NATTA delegation led by the President, Mr. D. B. Limbu met with the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Dr. Yubraj Khatiwada at his office on Monday, 4th August 2014. The meeting was held mainly to discuss regarding the payment of monthly BSP Link fees & annual fee of IATA to be paid in Nepalese currency locally by our members. Also discussed was the possibility of removing the dual currency system that has been existing in air ticketing. The Secretary General, Ms. Mihika Dhakhwa, explained the difficulty faced by our member agents to transact in dual currency (USD and NPR) for air ticketing and she also put forth the logic that the USD transaction is a minimal amount compared to the NPR transaction on airfares that is paid to IATA and therefore, such a nominal amount should not stand as a hurdle for ticketing agents. The Governor has taken this matter positively and NATTA will be submitting a report with the data on the total payment made to BSP and the percentage calculation of USD payment of the same.
Another issue discussed during the meeting was the difficulty faced by our member agents operating Kailash tours for Indian tourists in which the NRB policy does not allow remittance in USD to China for the INR received by Indian tourists. The tour & transport sub-committee will soon meet to work on a proposal to be submitted to the Governor on the benefits to the nation’s coffer of conducting Kailash tours to Indian tourists.
