KATHMANDU, April 2 (Xinhua) -- As Nepal faces the risk to foreign exchange earnings due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remittance, exports and tourism, Nepali government has discouraged the import of gold, expensive vehicles, foreign liquors among others.
In the latest circular issued by Nepal's central bank on Wednesday, the commercial banks, which are responsible for importing the gold, have been told to import not more than 10kg of gold per day. Earlier, the threshold for importing gold was 20kg a day.
Likewise, as per the circular, the import of the vehicle costing more than 50,000 U.S. dollars, liquors, betel nuts, peas, peppercorns and dates dried has been banned completely.
"The circular was issued in line with the government's decision earlier this week which sought to discourage the imports of these items," Gunakar Bhatta, spokesperson at Nepal's central bank told Xinhua on Thursday.
According to him, the import of these products, some of them are considered unproductive, is being discouraged because of the risks to the foreign exchange reserve from reduced remittance, exports and tourism earnings.
"The foreign exchange reserve has not yet been affected but it is sure that reserves will be affected as major sources of foreign exchange earnings have been affected by the deadly pandemic," he said. "The decision to discourage the import of a number of items is a signal that tough time is ahead and more stringent measures could be taken to discourage the outflow of foreign exchange."
In the last fiscal year, Nepal had received remittance amounting to 7.79 billion U.S. dollars, which is more than 26 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the Nepal's central bank.
During the first eight months of the current fiscal that began in mid-July 2019, the country received remittance around 4.8 billion U.S. dollar, according to Bhatta. But, remittance might not grow in the upcoming remaining months of this fiscal.
Earning from exports and the remittance will also shrink as they are also heavily affected by pandemic, said Bhatta.
Two factors will affect the inflow of remittance as Nepali government has suspended giving approval for Nepalis to go abroad for jobs since last month citing the threat of pandemic to Nepali migrant workers and the job market in the destination countries has also shrunk due to lack of economic activities. Gulf countries and Malaysia are major destination countries for Nepali migrant workers. Enditem
