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Mechi Customs Office has collected Rs 11.58 billion in revenue in the first eight months of the current fiscal year. This is 96.06 percent of the target set for the same period.

According to the Information Officer Ishwar Kumar Humagain, the target was to collect Rs 12.55 billion by the end of Falgun of the current fiscal year. 

In the eight months of the current fiscal year, Rs 4.89 billion has been collected under the customs duty, Rs 220 million under the customs duty export, Rs 63 million under the customs related other income, Rs 629, 000 under the export service fee, and Rs 100 million under the agricultural reform fee.

Similarly, Rs 264.22 million has been collected under the excise duty, Rs 392.38 million under the road maintenance and improvement fee, Rs 1.22 billion under the infrastructure tax, Rs 1.22 billion under the health risk tax, Rs 4.20 billion under the value added tax (import) and Rs 132.35 million under the green tax.

The office has set an annual target of collecting a total of Rs 18.87 billion under the current fiscal year 2082/083, added Information Officer Humagai.

Nepali Congress President Gagan Kumar Thapa has resigned from his post. 

The party office has stated that Thapa tendered his resignation on Wednesday.

Thapa was unanimously elected as the President by the special general convention of the Nepali Congress held in mid-January earlier this year. 

He was under pressure to resign, following his own defeat and a poor showing of the party in the March 5 election to the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress has summoned a central working committee meeting for tomorrow, Friday.

 killing of Iran's most influential powerbroker, Ali Larijani, has pushed the Islamic Republic into a more uncertain phase, complicating decision-making in Tehran and narrowing its options as the war grinds on, Reuters reported. 

The U.S.-Israeli war, opens new tab on Iran began with the ​killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alongside a group of military commanders, and shows no sign of abating, with several more senior officials now targeted by air ‌strikes.

The deeper challenge for Tehran is increasingly structural. A system built for endurance is being tested by attrition. As experienced officials are picked off in targeted killings, the pool of figures capable of managing both war and statecraft is shrinking, according to Reuters. 

Three Palestinian women were killed in an ​Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on ‌Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there, and the first to kill Palestinians, since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Reuters reported. 

The ​missile struck a hair salon in the town of Beit ​Awwa, southwest of Hebron, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency ⁠WAFA reported. Thirteen were wounded, one of them seriously.

The Israeli military said it understood ​the strike was caused by a cluster munition, a warhead that splits ​into tiny bomblets that scatter into a disparate area, according to Reuters. 

Iran accused Israel of striking ​its facilities in the huge South Pars gas field on Wednesday in a major escalation in the U.S.-Israeli war that sent oil prices shooting higher, and retaliated by vowing attacks on oil and gas targets throughout the Gulf, firing missiles at Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported. 

Qatar's state oil giant QatarEnergy reported "extensive damage" after the Ras Laffan Industrial City, an energy-industry hub, was hit by Iranian missiles. Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted and destroyed four ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh on Wednesday and an attempted drone attack on a gas facility in the east of the country.

South Pars is the Iranian sector of the world's largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar, a close U.S. ally, across the Gulf. Qatar's foreign ministry rebuked Israel for a "dangerous and irresponsible" attack on Iran's South ​Pars facilities, and denounced Iran for what it called "a flagrant breach" of international law, expelling two senior Iranian diplomats, according to Reuters. 

The top intelligence official in the US said on Wednesday that the Iranian regime was "intact" but "largely degraded".

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top Trump administration officials testified at a congressional hearing for more than two hours about worldwide threats to the US, BBC reported. 

It was the first public briefing on intelligence since the war began in late February and came one day after a top counterterrorism leader resigned saying Iran had not posed an imminent threat to the US.

The Election Commission would submit the comprehensive report along with results of the elections to the House of Representatives held on March 5 to President Ram Chandra  Paudel on Thursday.

EC Assistant Spokesperson Kul Bahadur GC said that the consolidated election report would be submitted on Thursday afternoon after presenting certificate to newly elected proportional representation (PR) lawmakers tomorrow morning.

The EC would organize a press conference at its office on Thursday evening after it submits the election report to President Paudel. 

Once the EC submits the report, it is said that the way would open for the formation of a new government in accordance with Article 76 (1) of the Constitution.  

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has got a clear majority to form a new government. 

Out of 275-member House of Representatives, 182 lawmakers of the RSP have been elected.  

GC added that preparations have been completed to present certificates to 110 newly elected members of Parliament elected from the proportional representation (PR) system under HoR election on Thursday. 

Fifty-seven lawmakers from RSP, 20 from Nepali Congress, 16 from CPN-UML, nine from Nepali Communist Party and four from Shram Sanskriti Party and Rastriya Prajatantra Party each were elected under the PR election system.

Similarly, 125 members of RSP, 18 from NC, nine from UML, eight from NCP, three from Shram Sanskriti Party and one from RPP and one independent candidate were elected under the first-past-the-post election (FPTP) system of HoR elections.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has rescued a total of 2,919 homeless people living in the street in the past eight years, officials said. 

The KMC began collaborating with the Manav Sewa Ashram on November 17, 2017 to rescue, manage and rehabilitate helpless street dwellers.

Ramji Adhikari, Chairperson of the Ashram, shared that of those rescued, 315 have died. 

Adhikari added that 713 rescued people were reunited with their families, while 336 have been reintegrated into their communities. 

Currently, 268 people rescued from KMC streets are sheltering in the Ashram, he added. 

Likewise, Sunita Dangol, Acting Mayor of KMC, said that the rescue program was being carried out as a part of the preparation to declare the city 'street people-free'. 

Dangol stressed that making such a declaration sustainable would require coordinated legal, administrative and practical measures.

Similarly, Bishnu Prasad Joshi, Chief of City Police Force, mentioned that efforts to identify and bring homeless people to Ashram continue. 

He shared that the KMC has already provided the Ashram with over Rs 28.73 million along with a dedicated vehicle during this period. 

Ashram's Chairperson Adhikari informed that the Ashram coordinates identification, recommendation and management of those left stranded in the street. 

He also added that people's representatives, KMC's administrative staff, City Police Force among others are actively coordinating efforts to rescue stranded street people.