August 15: Although the Office of the Company Registrar has been established for the economic development of the country by promoting investment in the fields of industry, trade and business, individuals complain the office does not work according to its plans. The service seekers complain that they have to face unnecessary hassles for registration of companies.

Individuals who reach the Company Registrar's Office to get new company registered or to renew the registration, and other services say they face lots of problems. As the services provided by the office are not available online, there is a large number of people at the office premises each day for registration and renewal of companies.

Ramesh Prajapati of Bhaktapur, Katunje, who came for the registration of a new company, complained that he had to wait for hours due to the crowd and on top of that he had to pay bribes to get the work done.

The purpose of establishing the said office is to make the operation and administration of the company more accessible and simple, but it's just the opposite, he shared.

The service seekers complain that they cannot see the names of the companies that have been registered in the office.

 "Until some time ago, the name of the registered companies could be seen on the website of the office," said one of the service seekers, "Now it has been removed deliberately. So the service seekers have to visit the concerned field office repeatedly to make sure that the name of the company they want to register does not match with any other company that has already been registered.”

Prajapati thinks that there is no reason to keep the name of the registered company secret. Stating that a company needs a name just like a person needs a name after birth, he claimed that the system of not being able to see the name is causing unnecessary suffering to the service seekers. It is also fostering institutional corruption, he says. 

He complains that the employees ask for bribes on the pretext of checking if the name of the new company matches with the already registered company. If the name of the registered company is placed on the website, the customers can choose a different name without any hassle.

The employees assigned to check the company names can be assigned with other works.

However, the office which claims that it does not have enough staff, on the contrary, has now assigned staff for the work that the service seekers could do themselves in the past.

Similarly, another customer said that because the service provided by the office is not available online, there is a rush of 400/500 customers every day. He claimed that the bribed employees do not even seek bank statement to increase the paid-up capital.

"Even though there is a provision that bank statements are required to increase the company's paid-up capital, after giving a bribe, the share price of the paid-up capital of any amount is approved," he said.