KHAGENDRA THAPA,PREDECESSOR OF DANGI NOW'S WORLD'S SHORTEST MAN SAYS HE'S HAPPY

FORMER SHORTEST MAN CONGRATULATES HIS NEPALI SUCCESSOR

Kathmandu, 27 Feb.: Khagendra Thapa, who once held a record as the world’s shortest person, said he’s happy Chandra Bahadur Dangi is now recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘world’s shortest person ever recorded’.
Dangi , 72, who hails from Dang measured 2.5 inches in the capital Sunday.
‘I don’t have his number. I’ll get it and congratulate him,” Thapa
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ONE PERSON OF ANOTHER MARRIAGE PARTY KILLED IN TRACTOR ACCIDENT

Kathmandu, 27 Feb.: One person of another wedding party died when a tractor overturned Mainapokhari in Bardiya Sunday.
The driver was drunk.
A bride and her three friends died in the far-West in another tractor accident; the tractor was ferrying a wedding party to the bride’s new home.
Vehicular accidents have been regular in the current wedding season.
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GOVT.ENTERPRISE HIDC EARNS INTEREST BUT NOT THROUGH INVESTMENT IN POWER SECTOR
Kathmandu, 27 Feb:Hydroelectricity Invest-ment and Development Company (HIDC) has been earning interest on its capital amounting to more than Rs 5 billion instead of using it to finance hydropower projects as it has not received the go-ahead from Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Bibek Subedi writes in The Kathmandu Post..
Rs 5.68 billion out of its paid-up capital of Rs 6 billion has been deposited in fixed deposits in 19 commercial banks while the rest of the money has been deposited in the central bank. “We have earned interest amounting to around Rs 400 million by depositing our money in various banks,” said Ejendra Prasad Luitel, coordinator of the company’s management team. “The money was deposited for a period of six months until the company could begin work after getting the central bank’s approval.”
HIDC is in the final stages of completing the paperwork which entails submitting its investment and recovery policy, resource collection guidelines and financial and purchase guidelines to the central bank.
“Fulbright Consultancy, which has been assigned to prepare the documents, will be presenting the final documents within this week; and we will submit them to NRB within mid-March,” said Luitel, who was deputed by the central bank to head the company temporarily. “NRB will not take much time to give its approval after that.”
HIDC plans to call hydropower developers to apply for funds for their projects after it comes into operation when it gets the central bank’s approval. “A few projects have already requested us for capital,” said Luitel. “We have told them that we will look at their proposal after the central bank gives the okay to do business.”
It has been seven months since HIDC was established, and it is yet to get its chief executive officer, preventing it from moving ahead at full speed. The company’s day-to-day affairs are being handled by a management team, which is a temporary mechanism.
Against this backdrop, HIDC first deposited its money for a six-month period in fixed deposit accounts in diverse banks. With most of the deposits maturing, it has planned to extend them for another six months as it looks like it will be a while before it starts financing hydro projects.
According to HIDC, Citizens Investment Trust and Rastriya Beema Sansthan are also putting Rs 100 million and Rs 200 million respectively in the company, although they had initially promised to invest Rs 1 billion each. This means the company will have to invest in more fixed deposits.
“We are now negotiating with three banks to renew our deposits for an additional six months,” said Luitel. “We will ask other banks to quote new interest rates to renew the deposits. He added that the company would withdraw its funds from banks which quote less than its minimum demand.
According to HIDC officials, banks have not been offering more than 8 percent although it had been earning 12 percent interest on its existing deposits. Banks have been attempting to keep the interest rate as low as possible with the financial system awash in liquidity amid a suppressed credit demand.
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CMBF, BORROWERS SIGN PACT ON LOAN REPAYMENT
Kathmandu, 27 Feb.: Capital Merchant Banking and Finance (CMBF) and its large borrowers who have received loans without following banking norms have signed an eight-point agreement clearing the way for repayment of credit
worth Rs 2.58 billion, Prithvi Man Shrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post.

The accord has been sent to Nepal Rastra Bank for its approval. The pact will come into force after the central bank approves it.
CMBF got into trouble after the borrowers, who are relatives of managing director Pawan Karki, defaulted on the loans. The company issued more loans in their names even after Karki flew to the US leaving his father-in-law Shambhu Bahadur KC to head it.
Karki’s relatives have claimed that they never received any of the money they are supposed to have borrowed, and that all of it was used by him. As per the agreement, the relatives have formed a group which will sell off the assets put up as collateral and repay the loans. Their loans amount to Rs 2.58 billion out of the total credit issue of Rs 3 billion made by CMBF.
The company’s current managing director Mahendra Nath Karmacharya said that it was a great achievement for the company that the borrowers have accepted that they are responsible for repaying the loans. “Earlier, they were reluctant to admit that they were the real loanees claiming that they hadn’t used the money,” he added.
As per agreement, the loanees will first deposit Rs 100 million on the day the agreement is implemented after the central bank’s approval. Then the loanees have committed to pay at least Rs 70 million monthly and repay the entire amount within the next one and half years.
As the collateral is not sufficient to cover the amount of the loan, the agreement says that the loanees should ensure additional income from the collateral.
According to the finance company, the estimated value of the entire collateral is short by Rs 1 billion against the loan amount that went to the loanees of the basket. According to the loanees, 1,200 ropanis of land in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and Kavre have been put up as collateral.
The cleverness of the immediate leadership of the finance company is revealed by the fact that none of the loanees in the basket has put up their own parental property as collateral for the loan of such a large scale. “The lands that were put up as collateral are not any of our parental properties,” said Baldev KC, chairman of the team of the loanees signing the agreement. “These lands were purchased in our names with loans from the finance company itself.”
As per the agreement, the loanees have also committed that they will give additional collateral for clearing all the loans provided the existing collateral is inadequate.
However, KC said that they have requested the finance ministry and NRB to consider their appeal that they should not be told to pay beyond the coverage of the loans by the collateral as they didn’t use the loans.
The chief fraudster, Karki, is still in the US, and Interpol has issued a diffusion notice in his name. KC said he was in communication with them during the Dashain festival and had expressed readiness to help in generating additional collateral to repay the loans.
The finance company said that it would be in a comfortable position even if the loans covered by the collateral are recovered partially. Karmacharya said that company would have fixed and movable assets worth Rs 3.2 billion with the payment of interest on the total loans and recovery of an estimated Rs 1.5 billion from the collateral put up by the loanees of the basket.
“Given that the company’s liabilities are worth just Rs 2.5 billion, we will be in a comfortable position and merging the company with any strong bank or financial institution will be better after that,” said Karmacharya. He also urged the central bank and other stakeholders to help the finance company to recover the amount.
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