August 3: Government agencies have been found hesitating to implement the programmes announced in the budget by the government for the current fiscal year (FY 2023/24).

Although Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat had directed the concerned officials to speed up the implementation of the budget, the government agencies are not willing to implement the programmes included in the budget on various pretexts.

An example of this is the provision included in the budget that no fee shall be charged for the registration of a new company from the new fiscal year which commenced on July 17. The government had also made an announcement that it would not charge any company for increasing its capital effective from the beginning of the current FY.

The issue of establishing and closing a company through online medium was also included in the policies and programmes of the government after the government was criticized for the complex process of setting up and closing companies.

"There will be no fees or charges for registering new companies and increasing the company's capital," mentions the budget statement.

According to the budget, the provision of opening a company after declaring a minimum authorized capital of Rs 100 should be implemented after the implementation of the new budget.

Finance Minister Mahat had made such announcements while unveiling the budget on May 29, but these provisions have not been implemented yet.

The Company Registrar's Office, which has the authority to implement this provision in the budget, is hesitant to implement these provisions under various pretexts.

The Company Registrar's Office admitted that the provisions in the budget have not been implemented yet. Officials say that they cannot implement the provisions mentioned in the budget until a notification is published in the Nepal Gazette.

Shekhar Babu Karki, the information officer of the Company Registrar's Office, says that the government has not yet published a notification in the Nepal Gazette in this regard, so the new provisions have not been implemented.

Karki made it clear the provision in the budget will not be implemented until a notice is published in the Nepal Gazette.

There are 380,000 companies registered with the Company Registrar's Office. Last year alone, more than 20,000 companies were registered.