The members of the House of Representatives have reached into consensus to make changes in the proposed Nepali Army (NA) Amendment Bill 2006, prohibition the army to spend the Welfare Fund on business ventures, but agreed to let it deal in stock market with the amount.

An informal meeting of the parliamentary state affairs committee (SAC) decided to amend the existing regulations on the operation of the Welfare Fund of Nepal Army.

“It has been agreed to let army buy shares, as there is compulsion of investing the money its Welfare Fund has,” reports quoted SAC Chairman, Hirdaya Ram Thani as saying.

In the past, the NA was entrusted with sole authority to mobilize the fund for freely running all manner of commercial and income generating activities.

Meanwhile, for the first time the army revealed that its Welfare Fund has over Rs 10.29 billion, the annual interest on which works out to be Rs 720 million.

Chief of the Welfare Fund, Brigadier General Kumar KC, apprised the Parliamentary SAC about the income and expenditure of the fund during the clause-wise discussion on the bill proposed to amend and integrate Acts related to the army.

The Welfare Fund, raised by 12 per cent contribution of the soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping missions, came into existence in 1975.

The fund, according to the army, is being utilised in operating schools, training troops going to UN peacekeeping missions, providing health services to the soldiers’ families, providing economic assistance to the soldiers and constructing soldiers’ family quarters.

Some retired armies filed petition demanding to make the income and expenditure of the fund transparent but the case is still pending at the apex court.

However the SAC members are yet to reach into consensus in other issues, including bringing the army under the ambit of the CIAA, introducing a provision for moving the civil courts against the verdict of military court, and fixing the tenure and age limit for the officers.