Airliners reduce fare

Domestic airlines are marginally reducing the airfare to different destinations effective from tomorrow.
The Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) meeting today decided to slash fuel surcharge rate following the recent reduction in the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF). The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) had from Monday reduced the price of ATF by Rs 4 per litre to Rs 82 per litre for domestic airline companies.
"Along with reduction in fuel surcharge, domestic airlines will reduce airfares to different destinations from tomorrow," said AOAN spokesperson Ghanashyam Acharya. "The price will come down from Rs 40 to Rs 181 depending on distance."
Though, the AOAN revises fuel surcharge when price of ATF fluctuates by at least Rs 4 per litre, the new airfare can vary depending on the respective airline companies.
According to AOAN, the new airfare to Dhangadi – the furthest destination from Kathmandu – will come down to around Rs 12,019 – including a Rs 3,620 fuel surcharge and a Rs 200 airport tax – from Rs 12,200 from tomorrow with the implementation of new fuel surcharge rate. Likewise, air travel to Simara – the shortest destination from Kathmandu that takes 15 minutes – will be lowered to around Rs 3,005 from Rs 3,045. "The fuel surcharge has been slashed by Rs 40 to Rs 735, according to AOAN.
The mountain flight is also expected to cost Rs 10,862 from tomorrow as against the current rate of Rs 11,000.
The fuel surcharges for Kathmandu-Nepalgunj and Kathmandu-Tumlingtar routes have been reduced by Rs 135 and Rs 77; respectively. Likewise, fuel surcharges for Kathmandu-Bharatpur and Kathmandu-Pokhara routes have been slashed by Rs 47 and Rs 66.
The NOC had been selling aviation fuel at rates much higher than market prices. Airlines have been passing the burden of fuel price on to travellers in the form of fuel surcharge, taking airfares beyond the reach of people.
Airlines currently have over 90 per cent occupancy rate due to poor highway road conditions, particularly the Mugling-Narayangadh highway section.
The people have been resorting to air transport service to travel inside the country. After witnessing a constant fall in passenger numbers in the last four years, the domestic aviation sector rebounded strongly in 2016, recording an all-time high air traveller movement.
According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the domestic air passenger movement jumped by 28.85 per cent to 1.75 million, as travellers chose to fly rather than drive over ‘bone-jarring’ national highways.
According to deputy at the Air Transport Division of CAAN Subhash Jha, lower fuel surcharge will provide some relief to travelers.
Domestic carriers received 393,548 more flyers last year.  The figure includes 27,893 passengers flown by nine domestic helicopter companies. The passenger movement was on a constant decline since 2012, marking a departure from the robust growth rates seen since 2008 when airlines were flying high due to competitive airfares, constant protests and road blockades, forcing travellers to take it to the air. At that time, rise in NGO/INGO staff movement during the peace process and a real estate boom also helped airlines to do a brisk business.
Airlines saw a heady growth of 13 per cent in passenger movement in 2008. The growth rate jumped to 33 per cent in 2009, as fares were cut amid stiff competition. Although passenger movement increased 12.83 per cent in 2010, the growth rate started dropping in 2011 and recorded negative growth from 2012 to 2015.
The trend reversed in 2016. Nepali skies saw 73,876 flights during that year, up by 12.16 per cent than in 2015.

ICAO team starts aviation standard audit from today

A team of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) formally started audit of Nepal's aviation sector from today.
In an interaction with officials of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) in Kathmandu, the two-member team – captain Eugene Voundri and aeronautical engineer Edmund Bohland – of ICAO presented its mission and work schedule.
According to the spokesperson of CAAN Birendra Prasad Shrestha the ICAO team started its work. "The team presented its work schedule for conducing audit of four areas of aviation safety; aviation legislation, flight operations, personal licensing and air worthiness," he said, adding that the team has kept both site inspection and study of documents in their schedule. “They are likely to audit documents related to Nepal's aviation safety and also make site inspections till Friday, and compile all their study reports by Sunday."
The team will brief CAAN officials about the findings of their study next Tuesday.
CAAN is hopeful that ICAO will remove Significant Safety Concern (SSC) tag given to Nepal after studying report prepared by the team. The SSC indicates that aviation sector needs to make improvement on safety aspects. "It is not that Nepali aviation sector is blacklisted by ICAO,” Shrestha added.
ICAO had given SSC tag to the Nepali aviation sector in 2013.
The Safety Management Division of CAAN has spared no effort to improve Nepal's air safety standards, claims the aviation sector regulator.

Research identifies main factors that influence low birth weight in Nepal

According to a research, 27 per cent of all children born in Nepal have low birth weight and over three-quarters of the newborn deaths in Nepal occur in these low birth weight babies.
The research article in the Journal of Nepal Paediatric Society has identified age, economic status, nutrition and health check-up during pregnancy as the main factors affecting low birth weight in Nepal.
"Children born to mothers above 35 years of age, living in joint families and having low economic status were found to have given birth to babies with low birth weight," according to the lead author of the article Dr Manju Shrestha.
Children weighing less than 2.5 kg at the time of birth are considered to be low birth weight, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition. "Low ante-natal care (ANC) visits, not using folic acid and smoking and drinking habits were also associated with low birth weights," she added.
The research was carried out among 350 children admitted in Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital, Chitwan, Nepal between October 2012 and September 2014.
As low birth weight is the main cause of child mortality in Nepal, finding out the causes behind it and working on improving them is crucial to improving child health. Nepal still has a neonatal mortality rate of 33 per 1000 live births, which, according to Dr Shrestha, is very high compared to the neighboring countries.
"There is no option to addressing the factors affecting low birth weight if we want to decrease child mortality rates," she said, suggesting for increased number of training on neo-natal health, better access to nutritious food and vitamin and iron supplements during pregnancy to reduce low birth weight.

Fiscal year end junket of government officials cost country dearly

The fiscal year end junkets of the government employees cost the country billions.
Most of the government officials have already embarked on study and observation tours to foreign countries and remaining are packing their bags spending over billion of the taxpayers’ money.
According to a Finance Ministry official, the foreign junkets in the last months of the fiscal year could cost over billion to the government exchequer. The bill includes over 1,200 trips of civil servants since last 2 months. "But the visits made to India have not been counted."
Though some visits from India to European destinations – including field trips, exposure visits, study tours, familiarisation and observation tours – were sponsored by organisers, most of the travel bills have been paid by the taxpayers' money, according to the official.
Government officials get between $150 to $200 in travel and daily allowance depending on their designation. According to existing provision, government secretaries get $200 in allowance for day, while joint-secretaries and under-secretaries get $175 and $150 respectively, the official insormed.
However, the allowance could be much higher, in case of a trip is sponsored by big donors and multilateral agencies. UNDP provides a minimum of $350 per day.
Four teams from Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry including secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari and joint secretaries Suresh Acharya, Ghanashyam Upadhyay and Bharat Mani Subedi – totaling to 30 officials – have left for Poland, Pakistan and other countries, leading separate delegations from the ministry today, though the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) team is visiting Nepal for a safety audit of the country’s aviation sector last evening. Likewise, director general at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Sanjiv Gautam has already left for a week-long Myanmar tour, while the two-member ICAO team began air safety audit today,” according to CAAN.
Similarly, Ministry of Agriculture Development has also forwarded a proposal to the Finance Ministry for its approval to send at least 95 – including 60 ministry officials – on a study tour to East Asian countries. Agriculture secretary Suroj Pokhrel and joint secretary Kashi Raj Dahal have already left the country to attend international seminars, a ministry official informed.
The Finance Ministry has also approved foreign tours of over 50 officials. According to a record, at least 33 officials have already left for China, Belgium and USA, while 13 have been waiting for tickets to fly to European countries.
Yet another ministry that has sent its employees to the foreign junket is Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation. Some 21 officials of the ministry are already on a visit to the Philippines and Cambodia last month.
Likewise, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development Secretary Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya returned from a 10-day tour to London today, while another joint secretary from the ministry has already embarked on a tour of Indonesia.
Senior officials have embarked on foreign trips at a time when the Parliament has also been holding ministry-wise budget deliberations. It is mandatory for secretaries and senior officials of the concerned ministries to be present for budget discussion during the House debate.
Though the government has restricted foreign junket, the attraction of civil servents seems not to be decreased due to also good travel allowances. The government had, in 2015, introduced a policy to discourage such visits, but it could not deter the civil servants from making all-paid trips to foreign lands.

NOC revises petroleum prices downward, still makes hefty profits

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has slashed petroleum products' prices effective from midnight. But state-owned petroleum monopoly is still making hefty profits.
The NOC has reduced price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – popularly known as cooking gas – by Rs 25 per cylinder, domestic aviation fuel by Rs 4 per litre, whereas petrol, diesel and kerosene prices dropped by Rs 2 per litre.
After the downward price revision, a cooking gas cylinder will cost Rs 1,350, but the NOC is till making profit on every cylinder of LPG.
Despite the new price drop, NOC has projected that its monthly profit will stand at more than Rs 800 million.
Similarly, petrol will cost Rs 98 per litre, whereas diesel and kerosene will each cost Rs 74 per litre. Air turbine fuel (domestic) has been reduced by Rs 2 per liter for domestic airlines and by Rs 4 liter for international airlines to Rs 84 per liter (domestic) and Rs 73 (international). The domestic airliners will reduce surcharge on air fares, though the public transportation – run by both petrol and diesel will not reduce the fair.
The NOC has revised the fuel prices downwards based on the new price list that it received from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) – the sole supplier of petroleum products to Nepal – according to the NOC spokesperson Sitaram Pokharel. He said that the Indian supplier had lowered the price in the new price list that was sent to NOC on July 1. The NOC receives the new price list fortnightly.
The fuel monopoly has reduced the price after facing criticism for not lowering price despite the drop in fuel price in the international market. It had slashed prices two weeks ago, though the price of cooking gas remained unchanged then citing loss.
 Though the NOC had claimed that it has adopted auto pricing system – based on IOC price every fortnight – it has not been regularly adjusting the prices claiming the loss it had incurred in the past.
The state-owned fuel monopoly had also claimed that lower prices in Nepal would promote fuel smuggling at the Nepal-India border. Due to huge profits it has been making, it has however separated profits for bonus, despite huge public pressure not to 'socialise the loss and privatise the profit.'
"US crude futures have slumped about 15 per cent so far this year to about $46 per barrel, and as of Friday, ended its worst half-year performance in 19 years,” according to the international market that reported that an agreement between the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers to cut output had kept oil prices stable in the last few months. But OECD total oil inventories are still above 3 billion barrels due to an unexpected recovery in Libyan and Nigerian supplies and a rebound in US shale production.

Stock transaction to resume on Sunday

Stocks transaction – which could not take place on Thursday in the secondary market due to high-headedness of share brokers – is going to resume on Sunday, according to the brokers.
The stockbrokers launching a protest to condemn the government’s decision to bring in stockbrokers to value added tax (VAT) regime had closed the market on Thursday 'forcefully' as the capital market regulators – Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) and front line regulator Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) – both remained mute spectators.
"We have agreed to open the transaction on Sunday after the talks with Finance Ministry officials on Friday," said chairman of Stockbrokers’ Association of Nepal (SBAN) Priya raj Regmi after the emergency meeting of the brokers today.
Stockbrokers had completely halted share transactions on Thursday – hurting the investors' sentiment and against the market norms – after the Inland Revenue Offices (IROs) directed two stock brokerages to clear the due VAT levied on commission amounts of the last four years.
The IROs on Wednesday sent letters to Investment Management asking to clear dues of Rs 15 million. Likewise, it also wrote Sundhara Securities asking to submit VAT amount of Rs 6 million. The IROs’ move took brokerage companies by surprise as VAT was never levied on commission generated by stockbrokers before. However, it is not known why the IROs wrote only 2, out of the total 50 broker firms.
The stockbrokers – showing their disagreement – had declined to take purchase and sale orders from the investors on Thursday in a 'syndicate' decision.
Revenue secretary Shishir Dhungana summoned the brokers yesterday – a day after they launched the protest – to discuss on their grievances.
The Finance Ministry has however said that it would not roll back its decision to slap VAT on commission generated by stockbrokers, though it is ready to revise the due amount of the last four years. "The ministry has agreed to find out an alternative to recover the VAT of last four years," the Finance Ministry added.

NAC expands market share to 12 per cent thanks to new aircrafts

The national flag carrier – Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) – has expanded its market in the civil aviation market to 12 per cent from five per cent a year ago, thanks to new aircrafts.
Addressing the 59th anniversary here today, managing director of NAC Sugat Ratna Kansakar said that the national flag carrier's market share a year ago used to be only five per cent, which has now more than doubled to 12 per cent this year. "The number of passengers served by NAC also has also increased by 17.6 per cent," he said, attributing the increase in the market hare to the two 158-seater A320 aircraft added to its international fleet. "NAC has been carrying 200,000 passengers annually for the last one decade. But for the past two years –previous fiscal year and current fiscal year – the number of NAC's passengers has increased by 24 per cent to 384,000.
Similarly, though the number of arrivals at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has increased by 4.7 per cent, the passengers traveling by NAC aircraft have increased by 17.6 per cent this year, he added. "Though NAC's annual transaction has reached Rs 100 billion, international airlines operating in the country enjoy a majority market share.
Increasing the market share and number of passengers is commendable as NAC has to compete with 26 international airlines,” Kansakar said, adding that NAC will bring two wide-body aircraft within a year and increase market share to 18 per cent from the current 12 per cent. "NAC has attached high priority to improving its management besides adding aircraft."