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Shivam Cement Ltd, based in Hetauda-16, has allegedly failed to pay Rs. 2.34 billion in electricity tariffs to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The said amount has accumulated over the past five years as Shivam failed to pay the charges of using NEA Hetauda distribution center’s dedicated feeder power line.

The NEA has repeatedly sent letters to the company to clear its dues but, apparently, it still has not been able to cut off Shivam’s power supply.

Meanwhile, the company has claimed that NEA Hetauda has been spreading propaganda against the public limited company. Lekhnath Aryal, company secretary and spokesperson, told the media that the company has been paying its electricity tariffs on time.

Further, the company claims that it has never requested for a dedicated feeder, nor has it ever received 24-hours uninterrupted power during load-shedding days. The industry ran on diesel back in those days, says the company.

The Electricity Tariff Assessment Commission had fixed the tariff for dedicated feeder users at about 67 percent higher than the regular rate in January 2016. The users would get continuous electricity even during load-shedding. Shivam argues that the rate fixed by the Tariff Assessment Commission does not apply to the company as it was never activated.

When Raju Shakya first landed in Melbourne, Australia, at the age of 20, there were only a handful of Nepalis living there. Living in a close-knit community determined to help each other in a foreign land, Shakya started making connections with people from his homeland.

He participated in countless community activities like NRNA programs, team building campaigns to traditional music festivals and Nepali movie marathons. Shortly, Shakya, who went to Melbourne to study information technology, became a prolific member of the small community of Nepalis there.

Being active in these groups kept him connected to his roots and even made him more passionate about his own culture. “My life was pretty boring after I graduated in 1997,” Shakya tells ApEx. “I worked for a software company as a programmer and project manager and got to travel around the world for my work—but something was missing.”

He continued doing community work right through his 15-year career as a software programmer. Strangely, only during these moments with people from his homeland did he feel a sense of joy. “People always say that your love for your country amplifies after you leave it—I can say that’s true,” Shakya says. “I loved all things Nepali—the movies, the music, and especially the food.”

But being allowed to showcase Nepali culture and indulging in it during community festivals were not enough for Shakya. So he opened Solangture (shorthand for ‘society, language, and culture’) with his friends Ranjan Vaidhya and Sudir Shakya.

Popular among Australians for its yearly Nepali music and food festivals, Solangture has made a name for itself with its local momo-eating contests.

“When we organized our first festival in 2017, we were shocked to see thousands of people in attendance,” he confesses. By 2017, a considerable number of Nepalis had migrated to Australia. What Shakya and his team hadn’t anticipated was that almost 40-50 percent of them were dying to get a taste of Nepal.

“We often underestimate the value of our culture,” the businessman says. “Everyone recognizes gyoza as Japanese dumpling, and bao as Chinese dumpling—but momo is rarely talked about, even when there is such a large market for it.”

This, Shakya says, is our fault, at least in part. “I see countless Nepali restaurants around Melbourne that claim they’re serving authentic Nepali cuisines but when you enter them you find they offer both Nepali and Indian dishes,” he says. This confuses people who are unfamiliar with our country, he adds, making them believe that Nepali cuisine has nothing unique to offer.

Nepali businessmen in foreign lands are afraid to embrace their uniqueness and instead place a safety net on their businesses—especially when it comes to food. And this has prevented the actual taste of Nepal from getting the love and recognition that it deserves.

When Shakya continued with the music and food festivals in 2018 and 2019, he saw even more interest, with almost 30,000 people attending the festival in three days each year. Solangture served its guests momo and brought in popular artists like Kutumbha to perform Nepali numbers.

But with the involvement of an unprecedented number of people also came complaints—mostly concerning the festival facilities. “Every year we tried to improve the facilities, and each time we were greeted with more people than we anticipated,” Shakya says.

Solangture was gearing up for the 2020 festival—which they were planning to hold not just in Melbourne, but also in Sydney and Brisbane—when Covid-19 pandemic halted their plans.

“We were still trying to find ways to serve quality momo to our customers when the lockdown started,” Shakya says. But in June 2020, Solangture started Momo Kingdom—an online shop to order frozen momo in Melbourne.

Within a few months of its establishment, Momo Kingdom was overwhelmed with orders. So Solangture came up with a system in which the staff make momo throughout the week but deliver them only on weekends. Yet, just during these two days, there are at least 50 orders from all over Melbourne. After seeing an increase in demand, the company has also diversified its menu, adding buff sukuti, goat meat, choila, fokso fry, bhutan, and chowmein to the list.

Solangture had to hire four additional staff just so they could cover the entire city. Aside from Nepalis, Solangture also finds itself delivering to other South Asians and Australians in Melbourne.

“Momo Kingdom isn’t exactly a restaurant and we are yet to decide what we’re going to do with it,” Shakya says. “But our goal remains the same: promoting Nepal’s authentic taste around the world.”

Recent additions to the blacklist of the Credit Information Bureau reflect how Covid-19 is taking a toll on the economy. In less than a week, 129 industrialists, traders and individuals have joined the list of defaulters.

The bureau blacklists individuals and companies after they default on loans taken from banks and financial institutions for a long time. The recent update to the list includes Alpine Card Service, Alpine Finco International, and Yakshya Investment Pvt Ltd, all companies under the Alpine Group.

Company directors Mrinalini Giri, Rabindra Bahadur Malla, and Pranju Malla have been blacklisted. Alpine Card Services had been managing payments through international cards (including Visa, MasterCard) in Nepal. Currently, such cards are being issued and operated by the BFIs themselves. Meanwhile, several financial institutions had tried to buy the company.

Arthiknews.com quotes a company employee as saying that Alpine Group’s downfall began with its ambition of running Alpine Airlines. However, the group did not practice even the basics of business ethics. “It is no surprise they got blacklisted,” the employee says, adding, “There is probably no bank from which they haven’t taken loans. Moreover, most documents submitted to the bank for loans were forged.”

Although Alpine Group’s Union Money Transfer is currently in operation, investors have sunk most of the businesses they set up. The legacy that began with Bhakta Bahadur Malla’s Alpine Travels seems to be coming to an end now that the second generation of the family has been blacklisted.

Hansraj Hulaschand and Co Pvt Ltd, the authorised distributor of KTM and Husqvarna bikes in Nepal, has announced the opening of its 13th KTM and Husqvarna dealership showroom—Times Auto Enterprises—in Thimi.

The new showroom officially opened at the start of this month. “Situated in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city, the showroom is expected to reach a wider customer base,” a media release issued by the company reads. Both the brands will be available for the customers at the new showroom.

Hansraj Hulaschand Pvt Ltd brought KTM to Nepal in 2012 and it has been one of the most loved bike brands in the country. Similarly, the Swedish brand Husqvarna has been available since 2020.

Both bikes are available in all showrooms in Kathmandu. To date, KTM bikes have won over 390 world championship titles—including the toughest and most prestigious Dakar Rally a whopping 18 times in succession.