Kathmandu, March 4: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Bishnu Prasad Paudel has underscored on getting the Bill Related to Banks and Financial Institutions (First Amendment), 2080 and the Bill Related to Securities (First Amendment), 2081 passed from parliament at the earliest and on promptly implementing them.
Speaking in the meeting of the House of Representatives, Finance Committee today, he urged the Finance Committee to conclude deliberations on the two bills at the earliest and forward them to the House of Representatives for the parliamentary reading.
“I hope that the discussion on the bill related to banks and financial institutions and securities along with the customs bill will be completed soon and the Committee’s report on these bills will reach the House of Representatives by mid-April,” he said.
The Finance Minister said that the effectiveness of the committee and the House has been criticized even from the people’s level for the sluggishness in law-making.
“There have been criticisms that the law-making work has slowed down. The government’s attention has been drawn to this. Considering the national needs, the law making should be expedited in the case of priority ones,” said Finance Minister Paudel.
Today’s meeting of the Finance Committee discussed the amendments made to the ‘Bill to Amend and Integrate Customs Related Laws, 2080 BS’.
Lawmakers have proposed amendments seeking to streamline the customs administration for trade facilitation, to remove procedural hassles during customs clearance, to cut the discretionary powers of the employees, and to prepare adequate infrastructure for quarantine and quality testing of goods.
The government has brought this bill citing it is necessary to amend the Customs Act to make the customs clearance process more technology-friendly and easy, and to render it compatible with the Kyoto Convention, to which Nepal is a state party.
Nepal is a party to the revised Kyoto Convention and the Trade Facilitation Agreement of the World Trade Organization.
As per these agreements, the general provisions of the amended Kyoto Convention should be implemented within three years of becoming a member and the transitional criteria within five years.
Similarly, the government has brought this bill stating that the provisions related to customs should be addressed through the Customs Act and rules for trade facilitation.
