The business community
has once again urged the government to immediately stop the forceful donation
drive and security threat on entrepreneurs.
The private sector,
which is facing hard times due to chronic power shortage and repeated labour
problems, has become a milking cow for the UCPN-Maoist, said an entrepreneur,
asking not to be named.
"On one hand,
industries have not been able to operate at full capacity and on the other, we
are getting letters from the ruling UCPN-Maoist asking for donations for their
seventh general convention," the entrepreneur said, urging the UCPN-Maoist
led government to immediately stop the forceful donation drive as they cannot
support political parties without an investment friendly environment and
opportunity to operate industries at full capacity.
According to the central
bank's report, industries were able to utilise only half their production
capacity in the last fiscal year. "Industries were able to utilise only 58
per cent of their capacity in the last fiscal year 2011-12," the central
bank report said.
The central bank has
attributed the declining capacity of the industries to increasing labour cost
due to frequent strikes, and rising prices of raw materials that have been posing
challenges for domestic products to compete in the international market.
On top of that the
forceful donation drive by the party that is in the government has largely
discouraged entrepreneurs, the entrepreneur said, adding that the low
confidence of the domestic private sector has also been making it difficult to
attract foreign direct investment to the country.
The government talks of
attracting foreign direct investment but it harasses the domestic private
sector, according to another entrepreneur, who opined that without building
confidence within the domestic private sector, it is not possible to attract
foreign direct investment.
The private sector has
also asked the government to provide security to their businesses and property,
as they have been receiving regular threats for declining to provide donations
to political parties.
"The government
should either fix a minimum donation amount by bringing an Act or stop forceful
donation," another entrepreneur said, adding that the Act will help them
write the donations in the book, which will start a transparent practice and
help ethical business practices.
"The government
blames us for doctoring accounts but forces us to give them donations, which
cannot be shown in the accounts," he added. "The government itself is
promoting unethical practice and blackmailing us with raids, if we do not give
donations."
Most entrepreneurs have
switched off their mobile phones and stopped attending office due to security
threat, he added.
Likewise, the increase
in the number of parties in the country has also become a headache for
entrepreneurs as they have to give donations to each of them. "More
parties means more donations for us," the entrepreneurs said.
A fortnight ago,
CPN-Maoist had also forced entrepreneurs to give donations for its seventh
general convention.
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