Self Declaration Of Property In Limbo

The scheme proposed by by this year’s budget to allow the self declaration of property is in limbo as the programme is deemed to be detrimental to country’s international commitment on anti money laundering. Declaring the property without investigating the source of it is against such international commitment.

A source at the Ministry of Finance said that there is least chance of ‘self declaration of property’ to be announced this year. The source claimed that the attempt of the government to be flexible on property declaration has almost failed as the criteria set by the Financial Task Force cannot be violated. Krishna Hari Baskota, Finance Secretary also accepted the fact that it would be difficult to implement the voluntary declaration of property as proposed in the budget.

The government stepped back from its previous promise of announcing such sheme in fear that international organisations working against money laundering might blacklist Nepal. Bangladesh had withdrawn similar programme after the warning of Asia Pacific Group, a network of countries working on anti money laundering.