House panel approves money laundering prevention bill

Kathmandu / Oct 11: The Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives has passed a bill to amend some laws related to prevention of money laundering and promotion of business environment.

Following a discussion on the study report submitted by a sub-committee on Wednesday, the parliamentary committee approved the proposed bill.

Committee Chairperson Bimala Subedi said the committee gave approval in consensus to remove the clause that talks about imposing the maximum limit of personal savings in cooperatives at Rs 2.5 million. According to her, the committee in addition passed the clause of permitting a casino operation at the locations outside the periphery of five kilometers from the border.

She said, “The issue of money laundering was discussed and the sub-committee submitted its report yesterday. In the report submitted by the sub-committee, we discussed the issues that need further discussion.”

In the committee meeting, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dhanraj Gurung said that the bill should not be delayed or held up in the committee.

Nepal is now under pressure to revise the necessary laws related to the prevention of money laundering. Provided that it fails to implement necessary mechanisms on time, the country is likely to fall in the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).