Unveiling the third quarterly review of the Monetary Policy for the current fiscal year, which is going to end on July 15, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, has given some respite to the borrowers who have been hit hard due to the outbreak of the second wave of the coronavirus. In this scenario, the central bank has instructed the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) not to slap any penalty or additional fees while recovering loads disbursed to the borrowers during the prohibitory orders that are in place in 76 districts since April 29. The government had no option other than to impose the prohibitory orders to break the chain of the virus that has already claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people so far.

The prohibitory orders have led to a complete shutdown of all economic activities, forcing tens of thousands of people out of work. Because of the complete halt of all economic activities, the borrowers have not been able to pay back in time the loans that they have taken from the BFIs. With just two months before the end of the current fiscal, the central bank has conceded that it is unlikely to achieve the initial growth target of 4 per cent for the on-going fiscal year.

In its measures to facilitate the borrowers, the NRB has barred the BFIs from publishing any sort of auction or debt collection notice, not just during the prohibitory order period but also for one month after the restrictive measures are lifted. This measure will give a sigh of relief to those who have borrowed millions of rupees from the BFIs. The central bank has also asked the BFIs to utilise the fund that they have set aside for corporate social responsibility activities for fighting the pandemic, such as purchasing oxygen cylinders, medicines and oxygen concentrators. The NRB has also announced special refinancing loan facility of up to Rs 500 million for hospitals and industries that want to install liquid oxygen plants and up to Rs 200 million refinancing loan facility for hospitals and industries setting up oxygen plants. The maturity period of such loans will be of one year. The bank has also urged the BFIs to offer concessions to those who pay their installments or interests even during the prohibitory orders.

Shortly after the seven months of lockdown last year, the Ministry of Finance and the NRB had also announced refinancing packages to those businesses that were badly affected by the pandemic and the restrictive measures. However, only a handful of businesspeople with connections with the corridors of power could manage to enjoy the refinancing facility.

Last year's refinancing facility did not help much to revive the battered economy due to bureaucratic hassles and lack of coordination between and among the government agencies. This time around, the government should try to plug those anomalies seen between policy statements and their implementation.

Policy-wise, the measures taken by the NRB seem to be in the right direction. But the only problem that we always confront with is in its sincere implementation.

At the same time, we cannot rejuvenate the battered national economy to the pre-pandemic level unless we bring the second wave of the coronavirus fully under control.

Wear a mask

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government could not force people to wear masks and impose fines or keep them in holding centres for not wearing one. The court had observed that since the government had not distributed free masks to the poor, the police could not fine them. Hopefully, this order to the government will not encourage the people to move around maskless as it is for their own good that the government has introduced some harsh measures, including the prohibitory orders. Both the government and the people can ill afford to take the pandemic lightly, with the number of fresh infections and deaths rising exponentially in recent times.

With the emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus in Nepal, which has been declared by WHO as one of worldwide concern, the people must learn to stay safe by ritually following the prescribed health protocol, which includes wearing a mask. With the fast spread of the virus in the community, the prohibitory orders, though painful, could be the last resort to breaking the chains of infection. But people seem to be violating the orders with gay abandon. How bad does the situation have to get before people show real concern about the pandemic?

A version of this article appears in the print on May 20, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.