Anti-money laundering measures: Differences in Maoist party foil govt plan
KATHMANDU, FEB 13 -
The Parliament’s plan to pass three bills on Anti-Money Laundering/ Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) on Monday has faced a jolt due to sharp differences within the Maoist party.
The government had planned to suspend the regular procedure of parliament and pass the bills on a single day to meet the February 13 deadline given by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global-anti-money laundering body. But opposition from the Maoist hardliners has forced the parliament to follow regular procedure for passing the bills.
In a recent meeting in Australia to review Nepal’s progress in addressing its deficiencies, FATF had warned that Nepal could be blacklisted for its failure to pass the bills on Mutual Legal Assistance, Organised Crime and Extradition Treaty. Nepal had committed to get these Acts endorsed within 2010.
With FATF’s plenary scheduled for February 13-17 in Paris, the government plans to convey a positive message by endorsing the three bills before the meet. However, it has failed to convince Maoist hardliners about this urgency.
The government is scheduled to present these bills in parliament on Monday and they will now be endorsed only after undergoing lengthy discussions among lawmakers. This means Nepal will be in defensive mode at the FATF plenary. Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Deputy Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari is representing Nepal at the plenary.
Fearing possible blacklisting, the government has sent a formal letter to the FATF chair through the Nepali representatives taking part in the meeting, stating that Nepal is committed to endorsing the bills as they have already been ‘tabled in the parliament’. “Finance Minister Barsa Man Pun has signed the letter as a gesture of high-level political commitment,” said a senior NRB official.
Nepal has also requested India and the US, the co-chairs of the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) and FATF, respectively, to lobby in favour of Nepal by considering Nepal’s current political transition, according to a finance ministry official.
If blacklisted, Nepal’s financial system will lose its credibility in the international arena and letter of credit issued by Nepali banks may not be approved easily by foreign banks, government officials say. The blacklisting will also diminish Nepal’s prospects of getting foreign aid and investment at a time when the country is marking the Nepal Investment Year 2012-2013.
FATF has urged its member countries to adopt counter-measures to protect the international financial system from the substantial money laundering and terrorist financing risks posed by blacklisted countries. Currently, Iran and North Korea figure in the blacklist.
The three bills were put on the agenda of the Maoist Standing Committee meeting on Saturday and Sunday. Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was forced to backtrack from the plan to get the bills passed on Monday after he came to know about the hardliners’ plan to obstruct Monday’s session if a shortcut was adopted. About 50 lawmakers of the Maoist party are prepared to foil the plan.
Maoist Standing Committee member Dev Gurung, at an interaction here on Sunday, made it clear that the proposed bills cannot be endorsed on Monday without consultations. The leader of the party’s hardline faction said his party cannot support the move that is directed at seizing political rights in the name of financial crimes. Bills are devised as per the need of the nation, but these three bills are not a national necessity.
Bills on Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition Treaty have remained in parliament for the last two years, while the bill on Organised Crime was recently registered at the Parliament Secretariat.
Given the background of the UCPN (Maoist) as a rebel party that waged a war against the state, they have been opposing these bills as they fear that the same Acts may be used against them in future when they remain out of power.
Source: Kantipur
