February 16 : Buying and selling of shares of all public limited companies will now onwards be through Nepal Stock Exchange only.
According to a recent decision by the Office of the Company Registrar (OCR), if the shares of public limited companies that are delisted from the list of Nepse or still unlisted in Nepse or do not fulfil the criteria for listing on Nepse are to be sold or purchased, such transaction must be through Nepse.
For this, Nepse has already created over the counter (OTC) window. The OCR has asked all the persons and companies concerned to follow this rule now onwards.
So far, the share transactions of the companies not listed at the securities market were so far carried out as per approval of the OCR on the basis of decisions from the Board of Directors of the respective company. However, the office has said that it reached the decision based on the OCT Regulation 2065 that has already made it mandatory for such companies to trade their shares through the OTC market.
Following the decision, hundreds of companies not listed yet with the Nepse will now come under the purview of OTC. Narayan Prasad Timilisina, a Senior Officer in OCR assigned to look after the OTC market, said that the new arrangement would help to increase government revenue as well in terms of capital gain tax from such transactions.
The companies are not required to pay any kind of charges while their shares are transacted through the OCT market. Likewise, companies can also get registered for free at the market.
As per the OCT Regulation 2065, the capital gain tax is 5% for natural persons and 10% for firms, companies and institutions.