BIRGUNJ: The Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) is formulating code of
conduct for businessmen with aim to control corruption, it is learnt .

Satya Narayan Agrawal, president of the chamber, expressed commitment to formulate code
of conduct for businessmen within a month.

Speaking at an interaction on Current Economic Condition recently in Birganj, Surya Nath
Upadhyaya, Chief of Commission for the Investigating of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) stated that he had requested the business community to formulate code of conduct for them in order to create corruption-free environment a year ago, but businessmen just talked about it.

“I am ready even to be an adviser to you”, said Upadhyaya, threatening that he would not participate in their programme from now on until and unless they made attempt to curb corruption in one way or another. He also complained the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) of not living up to its word. The FNCCI had stated that it would formulate code of conduct for businessmen. If code of conduct further adds problems to the businessmen, then the code of conduct would be confined to paper only, said Babu Lal Chachan, former president of BCCI who also had formulated a code of conduct.

Rajendra Khetan, second vice-president of FNCCI said that big business houses of the country have not repaid the loans even after two years of the implementation of Debt Recovery Act. Whether such issue could be the subject matter of investigation of the CIAA, he inquired.

“The financial condition of Nepal Bank Limited and Rastriya Banijya Bank is very critical, but the banks are just auctioning the collateral of small borrowers, junior Khetan said.

“The financial condition of the banks would not improve unless the big borrowers repay the loans, he added. He also said that the discretionary power of tax administrators should be curtailed in order to control corruption.