Parliamentary deliberation on prevention of money laundering bill begins

Parliamentary deliberation has begun on the bill made to amend some Nepal acts related to the prevention of money laundering and promotion of the business environment.

Taking part on monday meeting of the Federal Parliament Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights, members of the parliament have stressed on the need of improving the bill in a way to discourage illicit wealth generation and illegal financial transactions.

The government introduced the bill in the context when financial crime was on the rise with the globalization of banking, technology and trade and the shifting nature of cross-boundary crime in any country.

The bill has the objective to provide adequate legal arrangement to take action against those obstructing remittance flow through illicit ways (hundi) and committing financial crime such as revenue evasion, receipt of payment of criminal income in foreign countries.

On the occasion, committee member and Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak said the bill was targeted to check emerging wrong tendencies especially associated with money laundering, real estate, hundi and cooperatives and human trafficking.

Likewise, former Speaker and committee member Subash Nembang highlighted the urgency of working together to swiftly endorse the bill by giving it a complete shape.

Other members of the committee also recommended taking a tough stance on preventing money laundering and paying attention towards removing constraints in bringing foreign investment.

In the meeting presided over by the committee's senior-most member Mangal Prasad Gupta, some 14 members aired their opinion focusing on the contents of the bill.

It is expected that the endorsement of the bill and its subsequent enforcement would level up Nepal's legal arrangement on the prevention of money laundering to the international standards and ease effective legal actions against money laundering.

The government had presented the bill to amend 19 acts related to the prevention of money laundering and promoting business development in the country.