Shekhar Regmi

Biratnagar, April 13:

Nepal Industrial Development Corporation (NIDC) which has been working to boost investment in Nepal for the last three decades is going to close down its office in Biratnagar from from July or August.

Despite big transactions in several sectors, due to the lack of effectiveness in the collection of loans, the central board of NIDC has decided to close down its office at Biratnagar. The central board meeting of the corporation has, however, decided to use the regional offices as a liaison office.

NIDC regional office, which was established in Biratnagar in 1974, had been investing in 16 districts in the eastern region. But effectiveness and ability to recover loans, have been severely questioned in recent years, finally leading to its closure.

The central board of NIDC has also decided to close down its Nepalgunj-based office along with the Biratnagar one.

The NIDC offices are, however, running in Dhangadhi and Pokhara. As the ratio of loan collection in these offices seem to be somewhat satisfactory than the other offices, they will be continued. With the decision to close down NIDC office at Biratnagar, the process to sell the office building through the bids has already been started, stated sources.

According to chief of NIDC, Biratnagar, Narayan DC, all activities, which were dealt from Biratnagar office, will be handled from Kathmandu from August onwards. For the moment, only a handful of employees, including the chief, are working at Biratnagar office.

NIDC is yet to collect loans amounting to Rs 110 millions from the eastern region. Although, attempts to collect the loan from several local industries including 55 firms are ongoing, the process has been hampered by the the closure of some firms and industries.

Some industries are, however, paying interests on loans, said DC. NIDC had been distributing loans in sectors like tourism and productions for the last few years.

With the decision of merging the work of the regional office with the head office, the process of transferring deposits has also been started. Similarly, NIDC has already issued notices for auctions in the case of rice-mills and furniture industries in which NIDC had invested and which now face closure.

Despite several notifications for auctioning of the valuables seized by NIDC, no application has been received so far, said DC, chief of NIDC, Biratnagar.