Bringing private sector under CIAA will discourage investment: Deuba

KATHMANDU: Nepali Congress President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said there should not be a legal system for the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to oversee the private sector. In a meeting with the delegation led by Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) President Chandra Prasad Dhakal on Sunday, former Prime Minister Deuba said that the bill to bring the private sector under the jurisdiction of the CIAA should not be passed. He opined that this will discourage domestic and foreign investment. FNCCI President Dhakal said that if the amendment bill regarding the CIAA, which came from the National Assembly to the House of Representatives, is passed, the private sector, which accounts for more than 80% of the economy and provides employment, will be discouraged and the investment environment will deteriorate. As per Article 239 of the Constitution, the CIAA is not allowed to regulate the private sector. The FNCCI has already drawn the attention of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Minister for Defense, and Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Purna Bahadur Khadka. Previously, Prime Minister Dahal committed to removing the provision citing that private sector cannot be regulated by the CIAA. Likewise, former Prime Minister Oli said that this arrangement will create another mechanism to discourage the private sector and opined that this arrangement should not be passed. In a program held at the office of Nepali Congress parliamentary party leaders on April 20, the lawmakers opined that the economy should not be put at risk by bringing the private sector under the CIAA's jurisdiction. In the meeting with former Prime Minister Deuba, FNCCI President Dhakal suggested that policy measures should be adopted to reduce the interest rate in the case of non-disbursement of loans even though liquidity worth Rs 200 billion is available in the banking system. Dhakal mentioned, "The ability to pay the interest on the loan is decreasing. The bad loan ratio of banks has also reached around 4%." He added that bad loan was likely to increase by mid-July and stressed the restructuring and rescheduling of loans. Responding to the FNCCI delegation, Deuba said that since his party believes in liberal economy, he will try to address the problems of the private sector. [gallery columns="1" size="full" link="file" ids="35580,35579"] The FNCCI delegation included President Dhakal, newly elected Senior Vice President Anjan Shrestha, Vice President (Industry Commerce) Sur Krishna Vaidya, Vice President (Commodity) Hem Raj Dhakal, Vice President (Associate) Jyotsna Shrestha, Treasurer Nirak KC and other members of the executive committee. READ ALSO:

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