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Kathmandu Wednesday December 26, 2001 Paush 11, 2058.
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Entrepreneurs lobby for RNAC privatization
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 25 – Various private entrepreneurs,
experts and government officials including the Vice Chairman of the National Planning
Commission and the Executive Chairman of the Royal Nepal Airlines (RNAC), pointed out
today that the national flag carrier with more than Rs 2.5 billion in debt will not be
able to keep running any more in its present state.
In an interaction programme, "National Aviation Policy
and the Future of Royal Nepal Airlines", organised by Hotel Association of Nepal
(HAN) in the capital, most of the private entrepreneurs were of the view that the RNAC
should be privatised as soon as possible in accordance with the National Aviation
Policy-2050.
But amid strong suggestions and speculations, Minister for
Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Bal Bahadur KC, explicitly said that this was not the
right time for privatisation keeping in mind the national and international scenarios. He
also said that all the speculations about RNAC being privatised should be stopped, and
that the government should stop interfering in the matters of the airlines.
Much of the programme seemed like a lobbying platform for the
private players anxious to get the national flag carrier privatised. The entrepreneurs
also linked the failure of the RNAC to slump in tourism.
But Minister KC held on to his ground saying that he did not
think it possible that the problem would be solved by bailing out a single company. KC
said that a total commitment from the government was required in all sectors to revive the
ailing tourism industry.
Earlier, Narendra Bajracharya, President of HAN, pointed out
that high government interference, lack of transparency and exorbitant handling fees
levied on the airlines by the Department of Civil Aviation, were the major factors
crippling the airlines.
Pradeep Raj Pandey, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board (NTB),
mentioned that the entire tourism sector of the country suffered when RNAC was weak. The
NTB CEO then offered his suggestions to revive the airlines from its bad run. "You
could run it by the government holding all the shares and the management running it on a
contract basis. Then you could also break up the whole organisation and partially
privatise it," he said.
Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Prithvi
Raj Legal, said that it was not possible for the government alone to sustain the RNAC for
long, although the airlines could not be run without government involvement. Secretary at
the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Birendra Bahadur Deuja, defended the
government saying that it was not only government interference but also the decision by
the RNAC to fly to Europe that worked against the airlines.
The newly appointed Executive Chairman of the RNAC, Ramyagya
Chaturvedi, while claiming that the corporation was entirely transparent, informed that it
was working on a new proposal for its improvement. He, however, did not explain the
proposal. Various other personalities including Dr. Prakash Chandra Mahat, Yogendra
Shakya, Ashok Pokhrel and Ambika Shrestha also spoke at the programme.
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