NEPA; TAKES ON INDIA IN NEHRU CUP Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Nepal takes on host India in its third outing in the Nehru Cup football tournament in New Delhi Tuesday. Nepal has lost two and India has won two matches in the tournament. Nepal lost of Maldives and African state Cameroon. Nnnn PM TO ADDRESS NATION TUESDAY AFTERNOON Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai addresses the nation Tuesday after completing one year in office and before leaving Wednesday to participate in the summit of non-aligned nations or NAM amid pressure of western governments, including United States not to attend, Foreign Minister Narayan Kazi Shrestha rejected pressures and said it was Nepal’s ‘sovereign decision;’ to participate or not in the Teheran summit and will attend as a founding member. The address is scheduled at three in the afternoon. Nnnn GOVT. MAY OPEN IRAQ, TROUBLED AGHANISTAN, LIBYA FOR NEPALI WORKERS Kathmandu, 28Aug.:: Bowing down to pressure from manpower agencies, the government is preparing to reopen war-torn Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya for Nepalis workers, Prabhakar Ghimere writes in Repblica.. A meeting of the Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB) on Monday has decided to explore the possibility of lifting the existing full or partial ban on Nepalis to those countries. Amid reports of Nepali workers visiting those countries through illegal and dangerous channels and pressure from manpower agencies, the board decided to hold talks with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) for assessing the security situation in those countries. "In view of a growing number of Nepali job-aspirants visiting those countries illegally via India, we have decided to open those countries for Nepali workers if we find the countries safe," Purna Chandra Bhattarai, director general of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) told Republica on Monday. The government had banned Iraq for Nepali workers in 2004 after a local Islamic group Ansar-al Sunna murdered 12 Nepali workers. Similarly, Afghanistan is open only for security workers to be employed through UN agencies, British and American embassies there. Last year, Nepal had repatriated around 2,000 workers from Libya during the civil war, which culminated in the overthrow of Libyan leader Colonel Gadhafi. Situation has yet to return to normal in post-Gadhafi Libya. Bhattarai, who is also the member of the board, also said a team comprising officials of the board, MoFA, the Ministry of Labor and Employment and officials of Nepali embassy in Pakistan, which is also overseeing Afghanistan, will visit the countries after MoFA agrees to the plan to open those countries for Nepali workers. Recruitment agencies say around 70,000 and 30,000 Nepalis are currently working in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively. However, the number of Nepalis still employed in Libya remains unknown. Bal Bahadur Tamang, the president of Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (MoFA), says the government should open Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan given the increasing number of Nepali workers visiting the countries through illegal channels. "If the countries are found secure for workers, then the govenrment should open them," said Tamang. India has already opened Iraq and Libya for Indian migrant workers so Nepali workers have been flying to those countries via India. The government has opened 108 countries for foreign employment. nnnn ________________________________________ NRB RESINDS DECISION TO RAR RETIRING OFFICIALS FROM TAKING BANK LOANS Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the banking sector regulator, is backtracking on its previous decision on barring board members, chief executives and high-ranking officials of banks and financial institutions (BFIs) from acquiring or renewing loans that could be used for commercial purpose, Rudra D.Sharma writes in Repblica.. Under the new provision, which the central bank is soon introducing, board directors, CEOs and management-level employees can fetch up to Rs 10 million in personal loan, apart from loans such as education, consumer, hire purchase and home, a high-ranking NRB official told Republica preferring anonymity as he is not authorized to talk to media. If board members - most of whom are investors in Nepal´s case - want more credit for business purpose, they can get it in the name of the company they are promoting, the source informed. “But this particular provision will not apply for chief executives and management-level staff members of BFIs,” the source said, adding, “A directive comprising the latest changes will be issued in a few days.” The central bank, on July 13, came up with a directive that prevented board directors, CEOs and management-level employees of BFIs from acquiring any loans, other than education, consumer, hire purchase and home, from any financial institution in the country. The directive also barred banks and financial institutions from renewing such loans. The instruction was given after the regulator detected involvement of these people in business activities, which often created conflict of interest due to their confusing dual role of lender and borrower. At the same time, the central bank also detected gross misuse of loans, like overdraft, extended to these people, who often used influence to acquire such credit. An NRB official had earlier told Republica that a huge chunk of this money was injected into the real estate sector, which was booming until two years ago. But after the realty business stagnated, many banks faced problems in recouping these loans, raising chances of these credit turning into bad debt. Although the bold instruction extended by the regulator in July was praised by those anticipating drastic reforms in the banking sector, bankers and promoters of BFIs had continued to exert pressure on the central bank to revisit its decision, as it forced them to either pay back the due credit in time or leave their posts in BFIs. “The central bank has now realized that the directive was a bit too harsh on board directors, CEOs and high-ranking employees of BFIs, as it prevented them from acquiring credit to fulfill family obligations like holding marriage events,” the NRB source said. “We hope the ceiling of Rs 10 million on personal loans would give them some breathing space and not feel dejected for joining BFIs.” Nnnn GOVT. TO MONITOR MARKET AHEAD OF FESTIVE SEASON AND RISE IN PRICES OF ESSENTIALS Kathmandu, 28 Aug.: The government is planning to monitor the stock of food items with stockists and wholesalers to control the price hike. Monitoring agencies will start monitoring ‘big fishes’ from tomorrow, said secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Lal Mani Joshi in an interaction here today [Monday[, The Himalayan Times reports. All monitoring agencies will work together, he said, adding that the team will take help from other agencies as and when required. Food prices have been rising since the last two months despite sufficient stock of rice, wheat, pulses, edible oils and sugar. The price of the commodities have risen by up to 30 per cent during the period. “It is due to black marketing, so the government will punish them according to the law,” he said. According to Joshi, the government will also use the intervention mechanism along with market monitoring. “State enterprises have sufficient stock of rice, wheat, pulses, edible oils and sugar, therefore we will be selling them in the market through strict monitoring,” he added. Officials of National Trading Corporation, Nepal Food Corporation, and Salt Trading Corporation echoed Joshi, saying they will start supplying significant quantities of rice, wheat, pulses, edible oils and sugar in the market. “We have sufficient stock and we will start selling food items from tomorrow,” said general manager of the food corporation Hari Narayan Saha. However, he did not disclose the amount. Similarly, National Trading and Salt Trading have promised to supply adequate amount of sugar. “We are importing 20,000 metric tonnes of sugar from India, so there will not be any sugar scarcity during the festival season,” said sales chief of Salt Trading Corporation Bhagawati Rana. The major festivals — Dashain and Tihar — fall in September-November. The demand for sugar increases significantly during the period, especially in Tihar — the festival of sweets and lights. Meat is the major consumed item during Dashain. Retailers said that there do not have any role in hiking the price of food items. “There is a significant price hike in the market, but retailers do not have any role in it,” claimed president of Retailers Association Nepal Pavitra Bajracharya. Retailers sell goods to consumers at a profit of five per cent to 10 per cent, he said, adding that the price hike cannot be controlled without market intervention. He asked the government to maintain at least 10 per cent stock of essential food items to intervene in the market in times of crisis. Without adequate supply of items whose prices have been hiked, prices will not fall. According to him, the government should promote a system of selling directly to retailers to control the price. The state enterprises must apply this method to control price, added Bajracharya. Nnnn MEDIA GOOGLE :”Firstly, trying to merge TRC and CID [commission on inquiry of disappeared] , which were envisioned separately so as to ease delivery of transitional justice, is questionable. Secondly, the move is unilateral on the part of the government and its motive is doubtful. The government, it seems, is trying to eschew responsibility of providing justice to the victims. The ordinance bid squarely means the government wants to grant blanket amnesty to the perpetrators.” (Charan Parsai, Chairman of Joint Forum of Human Rights, The Himalayan Times reports, 28 Aug.) nnnn”