Foreign investment: 29 billion committed, 5.5 billion received

According to the Department of Industry, foreign investment commitments of 965 million rupees have been received in 16 new industries last March. With this amount, a total of 30 billion 995 million foreign investments have been committed in 269 new industries in 9 months of the current financial year. According to the data of Rashtra Bank till February, 5 billion 62 crore 57 lakh rupees have been received. 2 billion 64 crore 62 lakh rupees were received in July the most. According to the data of the department, investment commitments of 11 billion 93 million 18 million rupees have been received this month. Stakeholders say that there is no policy arrangement that all the foreign investments that have come to the

commitment will come or should come in the same period. When the government approves foreign investment, the investor is allowed to bring in the investment in stages (in installments). Sushil Bhatt, chief executive officer of the Investment Board, said that the commitment and approved amount will not be received at once. The investment is approved as a lump sum. But it comes in at different stages," he said, "Investment is also coming in at the study stage for the project."

In the last fiscal year, 38 billion 40 million 75 million foreign investment was committed, but only 5 billion 96 million 13 million was received. In the financial year 078/079, 54 billion 15 billion 89 million rupees were committed, but 18 billion 56 million 3 million rupees were received. In the financial year 077/078, 32 billion 17 billion 28 million rupees were committed and 19 billion 51 million 27 million rupees were received.

From July to February of the last financial year, 159 new industries received commitments of 20.56 billion rupees and 1.169 million rupees were received, according to the data of the National Bank. According to Gunakar Bhatt, Executive Director of Nepal Rastra Bank, there has been an increase in foreign direct investment in the current financial year compared to the previous financial year. If FDI is favorable internationally and if the investment-friendly environment is made in the country, FDI will come in. Signs of this were also seen.'

However, experts say that FDI has not entered even 1 percent of the gross domestic product for some years. Stakeholders say that the low inflow of foreign investment in the last financial year is due to various reasons such as the situation behind the Covid infection, high interest rates in the international market, and the Russia-Ukraine war. They say that the economic situation within Nepal was not stable at that time. "Even in such a situation, one million tourists entered, so there is a major possibility of FDI in energy, tourism and information technology," he said.

Since the previous fiscal year, the government has taken a flexible policy since the foreign direct investment started to come in less. In the last financial year, the minimum limit of foreign investment was fixed from Rs 5 crore to Rs 2 crore. It is said that through the budget of the current financial year, the minimum limit of foreign investment will be reviewed and the limit will be set regionally.

The government has mentioned in the budget that the limit of foreign investment in the information technology industry will be removed. However, the department said that it has not been implemented yet.

It is mentioned in the report of Nepal Rastra Bank that by the end of the financial year 078/79, the balance of total foreign direct investment in Nepal remained 2 trillion 64 billion 33 crores. According to the latest study report of the National Bank on foreign investment, 57 countries will receive foreign direct investment in Nepal by the end of June 2019. In most of the previous years, compared to the foreign investment coming into Nepal, the amount of dividend going out of Nepal was more during the same period. But the survey showed that in the financial year 078/79, there was more foreign investment coming in than going out due to dividends.

In the financial year 078/79, foreign invested companies have taken 15 billion 675 million rupees from Nepal as dividends. In the same financial year, 18.56 billion 3 lakh rupees were received. That year, 54 billion 15 billion 89 million foreign investment commitments came. Compared to the commitment, only 34.3 percent foreign direct investment has come in. According to the data of Rashtra Bank, 26 billion 76 million rupees were distributed as dividends in the financial year 077/78 and 12 billion 903 million rupees in the financial year 076/77. A total of 2 trillion 64 billion rupees worth of direct foreign investment has entered the country so far.