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The price of gold has increased by Rs 700 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 106, 900 per tola today. The gold was traded at Rs 106, 200 per tola on Wednesday. This is the highest ever recorded price in the domestic market. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 106, 400 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has increased by Rs 15 and is being traded at Rs 1,380 per tola today.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 10.37 points to close at 2,183.62 points on Wednesday. Similarly, the sensitive index plunged by 1.30 points to close at 414. 24 points. A total of 9,532,867 unit shares of 261 companies were traded for Rs 3. 46 billion. Meanwhile, Greenlife Hydropower Limited and Adarsha Laghubitta Bittiya Sansth Limited were the top gainers today, with their price surging by 10. 00 percent. RPP Mutual Fund was the top loser as its price fell by 5.70 percent. At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 15 trillion.

There has been a significant increase in non-performing loans (NPL) of commercial banks in the first half of the current fiscal year. The financial reports of 21 commercial banks for the second quarter show bad loans of the banks increasing by 116 percent. The average NPL of commercial banks has increased to 2.29 percent in the first half of FY 2022/23 compared to 1.06 percent during the same period of FY 2021/22. Bankers say NPLs have risen mainly due to the non-recovery of debts. As the private sector struggled with rising borrowing rates and a sharp slowdown in market demand, banks have been struggling to recover the loans. The non-payment of loan installment and interest has increased in this fiscal year, according to bankers. Had there been economic activity, it would have been easier for borrowers to pay the debt and interest on time, they say. The Nepal Rastra Bank implemented the guidelines on working capital loans in mid-October 2022 in order to stop the misuse of credit and control the trend of paying the banks' interest by taking loans. Businessmen and industrialists who used to take loans from banks to pay interest were unable to pay interest after the implementation of working capital loan guidelines which also contributed to the rise in the NPL of banks. The profits of banks have also been affected by the increment in bad loans as they have to keep aside large amounts of money for the provisioning of bad loans. Provisioning is a practice where banks are required to maintain a certain amount in reserve when loans are not recovered. Of the 21 commercial banks that have published their second quarter report, the Agriculture Development Bank Limited (ADBL) has the highest NPL. The bank's NPL has increased to 4.52 percent by mid-January compared to 2.08 percent during the same period of the last fiscal. The profit of the ADBL has decreased by a whopping 109.06 percent in the first half of the current fiscal. The bank has incurred a loss of 0.128 billion in the first half of FY 2022/23 compared to a profit of 1.42 billion during the same period of FY 2021/22. Himalayan Bank Limited (HBL), Sunrise Bank, Kumari Bank, and Nepal Bank are the other four banks whose NPL is above 3 percent. The HBL's NPL has reached 3.77 percent in the first half of FY 2022/23 compared to 0.72 percent during the same period of FY 2021/22. Sunrise Bank's NPL increased to 3.36 percent in mid-January 2023 from 1.40 percent in mid-January 2022. The NPL of Kumari Bank and Nepal Bank has increased to 3.15 percent and 3.11 percent, respectively. The NPL of Kumari Bank increased mainly due to the merger with NCC Bank. As the NCC Bank had a higher NPL, Kumari Bank's overall bad loan increased after the merger. Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) is the only commercial bank that has its NPL decreased in this fiscal year. The government-owned bank has been able to reduce its bad loans by 9.67 percent during the review period. The RBB's NPL has decreased to 2.79 percent in mid-January 2023 from 3.06 percent in mid-January 2022.     NPLs of Commercial Banks

The Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel on Monday instructed the government secretaries to increase capital expenditure and reduce current expenditure of their respective ministries. Since he took the charge of the Finance Ministry in December 2022, Poudel has zeroed in on two fronts of improving revenue collection and expedite capital expenditure and controlling recurrent expenditure. During a discussion program on budget implementation at the Ministry of Finance on Monday, Poudel highlighted the need to maintain fiscal discipline. His message to the secretaries was loud and clear. He said, "The situation of capital expenditure and revenue mobilization is worrying, and secretaries have to be strict in revenue management and give special priority to capital expenditure." Such is the state of poor government spending that seven ministries have spent less than 10 percent of their capital expenditure in the first half of the current fiscal year. Of them, the capital expenditure of four ministries is below five percent. As per the target, ministries should have spent 30 percent of their capital expenditure in the first six months of the fiscal year. The Finance Ministry's data shows none of the ministries have been able to spend capital expenditure as per the target. The capital expenditure of the ministries having large development budgets has also been dismal in this fiscal. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Urban Development, the Ministry of Drinking Water, and the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation have not been able to utilize their capital expenditure of even 50 percent of the allocation. According to the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), the government has spent just Rs 53.45 billion, which accounts for just 14 percent of the allocated capital budget since the start of the current fiscal year. This rate of development spending is similar to FY 2021/22 when the capital expenditure stood at 13.44 percent in the first half of the fiscal year. Finance Ministry officials say the poor revenue collection in the first half of the fiscal year has posed a new challenge, that of fiscal imbalance. Unlike in past years, the government's overall revenue collection has decreased significantly in this fiscal compared to the last fiscal year. The revenue administration has been struggling to meet the revenue target from the start of the current fiscal. As resource management becomes challenging, Poudel on Monday directed the secretaries not to ask for additional budget for any heading other than mandatory obligations. Citing the poor revenue collection in this fiscal, secretaries have been told to spend the funds only on the respective headings for which the budget has been allocated. Finance Ministry officials say maintaining fiscal discipline has become of paramount importance for now. Introducing cost-cutting measures, the ministry itself has implemented 17-point guidelines to reduce expenses. "We expect other ministries to follow us in this respect," said a senior official at the ministry.