Writer's Pit

Some years back when buying things in installments used to cost more than the normal price for any products. For instance we can look at a single home appliance product like washing machines or microwave ovens or even refrigerators. Lets say the cost of a washing machine used to be somewhere around 40,000. The initial payment would be 20% to 25% depending upon the financers and the products. After the down payment, a certain rate of interest would be levied upon the remaining amount which needed to be cleared in twelve months or further. With this kind of installment purchases, the customers would not get any kinds or any amount of discounts. So the actual price they had to pay always exceeded the original price.

One of the largest and biggest names in telecommunication word, Nokia has been running two dealers in the same place. Currently here in Kathmandu, Paramount Electronics and Neurotic have been appointed as the authorized distributors for Nokia. A mobile telephone has become a necessity for life in all the parts of the world. This effect has hit Nepal as well. Though the market is small the potential is large due to the latest introduction of features in a mobile phone. Everyday the number of buyers is increasing.

The two dealers however don’t have any kinds of competitions as the market has been segmented area wise. Presence of these kinds of authorized distributors, the mobile users are now content with the service and availability of the original Nokia products. The consumer awareness in Nepal has improved a lot and they are ready to pay a bit more money for original and quality products rather than cheaper with low quality products.

The grey market still exists which could probably act as a hurdle against such authorized distributors. Those products in the grey market refers to those products which have been imported without or cheating taxes and this makes them available at low price but do not have after sale services or invoice as well. People now don’t want to pay some twelve thousand rupees and get an invoice of just ten thousand. This is good from all perspectives. The Nokia Corporation is now soon starting a service station in Nepal for all Nokia products distributed by its authorized distributors.

In Nepal, the telecommunication market is hugely dominated by Nokia. Further more, the step taken by Nokia for having a dealer is a good move which would expand its market to the highest in the future.

The scarcity of petrol in the nation seems to an artificial one. There are many people and organizations or groups involved in selling petrol for hundred rupees per liter. No matter what the quantity is, it is available if you are willing or can afford to pay Rs.100.00 per liter.

The petrol dealers were to start an unlimited strike for not getting sufficient petrol as to meet the daily supply and the dealers had to stay in a queue to wait for their turn. Only yesterday the government and the petrol dealers had a 17 point agreement due to which the petrol dealers called off their strike.

Some banks and financial institutes in the nation have started providing student loan. The history in such category of loan is not very long and it would have started just six or seven years back from now. Everyone who would like to be a doctor or a chartered accountant can not afford such big amount so they just had to suppress their interest and join some other streams. Today there are a number of banks which provides education loans however there are still some drawbacks with such loans. The loans are provided only to well deserve applicant who have scored good marks in their exams.

A couple of days back I read in news which was related to something like students loans. The school started a loan facility which they provided to their own students. Looking at the financial status of students and families of those areas, that school was providing student loan. Though I did not pay much attention towards the news I felt glad. This was a good move. I am not sure about the student after finishing studies from that school would still get loans to pursue further education or not. But completing high school with the loan provided is good enough for needy and poor people. The news was great and hats off to that school.

Recently the practice of students going abroad to pursue further education is on the rise. In this case however many banks, brokers and agents involved in education consultancies are making good money by providing loan and fake bank balances. There are so many investors who advertise themselves on the local newspaper who are making good money without any difficulties. Though it’s good for the needy but they are really making easy money. The price of those kinds of loans and bank balances has now come down to Rs.10.00 per Rs.100000.00 balance shown for a single day. I am familiar to those kinds of experiences where Rs. 48000.00 had been paid for Rs. 2500000.00 balance showed on the sponsor’s account of the applicant. The number of people who show their actual bank balances to ensure the sponsorship for further education to the academic institutes abroad is very low. Most of the students have been relying on these fake bank balances. Investing some thousand rupees for a fake balance seemed to be worth for all the students trying to go abroad for further education as they will have the chance of earning the sum in no time. The bottom line is to be granted a student visa.

Investing on these kinds of transaction in Nepal is a very fruitful one as well. In some sense it doesn’t just earn profit but could lay a strong platform to those students who cannot afford higher education in developed countries.

The lack of consumer law in Nepal has affected the local consumers in a great deal. Every where they are cheated and everyone is behind them to cheat and make money from them. This doesn’t point out only to those manufacturing companies and its consumers but applies to that group of people involved in human resources companies as well. I would only like to talk about foreign employment service providers for now.

Investing upon foreign currency is a very good business in this age. People are rather interested in forex trading than investing upon real estates just because the cash conversion rate is high and can be easily exchanged in terms of cash. So for those who are looking to invest upon forex trading the best place is etoro.com which provides a lot of good offers. The best part of these offers is that they are good for both well experienced traders as well as first time investors. Basically etoro is a software which helps one to transact forex trades without any hassles. This can be downloaded for free from etoro.com.

The other interesting factors of etoro can be listed in the following manner:

• Chat facility which enables you to chat and interact with others so that you can gain more information on what you are investing upon.
• Has etoro community forum which is free to use and a very good resource for forex trading.
• Etoro championships which is a newly added features where you can be a winner and win upto $500.00 based on the profit you earn through this forex trading.
• Promotion scheme which includes a 50% bonus on your first deposit of up to $200.00.

And for the deposit you can use your visa card, master card or paypal account to name the most popular forms of payment today. Lastly it is recommended that you do not invest any sum of money which you can't afford to lose, this forex trading carries a lot of risks but it also carries a potential of earning a lot of money in no time.

The Nepal Oil Corporation has always been in trouble regarding sufficient supply of fuel according to the demand. When we look back some twelve or thirteen years or so the same kind of fuel scarcity rocked the nation. The government then had to issue cards so as to distribute kerosene oil equally to all the consumers. Let me remind you that only five liters of kerosene oil was allocated for a card and not more than that. People had to stay in a queue for hours just to get five liters of kerosene oil.

The situation never improved. An alternative for this kerosene use came into existence in the form of LPG gas. This however is in the same condition that used to be some thirteen years back. General public is having a very rough time just to cook food and the problems with pollution free vehicles which are run by same LPG gas are always there. The Nepal Oil Corporation has never been able to supply sufficient fuel up to the demand. There may be so many factors behind this among which proper management could be the biggest among them.

The due which Indian Oil Corporation owns to the Nepal Oil Corporation is very high and probably would take some decades to clear that due. The facility that Nepal Oil Corporation had provided to its staff members are praise worthy but this is the main factor behind today’s Nepal Oil Corporation. When Nepal Oil Corporation had profit, the utilization of that profit wasn’t wise. There may be so many other reasons why Nepal Oil Corporation is in trouble right now but they are vague to the general public.

There have been issues of privatization of the Nepal Oil Corporation, but that too wouldn’t work. The debt it owes to Indian Oil Corporation is too much and private organizations could also do nothing about it. So far there’s no solution for Nepal Oil Corporation to get out of this quick sand of debts.

This is how the share prices of some companies stand as on the opening day of the week. I have randomly listed some companies among many others and the list doesn’t relate to any importance. The information is a courtesy of local newspaper the himalayan times and some other NEPSE stock market websites.