Cabinet approves two AML Bills to escape FATF blacklisting

Cabinet meeting today approved two Anti Money Laundering Bills — Mutual Legal Assistance Bill and Extradition Bill— among the three that the country has committed to the international community and is bringing them through ordinance while the caretaker government led by Dr Baburam Bhattrai has decided to hold the much disputed Bill Against Organised Crime.

The government is sending two Bills to President Office to enforce them through ordinances, said finance minister Barsha Man Pun. “The government took the decision to save the country from being ‘blacklisted’ by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF),” he said, adding that the government is bringing the two Bills through ordinance because of absence of the parliament.
“We have held the Bill Against Organised Crime back for further discussion,” he said. Political parties had major reservation on defining ‘organised crime’ while the three Bills were being discussed in Legislative Parliament in February. The intra party dispute in the ruling UCPN-Maoist has also made it difficult for Baburam Bhattarai government to bring approve the Bills in the parliament. 

UCPN-Maoist leader Dev Gurung had criticised the Bill saying that it have incorporated more political issues than financial crime. So, the pressure to endorse the Bills at a time when the country is passing through a political transition is virtually impossible, he said.

Though, the government was earlier preparing to bring only one Bill to escape from 'high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions to which counter-measures apply' or commonly known as blacklisting from the FATF's, in the last moment it dropped one disputed Bill and is sending two Bills to the President.

The FATF plenary which going to meet in Italy on June 18-21 is expected not to black list the country due to the Two Bills. The FATF's decision making body on Anti Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) that meets three times a year.

Last meeting in February Nepal had received a time extension — due to international lobbying — and reassurance from the government to enforce the Bills in three months. The February meeting had listed a total of 17 countries including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia as high-risk and non-cooperative countries on the flow of dirty money while Iran and North Korea were placed in the category where counter-measures apply.

In May, during the face-to-face meeting in New Delhi briefing the Asia Pacific Group (APG) – the regional member of Financial Action Task Force — meeting, Nepal had blamed the prolonged political transition for not being able to pass those Bills. But the meeting had asked Nepal to fulfill its commitment as soon as possible to escape blacklisting in June.

The three Bills that will give legal teeth to the UN conventions on Anti Money Laundering that the parliament has already ratified. AML Bills to smooth foreign trade and investment and the country will not lose international market. Similarly, donors will not enforce stringent conditions for aid and grants.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s office has received the Bills from the government. “The Bills will go through the process of ordinance from tomorrow,” said Press Advisor of the president Rajendra Dahal.