Kathmandu, October 7

The government today hiked the minimum wage of working journalists by 25 per cent.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota said that a meeting of the Cabinet today took a decision to increase minimum wage of working journalists by 25 per cent.

This means employers will now have to pay working journalists a minimum monthly salary of Rs 24,300.

The increase will apply from mid- October. Previously, the government had fixed minimum wage for working journalists at

Rs 19,500.

The meeting also appointed Senior Journalist Krishna Murari Bhandari as executive chair of Gorkhapatra Corporation. The meeting also decided to give three days to General Manager Gorkhapatra Corporation Basanta Prakash Upadhyay to furnish his clarifications.

The government formed a seven-member panel to solve rise in sugar price. The panel will be led by a member of the National Planning Commission of Nepal. Other members of the panel will be from line ministries.

The government also appointed Ram Chandra Bhattarai as the director of Citizen Investment Trust.

According to Minister Baskota, the Cabinet also authorised finance secretary to receive an aid of Rs 11.63 billion from World Bank for the development of energy sector.

The government agreed to receive 1.4 billion grant assistance from Japan government for Sindhuli road maintenance and repair.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli also briefed his Cabinet colleagues about his recent visit to New York to participate in the United Nations General Assembly and his visit to Costa Rica.