KATHMANDU, Sept 23: Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma has said there are bottlenecks to establish manufacturing industries in the country due to the culture of depositing money in the bank and financial institutions (BFIs) for the sake of high interest. 

Inaugurating the NADA EV Auto Exhibition in the capital city on Thursday, the Finance Minister argued that development and expansion of manufacturing industries has been hindered due to hike in loan interest rate.

Finance Minister Sharma questioned how the production sector grows if the returns of the deposit in the banks are as high as 15 percent. "Here are issues which should be addressed," said Sharma. 

He also hinted at interventions from the Finance Ministry to control the interest rate adding that there will be no investment in the manufacturing sector if the interest rate is lucrative without investment. 

Sharma argued special priority should be accorded for the production sector and such issues would be addressed if all stakeholders concerned acted responsibly. 

While stressing the need to ensure cooperation among all stakeholders, Minister Sharma opined that import substitution through increased export is the best option.

On the occasion, he also said that they should think of running vehicles through hydrogen along with electric vehicles. "Now, we also should go for green hydrogen since time has come for this," he added. 

In regard to the export of surplus power to India at present, the Finance Minister added that the surplus power should be consumed in the manufacturing sector. "Instead of exporting electricity, we need to export electricity-powered goods. Now, we should export electricity-generated hydrogen," he told the stakeholders.

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