MoI for implementing sick industries revival measures

Ministry of Industry (MoI), which was instructed two months ago to implement recommendations of a high-level taskforce to revive sick industries, is soon forwarding the stimulation package that the taskforce proposed to the cabinet to get formal authority from the government to implement it.
The ministry is seeking a formal nod from the cabinet to implement the taskforce´s suggestions as it has recommended the government to provide facilities like soft loans, waiver of tax and outstanding loans, something which the ministry has no authority to execute.
And as the Prime Minister´s Office (PMO) instruction to implement the report´s suggestions had come through verbal order, it had lacked legal status and thus, prevented the ministry from taking concrete steps to implement them.
“We are soon forwarding the report, including its suggestions, to the cabinet to get it owned by the government and secure legality to implement it,” Uma Kant Jha, secretary of the MoI told Republica.
The high-level task force on rehabilitation of sick industries, comprising eight members from different stakeholder institutions like National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) had handed over its suggestions to the PMO in September, 2011.
The PMO had instantly endorsed the report and later forwarded it to MoI for implementation.
“We have the verbal instruction to implement it from PMO. But still we will need formal approval from the Cabinet to implement its recommendations,” Jha said.
He disclosed that the ministry has already formed a committee and is working out modalities to implement the report. “We are forwarding the modalities of report implementation to the cabinet as well so that we could get government´s consent on it,” Jha stated.
The ministry feels such a consent is very necessary as the implementation of the report requires better coordination between numerous stakeholders, including banks and other institutions and also various ministries.
Clearly, without the cabinet´s nod, the ministry cannot approach MoF to waive off taxes or request NRB to facilitate loans restructuring or arrange other facilities for the sick industries, as suggested by the taskforce.
“The approval of the cabinet, hence, is crucial for us to communicate with other stakeholders to get the sick industry revival measures implemented,” said Jha. Once the cabinet´s nod comes, he said the ministry would instantly start functioning as coordinating agency on behalf of the sick industries for the execution of revival packages.
However, knowledgeable officials said that implementation of sick industry revival measures will not be as easy because the report that pushed numerous recommendations has not categorically defined or categorized the sick industries.
“What this means is; we still have no criteria to genuinely identify which industry is sick, and what sort of facilities it is entitled to. Without it, the ministry simply cannot make its offer,” said a source.
The high-level taskforce during its study received applications from 26 firms claiming that they are sick industries. “However, we have not taken any decision on whether they are really sick industries,” Jha said.