Government decides to forward anti-money laundering act to President; appoints Nepal as adviser to Finance Ministry

KATHMANDU: The government on Thursday has decided to forward anti-money laundering ordinances to the President for his approval.

A meeting of the Cabinet took the decision to show progress to the International Financial Action Task force as the International body gave Nepal until June 2013 to show progress in preparing legislation against organized crime and money laundering.

The taskforce had said that Nepal should continue to work on implementing its action plan to adequately criminalize money laundering and terrorist financing; establishing and implementing adequate procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets; implementing adequate procedures for the confiscation of funds related to money laundering; enacting and implementing appropriate mutual legal assistance legislation; ensuring an effectively functioning Financial Intelligence Unit; and establishing adequate suspicious transaction reporting obligations for money laundering and terrorist financing.

Similarly, the government has decided to appoint senior economist Chiranjivi Nepal the economic adviser to the finance ministry.

The meeting also gave consent to sign agreement on loans of Rs 70 million US dollars for the Tanahu Hydropower Ltd.

The government also decided to form a talks team in connection with IDA providing Rs 39 million dollars to the government for the Nepal-India Transmission Line project.