Kathmandu. The government is preparing to lift the existing legal restrictions to attract big investments and encourage the private sector.

Addressing the 36th anniversary of the Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) here on Wednesday, Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal said that the government is going to amend the laws including the Land Act to realize the huge potential of commercial agriculture and mining sector.

According to him, commercial farming is not possible on a large scale as the existing legal provision prohibits the possession of 70-72 ropanis of land in the hills and 5 bighas of land in the Terai.

Similarly, he admitted that there is a lot of potential in the mining sector but the cumbersome processes such as environmental impact assessment (EIA), clearance of trees and forest clearance have discouraged investors. In view of this, the incumbent government has simplified the environmental approval process by amending the regulations, which has encouraged the private sector, he claimed.

He said that while some of the existing restrictions were lifted, one or two restrictions were lifted during the tenure of the present government and some more restrictions are yet to be lifted. He said that the amendment to the Land Act will pave the way for large investments to a certain extent.

“We have a lot of potential. For commercial farming, commercial farming on a large scale, one bigha and two bighas are not available in the hills as against the current limit of 70-72 ropanis in the hills, and not more than 5 bigha in the Terai. And how is commercial farming done? ” he says.

“If we can think only for agriculture purposes, new doors of investment can open up there as well. We have scope in mining. Where we can open the door to investment, for which some of the existing environmental environmental impact assessments, tree felling approvals, forest clearances, etc., have already been simplified in the regulations. This has also shown some encouragement in the private sector. “How can commercial farming be done on one or two bighas of land? If we can reconsider the limit of the limit, even if it is only for agricultural purposes, then new doors of investment will open. ’