DRI probes bank investors` income sources

KATHMANDU, Jan 11: The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) has initiated investigation into income sources of bank shareholders who hold promoter shares or have invested over Rs 5 million in financial institutions.



According to a highly-placed source at the Ministry of Finance, the main aim of the operation is to find whether investments made by promoters or who hold bulk shares of financial institutions are from legal income sources.



DRI has already sent letters to the Nepal Rastra Bank requesting it to supply vital information about the persons who hold promoter shares of the financial institutions established within the last five years, said the official. [break]



Along with the personal details of the investors of the financial institutions we have also asked their income tax clearance certificates, he said. “We have already started receiving details from some of the financial institutions and have started to study the information,” said a high-ranking MoF official.



According to sources, DRI sent letters to the central bank asking it to provide investors’ details after it received a directive from Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate the incomes sources of some of the promoters of Global Bank, a newly established commercial bank headquartered at Kathmandu.



The CIAA asked the DRI to immediately start investigation into the investors in Global Bank after receiving complaints from unknown sources that some of the promoters of the bank used illegally earned money to buy promoter shares.



The MoF official also said that government will finish investigating the details of promoters and their income sources within the next two months and vowed to initiate legal action against those whose income sources are found dubious.



“Those who have invested more than Rs 5 million in any financial institutions either as promoter or ordinary investor have a chance to make their investment legal by joining the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme,” said the official.



The government in its budget for the current fiscal year announced a the scheme under which taxpayers have been given a chance to make their assets legal by paying 10 percent tax on the value of the assets by mid-February 2009.

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