Kathmandu, September 1

After the government amended the Foreign Employment Act to encourage manpower firms to go for mergers, 226 manpower firms have applied for merger so far.

After the merger process is completed, these 226 firms will be transformed into only 98 firms. As per Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), as mandated in amended act, 576 manpower firms have deposited their bank guarantee while 533 have deposited cash guarantee till today. The government through the amendment has increased the guarantee money to operate a recruiting agency to up to Rs 60 million, a 20-fold increase from the previous amount and manpower agencies have been rushing to deposit their bank guarantee as they will be forced to close down their business if they fail to do so.

Earlier, recruiting firms had been paying Rs three million guarantee money — Rs 700,000 as cash deposit and Rs 2.3 million as bank guarantee to run their business. There are almost 1,200 recruiting agencies in the country. Bhisma Kumar Bhusal, director general of DoFE, said that the government has given September 3 as the final deadline to submit bank guarantee for the manpower firms. If they fail

to submit the said amount, the department will revoke their recruiting licence.

“We have given the manpower agencies ample time to abide by the new provision so I think we will not have to cancel the licence of any recruiting agency,” he said.

As per new law, manpower firms sending up to 3,000 workers per year must deposit Rs five million and submit Rs 15 million as bank guarantee. Likewise, manpower agencies sending between 3,000 and 5,000 workers must deposit Rs 10 million and submit Rs 30 million in bank guarantee.

Those who supply over 5,000 workers per year must deposit Rs 20 million and provide a bank guarantee of Rs 40 million to start operation.