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| Kathmandu, Saturday December 28, 2002 Paush 13, 2059. |
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Govt committee proposes to raise collateral for manpower
agencies
Post Report
KATHMANDU, Dec 27 : In
a bid to curb rising overseas job seekers related fraud cases, a high-level committee has
proposed the government to raise the collateral amount for registration of manpower
agencies by Rs 2 million.
If the government
implements the proposal, manpower agencies will have to deposit collateral amount or
property worth Rs 2.5 million for their registration. The present requirement is Rs 0.5
million.
Speaking in a programme
on "Simplification of Present Act and Regulations", organised by Nepal United
Foreign Employment Entrepreneurs Association (NUFEEA), Sitaram Upreti, joint secretary at
the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management (MoLTM), said that the new provision will
help minimise the fraud acts of manpower agencies.
"The chances of
fraud will be minimised as the government will then have more amount as collateral to
compensate the victims in any case of fraud,’ he remarked.
A high level committee
under the chairmanship of Lalit Bahadur Thapa, Director General of Department of Labour
and Employment Promotion (DoLEP) had recently submitted its report to the government,
recommending several promotional measures and necessary regulations on expansion of
foreign employment opportunities.
"The new
regulation will be highly beneficial to existing agencies themselves as the mushrooming of
new such agencies will get a halt because of the increased deposit amount, in case the
proposal is approved," he added.
"The risk of fund
exploitation would be lessened as the government will be holding high deposits from these
agencies that would be distributed to the overseas job seekers in case they are cheated by
the agencies," he said.
Upreti also revealed
that status of foreign employment "entrepreneurs" would be changed to
"industrialists" soon, if the proposal gets approval from the government.
"Entrepreneurs will be enjoying similar facilities as that of industrialists after
the proposal gets formal authorisation," he claimed.
When queried about
allowing women for foreign employment in the Gulf countries, Upreti said that the
government is still skeptical about security of women abroad especially in the Gulf.
"We, however, always want to promote women for foreign employment if their security
is properly guaranteed by the overseas employers," he remarked.
Earlier, Kamal
Chaulagain, Minister of Labour and Transport Management stressed that the foreign
employment, which has become major source of national income in recent times, should be
supported with promotional measures rather than controlled unnecessarily. "Based on
promotional measures, we need to improve present policies," he added.
On the occasion, Prem
Nidhi Gyawali, Secretary at MoLTM dismissed the allegation from the entrepreneurs of slow
bureaucratic procedure on finalising the documents of their clients and termed it as
baseless accusation. "The slow procedure is because of our in-depth study of entire
documents as we are more concerned with outgoing people, most of whom generally are from
poor family," he remarked.
Highlighting the
increased importance of foreign employment at a time when most of the businesses are going
through bleak days, Gyawali stated that the government is searching for more employment
opportunities in other countries as well, besides the nineteen countries where people
generally go, seeking job.
He also pointed out the
need to train the aspirants for the work before they leave the country. "Most of our
workers are having miserable life aboard as they are under-paid due to lack of
expertise," he said.
Meanwhile, Joint
Secretary of MoLTM, Upreti also pointed out the need of establishing "Information
Centre" in the ministry that could eventually benefit general people as it would
provide information on entire overseas employment opportunities in a single place.
" Those seeking
overseas employment need not go through each and every agency after the commencement of
such information centre in the Ministry," he added.
Appreciating the recent
steps of the government on promoting foreign employment, Bharat Singh Thapa, President of
NUFEEA requested such support in coming days as well.
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