TUSKER DHRUBE SHOT AND WOUNDED AROUND TIGER TOPS IN CHTWAN Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: A male elephant named Dhurbe which killed a couple at Madi of Chitwan recently and has been panicking locals fled after receiving nine gun shots on Wednesday evening, RSS reports from Chitwan.. Notorious killer Dhrube was shot for nine to ten times from near Tiger Tops area of the Chitwan National Park. Keeping in account further rage and rampage of the elephant, high level of security has been maintained in the area. Earlier, a female elephant was left in a bid to lure and lull the rowdy Dhurbe. nnnn GUNA AIR, AGNI IN FINANCIAL TROUBLE Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Cash-strapped Guna Airlines has put up its entire assets on sale after failing to raise enough cash to repay its bank loans. The carrier owes around Rs 230 million, Mukul Humagain and Sangam Prasai write in The Kathmandu Post.The owner of the airline, Guna Group, suffered massive losses on its housing ventures after real estate prices plunged. With creditors on its heels, it has planned to sell the airline to raise cash to pay them off. Rajendra Shakya, executive chairman of Guna Airlines, has planned to sell the company at around Rs 550 million. “We are currently in discussion with three prospective buyers who are from the travel agencies,” said Shakya. “If we fail to get the expected price for our entire assets, we will only sell the aircraft.” A few years ago, Guna had sold one of its aircraft to Canada-based company at Rs 220 million. Established in 2009, Guna Airlines has a fleet of two aircraft—Beechcraft 1900—which it bought from Buddha Air. On the other hand, Sudhir Basnet, chairman of Agni Air is now mulling to bring the airline back into operation after his attempts to sale the company ended in failure. Basnet, who also owns Oriental group, had earlier planned to sell its assets to repay bank loans. Basnet estimates Rs 30 million will be enough to get the airline off the ground. “We can put all four of our aircraft into operation if we manage the amount,” Basnet said, adding that the airline’s operation would put the company in a position to manage a daily cash flow of Rs 1.5 million. Started in 2006, Agni Air has five aircraft—three Jetstream 41 and two Dornier. However, of all the aircraft only one Dornier is in airworthy condition. The rest of the aircraft have remained grounded due to technical glitches. Both, Agni and Guna landed in trouble due to their promoters’ overexposure to realty business. Basnet and Shakya are the major players of domestic realty business that is currently going through a recession. The slowdown in the realty sector strangulated the groups’ cash flow, making a knock-on effect on their airline business. Basnet is grappling with multiple crisis as a majority of his housing projects are still incomplete, blocking the group’s cash flow. Although the airline made a profit in the last fiscal year, it could not escape from promoter’s liabilities in other sectors. Several companies including Yeti Airlines Domestic and Swift Air Nepal had shown interest to acquire the beleaguered carrier, according to bankers that had provided loans to Agni Air. Although the promoters had priced the airline at Rs 800-900 million, the best price they got was Rs 600-650 million. Agni Air had initially priced its entire property and aircraft at Rs 1 billion. A consortium consisting of Grand Bank, Sunrise Bank and International Leasing and Finance Company have lent Rs 650 million to Agni Air. The airline not only owes huge amounts in bank loans, but it has not also paid its staff and landing and parking charges to the airport authority. Basnet claimed that his group owes Rs 2.50 billion in loans and added that around Rs 400 million is required to settle the ongoing problem. In the case of Shakya, his group owes Rs 1.09 billion in loans. “Our problem is only in cooperative,” Shakya said. The problem emerged after the merger of Guna’s seven cooperatives, according to him. “As all depositors asked for refund at once subsequently after merger, we could not manage enough funds to pay them,” Shakya added. However, he insists there were no problem in housing and other businesses. A few months ago, Shakya had reduced his loan liabilities to some extent by selling his shares in Kist Bank. He claimed that he has already paid loans of Rs 1.04 billion in the current fiscal year. He said that he was compelled to sell apartments at reduced price to generate resources. Due to the problem, Agni Air saw its passenger carriage fall 19.11 percent in the first six months of 2012. Similarly, Guna Airlines saw its passenger movement drop by 77.30 percent in the first half of 2012 compared to the corresponding period last year. Guna aircraft were grounded in April and May for regular maintenance, resulting in heavy losses in passenger movement. nnnn HUNDREDS OF TRUCTS STRANDED IN INDIA Kathmandu, 20 Dec.: Hundreds of trucks loaded with goods and bound for Nepal are stranded in Bihar, India, for the past several days after the sales tax department debarred them from entering Nepal, BHusan yadav Writes in The Kathmandu Post from Birgunj.. Traders said they have not been informed of the matter by the tax department in Bihar. They said Nepal-bound trucks from Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Mumbai, Assam and Rajasthan have been stranded in several check points in India, including Jalalpur, Karmanasa, Rajauli and Dovi. An importer from Adarsanagar, Birgunj, said he had loaded a truck in New Delhi 20 days ago. It was supposed to arrive in Nepal within three days. However, this never happened. The Raxual Transport Association has said goods that were imported under the ‘local import category’ without following the ARE 1 process have been blocked. The ARE 1 system was introduced after the scrapping of the Duty Refund Procedure (DRP) last March. Secretary of the Raxual Transport Association Lal Babu Thakur said around 1,000 trucks bound for Nepal have been stranded in Bihar points. He added that such a problem was never seen earlier. Under the ARE 1 system, the excise duty is not imposed in India on the goods exported to Nepal. Earlier, India used to impose the excise duty on goods exported to India, which Nepal would get back under the DRP system. Local import means the import of goods from India and China without opening the letter of credit. According to Birgunj Customs Office, 70-80 percent of the goods imported from India come to Nepal under the local import system. President of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ashok Temani said the department has been creating unnecessary hassles for importers by stopping the consignment. “We have not been informed of the reasons for the consignment being stopped.” According to him, they have written to the Consulate General Office to look into the problem. The office, which has been set up to facilitate and simplify bilateral trade, however, has not responded although the letter was dispatched six days ago. Traders have been hit hard as they have invested a lot of money in importing goods. “The banks’ interest is increasing,” Temani said. The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies has also been informed of the problem. Under the Nepal-India trade treaty, raw materials for Hindustan lever, Colgate, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and cosmetics used to be imported without any hindrance from different states of India via Bihar. For the past few days, the tax department has been stopping goods worth up to IRs 25,000. Two months ago, the department officials had halted trucks carrying goods. Nnnn