Kathmandu, May 9

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal (ICAN) — accounting sector regulatory body — in association with the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) is organising the ‘International Conference on Public Sector Financial Management’ on Saturday.

Organising a press meet in the Capital today, ICAN officials said that the international conference on public sector financial management aims to discuss about the accountability and transparency of the public sector organisations and companies.

The conference being organised with a theme of ‘Public Sector Financial Management: Enhanced Accountability and Transparency’ will bring together 60 international delegates from 18 member countries, out of 23 member nations of CAPA along with over 200 national accounting professionals to discuss on ways to strengthen transparency, accountability and audit function in the public sector.

Prakash Jung Thapa, president of ICAN, said that the international conference is going to be held in Nepal at a time when the issue of public sector financial management (PSFM) has been in the spotlight as the country transitions to the new federal system. “The technical sessions going to be held during the conference has been designed in a way that can benefit Nepal through the knowledge, expertise and skills of national and international experts to strengthen the preparedness of the stakeholders towards standardisations and improvisations of public sector finance management,” he said.

During the technical sessions of the conference, there will be paper presentations and discussions on issues like integrated financial management system, public financial management governance and practices and country experiences, PSFM challenges and way forward in the federal structure and strengthening audit function in the public sector.

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Kathmandu, May 9

The government is preparing to merge the ill-fated National Trading Ltd (NTL) with Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) to form an autonomous National Supply Company (NSC).

A highly-placed source at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) informed The Himalayan Times that an independent committee of experts is currently studying the prospects of merging these two entities and operation modality of the yet-to-be-formed supply company.

“We are preparing to recommend the government to merge these two entities through the upcoming budget speech for the 2018-19 fiscal year,” said the MoICS source, adding that the two government firms will start joint operation after this plan gets a nod from the government.

Citing that NTL had been persistently incurring losses and adding financial burden on the government, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) had recommended the then Ministry of Supplies (MoS) to shut down NTL in January and had given voluntary retirement to 264 NTL staffs.

The government had then formed a committee to hold due diligence audit of NTL to identify actual property of NTL. As per the committee’s preliminary study, NTL has property worth almost Rs 25 billion across the country.

“After shutting down NTL, property of the company worth billions of rupees has remained unused. We are thinking of ways to utilise them and one of the options is to merge NTL with NFC,” informed Mukunda Poudyal, joint-secretary at MoICS.

Sources informed that the National Supply Company will look after issues related to supply of essential goods in the domestic market. Such goods include rice and other food grains, sugar and different machinery equipment.

“Both NTL and NFC have warehouses across the country. If they are merged, it would be easier for the government to store ample essential goods for emergency purposes,” said Poudyal, adding that formation of an autonomous government-owned supply company is necessary also to ensure smooth supply of essential goods across the country, especially in remote areas.

In the long run, the National Supply Company could also enter into fuel supply business and diversify Nepal’s fuel trade, as per MoICS officials.

Earlier, the government had also discussed other possibilities for NTL, including merging it with Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), allowing NTL to start fuel trade with China, developing five-star hotels on its property or developing international standard exhibition halls on the premises of NTL.

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Kathmandu, May 9

In the backdrop of complaints registered at Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) citing that various firms have been delivering internet services without acquiring licences, the telecommunication sector regulator today published a notice warning against such illegal activities.

Moreover, NTA has started investigating the issue and has said that providing any sort of telecommunication services without acquiring licence from NTA is an offence.

“We have already deployed special investigation teams to cross-check if complaints are true. In case we find any firm catering telecommunication services, including internet service, without acquiring NTA’s permission, the firm will be subject to legal action,” said Min Prasad Aryal, spokesperson for NTA.

As per the Telecommunications Act, 1997, operation of telecommunication services is strictly prohibited without obtaining the licence to do so.

However, act has not talked about the type of action that could be taken against those operating telecommunication services without acquiring licences.

As per Aryal, NTA management will decide on the action that could be taken against such offences if they really exist.

Aryal said that delivering telecommunication services without acquiring licence will not only affect government’s revenue, but will directly impact the competitive growth of the telecommunication industry in the country.

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