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The Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMO) has black listed 12 various companies. The PPMO stated in a notice that construction and supplier companies have been blacklisted from one year to three years on the recommendation of various bodies. Those companies included in the black list are the Universal Multi Services Pvt Ltd, Shankhamul, Kathmandu with Gopal Dhakal as the main person; the Swargadwari Mahaprabhu Builders Pvt Ltd, Bhingri, Pyuthan with Kumar Bhandari as the main person; the Shree Sukrin Construction Service, Ghorahi, Dang with Krishna Bahadur Khadka as the main person; and the Shree SD Construction Janakpurdham, Dhanusha with Niraj Kumar Mishra as the main person. Similarly, the PPMO has blacklisted the Rastra Nirman Sewa, Bhageshwar Rural Municipality, Dadeldhura with  Jagat Bahadur Jora as the main person; the Muktinath Builders and Company Pvt Ltd, Tokha,  Dhapasi with Janardan Dhital as the main person; the Laxmi Nirman Sewa, Chhatradev, Arghakhanchi with Ram Bahadur Rana as the main person; the Jaleshwar Construction Service, Nilkantha, Dhading with Prakash Koirala as the main person; the DV Ghimire Construction, Ichhakamana, Kurintar with Madhav Bahadur Ghimire as the main person; and Anjana Construction Service, Bharatpur, Chitwan with Pushkar Prasad as the main person. Also blacklisted by the PPMO are the Dilli Trading Birgunj, Parsa with Rani Kumari Rauniyar as the main person and the B Management Pvt Ltd, Naya Bazaar, Pokhara with Shivahari Pudasaini as the main person. The blacklisted companies are barred from participating in any procurement activities of the public bodies during the designated time period, the PPMO said. The Rastra Nirman Sewa, Bhageshwar Rural Municipality, Dadeldhura with Jagat Bahadur Jora as the main person has been blacklisted for three years and the remaining construction and supplier companies have been blacklisted for one year.

The government’s decision to restrict imports of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles for eight months has turned out to be a boon for electric vehicles (EVs). Encouraged by lower customs duties and other taxes on imports and sales compared to ICE vehicles, the import of EVs surged by 64.77 percent in the first half of the current fiscal year. The latest foreign trade statistics published by the Department of Customs (DoC) show imports have grown remarkably particularly, of electric four-wheelers (cars, SUVs, micro-buses, and buses) and two-wheelers in the current fiscal year. According to DoC, imports of cars and SUVs have increased by 60.75 percent while the imports of two-wheeler grew by a whopping 243.80 percent. The growth in the car and SUV segment has been mainly driven by the surge of electric four-wheelers up to 100kW. According to DoC, the country has imported electric four-wheelers worth Rs 4.92 billion in the first six months of this fiscal compared to Rs 3.24 billion during the same period in the last fiscal year. Of the total imported vehicles during the first six months of the current fiscal year, 1,708 were equipped with electric motors up to 100KW. The imports of such EVs stood at 396 units in the first six months of the last fiscal year. The change in the tax arrangements on EVs by the government in the current fiscal year's budget has helped the market of 100kW EVs to boom. In the budget for FY2022/23, the then finance minister Janardan Sharma levied excise duty on top of the existing customs duty on EVs above 100 kW capacity. The government has imposed a 30 percent excise duty on vehicles with 100-200 kW motors. Similarly, a 45 percent excise duty has been imposed on the imports of vehicles with electric motors of 201-300 kW capacity and a 60 percent excise duty on vehicles with more than 300 KW motor capacity. The changes in tax structure have made EVs above 100 kW costlier in the market. Official statistics show the imports of EVs up to 100 kW have gone up by 331.31 percent in the first six months while imports of EVs above 100 kW have declined significantly. The biggest growth has been seen in the motorcycle/scooter segment. The imports of electric two-wheelers have increased by a whopping 243.80 percent in the current fiscal year. Nepal has imported 5,133 units of electric motorcycles/scooters in the first six months of the current fiscal compared to 1,493 units during the same period of the last fiscal. The micro-bus segments also grew by 88.09 percent. Nepal has imported 79 electric micro-buses in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Amid declining foreign exchange reserves which created fear that the country would head in the direction of Sri Lanka, the government imposed a complete ban on ICE vehicles along with a number of other goods starting from April 2022. Though measures to control the import of fuel-based vehicles helped to increase the imports of electric vehicles, the government’s policy towards promoting electric vehicles has remained inconsistent. Nepal’s second enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted at the United Nations targets to achieve a 20 percent share of EVs in the public transport category by 2025. In 2018, the government proposed to turn at least 20 percent of public vehicles into electric buses by 2020, in a plan based on Nepal’s commitments at the 2015 UN climate conference in Paris. Yet the plan hasn’t moved an inch in the past five years. While presenting the budget for the fiscal year 2021/22, the then Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel had said that Nepal plans to shift from light vehicles that run on petroleum products to electric ones by 2031 and announced a strategic plan to lower fuel imports and the concomitant pollution. However, Nepal has taken only a baby step towards the electrification of the country’s transport system with an insignificant number of vehicles operating in the country being electric. Besides inconsistent taxation policy, the lack of adequate charging stations has also delayed the widespread adaptation of electric vehicles in the country. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said it has almost completed installing 50 charging stations. According to an official of NEA, as many as 25 charging stations have already come into operation while the installation of 30 has recently been completed and five are in the process of completion. Even the private sector is also coming up with new charging station plants. However, automobile dealers say that it is not enough to speed up the transition process.

The Sunkoshi-Marin Diversion Multi-Purpose Project has completed 2.432 kilometers of tunnel digging in the three and a half months since the start of the construction process. The construction of the 13.3 km long diversion tunnel with a diameter of 5.5 meters under the project was started on October 14 last year. The project aims to divert 67 cubic meters of water per second from the Sunkoshi River to the Marin River at Kusumtar of Kamalamai Municipality-2 in Sindhuli. According to the project chief Mitra Baral, the project plans to complete the tunnel digging in the next 18-19 months. The US technology Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) has been used to dig the tunnel. "Currently, construction work is being carried out 24 hours a day with 3 shifts of 8-8 hours each," said Baral. " On average, 25 meters of tunnels are being dug every day." "If we do not encounter any geological difficulties or technical problems, the construction will be completed before the contract schedule," he added. The China Overseas Engineering Co won the contract for the construction of a tunnel for the Sunkoshi Marin Diversion Multipurpose Project by offering to do it for Rs 10.05 billion, nearly Rs 6 billion less than the price quoted by the government. The Department of Irrigation signed the project contract with the Chinese company on March 23, 2021. As per the contract, the work must be completed within 3 years of the start of construction. The water from the Sunkoshi will first be diverted to the Marin River in Sindhuli through the 7-meter-wide tunnel before being channeled into the Bagmati River. The water will then be collected at a barrage and distributed to irrigate fields. The tunnel is a part of the multi-billion Sunkoshi Marin Project located in Sindhuli and Ramechhap districts that aims to take water from the Sunkoshi River and direct it into the Bagmati River to irrigate 122,000 hectares of farmland in Rautahat, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi and Bara districts in the southern plains. While the 13.3 km long tunnel will be completed within the next two years, the Irrigation Department estimates that the overall project will be fully operational only by 2029. The construction of other structures under the project has not started yet. The project proposes to construct a 12-meter-high barrage across the Sunkoshi River and divert a discharge of 67 cubic meters per second through the tunnel to Kusumtar located in Ward 6 of Kamalamai Municipality. A powerhouse will be built on the Marin River to generate 28.62 megawatts of electricity. A Nepali and Indian joint venture company has been awarded the contract to build the dam and powerhouse of the project. The joint venture (JV) of Nepal's Raman Construction and India's Patel Engineering has won the contract to build the Sunkoshi-Marin diversion dam and power plant for Rs 12.5 billion. The project has already given a letter of Intent (LOI) to the JV company. The contract agreement will be signed within two months, according to the project.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 1,100 per tola in the domestic market on Friday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 105, 800 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 106, 900 per tola on Thursday. Meanwhile, the tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 105, 300 per tola. Similarly, the price of silver has remained unchanged and is being traded at Rs 1, 380 per tola today.