Gang dealing with fake currency nabbed

Nawalparasi (RSS): Police have arrested here on Saturday a gang believed to have been dealing in the transaction of fake Indian currency (IC) since many years.

Lalan Prasad Gupta and Ram Prakash Chaudhary of Pakalihawa VDC-7 were caught red-handed while they were exchanging 121 notes of 500 denomination worth Rs. 60,500 IC for 40,000 in Nepali currency (NC).

Following the arrest, police have launched an extensive investigation into the case.

Custom valuation demanded

Butwal (RSS): Rupendehi Udhog Sangh (RUS) has asked His Majesty’s Government to determine customs valuation for the products imported from India, import substitution of which are easily available in local market in view of the edging out in competitiveness of such indigenous products in its own internal market.

Speaking at a meet-the-press organised here on Sunday, RUS chairman Paramananda Kharel argued that as a pair of leg guards of motorbike produced locally which costs Rs. 400/- in local market is losing its competitiveness in internal market since the government authority levy only Rs. 75/- as custom for an imported one on its cost of IC Rs. 250/-.

RUS has also demanded that as the plates of Indian origin used for steel almirah which are now easily available in local market and which are being imported only on the basis of its weight be included in the list of custom-levied items.

In addition, RUS called for levying minimum custom on items being imported by Nepalese industries as raw materials under its approved schemes in the interest of such indigenous industries rendered sick due to the imposition of customs higher than on finished products.

Brick price up

Bhaktapur (RSS): There has been a sharp increase in the price and demand of brick, an important construction material for houses.

The price of 1,000 bricks ranged from Rs 1,500 - Rs 1,600 last December. But it has now increased to somewhere between Rs 2,800 – Rs 3,100.

Like the increase in the price of brick, the demand for Bhaktapur bricks has also increased rapidly. Chairman of the Bhaktapur Brick Factory Owners’ Association Bishwa Ram Kanwa says nearly 700,000 bricks from Bhaktapur are sold in the Kathmandu Valley in a day.

He claims that the price of brick has shot up because, spurred by the high demand, people outside the business also started manufacturing and hoarding bricks.

It is learnt that the 62 brick kilns in Bhaktapur district produce nearly 300 million bricks in a season.