sharma Oli, it was deferred till and the Prime Minister is of the coun- Monday. try, not of a political party. Therefore, “The decision to hold the in general practice, party meetings meeting at Parisdada was taken should be held in the party office, not by Oli and another chairman, at the Prime Minister’s residence. The Pushpa Kamal Dahal during official residence is not a place for hold- their meeting on Thursday,” said ing family parties or party meetings.” Shrestha. >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2020 | 02 NATIONAL Unnecessary road projects in rural areas of Baglung are causing floods and landslides The Infrastructure Development Office opened two new tracks in the last month of the last fiscal year to avoid budget freeze, say local residents. PRAKASH BARAL settlements never experienced such slides in the area. “The settlement is BAGLUNG, SEPT 18 deadly landslides in the past. But this at high risk of monsoon-related disas- year, almost all villages are at risk of ters. The municipality’s budget is not Unplanned construction of rural being swept away,” said Bhadrakala enough to control floods or relocate roads in Jaimini Municipality Ward Acharya, a 68-year-old of Ward No 1. the settlement. We have already No 1, Baglung, has exposed several The Infrastructure Development informed the provincial government settlements in the municipality at Office had allocated Rs 7 million each about it,” said Mayor Indraraj Paudel. high risk of floods and landslides. The for the Dandakhet-Bhairavsthan and Meanwhile, in Parbat, the whole need to spend the allocated budget Githe-Deurali rural road projects in Mudikuwa settlement in Phalebas under infrastructure development the last fiscal year. The tracks were Municipality Ward No 4 is at high risk before the end of the fiscal year saw opened hurriedly but additional infra- of landslide.