Kathmandu. The chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), which was formed by the Act for the development of Nepal’s securities market and protection of investors’ interests, has been discussed as match-fixing this time as well.
The government led by senior leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party Balendra Shah is also likely to repeat the game of appointing its own people as the chairperson of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) like the previous governments led by the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML. According to sources, Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Dr Gunakar Bhatta has resigned from the selection committee and appointed his subordinate Dr Sanjay Acharya as the coordinator of the committee and recommended his brother Dr Gopal Bhatta for the post of chairman of the committee.
As the coordinator of the selection committee, Bhatta resigned from his post citing conflict of interest in selecting his elder brother after 47 people including his brother submitted their applications. “The selection process has been mired in controversy as Bhatta has decided to shortlist his elder brother from a committee headed by his subordinate members,” said a source, adding, “If Gopal Bhatta becomes the chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), 3 of the four candidates in the shortlist will be the most controversial decision of the Balen government.” ’
Acharya’s committee has shortlisted 4 candidates for the post of chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON). Two of them are retired former executive directors from the central bank. Gopal Bhatta retired from the post of executive director of the NRB half a decade ago, while Mukunda Kumar Chhetri retired from the NRB a year ago.
According to sources, it is not just a coincidence that Bhatta is the vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) who retired from the NRB some time ago and the former executive director of the NRB has been elected. It is said that Gopal Bhatta was made the chairman of the committee.
Gopal Bhatt does not have a vision to rescue the crisis-ridden capital market and give hope to investors, but investors are even more frightened by his anti-capital market attitude. Chhetri, who was recommended by the selection committee, was also working hard to get a private stock exchange license by colluding with Deepak Bhatta’s group when he was a director of Nepal Rastra Bank in the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON). Due to his middleman character, the then Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari had pulled him from the representative of the NRB to the board and sent him to someone else.
Although many of the 47 people are young and have a desire to do well for the capital market, the selection committee has selected a multitude of former employees. An executive director of the Securities Board of India (SEBON) has been included on the basis of mandatory conditions.
Nawaraj Adhikari, who was elected as the chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON), has recently retired from the post of executive director while the incumbent executive director Binay Dev Acharya has only one year left in his tenure.
The current tenure of the chairman of the Securities Board of Nepal will be only 2.5 years. The confusion has increased as to who will be the chairman who can understand the capital market in such a short period of time and return the trust of the general investors.
On the one hand, the new chairman has to increase the demand in the second market by controlling the flood of IPOs, while on the other hand, the new chairman has a serious responsibility of expanding and improving the market by bringing good companies into the capital market. If the new chairman fails to do a good job, there is a risk that the government will be defamed like during the previous NC and UML governments.
