The government is going to form a separate and powerful 'Economic Crimes Authority' to investigate and prosecute economic crimes. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle said that the government is preparing to form a separate authority like the Authority within a year to ensure effective investigation into economic crime cases.

While answering questions raised by lawmakers on the Prevention of Money Laundering (Third Amendment) Bill 2083 in the House of Representatives meeting on Thursday, Finance Minister Wagle informed that the government is going to form a separate authority to investigate economic crimes. Currently, 13 different regulatory bodies, including the Authority, are investigating and registering cases related to money laundering.

In this way, the state's labor resources are being spent when many bodies are active for the same work. Finance Minister Wagle also urged lawmakers to hold discussions on forming a separate and powerful authority to solve such problems. 

Currently, 13 different investigative bodies, including the CIAA, investigate and register cases related to money laundering based on more than 50 acts,' said Finance Minister Wagle. 'Discussions are underway on whether to form a separate powerful body, as investigating the same issue by different bodies will increase the state's expenses, burden and delay the court system, and even have problems with recovery of the amount.' 

Nepal is currently on the FATF's grey list and the government is working to remove the country from the list as soon as possible, so the bills have to be further strengthened, said Finance Minister Wagle. 'Although this bill can be amended a lot in the future, it has been amended only in limited but effective matters because it is of great importance now,' he said. 'In the future, we will discuss it at a larger level, and we will also form a separate authority.' 

Wagle comments that in the past, when the Money Laundering Investigation Department was under the Prime Minister's Office, 'political harassment' occurred by filing various cases against various people based on political maneuvers. He claimed that the department is currently being brought under the Ministry of Finance to control that bad culture and disorder. 

When asked by the parliament whether the bill was amended to take revenge due to prejudice targeting a particular person or party, Wagle said, “In the past, the one who needed to be hurt, the leader who needed to be killed, was targeted and hurt. We have learned from the unpleasant lesson of widespread misuse of a very powerful weapon and tried to bring it into a professional rhythm,” Wagle said, “This law should not be used as a political weapon. We have to remove the country from the grey list as soon as possible.” Wagle claims that if money laundering is made a political objective, the country will not be able to get out of the grey list. 

The Prevention of Money Laundering (Third Amendment) Ordinance Replacement Bill 2083 was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday. Finance Minister Wagle had proposed that the bill be passed in the parliament meeting. The meeting passed the proposal with a majority. The jurisdiction of the Money Laundering Department has been further clarified by amending two sections of the original Act. 

The department has been provided with the opportunity to look into money laundering issues that are not related to the relevant offense. Now, the department can also conduct investigations related to areas such as customs, excise duty, smuggling, market manipulation, insider trading, foreign exchange regulations, and insurance. Earlier, such investigations could only be conducted by the relevant agencies.

The bill has also changed the process of submitting reports of such investigations. It has been provided that the department should send the report to the government's designated government attorney's office on the recommendation of the Attorney General and to the concerned government attorney's office in the case of others. This is expected to make it easier to file money laundering cases and obtain legal opinions.

The Cooperatives (First Amendment) Ordinance Replacement Bill has also been approved by the House of Representatives. Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives, Federal Affairs and General Administration Pratibha Rawal proposed the approval of the Cooperatives (First Amendment) Ordinance, 2083. The House has also approved it. 

The bill provides for the government to establish a 'revolving fund' to return the money of savers of problematic cooperatives, return the money of savers through the same fund, and replenish the money received from the government from the money received from the cooperative's debt recovery and property sale. Under the provision made through the ordinance, the revolving fund has been established and is currently being implemented. The revolving fund, which is operated and managed by the problematic cooperative management committee, is currently returning the money of savers. 

If the sale of the cooperative's property is not enough to return the money of savers, if any member of the director's family is found to have transferred the property or invested in the company for any other reason, through division of shares or divorce, the committee can freeze and auction such property.

The bill states that the savings of the directors, managers, members of their immediate family and persons involved in embezzlement or misuse of the savings of the concerned institution will not be returned until the liabilities of the savers who have made claims are resolved in accordance with the law. If the case of the claim for the return of savings is pending in court, the savings of such savers will not be returned until the final decision of the case is made.

The committee will have to return (reimburse) the amount of the loan provided by the government in the name of the organization from the amount recovered from the debt recovery, sale of property, operation, managers and other related persons of the cooperative organization.