After years of protests by those affected by metered rates, the government has for the first time declared metered rates a 'serious economic crime' and agreed to create a separate legal structure against it. The agreement was reached between Home Minister Sudhan Gurung and the agitating metered rates victims. After reaching the agreement, representatives of the agitating metered rates victims held discussions with the government negotiation team at Singha Durbar on Thursday evening.

According to the agreement reached so far, once the Council of Ministers declares metered rates a serious economic crime, the process of declaring fraudulent deeds, sight bonds, compulsory checks, and forcibly obtained land passes related to it as illegal will begin.

To provide a legal basis for this, the government has agreed to bring a 'Special Act on the Control of Metered Rates Crime'. The draft agreement states that the act, which is expected to be prepared within three months, will provide a clear definition of metered rate transactions, identification of victims, compensation, return of seized land, expansion of easy access to institutional credit, and bringing the system of private moneylenders into legal scope. The government is also preparing for the agreement in writing to address the demands of the agitating parties for years, including the 'revocation of fake land deeds' and 'land return'. 

Home Minister Gurung reached an agreement on most of the points that were said to be in the agreement in Nijgadh, Bara. He reached the agreement in Nijgadh with the victims who had walked from Janakpur to Kathmandu. Immediately after that, the cabinet meeting was held and the government decided to form a negotiation team under the coordination of Pushkar Sapkota, Secretary to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. The negotiation team includes joint secretaries of the ministries of home, land, and finance. 

'Discussions have begun with the meter badge victims, they have put forward their demands, not everything has been agreed, negotiations will take place again on Friday,' said Sapkota, coordinator of the negotiation team.

 The talks held with the government team at the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers' Office, Singha Durbar, on Thursday were positive, said Nirg Naveen, a member of the negotiation team on behalf of the meter badge victims and a representative of United People's Rights Nepal. According to him, talks will be held again on Friday.

As per the five-point agreement reached with Home Minister Gurung in Nijgadh, the Council of Ministers has agreed to declare meter badge as institutional economic exploitation, abolish fake and fraudulent documents, and prepare a draft of a special act within three months. According to the agreement, after the agreement is reached, the agitating party will have to postpone the march from Janakpur to Kathmandu on 25 Ashar. 

A detailed list of meter badge crimes has also been proposed in the agreement. The law defines metered loan crimes as making a bill of exchange for a non-existent loan, showing a higher amount than the actual amount, preparing a new bill by adding interest to the principal, charging more interest than prescribed by law, using threats or violence to collect loans, seizing the debtor's movable and immovable property, having blank checks or checks for an excessive amount drawn, preparing unnecessary documents in a single transaction, and having documents certified without proof of banking transactions. 

It has also been agreed to form a separate tribunal to hear metered loan cases. The draft states that the proposed mechanism can make necessary legal provisions for forensic examination of fake documents, examination of bank statements and source of assets, investigation of money laundering on suspicious assets, and review of cases that have been decided or are pending in the court. This indicates that metered loan will be taken from a general transaction dispute to the criminal justice system.

A high-level negotiation and dialogue committee comprising the government, independent experts and representatives of the movement will be formed by the decision of the Council of Ministers to implement the agreement. The committee will have to form a special task force within seven days and prepare a draft law and action plan. The task force will include representatives from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Finance, Law and Land Management, the Attorney General's Office, Nepal Police and representatives of the movement.

The government has already formed a commission, task force and consensus to resolve the meter badge problem, but this time it has put forward a long-term solution with the admission that it has not been implemented. The preamble to the consensus itself states that the rights of social justice, equality and anti-exploitation guaranteed by the constitution have not been ensured in practice and that poor farmers and workers who are out of formal banking access are falling into the trap of usurers. The document also includes the conclusion that the problem has become more complicated due to the non-implementation of the reports of the previous commissions and task forces.

Home Minister Gurung had reached Nijgadh from Kathmandu on Tuesday morning to meet the victims who were resting at the meeting hall of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Nijgadh. He himself reached the negotiating table to hear the complaints of the poor, farmers and workers who were living under the threat of high interest rates, fake loans and evictions from the moneylenders. He stayed in Nijgadh and Simara for 3 days. He kept listening to their pain, the abuses of the moneylenders and the legal complications. He had noted the victims' statements and details of the incident in his diary.