Chief whip of the party Dev Gurung, who belongs to the Baidya faction, has ruled out any chance of his faction paving the way for enactment of the bills -- Extradition Bill, Mutual Cooperation Bill and Bill to Control Organized Crime -- until the country gets a new constitution and the political transition ends.[break]
“There are reasons to this. The Bill on Organized Crime includes clauses similar to the Terrorist and Destructive Activities (Control and Punishment) Ordinance, which was enacted in 2001 targeting us during the insurgency. That act was politically motivated. Who can guarantee that the new bill will not be used to serve similar political interests?” he said.
Gurung argued that the faction he represents was not against controlling financial crime or taking action against people engaged in terrorism financing. He, however, expressed the view that bills like the one on Control of Organized Crime should be enacted only after the transition ends and the country´s politics returns to normal.
The government tabled the Bills on Extradition, Mutual Cooperation and Control of Organized Crime in parliament in February, when the deadline set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global anti-money laundering body, was about to expire.
However, attempts to get them endorsed under a fast-track approach failed after the Baidya faction of the Maoist party threatened to stall parliament if those bills were included in house business.
The failure sparked a hue and cry as it raised the chances of the country being downgraded by FATF. If that had happened, the international community would have instantly disregarded letters of credit and payments issued by Nepali traders, donors would have stopped issued aid and foreign investors would probably be encouraged to pull out their investments.
But the country managed to escape such threats after FATF considered positively the requests of a high-level political leadership and gave Nepal additional time till June.
“It was our good luck that we managed to remain in the grey zone even though we have grossly flouted 33 out of 49 recommendations from FATF,” said Maha Prasad Adhikari, deputy governor of Nepal Rastra Bank.
But with the new deadline also fast approaching, he has appealed to all the political parties in the Constituent Assembly to be serious about enactment of the promised laws.
If the country fails to honor the commitment it made in February, it could face harsh action, Adhikari opined. That will be very unfortunate for in that case banks in Nepal will be forced to depend on Indian or other banks to facilitate international trade and payments.
“That will make us completely dependent on other countries,” said Rajan Singh Bhandari, vice-president of Nepal Bankers´ Association.
Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun, meanwhile, said that the government was committed to enacting the three bills within the set deadline. “As a responsible government, we are committed to cleaning up financial crime domestically and fulfilling our international responsibility through prevention of the financing of crime from Nepal,” he stated.
Referring to the fact that the three crucial bills are already before parliament, he said the government will include them in parliament´s business for ratification once the House session is called.
Related story
Speaker Sapkota holds meeting with NCP rival faction leaders as...
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
