In keeping with its past commitments, the government is all set to sell 15 percent shares of Nepal Telecom (NT), the country’s biggest and most profitable company, to general public and NT employees.

The decision to this effect was taken by the cabinet Thursday on the basis of the proposal presented by Privatisation Committee of the Finance Ministry. As per the decision, the government will sell Rs 2.25 billion worth of NT shares for now. The paid up capital of this fully state-owned company stands at Rs 15 billion.

The privatisation committee had reached to the decision of selling the shares of the NT, which comes under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Information and Communication, three weeks earlier, according to Kantipur daily. Information minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara had taken the proposal of selling the telecom’s share to the privatisation committee of the Finance Ministry.

Minster Mahara who represents the CPN-Maoist in the government, finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat and other senior officials had participated in the meeting which decided to sell 5 percent shares to the ‘employees’ and 10 percent to the general public.

The government had decided to sell its shares as per its policy of reducing its involvement in it. The government had three years ago turned the then Nepal Telecommunication Corporation into a company with the view to gradually privatise it.

Nepal Telecom is the biggest telecommunication service provider of the country occupying the largest market pie. More than 1.7 million people subscribe to its services that include mobile telephony, landline phones and CDMA. ‘