KATHMANDU, APRIL 21

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has assured office bearers of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries that he does not favour making laws to control or adversely impact the private sector.

According to a press release issued by the PM's Secretariat, the PM made the remarks after office bearers of FNCCI expressed their concerns about the provisions of two bills recently passed by the National Assembly that proposes to bring the private sector under the ambit of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

'The constitution provisions for protecting the private sector. Financial crisis is not over yet. The government and private sector need to join hands to overcome economic risks. We cannot overcome challenges by ignoring or controlling the private sector,' read the release Vice-president of FNCCI Hem Raj Dhakal told THT that the PM wondered how the provision proposing to bring the private sector under the anti-corruption body's jurisdiction, got incorporated in the two bills - the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (Third Amendment) Bill and Prevention of Corruption (First Amendment) Bill - and said he favoured excluding the private sector from the anti-corruption body's jurisdiction.

The Upper House passed the two bills a few days ago proposing to bring private institutions, particularly banks and banking institutions under the scope of the anti-corruption body, which hitherto was not under its ambit.

Dhakal said there were already regulatory bodies for the private sector and if the CIAA was given the power to take action against the private sector, that would terrorise private business houses and scare away foreign direct investors.

Senior Advocate Radheshyam Adhikari told THT that when he was member of the NA, he opposed incorporation of the provision whereby the private sector could be brought under the ambit of the CIAA. 'There are multiple bodies that can regulate the private sector and if a new law is enacted to give the CIAA power to probe and prosecute the private sector, there will be the real risk of CIAA acting as a super government or a parallel government,' Adhikari said and added that if the current regulatory bodies had not functioned properly, that could be a question to address, but that does not mean that the CIAA should have power over the private sector. There are some people who say that in order to comply with the UN's anti-corruption convention, these bills should also bring the private sector under the CIAA's scope. The fact is, the UN convention's intention is to bring the private sector under the scope of anti-corruption laws. It does not mean that the private sector should be probed by the CIAA, Adhikari said.

He said that Article 239 (1) of the constitution stated that public officers who abuse their powers can be probed by the CIAA, but since private business entities and their office bearers are not public officers, the CIAA cannot take action against them.

'Business persons use their own money and brains to generate wealth. Why should the government hang a Damocles' sword over them? he wondered.

Adhikari said the two bills were flawed because they intended to give the government power to declare any business house under the CIAA ambit. He said if the private sector was brought under the CIAA's ambit, it would discourage business and scare away investors.

The two bills can be enacted into laws only when the House of Representatives passes them. The HoR can pass the bills with or without any changes.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 22, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.