August 5: The government has formed a committee to study the rental charge of industrial estates. The move comes after protests from stakeholders following the decision of the Industrial Area Management Limited (IDM) to implement the new fares that were fixed on 17th July 2018 in all 10 industrial estates.

The private sector has been protesting the decision saying that the latest move of the government has put them at the receiving end and also discouraged investment.

Following request from the stakeholders, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies on Wednesday formed the study committee headed by Joint Secretary Chandrakala Poudel.

The committee has been mandated to submit a report within one month, informed Dr Narayan Prasad Regmi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry. Dr Regmi said that the government will decide about the rental charge of the industrial estates after the committee submits its report.

Earlier this week, a delegation of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries had met Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Dilendra Prasad Badu and requested him to reconsider the decision to hike the rental charge.

The CNI expressed objection stating that IDM has been seeking demand charge for stored equipment, collecting fees even for the water extracted through boring by the industries themselves and raising the rent of the land in an unwanted manner.

The CNI delegation said that the decision to hike the rental charge  by 687 percent has badly affected the industries that are yet to recover from the impacts of Covid-19.

CNI’s Acting President Krishna Prasad Adhikari argued that the decision of IDM will result in the collapse of existing industries and the country's dream of import substitution and export promotion through the promotion of manufacturing and industrial sectors will not be fulfilled.

CNI informed that the IDM has even denied extending contract period of land and also refused to issue recommendation letter for the industries to apply for bank loans in case they did not pay the rental charge as per the new rate.