Revenue under VDIS  crosses Rs 160 million

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KATHMANDU, Jan 12 : The revenue collection out of Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) totalled over Rs 160 million with only one day now remaining for the deadline to expire.

The scheme that expires on Sunday was announced by the Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat during his budget presentation for the current fiscal year with promises that the sources of incomes voluntary disclosed would not be probed into.

The collection on Saturday despite being a holiday was greater than Friday, informed officials at the Internal Revenue Department. The government kept its offices and banks open on Saturday to accept the voluntarily disclosed taxes.

The government on Saturday alone collected over Rs 60 million. The collection on Friday was Rs 40 million. According to the Inland Revenue Department, a total of 850 individuals have disclosed their property worth Rs 1.6 billion that did not fall under the tax net earlier was disclosed since the announcement of the scheme.

Earlier, Inland Revenue Department had issued a notice to the individuals to voluntarily disclose their income at the rate of 10 per cent by January 13 if they fall under any one of the following four criteria – owning a house with more than 3,000 sq ft area or has been rented monthly for more than Rs 10,000, owns a minimum 700 cc private car, pays a minimum of Rs 24,000 as a telephone bill annually and is a member of a club whose annual membership fee exceeds Rs 10,000.

Stock trading blighted by confidence slide

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KATHMANDU, Jan 12: Blighted by the deepening gloom in the stock market due to continuous erosion of investors’ confidence, the Nepse Index declined for a fifth straight week slumping by 4.75 points in the four days of trading this week.

The Index that opened at 260.76 points on the first day of trading Monday settled low at 255.92 points at the close of trading Thursday. The stock market remained closed on Friday.

The Nepse indicator has been on the wane for over a month now primarily due to the dwindling confidence of investors. While the Index slumped by almost 9 points last week, it had dropped by over 6 points, 3 points and 6 points in the previous weeks.

The continuous slide in the investors’ barometer is due to the falling share prices of commercial banks that command a lion’s share in stock trading in the Nepse floor. Any fluctuation in the share prices of commercial banks, which brings down its own Index as well, is easily reflected in the overall index due to the weightage it carries.

On a group-wise manner, the Index of commercial banks continued to fall this week also. The Index of the group came down from 259.99 points to 252.24 points in the four-day trading. The group’s Index has been declining in the past weeks, dragging down the whole Nepse Index.

The commercial bank group’s index last week slumped by almost 14 points. The group’s Index had declined by almost 10 points in the previous week, while the drop was over 7 points and 8 points in the previous two weeks.

Similarly, according to information compiled and disseminated by Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), the Indices of hotels and insurance groups also went down from 236.83 points to 236.06 points and 302.47 to 301.34 points respectively.

The Indices of the manufacturing and processing, trading and other groups remained unchanged at 304.99 points, 105.39 points and 146.41 points respectively. This is the third week that the Index of the manufacturing and processing group remained constant at 304.99 points. This week though, the Index for the finance group surged marginally from 293.63 on Monday to 296.06 points at the close of trading late Thursday.

Despite a 7-plus points fall in the Index of commercial bank group’s Index, the trading on the floor of the stock exchange was as usual dominated by the group capturing over 88 per cent of the total trading.

The participation of the finance, insurance, hotel and trading groups remained at 6.36 per cent, 0.94 per cent, 4.28 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively. No shares of the manufacturing and processing and other groups were traded during the week, which is reflected by the unchanged Index.

This week shares of at total 32 companies were traded in the stock exchange. 43,334 share units worth Rs 12.66 million in total 400 transactions were traded during the four-day week. Last week 17,468 share units valued at Rs 6.01 million in total 392 transactions were traded during the last week.

Share transaction during the week was dominated by Bank of Kathmandu Ltd. A total of 26,535 share units of the bank valued at Rs 8.04 million were exchanged in 71 transactions this week putting it at the top in terms of the number of share units traded, number of transactions and the total value of transactions.

Companies whose shares were traded in all the four working days include Nepal SBI Bank Ltd., Nepal Bangladesh Bank Ltd., Everest Bank Ltd., Bank of Kathmandu Ltd., Nepal Industrial and Commercial Bank Ltd., Nepal Merchant Banking and Finance Company Ltd., Oriental Hotels Ltd. and Nepal Bangladesh Finance Company Ltd.

Similarly, companies whose shares were traded in only three days include Nabil Bank Ltd., Nepal Indosuez Bank Ltd., Everest Insurance Company Ltd. and Siddarth Finance Company Ltd. Likewise, companies whose shares were traded only on a day include Himalayan Bank Ltd., United Insurance Company Ltd., Annapurna Finance Company Ltd. and Mahalaxmi Finance Company Ltd.