The government has said it is making efforts to minimise procedural hassles for registering erstwhile public transport committees as companies to encourage the public transport operators to become tax-paying companies.

A seven-member committee, formed under Director General of the Department of Transport Management Kumar Prasad Dahal, has recommended that the government ease the registration process for transport companies.

As per the recommendation of the committee, the government should allow verification of the property belonging to previous transport committees by officials at any transport management offices in the country before making them register as companies at the Office of the Company Registrar.

“According to the existing laws, verification of properties of such committees should be done by courts, which is likely to take long,” Dahal told the Post. “We have tried to remove the policy obstacles through this recommendation.”

Public transport committees are reluctant to register as companies since the government launched a crackdown on their syndicates. As part of the action, transport operators were required to register as companies at the Office of the Company Registrar as per the amendment made to the Transport Management Directives-2004 last year.

The amendment made it mandatory for transport entrepreneurs to register as private companies, which were earlier listed with several transport committees and associations nationwide.

However, a year into the government decision, a majority of transport operators have yet to register as companies on various pretexts while the government kept on extending the deadlines on several occasions. The new deadline for registration as companies is set for June 1.

“They had said it would be difficult for their 300,000 stakeholders or members to go for registration as companies in a short timeframe. And also the task of property verification is tough. Therefore, we decided to make it simpler,” added Dahal.

As there are only three company registrars—in Kathmandu, Itahari and Butwal, public transport entrepreneurs spread around the country had said that all of them cannot travel to these offices for registration while verification of the property also remains a tough task, according to Dahal.

Now onwards, all the members of transport committees can register at any of the transport management offices and submit their property documents for verification. The chief of the transport management office or a section officer can verify the property and initiate the process for company registration.

The government hopes that simplifying the procedure will persuade transport entrepreneurs to register at the company registrar’s office soon.

“Members of the transport committees can agree that they are ready to hand over their property to a certain company. The years-long practice of having property under the committee is now being transferred to companies. This takes time,” said Dahal. “The transport committee representatives are satisfied with the latest facilitation. We are positive they will soon register as private companies.”