Kathmandu. Industrialist Shashikant Agrawal said that the closed government industries like Hetauda Cloth, Butwal Yarn and Birgunj Sugar should be restructured before resuming them.

Speaking at a programme organized by the Society of Economic Journalists of Nepal (SEJON) here on Tuesday, he said that the announcement of the incumbent government to reopen closed industries was only a ‘political stunt’. In a discussion on ‘Effectiveness of Public Investment: Project Selection, Operational Feasibility and Accountability of the Corporation’, other participants also stressed on the need of restructuring.

Shashikant Agrawal, who is also the director of Reliance Spinning Mills, said that more government investment in old machines is like a crime. “The old machines of the Hetauda textile industry run at 160 rpm, today the state-of-the-art machines of the private sector run at 2,000 rpm,” he said. He said that the capacity of the Birgunj sugar mill is only 6 tons per day, while the capacity of the modern mill is 5,000 tons. He said that the government should not compete in sectors like cloth, yarn and sugar as the private sector has become capable. He suggested converting the land of closed industries into parks or useful public structures.

Arpita Nepal, co-founder and research director of Samriddhi Foundation, who participated in the group discussion, said that there is no clear legal definition of public investment. “When the corporations are opened, there should have been a condition that the government will leave after the private sector comes in,” she said. She suggested that the disinvestment could be done by setting up a wealth management company of a sick corporation like in Indonesia and giving shares to the employees. She said that the reform of the corporation should start with transparent election funding of political parties. She stressed that the management should be done according to the reality of Nepal without copying the outside model.

Kailash Kumar Paneru, former general manager of Nepal Drugs Limited, said that it took 7 months to sign an agreement with the Ministry of Health and Population regarding the procurement and regulation of the corporation under the Ministry of Industry.

He recalled that even though private companies used to take the market by giving gifts and commission to the doctors, the Drugs Limited came forward to prevent the shortage of cetamol and Jeevan Jal during Covid and dengue. “We broke the syndicate by giving hemodialysis fluid at Rs 350 to Bir Hospital,” he said. He suggested that the corporation should be given commercial autonomy by freeing it from the interference of the ministry for public health security.