The finance minister, Yuba Raj Khatiwada, on Tuesday promised ‘an improved package’ for Nepali athletes and officials if they make the nation proud by earning medals at the 13th South Asian Games, which Kathmandu is hosting from December 1 to 10.

Addressing a special programme organised on Tuesday to motivate Nepali athletes and officials for the regional sporting extravaganza, Khatiwada, however, stopped short of disclosing the package details.

Previously, the board meeting of the National Sports Council held on April 3, 2012, had decided to pay Rs500,000 as cash prize for gold winners at the South Asian Games, with silver winners receiving Rs300,000 and bronze medalists Rs200,000 in an individual sport. At the same meeting, it was decided that Rs200,000 each will be awarded to all members if they win gold at a team event, Rs150,000 for winning the silver and Rs100,000 for bronze.

As well, the board at the time had decided that the coaches and assistant coaches of gold-winning athletes will receive cash incentives of Rs300,000 and Rs150,000, respectively. The coaches and their deputies of silver-winners were to receive Rs200,000 and Rs100,000 and Rs100,000 and Rs50,000 cash incentive, it was decided, will be paid to the two coaches of bronze winners.

The government, on Tuesday, also felicitated the members of Nepali women’s volleyball team that made history earlier this month by winning the Central Zone Senior Women's Volleyball tournament in Bangladesh. Each team member was given a cash reward of Rs300,000 at the felicitation function. As many as 12 players, three coaches, and one manager were given the cash awards.

Khatiwada, who shared his own closeness to the sport which he claimed to have played during his earlier days, said: “I urge the Volleyball Association to come up with a plan and location for the construction of a dedicated facility for the sport. The government will invest in the covered hall.”

Earlier, welcoming the volleyball winners at the Tribhuvan International Airport upon their arrival, Member Secretary of the National Sports Council, Ramesh Kumar Silwal assured the women spikers that he would appeal to the government to provide them cash incentives.

Nepali women spikers were invincible in the tournament, which concluded at the Shaheed Suhrawardy Indoor Stadium in Mirpur, Bangladesh on November 14. Nepal overpowered the Maldives 25-13, 25-12, 25-8 in the tournament final.

Before their recent success, Nepal had won the bronze medal in women's volleyball at the 8th South Asian Games held at home in 1999, which was their maiden international participation. They added two more medals, finishing third at the 10th South Asian Games in Sri Lanka in 2006 and also at the 12th edition of the regional sports extravaganza in India, a decade later.