Government to provide Rs 7 billion loan to NOC

Kathmandu / July 17: The government is to provide a loan of Rs 7 billion to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to make the supply of petroleum products smooth.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers on July 15 decided to provide the amount to NOC, the state-owned petroleum importer and supplier, to pay the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) the dues it owes to the latter due to the adjustment in the price of petroleum products.

Addressing a news conference organized at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology today to make the Council of Ministers’ decisions public, Communications Minister Gyanendra Bahadur Karki informed that the Ministry of Finance has decided to provide the amount to NOC as it was short of money to pay to the IOC.

The Council of Ministers has likewise decided to provide through the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, to NOC Rs 598 million 680 thousand, the amount in lieu of price adjustment in terms of infrastructure tax on petroleum products.

The government has taken a decision to extend the term for the financial management of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project by two years from the date of the Cabinet decision.

The Council of Ministers has decided to promote Investigation Director at the National Investigation Department, Kuldev Thapa, to the post of Additional Chief Investigation Director. It has decided to give continuity to the prohibition on the import of 10 various goods until August 30.

Minister Karki, who is also the government spokesperson, shared on the occasion that the Council of Ministers has given approval for tabling in the Federal Parliament the bill designed to make amendments to the Truth and Reconciliation and the Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) Act, 2071 BS.

The Cabinet meeting has approved the standard on providing relief for the goods destroyed in course of prevention and control of bird flu and the incentive allowance to those persons mobilized for its control.

Likewise, the meeting decided to provide financial assistance of Rs 500 thousand each to the family of Er Satish Kumar Goit and driver Radha Krishna Thapa Magar who died in a mishap that occurred in course of testing the tunnel of the Melamchi Water Supply Project. It has also released the amount collected at the people’s level for the communities affected by the Jure landslide.

A decision has also been made to abrogate the registration in the name of the Properties Management Department of the land of 4-1-3-0 ropanis area at the then Katunje Village Development Committee-2 in Bhaktapur. The Supreme Court had decided that the land plot had been ill-gotten as per clause 35 of the Misappropriated Property and Equipment (Freeze, Control and Confiscation) Act, 2070 BS.

The Council of Ministers has decided to accept a Jadeite Stone Buddha statue to be provided as a gift by the Lumbini Garden Foundation.

The government has provided approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for signing on behalf of the Government of Nepal a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding establishing a bilateral consultation mechanism between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Nepal and Italy by arranging the counterpart.

Likewise, a decision has been made to provide approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to write to the Government of Egypt informing it about the completion of the process of ratification on Nepal’s part for the implementation of the Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation reached between Nepal and the Arab Republic of Egypt on July 16, 2007.

The meeting has decided to give approval to the Chief of the Army Staff Prabhu Ram Sharma to participate in the Annual Chiefs of Defence Conference-2022 to be organised from July 25 to 27 in Sydney, Australia.

The Council of Ministers has decided to appoint Pradip Sharma Poudel of Parbat to the post of Executive Director of the National Information Technology Centre. It has decided to authorise the Director General of the Department of Postal Service to reach an agreement with one or more than one airline’s companies as per the requirement for managing the transportation of international postage at a rate not exceeding the rate determined by the International Postal Union. RSS