National
Bus committees get more time to register as company
The government has extended the deadline for public transport entrepreneurs to register as private companies.Chandan Kumar Mandal
The government has extended the deadline for public transport entrepreneurs to register as private companies.
As bus operators were reluctant to register as private companies, the government on Saturday decided to give them extra time for be listed at the Office of the Company Registrar.
A joint meeting of Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Transport Minister Raghubir Mahaseth and Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Yadav decided to extend the timeframe for registering as company until mid-March, according to Gokarna Prasad Upadhyay, spokesperson for the Department of Transport Management.
The earlier deadline served to the transport association expires on Sunday. The Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs Association (FNNTEA)—the umbrella organisation of public vehicle owners—had been reluctant to register as private companies citing issues with the existing mechanism.
The Companies Act-2006 only allows a maximum of 100 shareholders for setting up a company. The government has also decided to facilitate a revision to the provision so that the transport companies have no such barriers.
“The meeting has decided to write to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies to amend a provision so that transport companies can have an unlimited number of shareholders,” said Spokesperson Upadhyay.
However, the relaxation will be one-time and for the transport companies, according to the official. The provision related to the maximum number of shareholders will remain intact in other cases, said Upadhyay.
Expressing reservations over the legal requirements, the FNNTEA had said transport committees would not register as companies.
As part of the government’s crackdown on public transport syndicate, transport entrepreneurs, earlier united as various committees and associations, are required to register and operate as private companies.
The existing transport committees and associations, which used to operate as non-profit organisations, will be illegal from mid-March as the government stopped their registration and renewal last fiscal year to list them as private companies.
According to the transport association, there are nearly 300,000 public vehicles associated with them. The agitated entrepreneurs have demanded that one company should be allowed to possess an unlimited number of vehicles.
They have also demanded that the property seized from transport committees should be returned to them. The government also froze their bank accounts and decided that all movable and immovable assets belonging to such committees would go to the state.
Up to 245 transport committees, involved in halting transport services after the government amended the Transport Management Directives-2004 that opened route permits nationwide, faced legal action.
According to the department, 7,000 public vehicles were registered as companies as of mid-November.