KATHMANDU: Minister for Labour and Employment Deepak Bohara has reiterated that the government would not backtrack from its previous decision of providing free visa and free ticket for labourers heading to other countries.

Talking to the Rastriya Samachar Samiti about the issues of labour migration today, Minister Bohara added that he was holding talks with recruitment agencies and entrepreneurs expecting that the issue would be resolved soon.

He further said preparations to sign a labour contract with Saudi Arabia were in the final stage and would be finalised within a month, adding that the talks with Lebanon, Jordan and Malaysia were going on positively for signing bilateral labour agreements.

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The Minister for Labour also informed about the progress initiated by him to make the foreign employment sector transparent and efficient.

He claimed that only 40 per cent remittance was being received through legal mechanisms and the upcoming budget would bring all the remittance through legal channels. For that purpose, the Ministry was talking to respective countries and banking sectors there.

Nepal annually receives approximately Rs 600 billion in remittance.