Kathmandu, November 18, 2005

Supreme Court has played a significant role in the Nepali banking and financial sector reforms, said experts speaking at a review seminar on ‘Legal and judicial environment for financial sector development’, organised by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and the World Bank (WB) here today. Bijaya Nath Bhattarai, governor of the NRB, said that the concerned sectors coordination can accelerate the pace of legal and judicial reforms of financial sector. “Nepal Rastra Bank Act-2002, Debt Recovery Act-2003, Bank and Financial Institution Ordinance-2004 are some of the achievements of the financial sector reforms,” he said adding the need to employ our available instruments, to put appropriate legal and institutional in place, and to legalise world-wide trend of high-tech electronic financial transactions in the present context. “The right-sizing of Nepal Bank Ltd, RBB and NRB is the efforts aimed at making our banking system more professional and result-oriented,” he said. Surendra Man Pradhan, executive director of NRB, highlighted the role of legal system in the operation of financial markets. “A competitive business and corporate sector is built on a solid legal foundation,” he said, “An effective judiciary applies and enforces laws and regulations impartially, predictably and efficiently.” Presenting a paper on ‘Legal and judicial environment for financial sector development,’ Nagavalli Annamalai, lead counsel of the World Bank, underlined current problems in the legal and regulatory framework and future reforms required for the effective development of the Nepali financial sector.

Three airlines fail to pay NOC’s huge fuel bills; are grounded

Three airlines, which have been forced to ground their domestic operations since Thursday for their failure to clear their dues to the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), have been eagerly waiting for fuel supply so that they can resume their scheduled flights. The NOC has said that it will announce its decision on the matter at the TIA tomorrow. “Talks with the NOC are going on. We committed to pay a part of their dues soon and clear the remaining dues within a month,” Thakur Lamichhane, sales and marketing manager of Gorkha Airlines, told this daily. Stating that the NOC officials were positive on resuming fuel supply, he said the officials had said that a decision on the matter will be taken tomorrow. Stating that talks were going on with the NOC, MD Mathema, general manager, Cosmic Air, said: “No agreement has been reached with the NOC.” According to him, Cosmic has been operating international flights by making some arrangements with the NOC. An NOC source, requesting anonymity, said the three airlines are yet to clear dues to the NOC.