'Improve doing business climate'

Kathmandu, May 3:

The private sector said on Thursday that it had been raising the same issues and questions for more than a decade and had been responded with the same answers, and urged the government to come out of the ritual and find innovative ways to address the challenges in doing business.

The government has given more priority to revenue collection, and less attention has been paid to creating a better business environment with subsidies and tax waiver to domestic products, they said at an interaction organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) here today.

“As the nation has entered an era of political stability, we have lots of expectations from this government,” said Shekhar Golchha, senior vice-president of FNCCI.

According to him, the country is entering fiscal federalism from this year, but it is marred by widening trade deficit, poor performance of the manufacturing sector and nominal export.

FNCCI executive committee member Krishna Prasad Dulal demanded that the Black Marketing Act and customs reference value of goods be scrapped.

FNCCI vice president Umesh Lal Shrestha said that a separate policy should be formulated and implemented to develop the manufacturing sector and increase its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the existing 5 per cent.

Director of Golyan Group Pawan Golyan urged the government to provide cash subsidy on goods exported to India as it would improve the balance of payments with India.

“The yarn industry needs more incentives. This is one of the industries with the highest value addition, but the government has given only 5 per cent protection,” he said.

Akash Adhikari, chairperson of Film and Entertainment Forum at the FNCCI,  urged the government to implement the ‘Box Office’ system in the movie theatres.

“The audience is paying 13 per cent VAT while watching the movie, but it doesn’t go to the state coffers. Similarly, the producers don’t know the exact income of their cinema. It will increase the size of the Rs. 3 billion Nepali cinema industry,” he said.

Senior vice-president of the Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal Kiran Dangol demanded the implementation of the Domestic Goods Procurement Directives. The directives have a policy to buy Nepali goods even if they were 10 per cent expensive but the current procurement law bars the government agencies to buy expensive goods through competitive bidding.

President of the Federation of Nepal Brick Industries Mahendra Bahadur Chitrakar requested the government to extend its support in developing human resources needed for operating modern brick kilns.

Responding to the businessmen’s concerns, Revenue Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Shishir Kumar Dhungana said that the budget of the coming fiscal year 2018/19 would give priority to the productive sector.

"More sensitive measures will be adopted in goods import, we don’t want to make the country a dumping site," he said.

Published in The Rising Nepal on 4 May 2018.