HCF voluntary retirement scheme well-responded

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HETAUDA, May 6: Following the announcement by the board of directors of Hetauda Cement Factory (HCF) calling applications from staff seeking voluntary retirement, 99 experienced staff holding responsible positions have already submitted letters to the board seeking voluntary retirement.

According to officials at the factory, two Deputy General Managers (DGM) and Administration Chief along with 96 employees have submitted their applications till Monday.

The Board of Directors, with the approval of Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) had called for applications from staff for voluntary retirement on April 15.

This was done with a view to downsize the number of employees curtailing the liabilities of the cement factory, especially as its financial performance has been dismal in recent times. The factory currently employs 807 people.

The application was sought from employees completing of 15 years or above at the cement factory by April 13.

The deadline for submitting the application closes on May 13 and by that time, the number of applicants could soar as high as 150, according to an administrative staff of the factory.

The increased applications seeking voluntary retirement, as the officials themselves put it, was due to the downtrodden financial condition of the cement factory, which has further been hit by the closure of quarry supplying high quality limestone in recent times.

The cement factory, established in 1976 had incurred a loss of Rs 110 million during the last fiscal year alone. It also has failed to acquire high quality limestone since two years due to the Maoist attacks at the limestone mines.

The problem has worsened after April 23 when the Maoists attacked the limestone furnace at Majhimtar and set ablaze loaders, dozers and other equipments of Annapurna quarry supplying limestone to the factory from Jogimara. This has stopped the supply of limestone to the factory.

According to the factory officials, Jogimara-based limestone mine alone was supplying about 40 thousand tonnes of limestone to the factory annually.

Govt committed to development: Mahat

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KATHMANDU, May 6:Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat today said that the government is committed to put in efforts to accelerate development as so far its capacity allows stressing that terrorism needs to be stopped for development endeavours to be meaningful.

He expressed deep concern over the increased Maoist activities that have dampened Nepal’s development endeavours. He was speaking at the inauguration of a new banking office of Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) in Kirtipur today.

Dr Mahat, on the occasion, lauded the role played by ADB in reaching to the poor at the grassroots level. He also said that there is a need for the common mass to shun the traditional technologies and adopt new ones to enhance their income levels.

On the occasion, Member of Parliament Tirtha Man Dangol said that ADB has been contributing a lot to the economic growth of the country. However, he said that the bank must concentrate more on rural areas than on urban ones.

General Manager of ADB Devendra Pratap Shah said the bank is widening its scope of activities as per its recently launched reform programme.

Banks agree to share information on loan

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KATHMANDU, May 6:Himalayan Bank, Nabil Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, the credit-card service providers of the country, have decided to exchange information on loans acquired by customers through the cards issued to them.

The decision has been made to curb the increasing trend of acquiring credit card from various banks without clearing dues of one bank. The banks have also agreed to blacklist customers failing to pay their bills and not to issue cards to them.

"The agreement has been reached considering the point that a defaulters at a bank is likely to cheat the other service provider as well," said Rabin Pratap Rana, Chief, Credit Card Department of Himalayan Bank, talking to The Kathmandu Post.

He claimed that the enforcement of the agreement would curb such malpractice. He also said that Himalayan Bank has been issuing information on good and doubtful customers to other banks and has been issuing cards only after verifying such information given by other banks.

The provision of Nepal Rastra Bank whereby its Credit Information Bureau (CIB) blacklists defaulters of above Rs 1 million only, as bankers put it, has been the reason behind increased problems and the bankers undersigned the latest agreement to fight the menace.

Earlier, Himalayan Bank had made public the identity of three defaulters after it failed to obtain their response despite the bank’s repeated notice to clear their dues.

Rana said that about 5 to 10 per cent of customers are cheats, however, the rate was not higher to what persists in the international market. He attributed weak financial policies to the increased cheating incidents.

"Customers reimbursing money within 45 days of using credit cards benefit the most from it," he said, adding, "The bank levies only service charges to such clients."

The bank charges 30 per cent extra interest to clients failing to reimburse money on time, according to Rana. "However, ninety percent of the customers clear their dues on time," he added.

He even informed that the bank had about 30 bad clients throughout its five-year history of credit card and the bank had to knock the door of the court to recover dues from 20 of them. Similar is the number of defaulters in case of Nabil and Standard Chartered Bank.

As of now, about 10 thousand credit cards have been issued in the country. While Standard Chartered has issued about 45 hundred credit cards, the other two banks have issued over 3 thousand cards each.

According to information provided by the central bank, Nabil Bank disbursed loans of Rs 38.6 million by mid-October last year while Standard Chartered disbursed loans of Rs 63 million by the same period on credit cards. Transactions of credit card of Himalayan Bank too stood at Rs 26.3 million by mid-October last year.

In the meantime, Himalayan Bank is mulling to issue Master Card. So far, it has been issuing Visa Card. While Nabil and Standard Chartered Bank have been issuing Visa and Master Card both.