Kathmandu. Very little of the commitment received from investors for foreign investment in Nepal is converted into investment. Since the opening of foreign direct investment in Nepal, investors have invested a total of Rs. Although the government has committed to invest Rs 411 billion, only Rs 154 billion has come in.
According to the study report on how much net investment has entered Nepal out of the total foreign investment approved by the Nation of Nepal, the fiscal year 2079 BS. Only Rs 154 billion was found to have entered till mid-80. A total of Rs 411 billion worth of foreign investment was approved during this period. According to the Department of Industry, the foreign direct investment commitment has doubled to Rs 61.90 billion in the fiscal year 2080/81 as compared to the previous fiscal year 2079/80.
However, investment in Nepal has not come in proportion to the foreign investment approved. The main reason for this is policy and political instability. According to the sufferers, the second major reason for discouraging investment is the corrupt mentality of Nepal’s bureaucracy.
The Office of the Registrar of Companies is one of the agencies that facilitates investment. Service seekers who enter the premises of the Registrar of Companies on a daily basis with the work of company registration, renewal, share price update, etc., do not work without relying on middlemen. When registering a company, in addition to the revenue, it is forced to pay bribes, otherwise it is only an act of harassing the service seekers on some pretext or the other. Apart from this, the same story is repeated during renewal. Will new investors have money to invest when applying for updating shares, will we not have money to spend lunch? The employees suffer on many pretexts.
According to this study report conducted by Nepal Rastra Bank, only about 35 percent of the approved investment has come in the last one decade. However, it is not possible in reality for various reasons to get the entire amount as per the approval of the investment. However, such a huge gap in foreign investment inflows clearly indicates that there are various problems in the country in the flow of foreign investment.
Seeing the need for time-bound investment, the 15th Periodic Plan will approve projects worth at least $ 10 billion (about Rs. 1300 billion) from the Investment Board within a five-year plan period, 6 billion ##inline_tags_PLACEHOLDER_0 ##
Projects worth $780 billion should be operated under the public-private partnership concept and the target has been set to create 100,000 jobs through it.
Despite the increase in commitment, investors return tired due to the misery, surprise, challenges faced by the bureaucracy in acquiring land for the industry, bullying of local tole gundes, and the cheating mentality of the political leadership.
Dangote Cement, a South African multinational company, has been forced to close its office and return home without getting permission to operate the mine due to the obstruction of the cement manufacturing mafia and the mafia active in being a shareholder without adding sugar to foreign investment. On the other hand, traders like Arun Raj Sumargi have taken possession of the limestone mine in Surkhet even though they have not been operating the industry for a decade and a half.
