[BREAKING] Nepal Rastra Bank Transfers Payment for BIRDS-3 Satellite Project

BIRDS-3 Satellite Project for Nepal

After concentrated effort from Minister of Education, Science & Technology, Director General of Internal Revenue Department and the Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) along with Accounting Division of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), and representative of Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech), 76.7% of the required payment has been wired to the institution in Japan facilitating Nepal's first satellite, NepaliSat-1. 

The timing was crucial as the Cooperative Research Agreement signed between Kyutech and NAST would have naturally terminated if no payment was done by April 10, 2018. With a quarter of the amount remaining, Nepal is close to fully funding their satellite. The amount could have been paid in full, had the Yen not been strong in recent exchange market and had a 13% VAT and 10% Tax not been levied. The remaining 23.3% will have to go through the whole cycle again, however, this shouldn't take as long as all the government organizations are now well aware of the project and its implication. The Secretary (Revenue), the Secretary of Ministry of Finance along with the Adviser to the Finance Minister has also been thoroughly briefed regarding the work.

The BIRDS-3 team would sincerely like to thank all the people involved in getting this far. Now, time to build that satellite.