BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Nepalese-Indian aviation officials hold talks

By A Staff Reporter

Nepalese and Indian government officials began talks on Tuesday to see how Indian Airlines could resume its flights to Kathmandu.

The Indian delegation headed by Sunil Aurora, Joint Secretary at the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry, arrived in Kathmandu on Monday evening. Aurora is accompanied by P.T. Lohar, Additional Commissioner at the Indian Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Himmat Singh, Director of Security Division at Indian Airlines.

The hijacked Indian Airlines plane in Afghanistan last year.

From Nepal’s side, Hari Bhakta Shrestha, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation headed the delegation and he was accompanied by Yagya Prasad Gautam, Joint Secretary at Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, Rajesh Raj Dali, General Manager of TIA, Narendra Prasad Ghimire, Director General of Civil Aviation Authority, and a representative each from the Tourism Ministry and the Foreign Ministry.

Talks continued till late in the evening on Tuesday.

Indian Airlines stopped all its flights to Nepal, altogether 17 per week, after one of its aircraft was hijacked soon after taking off from the Tribhuvan International Airport here on Christmas Eve last year. One passenger was killed and the majority released only after a harrowing eight days of ordeal.

Soon after that, most of the Indian media alleged that there was gross negligence in Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, in spite of the fact that the Nepalese government had formed a high level committee to look into the matter.

It is a sad aspect that the Nepalese media and also the government could not effectively counter such allegations of the Indian media. Most of the Nepali press people were satisfied when the Indian Ambassador clarified about the error made by his country’s media and also officials at a programme organised here in Kathmandu. No one questioned why no clarification had been made in the Indian media, specially ZEE TV and why Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh never expressed regret for saying a Nepali was also involved in the hijack.

Then recently there was a furor here in Kathmandu when it was alleged that the Indian government wanted to keep its own security personnel at the Tribhuvan International Airport.  Indian Ambassador put fuel to the fire when at a recent programme in Pokhara, he said India wanted to keep  security personnel according to ICAO regulations.

Nepalese Civil Aviation authorities claimed that they would not agree to such demands of the Indians. A senior official in the Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry also informed that he was certain the Indian side would not put forth such demands during the ongoing talks.

Nepalese officials are hopeful that the talks which is expected to end today (Wednesday) will decide when Indian Airlines flights will resume. IA has contributed to Nepalese tourism by flying in about 30 per cent of inbound passengers into the country. The stoppage of IA flights caused US $ 1.5 million in damages within two months, claim tourism entrepreneurs.

Garment takes over

By A Staff Reporter

Nepal’s largest export item, woolen carpets has been pushed to number two position by readymade garments the export of which touched 6.20 billion rupees. Woolen carpet trailed behind with export volume touching 4.19 billion rupees. Pashmina reached the 2.71 billion rupees mark to become the third largest exportable item. It had begun to feature in Nepal’s export list since only last year.

Worry has surfaced due to widening trade deficit as a result of upsurge in import  in the review period during which half yearly detailed foreign trade figures were compiled by Nepal Rastra Bank. Exports grew by 41 per cent to reach 23.42 billion rupees and import rose by 35.5 per cent to touch 51.77 billion rupees. As a result, trade deficit widened to 28.35 billion rupees.

Total foreign trade grew by 37.2 per cent. It increased by 53.9 per cent with India and by 28.2 per cent with countries other than India.

NIC General Meeting

By A Staff Reporter

The 51st General Meeting of the Nepal Insurance Company Ltd. was held Monday last. The meeting was chaired by the Company’s chairman Bhuwaneshwor Prasad Shah.

The Company earned a total premium of Rs. 102.5 million rupees in the fiscal year 2055/56, which is 28.60 per cent more than the previous year.

According to a press statement of the company, the Company has also earned a profit of Rs. 25.87 million in the same year and has paid the government Rs. 6.8 million as tax. The company has paid 25 per cent bonus to the shareholders out of the profit of the fiscal year 2055/56, and an additional 20 per cent interim bonus on the profit of the current fiscal year 2056/57.

Meanwhile, Bijay Krishna Shrestha has been elected unopposed to the vacant post of the board of directors of the Company.