16 March: The Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) Nepal has organized a learning event on 'Anti Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AML/TF) in Nepal’ for young entrepreneurs. The event held in Kathmandu basically focused on demarcation between money laundering and tax evasion, legal frameworks and contribution of business sector to control it.

 Hari Kumar Nepal, Deputy Director of Financial Information Unit, Nepal Rastra Bank  and chief speaker of the event said that the government is fully committed to control any form of financial crime including money laundering and tax evasion. “Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (AML/TF) is now not issue of Nepal only but it has dragged attention of governments all over the world and other international organizations,” he said adding, “Government of Nepal is serious on this matter and leaves no stone unturned to eradicate such practices.” He also stressed that Money laundering has worsen not only the business sector only but also politics and administration.

'Surveys show that more than 3.6 % of global GDP is earned through criminal activities. If we add amount of tax evasion to it, the result is shockingly high,' Nepal added, “But one has to be aware of the fact that each and every business started with black money is a crime. And, one cannot get peace of mind with black money.”

“Although we still lack concrete measures of financial crimes in Nepal, there is very few chance that one can escape from this crime,” he said, “Tax evasion supported by corruption is the biggest challenge of Nepal. It starts right from a general landlord to show low rental charge to evade tax. So, it is very much difficult to bring this all in track.”

According to Nepal, the government has introduced some of the measures to check money laundering. “We will soon have regulations like prohibition of cash transaction higher than 10 lakh rupees and not allowing saving account for business transactions. We hope that this will contribute in controlling money laundering,” he added.

The event was followed by an interaction session where young entrepreneurs and EO members shared their view on how business sector can work together with government to implement the measures to control financial crimes.

The Nepal Chapter of EO has been working as the catalyst to enable leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow, leading to greater success in business and beyond. The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is a global, peer-to-peer network of more than 12,000 influential business owners with 160 chapters in 50 countries.