Kathmandu, September 9:

Himalaya Plastics Pvt Ltd, a blacklisted company in which Dr Tulsi Giri, vice-chairman of council of the ministers has been associated with, has cleared all the dues of Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL) following a repayment of Rs 8.4 million in cash this morning. With today’s amount, the company has repaid a total of Rs 13.566 million against the total outstanding loan liability of Rs 17.5 million. The total repaid amount doesn’t include the concession given on penal and compound interest as well as 10 per cent discount on total outstanding simple interest. Himalaya Plastics, in which Dr Giri was the then board chairman, had taken a loan from NBL’s Balaju and New Road branch in 1986.

Despite frequent requests, the company had not repaid the loan for the last 20 years. On the request of NBL, the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) had blacklisted the company along with its chairman Dr Giri and the other two promoters in 2001. Following a disclosure in the media that Dr Giri has been blacklisted by CIB in June this year, an Indian national D S N Pandey handed over a draft worth IC 2.2 million (Rs 3.5 million) issued in the name of Bank of India to NBL on August 25.

The Himalaya Plastics repaid in cash Rs 1.6 million at the NBL’s New Road office a week ago. However, the identity of the person who repaid the loan has been kept a secret.

As per the understanding reached between NBL and Himalaya Plastics after a series of negotiations, NBL had agreed to completely exempt penal and compound interests. In addition to the concession, NBL had agreed to a 10 per cent of the total outstanding simple interest.

Meanwhile, NBL has already written a letter to the Credit Information Bureau asking it to withdraw Himalaya Plastics and its promoters name from the blacklist.