Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharatmohan Adhikari tabled the bill at the parliament meeting on Wednesday and the House subsequently allowed 48 hours for consideration on the bills.[break]
In case the House fails to endorse the conventions by Friday, officials said Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body overseeing anti-money laundering, could blacklist the country. If that happened, international community will stop carrying out financial transactions with Nepal.
“They will instantly stop honoring letter of credits, payment of reinsurance premiums, international trade and financial contracts,” said a source.
Worse still, the failure to ratify the conventions would seriously jeopardize the country´s potential to garner foreign aid, on which Nepal is highly dependent to fight poverty and carry out development activities.
However, the former rebel party UCPN (Maoist) has announced to ratify the conventions with reservations.
“We are not against the conventions in its entirety but will register our reservations over some provisions as practiced internationally,” Maoist lawmaker Khimlal Devkota told Republica. The Maoist lawmakers will record their reservations by Friday late afternoon when the 48-hour period allowed for consideration on the conventions ends.
According to Devkota, they would register their reservations saying that the conventions shouldn´t control any politically-motivated activities.
According to sources, a section of leaders within the Maoist party are suspicious that the ratification of the conventions without reservations might trouble them in future when they launch a revolt.
“Some Maoist leaders are for launching a revolt and they might be thinking that the conventions may put them in trouble,” said a leader.
According to him, the Maoist leaders are also suspicious that some of the violent and illegal activities carried out by Maoist cadres even in normal times might invoke the convention.
Officials at the parliament secretariat said the convention will be ratified by Friday evening at any cost as it has become imperative.
Reservations can be registered over some specific provisions without contravening the spirit of the main text of the conventions. “There are some provisions over which lawmakers are allowed to register their reservations,” said Tek Prasad Dhungana, secretary at the parliament secretariat.
He said the conventions will be ratified by Friday even by conducting a vote if needed.
Going by the commitment expressed in the international forum, Nepal was required to ratify three UN conventions and four Acts related to anti-money laundering (AML) and controlling of terrorism financing by 2010.
Amid political transition, when leaders are mostly engaged in domestic political disputes, Nepal has repeatedly missed the deadlines. The latest deadline is expiring on Friday.
Given the gravity of the situation, Finance Minister Adhikari on Thursday personally wrote to the plenum of FATF currently being held in Mexico, appraising it about Nepal´s latest endeavors to get the required conventions and Act endorsed from parliament. He even assured them that parliament would endorse the conventions by late Friday Nepali time. A team led by Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Yuvraj Khatiwada is attending the meeting in Mexico.
“If we managed to successfully attain that, we are hopeful of getting another extension till October to enact the remaining laws,” said the source. To turn the situation in its favor, Nepal has also sought the support of World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
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