Govt plans to bring one Act through ordinance

KATHMANDU, JUNE 13: 

The government is planning to bring only one Bill among the three key Bills that will help fight the flow of dirty money into the country through ordinance to escape from being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

“Government is bringing only one Bill before June 18, the date of the FATF plenary in Italy,” according to a high level government source. Due to the government’s delay in bringing the Bills — that will give legal teeth to the UN Conventions to fight the flow of dirty money — since February, no one from the country will participate in the meeting in Italy. But the government is in a mood to bring at least one Bill before the deadline to escape from being blacklisted .

The FATF Plenary — the FATF’s decision making body that meets three times a year in February, June and October — will take a decision on Nepal’s fate during the June 18-24 meeting, though it had extended the time in February due to international lobbying.

The government had long committed to the FATF to pass the three key Bills — Mutual Legal Assistance Bill, Extradition Bill and Bill Against Organised Crime — in the parliament but after May 27, since there is no parliament, the government is planning to bring at least one Bill through ordinance that might stop FATF from downgrading the country

to the ‘high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions 

to which counter-measures apply’ along with Iran and North Korea from the current ‘jurisdiction with a high-level political commitment to address AML/CFT deficiencies.’

“The government’s failure like before, will force the FATF’s plenary meeting this time to downgrade Nepal to ‘high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions to which counter-measures apply’ or commonly known as blacklisting,” said Financial Information Unit — under the central bank — chief Dharma Raj Sapkota. “The FATF has taken Nepal seriously due to its repeated failure in fulfilling its commitment,” he said, adding that the government should fulfill its international commitment.

If it is planning to bring only one Bill, then Mutual Legal Assistance Bill is the key among the three, added Sapkota. The ‘high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions to which counter-measures apply’ is a list of ‘Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories’ that are perceived to be non-cooperative like North Korea and Iran in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Meanwhile, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav today, in a meeting with senior economists at the president’s office also showed serious concern on the issue.

Source: THT