नेपाल दक्षिण एसियामा तेस्रो व्यवसायमैत्री देश

दक्षिण एसियामा नेपाल तेस्रो सहज व्यावसायिक वातावरण भएको देश बनेको छ । व्यवसाय गर्ने वातावरणमा सुधार गर्दे गएपछि यस क्षेत्रमा भुटान तथा भारतपछि नेपाल तेस्रो व्यवसायमैत्री मुलुक भएको विश्व बैंकको प्रतिवेदनले देखाएको हो ।

सन् २०१८ का लागि बैकद्वारा मंगलबार प्रकाशित ‘डुङइ बिजनेस’ प्रतिवेदनअनुसार अघिल्लो वर्षभन्दा २ स्थान सुधार गरेर नेपाल १०५ औं स्थानमा उक्लिएको छ । यसअघि गत वर्ष सन् २०१७ को लागि प्रकाशित प्रतिवेदनले नेपालको स्थान १ सय ७ मा रहेको देखाएको थियो । नेपालले आफ्नो स्थानमात्र सुधारेको नभइ दक्षिण एसियामा नै तेस्रो सहज व्यावसायिक वातावरण भएको देश बन्न पुगेको हो । विश्वका १ सय ९० देशको अर्थतन्त्रलाई समेटेर तयार पारिएको प्रतिवेदनले नेपालले १ सय अंकमा ५९.९५ अंक पाएको जनाउँदै नेपालको अवस्था सुधारोन्मुख रहेको देखाएको हो ।

दक्षिण एसियामा नेपालभन्दा अगाडि भारतले आफ्नो अवस्थामा सुधार गरेर गत वर्षको १ सय ३० स्थानबाट फड्को मारेर यस वर्ष १ सयौं स्थानमा उक्लेको छ भने ७५ औं स्थानमा रहेको भुटान दक्षिण एसियाकै सबैभन्दा राम्रो व्यावसायिक वातावरण भएको देश बनेको छ ।

भारतले ‘डुङइ बिजनेस’का १० सूचकमा ८ वटामा सुधार गरेको भन्दै विश्व बैकले भारतमा व्यवसाय सुरु गर्न, निर्माणसम्बन्धी कार्यको अनुमति, कर्जा प्राप्ति, विद्युत् प्राप्ति, साना लगानीकर्ताको संरक्षण, कर भुक्तानी प्रक्रिया, वैदेशिक व्यापार, कामदारसम्बन्धी सम्झौता र समस्याग्रस्त संस्थाको व्यवस्थामा सुधार आएको जनाएको छ ।

यस्तै, प्रतिवेदनमा श्रीलंका १११ औं स्थानमा छ भने माल्दिभ्स १३६ औं, पाकिस्तान १४७ औं, बंगलादेश १७७ औं र अफगानिस्तान १८३ औं स्थानका रहेको पनि उल्लेख छ । नेपालमा पछिल्ला वर्षमा चल सम्पत्तिको धितोमा पनि कर्जा दिन सकिने व्यवस्थासहितको सुरक्षित कारोबार प्रणालीको कार्यान्वयन, संस्थागत पारदर्शीताको कायम गर्दै साना लगानीकर्ताको संरक्षणमा सुधार भएकोले व्यावसायिक वातावरण सुधार भएको प्रतिवेदनले उल्लेख गरेको छ ।

यस्तै, नेपालले १० वटा सूचकमध्ये साना लगानीकर्ताको संरक्षणमा सबैभन्दा राम्रो स्थान (६२), वैदेशिक व्यापारमा सहजता (७६), समस्याग्रस्त संस्थाको व्यवस्थापनमा (७६) तथा सम्पत्ति दर्तामा (८४) अंक प्राप्त गरेर राम्रो स्थान प्राप्त गरेको छ । सोही कारण नेपालले आफ्नो स्थान गत वर्षभन्दा २ स्थान माथि उकाल्न सफल भएको प्रतिवेदनले जनाएको छ । तर, नेपालले सुधार गर्न नसकेका केही क्षेत्रहरू जस्तै, निर्माण अनुमतिसम्बन्धी प्रक्रियाहरू लामो हुँदै गएको तथा यसमा समय बढी लाग्ने गरेकाले सुधारको अझै आवश्यकता रहेको औंल्याइएको छ ।

प्रतिवेदनले न्यूजिल्यान्ड पहिलो, सिंगापुर दोस्रो, डेनमार्क तेस्रो, दक्षिण कोरिया चौथो तथा चीनको हङकङ क्षेत्र पाँचौं स्थानमा रहेको पनि जनाएको छ । प्रतिवर्ष विश्व बैंकले निकाल्ने यसै प्रतिवेदनको आधारमा संसारका धेरै लगानीकर्ताले आफ्नो लगानी विस्तार जस्ता निर्णय गर्ने पनि बैंकले जनाएको छ । यस्तै, वल्र्ड इकोनोमिक फोरमद्वारा यसअघि सार्वजनिक विश्वको प्रतिस्पर्धी क्षमता २०१७ का अनुसार नेपाल गत वर्षभन्दा सूचकांकमा १० तह माथि उक्लेर ८८ औं नम्बरमा परे पनि दक्षिण एसियामा भने चौथो स्थानमा नै रहेको छ । विश्वको प्रतिस्पर्धी क्षमता २०१५ मा नेपाल दक्षिण एसियाको तेस्रो प्रतिस्पर्धी अर्थतन्त्र रहेको थियो ।

वल्र्ड इकोनोमिक फोरमले १ सय ३७ देशमा गरेको अध्ययनअनुसार विश्वव्यापी प्रतिस्पर्धी मुलुकको सूचीमा नेपाल ८८ औं नम्बरमा परेको थियो । तर, दक्षिण एसियाली मुलुकमा भने नेपाल चौंथो नम्बरमा छ । अध्ययन प्रतिवेदनमा दक्षिण एसियाका ६ मुलुकलाई समावेश गरिएकामा नेपाल बंगलादेश र पाकिस्तानभन्दा अगाडि छ । भारत ४०, भुटान ८२ र श्रीलंका ८५ औं नम्बरमा छन् ।

House approves amendment to Company Act

The Company Act Amendment Bill has finally been endorsed by the parliament.
The bill, which couldn’t get through the parliament on Friday due to lack of a quorum, was endorsed today. The new law is expected to simplify entry, operation and exit of companies in Nepal.
One of the key laws that could encourage prospective investors – both domestic and foreign – in Nepal, the amendment to the Company Act (2063 BS) has made things easier for companies, which are defunct for long and are looking to wind up their operations legally, according to industry minister Nabindra Raj Joshi.
The amendment has also relieved individuals and firms of liability to pay fees and fines piled up for several years. Such individuals and firms will have to pay only one per cent of their paid-up capital, according to a provision in the new law. Companies, which failed to report their operation details and pay liabilities for several years, can enjoy this facility for one time only.
“Around 50,000 defunct companies can benefit from this exit scheme,” according to the ministry.
According to the Act that has given exit chance to domestic and foreign firms in Nepal that are registered but are no longer in operation, any defunct firm can exist by paying 0.5 per cent of its paid-up capital or 0.5 per cent of due taxes that such companies owe to the government – whichever is less – in the next two years.
According to Joshi, the amendment, which started five years ago, has a number of provisions aimed at easing doing business and creating more jobs in the country.
“Apart from easy exit, the amendment has also made entry of a company easy,” Joshi said, adding that the amendments in the Company Act are expected to improve doing business environment and also attract private sector investments including foreign direct investments. "The Act has also given validity to online registration of companies and use of digital signatures."
With the introduction of online company registration three years ago, Nepal’s doing business indicator had progressed by five points.
The new law has also raised the threshold of paid-up capital of firms requiring compulsory formation of three-member auditors committee for auditing of their financial operations to Rs 100 million from existing Rs 30 million. Likewise, a firm can donate up to Rs 100,000 in a fiscal year up from Rs 50,000 in the existing law.
The legislature has also capped administrative cost of firms not distributing profit in the past year at 25 per cent of their annual expenditure. This measure is also believed to tighten screws on unscrupulous firms reporting loss by showing bloated meeting allowance and other unnecessary costs.
Similarly, the new Company Act has also increased the upper limit of number of promoters in a company from 50 to 101. The government has also introduced a provision whereby promoters of any company can participate in their annual general meeting (AGM) through video conference.

Telecommunication service providers must go public
Likewise, the new amendment has also made it mandatory for telecom companies having paid-up capital of Rs 50 million or above to float their shares to general public within the next two years. With such provision in the new law, private telecom operators will have to issue shares to the public in near future.
Except Nepal Telecom (NT), other five telecom service providers in Nepal are owned by the private sector. Among the private sector-owned telecom operators in the country, paid-up capital of United Telecom Ltd (UTL), Nepal Satellite Telecom and Ncell exceeds Rs 50 million. According to the Company Registrar Prem Kumar Shrestha, the provision is introduced for private telecom operators as they have comparatively higher direct every day linkage with the public.

Nepal slips in Doing Business ranking, still second easiest destination for business in South Asia

The business environment in Nepal has been deteriorating continuously in recent years, according to a global report.
Nepal has been ranked 107th in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2017 report compared to 99th last year. "The main reasons behind the drop are a decline in Nepal’s business regulatory environment and data revisions,” the report states. "Nonetheless, Nepal has second most favourable business environment in South Asia after Bhutan (73)."
On the distance to frontier metric, Nepal’s score went down from 59.36 in Doing Business 2016 to 58.88 in Doing Business 2017, using a comparable methodology. “It indicates a widening gap between Nepal’s regulatory environment and global best practices,” the report noted.
Under the method, rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate distance to frontier scores in various topics related to conducive business environment as considered by the World Bank, each comprising several indicators, giving equal weightage to each topic.
This indicates widening gap between Nepal’s regulatory environment and global best practices.
"More specifically, Doing Business finds Nepal made dealing with construction permits more difficult by increasing the cost of obtaining a building permit in 2015-16," it added.
However, on the positive side, Nepal also made exporting and importing easier by implementing ASYCUDA World, an electronic data interchange system.
Nepal has recently made progress in institutional reforms on several fronts that will take some time to be reflected in international rankings, the global report noted.
"For example, the government has commissioned a Cloud Infrastructure, introduced Public Key Infrastructure for Digital Signature and is close to launching an online registration and approval system for Foreign Direct Investment,” says the World Bank’s country manager for Nepal Takuya Kamata. "Wider public uptake of these systems can help ensure that these positive developments are captured in future rankings,” he added.
Nepal’s drop in ranking was also partially offset by changes in methodology. Apart from the regular 11 indicators that are used to rank economies, such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, supply of electricity, property registration, easy availability of credit, protection for minority investors, paying taxes, trade across the borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulations, the report has for the first time included a gender dimension in three sets of indicators: ‘Starting a Business’, ‘Registering Property’ and ‘Enforcing Contracts’. The Paying Taxes indicator set has been expanded to cover post-filing processes, such as tax audits and VAT refund.
High ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive for setting up and operating a local firm.
South Asian countries have improved performance in the Doing Business areas of ‘Protecting Minority Investors’ – with an average rank of 80 – and ‘Starting a Business’ with an average of 100. Except for the Maldives, no economy in the South Asia region has a minimum capital requirement for starting a business, the report stated.