Kathmandu, October 8

The Supreme Court today issued an interim order directing the government not to nationalise the property of the Federation of Nepal Truck-Tanker Entrepreneurs Association (FNTTEA).

A division bench of Justices Ishwori Khatiwada and Sharada Prasad Ghimire today issued an order to this effect.

FNTTEA earlier had filed a writ against the decision of the government to nationalise the property of FNTTEA. Scrapping the registration of transport bodies (transport associations and committees), the government had been preparing to nationalise their property on charges of practicing syndicate in the transportation sector.

On May 4, the government had decided to freeze the bank accounts of transport entrepreneurs and the officials of various transport associations after they refused to operate vehicles and follow the government’s directive against the syndicate system.

At that time the government had accused them of anti-competitive practices in the transportation sector. After that the Ministry of Finance had directed Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to freeze the bank accounts of 245 transport bodies.

But later in September, the government withdrew its decision and partially unblocked the bank accounts of transport bodies and entrepreneurs. This step taken by the government has been criticised by many who say that the government had been compelled to backtrack on its earlier decision because transport entrepreneurs had put forth that pre-condition to open bus ticket bookings for Dashain.