Risk of country being black listed for lack of key laws

Risk of country being black listed for lack of key laws
RSS KATHMANDU, April 1: The country faces the risk of discrediting its reputation in the international arena due to the delay in the formulation of a key legislation dealing with organized crime, mutual legal assistance and extradition.
Nepal is at risk of being blacklisted if these pieces of laws are not formulated in two and half weeks.
These legislations pertain to declaring the assets earned through illegal means and corruption as illegitimate, to controlling the illegal sale of firearms and to promote collaboration among the countries throughout the world to check drug trafficking and terrorist activities.
The Inter-Government Financial Task Force on monitoring of Money Laundering has set June 22 as the deadline by which Nepal should bring the legislation on money laundering. A meeting of the task force held in Paris, France on February 17 set this deadline.
Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), Maha Prasad Adhikari, who participated in the meeting, said that it is compulsory for Nepal to bring the legislation ahead of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) meeting taking place in New Delhi, India in the first week of May.
A senior official at the Finance Ministry said a letter the FATF sent to the Nepali authorities warns that the country might be blacklisted if the said legislation was not formulated within the given deadline.
The United Nations had urged its member nations to compulsorily formulate these legislations following the terrorist attacks in the UnitedStates of America in 2001 for the collective security of all the countries of the world and for forging a united front against terrorism.
The country is forfeiting huge amount of money as the laws considered a must for prevention and control of money laundering and financing or terrorism have not been formulated so far.
American banks as City Bank, Chase Bank and First Washington have stopped carrying out transactions with Nepali banks as the country has not made the necessary legislation on money laundering while other banks based in the U.S. are doing so by taking 500 US dollars daily.
The U.S. government has made it strict for banks from countries who have not made the required legislations on money laundering to open accounts in U.S. soil. Due to this the government is finding it difficult to operate the bank accounts of the Nepali Embassy in the U.S. and Nepal´sPermanent Mission to the UN.
These legislations have been considered crucial in declaring the money earned through illegal and corrupt means within and outside the country as illegitimate and penalizing the persons involved in such practices. It is also the responsibility of the country to fulfill the commitments made in the international forum.
"It is our responsibility to fulfill our obligations by making these legislations at the earliest in the context of the nation´s responsibility," Speaker of the Parliament Subas Nembang said, underscoring the need of keeping words given to the international community.
He called on the government to be serious on this issue considering the importance of the bills relating to these legislations.
The repeated efforts made by the Speaker to have these bills related to the legislations passed by the Parliament could not materialize and the House session was prorogued without carrying out this business.
The Speaker called on the government to call a session of the Parliament promptly and make the necessary laws. He urged the government and the sides concerned to sincerely work towards having these bills passed for protecting the country´s credibility.