August 15: The Department of Industry had called for proposals on March 30 to avail startup loans for emerging enterprises that meet the criteria. However, the department has not been able to extend the loan under this heading due to submission of fake proposals.

It has been found that many of the proposals, submitted in response to the call, had included fake letters by misusing government letterpads.

A group has been actively involved in misusing the letterpad of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, in order to distribute fake letters to various people regarding start-up enterprise loans.

The department issued a notice on Monday and informed that an investigation is being conducted on the distribution of fake letters.

"The final evaluation of the applications is yet to be done," the notice said, adding, "Let's be careful of fraud by such people."

Even after more than three months, the department is not sure how many projects will get loans. In the first phase, the government plans to give start-up loans to 100 people. The applications were filed by 382 people. It has not been decided how many of them will get loans.

Ramila Bhandari, information officer of the department, said that an investigation is being conducted into the fake letters. She said that the issue of how many people will get the loan has not yet been decided.

Some provisions of Startup Loan Fund Procedure 2079 are being amended. The review process is under discussion at the ministry. Bhandari said that the applied startups will get loans only after this procedure is approved.

The procedure was introduced by the Ministry in February. Then the application was requested in March. Meanwhile, the Ministry has prepared a draft of the National Startup Enterprise Policy. According to the policy, which is still in the draft stage, the applicants will get loans only after some changes are made in the procedure, said Bhandari.

According to Bhandari, even if the issue of providing loans has not been finalized, the first priority will be given to those who have applied for loans.

The government will provide start-up enterprise loans to 14 different sectors, including agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, mining and minerals, automobiles, garbage and waste management and environment.