May 19 : The private sector has accused the government of blatantly downplaying the plights of the businesses being bedeviled by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
It aired such an accusation during a virtual press conference organised by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) yesterday in the capital.
Addressing it, Bhawani Rana, president, FNCCI, said, “The concerned authorities are being grossly lackadaisical to bring a special plan to support the ailing enterprises to recover. She added that the obvious lack on any such plan even in the recently presented plans and programmes of the government was strictly unfortunate.
According to her, the situation of the battered business entities is such alarming that they will be forced to completely shut down and launch street protests if the government does not support them in the upcoming budget.
Speaking on the same occasion, FNCCI’s Senior Vice-president Shekhar Golchha said, ” There has been a great difficulty to resume the operations of the 42 types of industries which are allowed to run during the ongoing lockdown.” He attributed this to various factors like the shortage of workers and raw materials, transportation problems and market access
The apex body of the Nepali business fraternities has already forwarded its suggestions to the government for the next budget. They include revising income tax slabs, slashing value added tax rate to 10 per cent, scrapping excise duty on goods, reducing demand charge of electricity, deferring tax payment period by at least four months and floating subsidized loans
