KATHMANDU, Jan 2: The construction entrepreneurs, whose payments the government has delayed for a long time period, have called for a national level gathering on January 11 targeting to launch decisive protests.
According to the Federation of Contractors’ Associations of Nepal (FCAN), the national level meeting will be bringing together all the contractors from across the country to finalize the modality of the protest programs. “As the government is apathetic to solve the problem, there is no other alternative to launching protests to pressurize the government,” said FCAN President Rabi Singh, speaking at a press meet organized on Thursday.
According to the contractors, the government has paid only Rs 15 billion out of the total dues of Rs 45 billion. While the construction entrepreneurs have been demanding that the government settle their dues, the government has been making promises one after another.
Contractors give govt a week’s ultimatum to clear their dues wo...
The government had promised the contractors to settle their payments by mid-October this year, while Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel reiterated a similar promise to clear the dues within the first week of December.
Singh said they are facing difficulties to take forward construction of infrastructure projects this year as the government has not released their payments on time. He urged the government to form a high level commission, incorporating FCAN representatives, to solve the current problems seen in the construction sector.
Roshan Dahal, general secretary of the FCAN, said the government needs to ascertain the funding sources for the projects under construction. “If the government calls for tender without fixing financial sources, it will invite even more adverse situations in the construction industry,” Dahal said.
Contractors also complained that they face the risk of being blacklisted as the government failed to release their payments while the extended deadline to pay their bank loans ended on December 16. Citing the problems that the contractors had been facing, Nepal Rastra Bank through its monetary policy for the current fiscal year had extended the deadline for paying the principal and interest on loans to the construction entrepreneurs till mid-December.
Dahal expressed his dissatisfaction over the first review of the monetary policy for not paying any heed to the contractors’ ongoing problems. “We don’t need peanut measures, but we need a permanent solution.”
The contractors have sought government action to scrap contracts of projects which do not have funding sources. In addition, they expressed their woes over the soaring prices of construction materials. According to them, recently the price of cement has increased by more than Rs 200 per sack, while iron rod has also become dearer by around Rs 15 per kg.
