Kathmandu, June 26: The Nepal Chamber of Commerce has urged the Nepal Rastra Bank to introduce a monetary policy that addresses the problems facing the banking and financial sector while creating a more business-friendly environment.
The Chamber submitted its recommendations to the central bank, calling for the upcoming monetary policy to be investment-oriented, production-focused, and supportive of the private sector. A delegation led by Chamber President Kamlesh Kumar Agrawal met with Governor Dr. Bishwanath Poudel and requested that the new monetary policy resolve the challenges in the banking and financial sector and provide a more conducive environment for businesses. The Chamber also urged the central bank to adopt a policy that would enable credit expansion of more than 20 percent in order to achieve the government’s target of seven percent economic growth.
The Chamber noted that the economy has remained sluggish for the past five years, with the industrial, commercial, construction, tourism, and service sectors failing to recover as expected, while the confidence of the private sector has continued to weaken. It therefore called for the monetary policy to give special priority to expanding economic activity.
Among its key recommendations, the Chamber urged the central bank to make single-digit interest rates a permanent policy, maintain the bank rate at five percent, cap the interest rate spread at 3.5 percent, and immediately revoke the Working Capital Loan Guidelines, 2021 to ensure businesses have easier access to working capital.
The Chamber’s delegation also stated that the existing legal provisions relating to anti-money laundering have created unnecessary fear even among entrepreneurs and industrialists who possess legally acquired assets. It stressed that both the law and its implementation should be made more practical and business-friendly. Since the state did not maintain a systematic record of assets acquired before 2007 (2064 B.S.), the Chamber recommended adopting a practical approach when determining the source of assets acquired during that period.
Similarly, the Chamber pointed out that the Know Your Customer (KYC) and customer identification procedures at banks and financial institutions have become excessively cumbersome, repetitive, and inconsistent from one bank to another, causing unnecessary inconvenience to customers and the business community.
People’s News Monitoring Service.
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