Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: The government is to amend the Bank and Financial Institutions Act and the Banking Offences and Punishment Act as per the need of the hour.

Presenting the budget for the coming fiscal year at the joint meeting of the federal parliament, Finance Minister Dr Swarnim Wagle said that the government has put forth a plan to mobilize the banks and financial institutions in the productive sector as per the prescribed legal process ensuring that the funds of the banks and financial institutions would be available to the rightful rightful claimers.

Necessary amount has been allocated for the operation of loan and livestock programme for the poor and small farmers through the Small Farmers Development Micro Finance Institution.

A plan has been put forward to make national and international payment aggregators and national payment switches more effective to enable commercial banks and payment service providers to sign agreements with international payment networks. Necessary legal and institutional provisions have been made for the regulation of payment aggregators.

In order to increase the effectiveness of concessional loans, a policy has been put forward to evaluate the quality of loans through third parties. Through the budget, a plan has been put forward to include the families of the martyrs and injured of the Genji movement as beneficiaries of this program.

Arrangements have been made to buy and sell household appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and other electrical appliances through the ‘hire purchase’ system in order to increase electricity consumption and control pollution.

As per the new policy, at least 20 percent of the policies issued by the insurance company should be re-insured through Nepal Reinsurance Company. The group insurance fund of long-term nature will be led and operated by Nepal Reinsurance Company.

In order to reduce the risk, a certain portion of the reinsurance will be provided to foreign reinsurance companies. The limit of third party insurance which has not been increased for a long time has been increased to Rs 10 lakh. In order to reduce road accidents, it will be made mandatory to install accident recording devices in vehicles. Insurance including accidents, fatal diseases and transportation has been made mandatory.

Employees Provident Fund, Citizen Investment Trust, Deposit and Credit Security Fund, Health Insurance Board and Social Security Fund will be re-insured through Nepal Reinsurance Company. While approving the design of building construction in urban areas, it will be mandatory to have insurance. Finance Minister Dr Wagle also said that a separate bill related to the management of stock market and punishment would be tabled in the parliament.

The budget has also proposed to formulate a trustee bill to regulate financial trustees and make the role of the National Cooperative Regulatory Authority (NCRA) more effective in monitoring and regulating cooperatives that carry out major transactions of savings and loans.

A plan has been put forward to continue the work of returning the savings of the depositors of the problematic cooperatives through the Integrated Savers Security Fund established as a revolving fund to reimburse the savings of the cooperatives and the sale of the property.

Good Governance and Governance Reforms

The budget aims to end policy-level corruption by formulating laws related to conflict of interest. The recovery, confiscation, recovery and management system will be made more effective by linking the concerned bodies in an integrated information system for the effective management of the criminal property.

A plan has been put forward to install essential equipment and construct physical infrastructures to expand multi-specialty services from the civil service hospital. The budget aims to develop the Hello Sarkar system as an effective platform for government-citizen dialogue.

Reforms and integration of civil services systems including land revenue, transport, personal incident registration and social security management have been carried out by implementing digital time card in government offices, using the national identity card as the basic identity card of public service delivery.

In view of the changing economic diplomacy, the Nepali embassies in Denmark, Brazil and South Africa, the Consulates General in Chengdu and San Francisco and the branches of the Embassy in Visakhapatnam have been closed.

The goal is to provide the necessary resources to strengthen the performance of the constitutional bodies.