Kathmandu. Important provisions introduced to make financial transactions systematic and transparent in real estate transactions have been removed.
The Department of Land Management and Records has removed important provisions by making the first amendment to the Directive on Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorist Activities, 2082. Less than two weeks after the directive was issued, the department has made extensive amendments.
Sub-sections (d), (e) and (f) have been removed by amending Section 2 of the directive. These sub-sections had provisions related to indicator organizations (real estate entrepreneurs), high-ranking persons and KYCs.
Similarly, the Department has completely removed Sections 3 and 4 of the directive. In these sections, there was a provision to recruit KYC and submit it in the instrument while doing real estate transactions and the land service center had to submit the KYC form.
The Department has amended Section 5 to verify that any kind of payment made through banking devices in real estate transactions ranging from Rs 1 million to Rs 5 million and while purchasing real estate above Rs 5 million, the buyer has submitted a good for payment cheque or a bank guarantee or e-payment for payment from the bank or a certificate paid from other instruments of payment specified as per the instructions of the Rastra Bank or deposited cash in the bank voucher in the name of the seller. There is a provision to do it. Earlier, there was no provision to deposit cash while dealing in real estate.
The department has also removed sections 6, 7 and 8 of the original directive. Earlier, section 6 had made it mandatory to submit bank details while dealing in real estate. Similarly, Section 7 made it mandatory for the revenue of real estate transactions to be deposited in the revenue account and section 8 had a provision to disclose the balance sheet on paper.
The Department has amended Section 9 of the original directive to replace the word ’30 million’ with ’10 million’. Earlier, section 9 of the directive had a provision that if the buyer or seller buys or sells real estate worth more than Rs 30 million in a day or repeatedly, the office has to send the details to the Financial Information Unit of the Nepal Rastra Bank.
Similarly, the Department has removed the word ‘and index institution’ in Section 10 of the original directive and the word ‘Index Institution’ in Section 12. In section 10 of the previous directive, the index institution should also send suspicious transaction details to the unit of the Rastra Bank and in section 12, the index institution should also follow the directive.
