More trees for less greenery: The concrete irony in Nepal s cities – OnlineKhabar English News onlinekhabar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from onlinekhabar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Rabindra Ghimire
April 12, 2021
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The government has set a target of increasing the annual pre-consumer electricity consumption by 90 units in the current fiscal year 2020/21, but it has increased by only seven units in the first seven months.
As the government has not come up with an action plan to increase electricity consumption, achieving the target seems far away. The government that is preparing to export electricity to India in the coming rainy season has not given priority to any plans to increase domestic consumption.
Experts in the energy sector say the tendency of the government to not bring an integrated action plan to implement the policy has limited the issue of increasing electricity consumption to speeches only.
Rabindra Ghimire
April 3, 2021
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On March 22, 2021, a Pathao rider was assaulted by a taxi driver at Gongabu of Kathmandu claiming that the Pathao rider lured his customer away by offering a ride at a low fare. This clash has revived a controversy on the operation of ride-sharing apps such as Pathao and Tootle. The controversy, meanwhile, highlighted the urgent need for a law to regulate them.
This controversy started as soon as Tootle launched a ride-sharing service on motorcycles and taxis in December 2016. At that time, the government responded saying it was illegal to ferry passengers on private vehicles.
Not only the government officials, but transport entrepreneurs also tried to stop this service many times. But, with the widespread popularity of the apps among service users, the government has neither been able to shut down the service nor give it legitimacy. Due to that, there have been lingering problems in this business.
Not ready yet: Why sporadic efforts to introduce e-payment on public vehicles fail in Nepal onlinekhabar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from onlinekhabar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Rabindra Ghimire
December 11, 2020
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Kathmandu, December 11
The customs data show that Nepal imported two million and 190,825 sets of mobile phones in the first four months of the current fiscal year. The importers have spent Rs 14.15 billion on them, added by customs charges of Rs 2.25 billion.
In the same period last year, the country imported two million and 112 phones, spending Rs 8.62 billion on them and Rs 1.36 billion on taxes.
It means the number of phone sets imported rose by 9.54 per cent but the expenditure on them by 64 per cent in one year.
Dikesh Malhotra, the president and CEO of IMS Group, the authorised distributor of Samsung mobiles for Nepal, says the excessive increase in the expenditure is attributed to people’s need for smartphones amid the Covid-19 pandemic.