NBA decides not to issue LC for import of essentials

April 11, Kathmandu: The Nepal Bankers’ Association (NBA), an organisation 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.

Chief executive officer of the Nepal Bank Limited, Krishna Bahadur Adhikari said the meeting decided not to allow to import materials including vehicles, gold, silvers, sugar, chewing gum, dry foods, furniture, cigarettes, alcohol, perfume and mobile phones among others

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 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.