Kathmandu. Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE), the front-liner of the stock market, has been without a chairman for almost one and a half months.
Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) has become without a chairperson after Shobha Kanta Poudel increased from joint secretary to secretary. There is a provision for the government to appoint a joint secretary as the chairman of NEPSE.
Although the government has promoted Poudel to the post of secretary, it is delaying the appointment of chairman in NEPSE. The Ministry of Finance has not shown much interest in appointing a chairman in NEPSE.
In the absence of a chairman, policy decisions have not been taken in NEPSE. Any policy decision has to be taken by the board of directors of NEPSE. However, nepse employees say that the board meeting could not be held in the absence of a chairman.
Last year, the Securities Board of Nepal had implemented the Securities Issue and Transaction Rules, 2081 of small and medium organized organizations. Subsequently, the Securities Board had directed NEPSE and CDSC to create and implement a separate SME platform for trading shares of small and medium companies.
Nepse has already prepared bye-laws related to the operation of SME platforms as per the directives of the Securities Board. However, in the absence of a chairman, the bye-laws have not been presented in the meeting of nepse’s board of directors for a long time. Nepse’s board of directors has to send it to the Securities Board for approval only after the bye-laws are approved.
Other technical works required by NEPSE to operate the SME platform have been halted as the bye-laws have been stuck due to the finance ministry not finalizing to send the chairman. “First the NEPSE board meeting had to pass the bye-laws and then the securities board had to approve it,” a NEPSE source said. ’
Similarly, the directive given by the Securities Board to prepare the necessary action plan for the restructuring of NEPSE has also been stuck. “We had already prepared an action plan for nepse restructuring, but it will take a little more to do it,” the source said, adding, “It may not take much time to prepare an action plan for NEPSE restructuring, but that too should be approved by the NEPSE board meeting.” However, there is no board meeting as there is no chairman. And this issue is still pending now. ’
Apart from these two main issues, other activities of NEPSE have also been stopped in the absence of a chairman. An official of NEPSE said that the policy and program for the new fiscal year has not gained momentum. “The works are going on but the decision could not be taken in the absence of a chairman,” the official said.
