Committee delays revival of sick industries

KATHMANDU, June 29:

The recently formed high-level committee for revival of sick industries has not yet determined its own working procedure to start its work to deal with the issues of sick industries.

The government has repeatedly formed task forces and committees to identify and revive sick industries but till date none of the committees have accomplished its task.

According to officials of the Ministry of Industry (MoI), a 15-member high-level committee has been formed to identify sick industries and recommend their names to the government. “The committee has organised only one meeting so far which discussed on developing its working procedure,” said the official. A primary meeting of the high-level committee was held on June 22. “There will be another meeting to develop the working procedure but we are not sure when that will take place,” the official said.

The cabinet had directed MoI to form a high-level committee comprising of representatives from the government and the private sector to further identify and recommend the names of sick industries to the government for their revival.

Earlier too, there was another high-level task force for the rehabilitation of sick industries with representatives from MoI, Finance Ministry, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries, Ministry of Energy, and National Planning Commission. However, the sick industries are still waiting for the committee to start its work.

Sick Industry Rehabilitation Forum at FNCCI states there are around 400 sick companies. “Government should work more effectively and the meetings that committee organises should be more productive,” said an official at FNCCI.

According to the source, the sick industries are categorised as complete sick industries, possible sick industries, and vulnerable sick industries. Complete sick industries are those that cannot be revived and they can completely shut down their businesses after paying the principal amount.

Similarly, possible sick industries are those which have the possibility of revival, and for those industries, the central bank will provide a facility of a soft loan for three to five years depending on the nature of the industry. Meanwhile for vulnerable sick industries, NRB will allow a short-term facility of one year which is a waiver of the interest on the loan taken.

Meanwhile, president of Nepal Carpet Exporters’ Association Kabindra Nath Thakur said that there are a number of fraud industrialists who are waiting to take advantage of the government programme to revive sick industries.

Source: THT