UPDATE SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAMS REACH KALIKOT BUS ACCIDENT SITE Kathmandu, 11 Sept.:Search and rescue operation has started near Kalikot district headquarters where 28 persons were killed and 11 were injured in a bus accident overnight. Health team along with armyand police search and rescue teams have reached the accident. Th bus fell more than 200 meters off the Karnali Rajmarg into Tila River nnnn FDI THRESHOLD HIKED TO RS.5 BILLION Katthmandu, 11 Sept.: The government will not entertain foreign direct investment less than Rs 5 million henceforth. The Department of Industry (DoI) on Friday made the upward revision of the ceiling which was previously maintained at Rs 2 million,, Ashok Thapa writes in The Kathmandu Post.. The government move is aimed at ‘encouraging quality investment’. “We have seen many FDI projects with meager investment,” Dhruba Raj Rajbanshi, director general at DoI. “Such investment does not make a significant positive impact on industrial promotion and employment generation.” A DoI source said security concerns were also taken into consideration while taking the decision. “Given the possibility of foreigners carrying out unwanted activities in the name of bringing in foreign investment, we increased the ceiling,” he said. The department had been preparing to increase the minimum FDI threshold for the last few months after finding a huge number small-scale industries registered. The department said the new ceiling was fixed after consultations with the Ministry of Industry and the private sector. The department’s data show a downfall in FDI commitments despite an increase in the number of industrial units. Foreign investors had committed Rs 10.04 billion in 2010-11, which plunged to Rs 6.14 billion in 2011-12. But the number of the industries increased to 227 in 2011-12 — up from 209 in the previous year. The registration of big FDI ventures, particularly, plunged. “This record clearly shows the need for increasing the minimum FDI threshold,” said Rajbanshi, expressing optimism that the move will help bring large-scale investment. Industry Ministry officials said the new provision has also been included in the proposed Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act. “Once the act is in place, it will help strictly implement the sealing,” said Chabindra Parajuli, under secretary at the ministry. The private sector lauded the government move. Industrialist Rabi Bhakta Shrestha said the move would encourage serious investors to come to Nepal during the Nepal Investment Year. FDI commitments Small Medium Large FY Number/Investment Number/Investment Number/Investment 2007-08 114/935.89 12/511.48 13/6520.73 2008-09 125/928.98 14/878.07 11/3548.49 2009-10 148/1140.68 12/548.82 11/4710.54 2010-11 177/1596.38 17/951.61 15/7501.72 2011-12 203/1713.01 14/659.81 10/3768 Source: Department of Industry; figures in Rs million nnnn ADHIKARI, SHRESTHA DEBARRED FROM ATTENDING NBB BOARD MEETINGS Kathmandu, 11 Sept.: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has barred a current and a former board member of Nepal Bangladesh Bank (NBB) from sitting on the board of any bank or financial institution for the next three years for committing acts detrimental to it, The Kathmandu Post reports. Bishnu Raj Adhikari and ex-board member Laxmi Bahadur Shrestha, who recently resigned from the bank after the central bank moved against him, have been found guilty of causing loss to the bank while auctioning its non-banking assets (NBA). The central bank has also fined them Rs 500,000 each and ordered them to pay, within 35 days, compensation equivalent to the loss incurred by the bank. Following NRB’s decision, Adhikari has lost his position in the bank. The NRB Act 2002 allows the central bank to impose a fine up to the amount of the loss and order the bank’s board to remove the director involved in harming it. According to the central bank, Adhikari and Shrestha caused loss to the bank when auctioning land put up as collateral at Sanepa, Lalitpur where Padma Cinema Hall stands. An NRB official said that they decided to return the guarantee amount deposited by the sole bidder for the land, Rabindra Bahadur Singh, who refused to buy the land after winning the bid. Singh, former chairman of United Development Bank, is presently in jail for banking offences committed while he was its head. According to NRB, the guarantee amount should have been confiscated as per the existing law. Singh had offered Rs 46.7 million for the land. He had deposited a guarantee amount of Rs 4.67 million, which is 10 percent of the quoted amount, to participate in the bid. However, the bank’s credit sub-committee represented by Adhikari and Shrestha decided to the return the security deposit causing loss to the bank, NRB officials said. However, NBB chief executive officer Gyanendra Dhungana said that the decision to return the deposit was taken after the winning bidder Singh could not take possession of the land as the default borrower refused to vacate it. “In fact, there has not been any loss to the bank,” he added. Dhungana said that NBB has already written to its former directors to pay the amount as directed by the central bank. “As the amount is not very large, we hope to recover it soon,” he said. Last week, NBB issued another auction notice for the land. “There were three-four bidders who didn’t offer more than Rs 33 million,” said Dhungana. “We will not sell it for less than the price offered previously.” Meanwhile, the central bank has also issued written warnings to ex-chairman Pushpa Raj Rajkarnikar, who resigned with Shrestha recently, and public director Indra Bahadur Thapa for their involvement. nnnn