With the grey market thriving on imported products of the same brand which are owned in Nepal by Nepali companies, the dailies are regularly getting a special type of advertisement. These legal notices from lawyers of the Nepali companies warn of legal action against those who sell such grey products.

Such notices used to be more frequent in the past from Nepal Lever Ltd. which was first complaining of Fair & Lovely being illegally imported from India and later of Lux from Indonesia. Now Golden Battery Industries (P) Ltd. has started issuing similar notices complaining of Tiger brand of dry cell batteries being illegally imported from Khasa (Tibet), though the ad does not specifically name this Tibetan township near Nepal border.

Similar problems were reported by Surya Tobacco Company (P) Ltd. (STC) and by Nepal Battery Ltd. While STC was importing 555 cigarettes though official channels it could not compete with duty free and Khasa versions of 555 that were available much cheaper.

But however strong-worded these notices may be, the companies are hamstrung in their capacities to take any action against the sellers of the grey products, because they have to sell their ‘legal’ products from these very wholesalers or retailers.

The factor that attracts the wholesalers and retailers towards the grey products is the handsome commission (as high as 20%, it is said) as compared to only about 10% they receive for selling the ‘legal’ products.

According to the companies, the high margin in grey products is possible because they are usually bought on "clearance sale" abroad or they are heavily under invoiced at the customs while importing and thus paying low import duty.

Wai Wai Gets ISO 9002

Nepal Thai Foods (P) Ltd. has received ISO 9002: 1994 certification for quality production and management, according to the company. Established in 1985 in technical collaboration with Thai Preserved Food Factory Company Ltd. of Thailand, this Chaudhary Group company produces Wai Wai, Big Mimi, Mimi, Wah Wah, Sathi, Mama and Gol Mol brands of instant noodles.

With this, the company boasts of being the first ISO certified unit of Nepal’s noodle industry which exports a substantial volume to India.

The certification was issued by British Standard Institution (BSI) as a Certificate of Registration and as originally registered on 28 November, 2001.

Meanwhile, the company has started offering fabulous prizes to lucky consumers of Wai Wai. Among the prizes offered under, what the company calls as, "House Full offer" include flats at Kathmandu Residency and LG brand electronic consumer durables such as color TV, HI-FI system, washing machine, fridge etc.

The scheme is in response to "Bingo Hangama" of Rum Pum brand that offers as much as one million rupees as bumper prize and a number of other prizes worth Rs. 100,000.

Kathmandu Residency is a housing colony being developed by Ansal-Chaudhary Developers (P) Ltd., a joint venture between Chaudhary Group and Ansal Buildwell of India. LG brand is assembled by another Chaudhary Group company GoldStar Nepal Pvt. Ltd. While the other LG electronics are imported by a close associate.

Mustard Oil & Medicos

Given that mustard oil is far more preferred to other vegetable oil by all Nepalis, it may sound very strange that Nepal has only one brand in this category with the NS mark, the national quality certificate. But that may seem to be normal if one recalls the arzimona mexicana terror of a couple of years ago that had almost devastated the industry altogether and that it is still in the process of regaining its position.

What is perhaps more interesting is the dispute that is speedily gathering momentum about the appearance of two medical doctors in the advertisement of the sole NS certified brand endorsing it as a healthy cooking oil and a healthy medium for body massage.

The case is now taken up by the Nepal Medical Council, a body that can snatch the medical practice license from the doctors. According to reports, it has sought the help of the local administration to make the two doctors appear before the council to explain how they dared to violate the code of conduct of medical the profession by endorsing a particular brand of a consumer product.

Samsung Vs Daewoo

It was nearly one year ago that Golchha Organization’s Him Electronics took the business of Samsung brand of Korean TVs in Nepal to the chagrin of ATC Exim (P) Ltd. that was dealing in the brand. Now ATC has responded by bringing Daewoo brand TVs from Korea to compete with the same brand TVs locally assembled by Him Electronics.

Though Him Electronics has been assembling Daewoo TVs for last several years, it suddenly acquired the assembling right also for Samsung last year. As a result, ATC had to forego the business of importing Samsung TV from Korea though it continued importing other electronic goods from Samsung.

Now the Korean Daewoo is being advertised with a punchline that asks the consumers whether they prefer to buy a Daewoo made in Korea or the one assembled in Nepal.

Coke Water

Bottlers Nepal Ltd., the Nepali bottler of Coca Cola range of soft drinks, is preparing to enter also the bottled water market.

It has been test marketing Kinley brand of bottled water under authority from Coca Cola company.

At present, the product in one litre bottle is made available in select hotels and outlets.

Kinley water is already available in India.

Beyond Cash & Cheques 

Web _park Nepal is introducing web card in Nepal, which will be helpful in online transaction through the Internet. Web card is basically like a debit card but with a little difference.

Since merchant banking does not exist in Nepal and online payment is not in force, there has to be other avenues to increase the volume of e-commerce here. Web card fills this gap.

Also known as Net cards, this card looks like a credit card but operates like cash or ATM card.

Any individual, corporate houses, NGO’s etc., can become a card holder by paying any amount of money. Once a card holder, an individual or organization will be given an unique web card number, a user name and a login password. They may have to deposit a certain amount of money, which will be credited in their name.

Once the amount is credited the member can purchase anything of their liking from a list of specified suppliers upto a limit of their credited amount less Rs.500.00 (i.e Rs. 100.00 is the minimum balance that a member has to keep in their account during their membership period.)

Benefits of a web card that the company people enumerate

1. Busy people can have the luxury to purchase whatever they like through the net using web card.

2. People who cannot come out in the open for various reasons may buy using this card. VIPs, rich persons, film personalities, etc are a few examples.

3 . Large institutes like hospitals, corporate houses, NGO’s can purchase in bulk through this web card. They may not need to float any tenders.

4. It frees you from carrying cash or a chequebook, traveler’s cheques.

5. Brokers or middlemen can be eliminated thereby reducing the cost of the product.

6. You can choose from a wide variety of products thus ensuring a good bargain.

7. You can send gift using Web card.

8. With the Web card, you are using your own money, not the issuer’s money.

One can pay Telephone Bill, Electricity Bill, Water Bill and other utilities bill through this card. You need not have to stand in a long queue. You can pay from your table itself, claims Web_Park Nepal.

Since there is not a single e-commerce site in Nepal, which accepts the payment from the credit card of the local banks, this is the first revolutionary step to establish e-commerce trend in Nepal, claims Web-Park Nepal.

www.Nepalepost.com

ITNTI (Information Technology & Telecom International), an IT & Telecom company launches a new service Nepalepost (www.Nepalepost.com) first time in Nepal on the occasion of National IT event CAN INFOTECH 2002.

Nepalepost, is a revolutionary concept in cyber-communication which while combining the speed of the internet, still retains the personal touch of the handwritten letters, says the company in a press release. The service is first of its kind being launched in Nepal with a view to bring Nepali living abroad to interact with their loved ones in Nepal with the aesthetic feel of hand written communication.

Nepalepost shall instantly allow exchange of scanned letters/invitation cards etc. and even photographs sent to or received from the friends/family living abroad. Such letters/photographs are delivered at the door steps of the users through a leading distribution network bitarak.com,

Currently the service is priced at a minimum rate but, ITNTI shall soon try to offer further enhanced services free of cost, says Manish Kansal, Senior Vice President of ITNTI.

Mahendra Vesawkar, who looks after the business development at ITNTI, says that Nepalepost has been brought on ITNTIs card of services with a view to let those who do not have access to Internet also enjoy the faster exchange of mails with their loved ones living abroad. In Nepal, a larger mass lives without computers and/or internet hence, this service should be of great use to them, says Hemanta Sharma, Technical Director of ITNTI.

U-Key and Me-Key Noodles

Kanchenjungha Processed Foods Nepal (P) Ltd. has debuted in Nepal’s instant noodles market with U-Key brand of brown soup noodle presented in metallic wrappers.

The next brand will be Me-Key, informed KB Subba Khoyahang Limbu, the Executive Chairman and Managing Director of the company.

Priced at Rs. 10 as introductory offer, the 75 gram pack U-Key is being promoted as a ‘hygienic diet’ on the strength of its metallic wrapping and its press ad features medical doctors in professional attire consuming U-Key straight out of the pack. Metallic wrapping is said to be better for food packaging.

Limbu also claimed that the production process in his company’s factory at Itahari of eastern Nepal is capable to meet the requirements for ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.

The new company is a sister concern of Subba Nepal Trading Company, a firm that is involved in the distribution and retailing of imported goods.

Duncans Tea

Duncans Industries Ltd., one of the three largest marketers of packet tea in India, has launched in Nepal two of its brands – Double Diamond and Pikup.

Available in metallised foil-lined packets. Duncans tea is packed-in-Siliguri specially for Nepal. The grain tea under both brands is Assamese tea and is being marketed as ‘strong tea" with slogans printed on the packs in Nepali language.

Double Diamond is available now in 250 g. pack priced at Rs. 60 and Pikup in 200 g. pack priced at Rs. 41.

Pumori Plus III

Mercantile Office Systems has launched Pumori Plus III, an updated version of its popular on line banking software Pumori Plus 2.0. The new Pumori Plus III incorporates new modules to be in par with the latest technology available in the market today while retaining its ease of use, modularity and robustness, says the company. With introduction of this new version of Pumori Plus III, Mercantile has tried to show that indigenously developed software in Nepal is capable of outperforming internationally renowned banking software.

Pumori Plus is online real time banking system currently installed in 11 commercial banks and 8 finance companies of Nepal, claims the company. Some of the popular add on modules which have been added to their system by the banks are Import/Export L/C, Guarantee, Reconciliation, Telebanking, Any Branch Banking, MIS, Budgeting and Nepal Rastra Bank reporting.

Elaborating on the new features of the product, the company says, it is probably the first banking software available in Nepal to incorporate biometrics technology and smart cards for authenticating users for access to its database and software.

Pumori Plus III is now designed to take full advantage of new features and functions introduced with the release of Windows 2000 Networking Operating System and MS SQL 2000 RDBMS by Microsoft. Mercantile is development partner of Microsoft. With this new technology, Pumori Plus III is capable of on line data replication, says the company.

Pumori Plus III can be now configured in three different database solutions, viz. centralized, distributed and hybrid (combination of centralized and distributed).

The new product also introduces new add on modules which can be installed as and when required by the users.

Pumori Plus III is available for demonstration at CAN Info-Tech 2000 in Koshi Hall of Birendra International Convention Center from January 24 to January 29, 2002. Features of Pumori Plus III can be viewed in the web site http://www.pumoriplus.com