May 3: The government has started issuing fewer Foreign Employment Saving Bonds in recent years as the target group – Nepali workers in foreign employment -- has shown little interest in the initiative of the government to encourage investment in such bonds.

The government has been issuing 'Foreign Employment Savings Bond' for almost one and a half decades along with the scheme of setting up income generating sectors for the Nepalese who are in foreign employment. However, every year the sales of such savings bond are much less than the target. 

The Public Debt Management Office issued a notice on Monday calling for the purchase of savings bonds worth Rs 1 billion. The notice mentions that the target group can purchase a minimum savings bond worth Rs 10,000 from May 5 to June 4. The notice further mentions the annual interest rate on the savings bond with a maturity period of five years will be 9 percent. 

In the last fiscal year (FY) 2079/80, the government had issued notice to sell foreign employment savings bonds worth Rs 1.47 billion, but only Rs 26.3 million were sold as per the Nepal Rastra Bank.

Although the central bank used to raise internal debt for the government in the past, the Public Debt Management Office has started raising such debts for the government since one month.

In the fiscal year 2078/89, the government had issued such bonds worth Rs 500 million for sale but bonds worth only Rs 56.7 million were sold. 

In view of the low sales of savings bonds in the past, the PDMO has started correspondence with Nepal’s embassies to increase the sale of such bonds, shared Dilaram Giri, the information officer of the PDMO.

“We are trying to promote the sale of savings bond with the help of Nepal’s embassies abroad, media as well as to foreign workers. We expect sales to increase this year compared to previous years.”

The government started issuing foreign employment savings bonds for the first time since 2066/67.

So far, the government has issued foreign employment savings bonds worth Rs 15.56 billion through 25 different schemes but the sale has been only 4.9 percent worth Rs 762.3 million.