KATHMANDU, APRIL 10
The Nepal Bankers' Association (NBA), an organisation of chief executive officers of commercial banks, has decided not to issue letters of credit (LCs) for the import of luxury goods, except for the essentials.
The association's meeting held today took a decision to this effect.
The LCs will not be issued for the import of luxury items such as vehicles, gold, silver, sugar, chewing gum, dry foods, furniture, cigarettes, alcohol, perfume and mobile phones, among others, said Chief Executive Officer of the Nepal Bank Ltd, Krishna Bahadur Adhikari, also a member of the NBA's working committee.
The association's decision followed the direction of the Nepal Rastra Bank in this regard.
Earlier, the central bank, in a bid to stop the outflow of the country's depleting foreign exchange reserves, had imposed 50 to 100 per cent cash margin on import of 47 goods.
Likewise, the central bank had called and directed CEOs of all 27 commercial banks to halt LCs to import various goods, including vehicles.
The banks have been following the direction of the central bank.
Meanwhile, the meeting of NBA also decided that the banks would not increase interest rate in the Nepali month of Baisakh (mid-April to mid- May. With this, the interest rate will be within 11.03 per cent.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 11, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
