Kathmandu, July 10

The technical committee that the government had formed to study the prospects of re-operating the National Trading Ltd (NTL) has proposed five options for the recently shut state entity.

Though the committee is yet to formally submit its study report to the government, it has developed a concept paper that includes five possibilities for the government institution.

The options include merging the defunct NTL with Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC); allowing NTL to start fuel trade with China; or developing NTL as a supply company of the government.

Similarly, the study committee has also floated the prospects of dissolving NTL and developing government-owned five-star hotels utilising the NTL property. The last option is to use NTL’s property to develop exhibition halls of international standards.

This means that if NTL is to be dissolved, the government will develop either five-star hotels or exhibition halls utilising its property. However, if NTL is to be revived, it will be brought back to life as a Supply Company, a fuel trading company with China or a subsidiary of NOC.

“We will submit the report to the Ministry of Supplies (MoS) soon, which will be followed by a series of discussions with experts and stakeholders on the aforementioned prospects,” informed Labaraj Joshi, a member of the study committee.

Stating that NTL had been incurring heavy losses since many years, the government had decided not to operate NTL in its current format. Moreover, the government had introduced ‘voluntary retirement’ scheme for NTL employees a couple of months ago and all 264 staffers of the state company have already bid goodbye to NTL after opting for this scheme.

The MoS had then formed a study committee in April under the coordination of MoS Joint Secretary Mukunda Poudel to look into the future prospects of NTL.