The Trust forwarded its request to the government recently after it felt the need of active involvement Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the central bank, and Nepali missions abroad through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) as its own efforts are not enough to deal with the Herculean task of tracking the royal property. [break]
"We have sent a proposal to the cabinet, seeking a nod to involve concerned government bodies (NRB and MoFA) as it is impossible to track the properties abroad on our own," said joint secretary Mod Raj Dotel at the NTO. "We are awaiting a cabinet approval."
The Trust, a government body responsible for identifying the royal property and looking after them, believes that there must be an active involvement of other bodies like NRB and MOFA if the property of the royals in foreign lands are to be investigated. The royals were mysteriously killed on June 1, 2001.
It is not known how much property did the former royals own but there are speculations that much of the property is in foreign land including Swiss banks.
While making a historic proclamation on May 18, 2006, following the April 2006 uprising, the then reinstated House of Representatives (HoR) had directed the government to nationalize the property of late king Birendra Shah and his family members. The HoR had also directed to nationalize the property of former King Gyanendra that came on his hand on virtue of becoming Birendra´s successor. Later, the Interim Constitution paved the way for establishing the Trust on November 22, 2007.
"We have concluded that tracking the properties abroad on our own is impossible given the limited resources, budget and expertise constraints," added Dotel.
The government on August 23, 2007 decided to nationalize the property formerly owned by Birendra Shah and his family members. Altogether 12 royal palaces, five forests, shares in various firms, shopping complexes owned by the former royals and land owned by Shah´s family and the Narayanhiti palace have already been nationalized.
Officials at NTO said they have almost completed tracking the royal property inside the country. According to available data, the Trust has found 47,700 units of shares owned by the deceased royals and brought the shares under its name. Besides, it has been successful in finding out 42.72 hectares of land, located mostly in Kathmandu and other urban centers, owned by the former royals
The Maoist-led government, in its budget for the current fiscal year, had announced a policy to track the former king´s property abroad through the Trust. But the plan could not materialize after the then government did not release enough budget for the job. Instead, the NTO was asked to arrange its own resources from the royal property transferred to its name.
The NTO has now begun earning an annual income of Rs 25 million from the former king´s property inside the country. "This is not about budget alone. The tracking of property abroad involves many other issues including external contact, channels and expertise that we don´t have," Dotel said.
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