KATHAMNDU, April 9: Nepal has received investment commitments worth Rs 7.94 billion from the British Virgin Islands (BVI) over the last 22 years, including commitments worth Rs 2.26 billion in 2070 BS alone. Nepali people.
have hardly ever heard about BVI, which is in the Caribbean.
Government agencies here are clueless about the details of any real investments from BVI. They do not know of any specific firms or industries in operation with such investments and are unaware of any progress these firms and industries have made or the jobs they created.
Damodar Regmi, director general of the Department of Money Laundering Investigation, said the ranking that has been made of BVI as fourth in the amount of investment commitment in Nepal is open to doubt.
"We are now more cautious over this," added Regmi. India, China and South Korea rank first, second and third as investors by size of investment commitments but real investments figures country-wise are not available at any government agency. Rather, the agencies concerned tend to point to other agencies.
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Digging into investment sources seems to have become an issue now, particularly after the disclosures in the so-called Panama Papers about offshore firms and tax havens. BVI is also a tax haven. The Panama Papers disclosed that seven Nepalis have hidden money in these offshore firms although they have not named names.
Nepal also has received investment commitments of Rs 3.31 billion from Mauritius so far, making this Indian Ocean country, which is also a popular tax haven, seventh by volume of investment commitments here .
Regmi said the authorities have now realized that all records of foreign investment commitments and the real investments made should be recorded in detail.
Rudra Bahadur Malla, spokesperson at the Department of Industry, said that investors come to the department with investment commitments and they are grant approval. But they cannot be judged properly in the initial phases. "Nepal Rastra Bank only knows about real capital brought in by investors," said Malla adding that they will, however, look into any complaints and issues brought to them.
"We don't inquire much into the investors as we don't in general wish to discourage investors," added Malla. DoI issues recommendations for the extension of visas for foreign investors and such recommendations are made only after inspecting the firms and industries in question. DoI officials point toward NRB for records on FDI inflows, but NRB has its own version of things.
NRB spokesperson Trilochan Pangeni says they have no records of any foreign investments and are fully dependent on DoI for such information. "It's the role of DoI to inquire about investments, the operation of the industries and the job creation, among other things," added Pangeni.
Experts, meanwhile, are not aware of any significant investments in Nepal from tax havens like BVI and have expressed their doubts. "I do not see any real investments from BVI and other tax havens in the economic surveys and other government statistics," said economist Bishwambher Pyakuyral, adding that recent disclosures from Panama have shown that Nepalis also have accounts in tax havens. "Money from off-shore accounts or firms set up in tax havens by Nepalis separately or jointly with foreigners might have come to Nepal," added Pyakuryal.
