“We do not need more than 7 commercial banks”

KATHMANDU, APRIL 4: President of Nepal Investment Mega Bank, Prithvi Bahadur Pande, has said that the number of commercial banks in the country is still more than needed. While speaking at the 37th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held today in the capital, he made such a remark. “Given the relatively small size of the Nepali economy, it would be proper to reduce the bank number to just seven. Of them, 5 may be run by the private sector and the rest 2 by the government. According to him, the overcrowding

Pande also vented his ire over the provision in the current budget to impose taxes on the Merger and Acquisition, Further Public Offering (FPO), etc. ” Earlier, Director General of the Inland Revenue Department had assured us that such taxes would be charged. However, later, the government reneged on the assurance in the budget,” he stated by adding,”We knocked the court doors to nullify the tax provision but to no avail.”

Notably, the then Nepal Investment Bank  had to pay a total tax of Rs 1.92 billion under the headings of Merger and Acquisition (Rs 1.36 billion) and FPO. (Rs 560 million).

Because of this huge tax payment amount, the AGM  decided not to distribute any dividends to its shareholders this year.