Police confiscates illegally imported vehicles

Post Report

BHAIRAHAWA, March 8 : Rupandehi police has confiscated over two dozen vehicles including two- wheelers, which were smuggled in and being operated in the country illegally. All these vehicles have been handed over to the Bhairahawa customs for legal investigation.

According to the police, it has handed-over 20 vehicles and 5 motorcycles to the Bhairahawa customs during the last 11 months. These vehicles are said to value over Rs 7.07 million.

The police confiscated vehicles include 14 jeeps, 2 cars, 2 Tata Sumo, 2 van and 1 truck. These are identified to have stolen in India, smuggled in the country and were operated under the old Nepali number plate illegally.

"Most of the confiscated vehicles were found to have been brought into the country over four years back, registered in the Butwal Transportation Office and were being operated in Bhairahawa, Butwal, Nawalparasi and Kapilvastu, among others," said Maya Kumar Shah, Deputy Superintendent of Police.

He cited that the police have been successful in confiscating a large number of smuggled vehicles and handing these over to the customs office. However, the customs have been finding difficulty in disposing such vehicles.

Officials at the Bhairahawa customs stated that most of the vehicles handed over by the police have not been auctioned. The police have handed over 180 vehicles from Rupandehi, Kapilvastu and Nawalparasi districts to the customs office since last two years.

"But only 80 vehicles have been auctioned as of now," according to the customs officials. They argue that people’s preference for not buying the old and illegally run stolen vehicles was the major reason behind the failure in disposing these.

Meanwhile, Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs’ Association (NTEA) has been urging the administration to hand over these vehicles to their respective owners on a meager fine. "As most of these vehicles are owned by commoner and low profiled persons, the customs should hand it back to them after charging a minimal fine," NTEA officials argue.

The customs officials, however, argue that if all the vehicles are to be auctioned it would fetch over Rs 40 million to the government.

Nepse tumble continues

Post Report

KATHMANDU, March 8 : Rising selling pressure in the stock trading dragged down the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index for yet another week - a downfall for four straight weeks. The decline during the week was 1.96 point.

The Nepse index, a barometer to gauge investors’ confidence, slipped to 207.23 point on the closing day, Friday, against 209.19 point recorded on the opening day of the week, Monday, according to the Nepse. The index had slipped by 2.73 point in the last week and by 0.24 point and about 4 points during the previous weeks.

Except for the hotels groups, none of the groups enlisted at the Nepse succeeded in retaining the market value of their shares. The case was more apparent in case of the commercial bank group, which recorded a downfall in its index by about 3 points.

Recorded as the largest loser in index during the week, the index of the commercial bank landed flat at 2000.73 point on Friday against 203.55 point recorded on Monday. The index of the group had slid by over 4 points in the last week.

The finance group too recorded a tumble of about 2 point in its index during the week. The index of the group fell to 223.61 point from 225.59 point during the week, according to the Nepse. Its index had declined by over 2 points in the last week as well.

In the like manner, indices of the insurance group and the development bank group too slid to 250.87 point and 261.29 point from 253.17 point and 262.55 point during the week respectively. While the former had recorded a slip last week as well, later was the sole gainer during the last week.

The index of the manufacturing group also tumbled by over a point to 252.12 point from 253.20 point during the week. Last week, its index had remained unchanged.

The hotel group, the sole gainer in index terms, this week recorded an upsurge in its index by over 2 point. Its index was recorded at 203.02 point on Friday against 200.72 point registered on Monday. The index of the group too had remained constant last week.

Meanwhile, indices of the trading group and the other group were recorded at 92.85 point and 61.19 point respectively throughout the week. Both these groups’ indices had remained constant last week as well.

As usual, the commercial bank group captured the largest chunk of stock trading carried out at the Nepse floor during the week. Its trading comprised 59.27 per cent of the total stock trading, followed by the insurance group at 20.11 per cent and the finance group at 19.73 per cent.

Likewise, the hotel group captured 0.79 per cent of the total stock trading. The development bank and the manufacturing group comprised 0.43 per cent and 0.30 per cent of the total share trading respectively.

Nepal Life Insurance Company recorded the highest shares trading both in share units, transaction and monetary terms for yet another week. A total of 17,780 shares of the company were traded at Rs 2.24 million through 931 transactions.

Farmers suffer as sugarcane production declines

By Sujit Mahat/Aman Koirala

BIRGUNJ, March 8 : Sharp decline in production of sugarcane, one of the major cash crops of Terai, has hit hard the farmers of Bara, Rautahat and Sarlahi this year.

Concerned farmers state that the sugarcane production dropped by almost 40 per cent this year. "Sugarcane yield of each bigha of land last year was over 500 quintals, while this year the production has plummeted to around 300 quintals," said Ram Prasad Mainali, a sugarcane farmer of Ghurkauli, Sarlahi.

Another farmer, Baikuntha Mahat complained that his land has been unable to produce more than 400 quintals while the same land used to yield over 600 quintals couple of years back.

The decline in sugarcane production, according to the experts, is due largely to the round-the-year cultivation of single crop - sugarcane - for years.

"The continued cultivation of a single crop in the same land has affected the production this year," said Yog Narayan Rajak, Manager of Indu Shekhar Sugar Mill, adding that farmers are unaware of the adversities of cultivating the same crop for 4-5 years.

"The fertility of soil gets drier with the same crop cultivation for longer span. This is exactly what affected to the sugarcane production this year," he noted.

Farmers argue that they were not informed of such adverse impact of the single crop cultivation. "We were not advised for rotating the crops to maintain the soil fertility," said Nir Muni Mainali.

However, management of sugar mills blame farmers for the ill-fate. "We have invested large sum of money to train farmers on ways to increase and maintain the soil fertility. We even took them for field visits to India, but without any progress," Rajesh Kediya of Indu Shekhar Sugar Mill.

Meanwhile, farmers attribute the lack of irrigation facility for decline in the total sugarcane production.

Farmers were attracted to sugarcane farming when three large sugar mills were set up in the region. Birgunj sugar mill and Indu Shekhar sugar mill are among the largest consumer of locally produced sugarcane.