Kathmandu. Assamese, who had to face banking offences by giving cheques without money in their accounts, will no longer have to face cases related to banking offences. Kathmandu: The government has enacted a new law on cheque bounce offences with effect from Wednesday.
The new provision came into force after the government published an amendment to the Banking Offences and Punishment Act, 2064 BS in the Nepal Gazette. Under the amended Act, only the police will investigate the offences related to cheque bounce and proceed with the case process. Earlier, the general public had the option of filing a case of dishonour of cheques directly in the court.
Section 107(a) of the Right to Exchange Act, 2034 has been repealed by amending the Banking Offences and Punishment Act. In this section, there was a provision regarding punishment if there was not enough deposit equal to the amount mentioned in the cheque. There are two laws for the same offence and now only one has been established.
With the repeal of Section 107(a) of the Negotiable Act, cheques that are more than one year old have become useless. According to the Right to Exchange Act, 2034, the limit of cheques dishonoured was five years. Now, the case will be filed only according to the Banking Offences Act, so the deadline has been kept to register a complaint with the police within one year of the cheque bouncing.
According to the Act, the police have to file a case before the court within six months of registering a complaint with the police.
45 days time before bouncing cheque:
According to the amended act, if there is not enough deposit in the account, the bank should give notice to the account holder to deposit the money by giving him 45 days time. If the amount is not deposited within this period, the cheque will be returned to the holder within three days after proving that the cheque has been dishonoured. In this, the Rastra Bank will make a statement regarding dishonour of cheques.
The amount of fine has also been reduced in the case of cheque bounce. The jail term has been decided on the basis of bigo. Earlier, the fine was 100 percent, but now it has been kept at only 5 percent.
In cases of up to Rs 1.5 million, one month, Rs 1.5 million to Rs 50 lakh for three months, Rs 5 million to Rs 10 million for one year, Rs 10 million to Rs 10 crore for two years and more than Rs 100 million for four years.
Earlier, the case of cheque bounce was settled according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, but now it has been included in the original Act. There is no provision in the Act to find the source of the amount mentioned in the cheque. It is feared that this will encourage property purification.
