Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is to amend the bill to blacklist borrowers.

In the Monetary Policy for the last fiscal year, the NRB had made a provision that the existing loan notice and blacklist directives would be reviewed to amend the provisions of blacklisting and freezing accounts on the basis of dishonour of cheques only.

A year ago, on November 19, 2081, the Rastra Bank had sought suggestions to amend the provisions ÷related to credit information and blacklist by December 19, 2081 after the Monetary Policy said that the directive would be reviewed. So far, the central bank has not reviewed the directive as per the suggestion.

Immediately after being appointed as the Governor of the Rastra Bank, Prof. Dr. Bishwanath Poudel is worried that many industrialists have been blacklisted. His worries are still there. Governor Poudel has been saying that he is going to change the system of blacklisting in various places.

According to him, the blacklist is one of the reasons for the lack of investment in the country.

Governor Poudel believes that the loan flow will increase in the coming days after the review.

“We are reviewing the blacklist. The investment growth in the country is not as much as we had expected. There is a lot of liquidity. There can be many reasons for lack of credit growth. One factor is that many people are blacklisted. ’

The central bank has said that if one person makes a mistake in the investment made in the construction sector, then all the problems of blacklisting will be removed.

The directive is in the process of amendment by adding some necessary provisions to the suggestions sought by the Rastra Bank a year ago.

NRB Spokesperson Guru Prasad Poudel said that the NRB is currently working on this issue. As of Monday, 1,44,403 people have been blacklisted by the Credit Information Centre. Of those, 75 per cent are cheque dishonours. The rest of the loans are non-existent. The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has decided to separate loan misappropriation and cheque dishonor.

The central bank is going to give exemptions to small defaulters, disobey cheques and be lenient on borrowers who do not repay loans.

Currently, banks and financial institutions are recommending those who do not pay the principal and interest on time as per the agreement by taking loans (defaulters) and disobeying the cheque when there is not enough money in the account, for blacklisting at the Credit Information Center.

Of the total 144,403 people, 15,459 have not repaid their loans taken from microfinance institutions and the rest have not repaid their loans. The Credit Information Centre has been blacklisted as per the Nepal Rastra Bank Act and Credit Information Bylaws.

In the case of a borrower who has taken a loan÷facility of less than Rs 10 lakh from a licensed institution, the blacklisting process can be started if the cheque is dishonored for any other reason except if the loan is classified in the bad category as per the directive issued by the Rastra Bank.

In the new system, the licensed institutions will have to mandatorily obtain credit information about the borrower÷customer before approving the loan, issuing additional loans, renewing the loan and restructuring or rescheduling the loan. However, this provision will not be mandatory for term receipts, government security certificates, gold and silver loans up to Rs 1 million, credit card facility up to Rs 3 lakh, and loans up to Rs 500,000 approved through electronic means after completing the short process.

Banks and financial institutions will have to follow various conditions to blacklist account holders and defaulters who dishonor cheques. In addition, if the proposed provision is approved and implemented, the banks and financial institutions will have to recommend the blacklist by classifying the borrowers and evaluating that they have not repaid the loan intentionally and cannot repay the loan due to circumstances.