Business environment getting worse, again: FNCCI

 The private sector has complained the Prime Minister that the business and economic environment in the country is getting worse lately. “The entrepreneurs are getting threats for extortion,” they said, adding that most of the industries are still closed.

In a meeting with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in his official residence Baluwatar today, the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) president Shekhar Golchha said that they have been receiving complaints of extortion from entrepreneurs operating their business in the districts outside the Valley.

“According to industrialists, in the past few months, they have been pressurised either to provide the extortion amount or close their businesses,” Golchha said, adding that the entrepreneurs are being threatened to meet the demand or else face closure of their businesses. He, however, did not disclose the identity of the group pressuring for extortion.

The FNCCI – issuing a press note – said that the business community is losing the confidence. Golchha urged the Prime Minister to take necessary steps on time to build confidence of the business fraternity.

Only a day before yesterday, a principal has been killed by an illegal outfit led by Netra Bikram Chand, a break-away faction of earlier NCP Maoists.

The government has also called an all-party meeting a couple of days ago after sensing security threat triggered by the activities of the Chand-led outfit, which has been banned by the government last year. Due to growing security threat, a meeting of the Central Security Committee of Home Ministry yesterday also decided to review the activities of the ‘revolutionaries’ and ‘royalists’.

Golchha, on the occasion, also asked the government to help revive economy that has been crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Oli, on the occasion, consoled the private sector and told that the government is with them.