"Nullify the hike in interest rates of deposits"

KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 14 : The Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has expressed its serious concerns over the recent hike in the interest rates for deposits. Issuing a press release on Sunday, it said, “ The private sector were already marred by the monetary provision of maintaining 100 percent cash margin while doing the Letter of Credit (LC) related transactions for imports.  And now the abrupt increment in the interest rates by the bank and financial institutes (BFIs) has only made the matter worse.”

The umbrella orgnisation of the Nepali private sector also claims that the latest gesture on the part of BFIs will further hit all small, medium and large scale industries that are already grappling with the Covid-19 crisis

“Rather than devising integrated strategies to address the burning economic challenges like declining imports and leakages in remittance, the banking and monetary provisions hostile to the private sector are being brazenly introduced,” states the release adding,  “This is almost sure to negatively affect the supply  system, increase the consumer prices and erode the competitiveness of Nepali exportable items.”

According to the NCC, if the said provisions are not annulled at the soonest, it would eventually hamper the economic growth of the nation by completely sabotaging the private sector.