Kathmandu, January 16:

In an attempt to arrest emerging anomalies in the business sector and to boost enterprises ranging from small, cottage, medium as well as big, six established chambers of the country, with the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) as the lead chamber, has formed the Forum for Nepalese Industries (FONI).

FONI is being led by Binod K Chaudhary, president of CNI, which was established in the country three years back, with a slogan ‘Talking Business, Talking Change’.

Speaking at the press interaction held by FONI today, coordinator of the forum, Binod K Chaudhary justified the formation of the forum to protect all types of industries given the backdrop of the increased political instability, increased cost of doing businesses and deteriorating economic conditions.

At a time when Nepal has already become a part of global and regional trade bodies, integrating businesses whether they are small, cottage or medium, is the need of the hour, said Chaudhary at a gathering of over 35 journalists and businesspersons.

Chaudhary’s campaign, in his own words, is to make the economy competitive by generating tremendous employment opportunities, bringing in reforms, removing practical difficulties or alerting concerned people about wrongdoings. FONI has been formed by two businesspersons from each chamber namely, CNI, Federation of Nepalese Industries (FNI), Federation of National Cottage, Small Scale Industries Nepal (FNCSIN), Federation of Nepalese Industrial Chambers (FNIC), Hetauda Chamber of Commerce (HCC) and Rupandehi Chamber of Commerce (RCC).

The forum has businesspersons from 62 districts of the country and 15,000 enterprises are associated with FONI. The main aim of the forum is to coordinate among industrial units and enterprises across the country to create a sound business environment and resolve problems through effective means to advance the national economy, said businesspersons. Federation of Nepalese Industries on behalf of FONI commented that the finance ordinance released by the finance state minister that brings in reduction in import duty on readymade goods, would spell the end of domestic products. FNI’s secretary general, Dambar Dev Aryal protested the provision of threshold in VAT and demanded its removal.

FNI demanded with the government to force banks and financial institutions to invest in long-term industrial projects and issue loans accordingly. Businesspersons associated with FNI, criticised the arbitrary power bestowed upon tax collectors and demanded removal of such provisions to make the tax administration more effective, leading to greater revenue collections.

Vice-president of CNI, Atma Ram Murarka welcomed the budget saying that it has adopted an approach to make VAT effective and boost national revenue by curbing smuggling and under-invoicing. Murarka feared that the industry’s competitive capacity is likely to erode, as there is no reduction in customs duty for raw materials at par with import duty cuts ranging from five to 35 per cent as per the finance ordinance.