The Nepal Bankers’ Association (NBA), an organization of chief executive officers of commercial banks, has decided not to issue letters of credit for the import of essentials except in case of extremely needed ones.
The Association’s meeting on Sunday took a decision to this effect. LC will not be allowed to open the import of essentials like vehicles, gold, silvers, sugar, chewing gum, dry foods, furniture, cigarettes, alcohol, perfume, and mobile phones among others, said a chief executive officer of the Nepal Bank Limited, Krishna Bahadur Adhikari, also a member of the Association’s working committee.
The Association’s decision followed the direction of the Nepal Rastra Bank in this regard. Earlier, the central bank in a bid to stop the outflow of the country’s depleting foreign exchange reserve has imposed a 50 to 100 percent cash margin on the import of various 47 goods.
Likewise, the central bank had called and directed CEOs of all 27 commercial banks to halt LC to the import of goods including vehicles. The banks have been following the direction of the central bank.
Meanwhile, the meeting of the NBA also decided for banks not to increase the interest rates in the Nepali month of Baishakh. With this, the interest rate will be within 11.03 percent.
