Kusum Bhattarai, Kathmandu- Nepal is moving towards severe economic crisis along with global economic recession. If the government does not take any concrete steps immediately, then experts in the economic sector have already started pointing towards the danger that Nepal’s situation may be like Sri Lanka.
Inflation reached about 12%. To check the figures till November, the revenue collection is negative by 20.7 percent. Due to the financial crisis, high interest rates and lack of cash in banks, businessmen have started committing suicide.
On the one hand, the industries are collapsing and the banks are also in crisis as they are unable to pay their debts. A dark cloud of crisis has begun to float over remittances, the trusted source of Nepal’s economy. Due to the global economic recession, the economic crisis is on the rise in countries where Nepalese have been working. As the companies, industries and factories of those countries have started cutting workers, there is a danger that the source of remittances will shrink.
Due to this, the entire economy is falling into a serious crisis. The parties that have been forgotten in the juxtaposition of power seem to be apathetic and apathetic towards this serious crisis, which is a tragedy. Economic quagmire There is a lack of investable funds in banks and financial institutions. Banks are unable to provide loans.
Last December, in the Annual General Meeting of Nepal Bankers Association, the Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank, Mahaprasad Adhikari, claimed that the lack of liquidity in banks has been decreasing since the beginning of the current financial year. Governor Adhikari said the interbank rate went from 8.5% to 7.07%.
He claimed that the rate of remittances is increasing due to the improvement of the financial sector, but due to the decrease in the rate of remittances due to the global economic recession, it is estimated that the lack of liquidity in banks will increase more than what he claimed. This is why the hope for a positive improvement of the financial sector is dying.
The direct impact of economic recession is not only on small and medium industries, but also on large industries. Until some time ago, the iron and rods produced in Nepal had started to be exported abroad. However, due to the government’s wrong revenue policy, these industries are now in a state of collapse.
Even the cement industries, which are the pride of Nepal, are not able to produce according to their capacity. Cement industries are forced to produce only 25 percent, which does not even raise their cost.
The market has become chaotic. The prices are increasing at an alarming rate and people’s lives have become miserable. Due to the increasing corruption in the education and health sector and black market and black money, a dark cloud has started to hang over our economy as a whole.
Where is the black money?
The government is out of money. The banks don’t have any cash. After all, who has the money? Will demonetization take place in Nepal to integrate the economy and the money hidden in the economy?
Firstly, the country’s capital is migrating abroad. The Nepalese who are abroad have taken citizenship there and have started accumulating all their capital abroad through hundi or illegal methods. Secondly, Nepal’s corrupt leaders, black marketers, gold smugglers, land mafia have hidden the illegally earned money.
According to the 20-point memorandum submitted by CPN (Unified Socialists) to the Prime Minister on the current economic crisis only on Tuesday, the informal or underground economy (black money) is 35 percent. The government has no control over this important part of the economy. Nepal’s black money has been exposed a few years ago. After it was revealed that 5 billion 38 million rupees were stored in the HSBC bank in Switzerland, the underground financial mafia of Nepal started to be revealed.
Swiss banks are considered to be the haven of black money of financial mafia around the world. When the fact that the money of corrupt leaders and businessmen of Nepal came out in the Swiss bank, approval was given to bring in direct foreign investment from British Virgin Islands and Cyprus in the name of businessman Ajeya Sumargi’s company.
Sumargi, a businessman who is considered close to the current Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, tried to bring in more funds, but was later stopped. Money opened in a Swiss bank without approval from the National Bank is considered illegal. However, in 2013, when the fact that 13 Nepalis had accounts in the Swiss bank was revealed, there was a commotion in the financial sector. The media covered the discussion of Nepal’s well-known and top-level leaders having accounts in Swiss banks.
In 2011, WikiLeaks, which exposed confidential information, brought out the fact that black money was being stored in Swiss banks from all over the world. At the same time, WikiLeaks also pointed out that the black money of corrupt people in poor, underdeveloped and underdeveloped countries like Nepal and India is in Swiss banks.
In India, under the leadership of Anna Hazare, there was a movement to introduce the Jan Lokpal Bill on black money. The Government of India should issue a white paper. However, no Anna Hazare was born in Nepal, nor is there much discussion about black money in the media.
Many people who are involved in the communication sector ‘know’ that the big and famous media of Nepal are run by black money. Although the Nepali media does not talk much about Nepal’s black money, the data of Global Financial Integrity in 2012 revealed that 8703.94 billion capital has migrated abroad from Nepal from 2001 to 2010, and the amount of black money is about 70 percent.
This is the story of black money in foreign countries. The black money in the country is different. The fact that money earned through corruption or other illegal means is invested in gold smuggling and land transactions has already been revealed by the Asset Clearance Commission itself.
For the purpose of making black money white and evading revenue, the assets are smuggled in gold and invested in land. It has a direct impact on the country’s economy. Corruption is rampant in the country now. Administration, army, police, court, media, black market, smuggling, there is a plan to earn illegal money in every field. By protecting it, some limited people in the political field have formed a financial syndicate.
This is the story of black money in foreign countries. The black money in the country is different. The fact that money earned through corruption or other illegal means is invested in gold smuggling and land transactions has already been revealed by the Asset Clearance Commission itself.
For the purpose of making black money white and evading revenue, the assets are smuggled in gold and invested in land. It has a direct impact on the country’s economy. Corruption is rampant in the country now. Administration, army, police, court, media, black market, smuggling, there is a plan to earn illegal money in every field. By protecting it, some limited people in the political field have formed a financial syndicate.
In this way, the illegally earned money is hidden underground. A few years ago, the fact that a UML leader hid a briefcase full of notes in a water tank during a raid by the authorities revealed how illegal earnings are hidden.
How illegal earnings are hidden is shown in Hindi movie ‘Special 26’. In the movie, it is shown that the illegal money and gold are hidden and plastered under the walls, pillars, ceiling and floor of the living room. If the houses of Nepal’s corrupt leaders, gold smugglers and black marketers are to be raided in the same way, it cannot be said that billions of money will not be found. But who will do this work? Because, from leaders to corrupt mafias, there is collusion in this country.
demonetisation rumor
In November 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi surprised all Indians by announcing, ‘From now on, 500 and 1000 rupees are banned.’
After the circulation of notes stopped, the streets of the river, canals and square were seen where these notes were found. Those who earned legitimately put their money into the bank by opening the source, but the black money disappeared. This has made drug dealers, terrorists, traffickers and supporters illegal haram.
New notes were issued, although the people of India were troubled for some time, gradually the situation became normal. Recently, India’s Supreme Court confirmed demonetization. For some time, the debate about demonetisation has also begun in Nepal. When 30 per cent of the Nepalese economy is informal and underground, is the government not preparing for demonetization? People are curious.
The challenge is how to bring the wealth hidden in the underground and informal sector into the economic mainstream of the state. If that amount cannot be brought into the state’s financial flow, there is a danger that the country will be pushed into an economic crisis, the banks will collapse and limited financial amnesty will be given.
According to a well-placed source, the demonetization option cannot be excluded for reforms in the financial and economic sectors. However, in a country like ours where nothing is state secret, if the mafia gets to know about the upcoming budget after four months, then the announcement of demonetisation will not be a ‘top secret’ like in India.
