January 4: The government had made announcement last year to support start-up businesses last year but has not been able to implement the programme so far.

Initially, the government had prepared a work prodecure to provide grants to the start-ups but later changed the modality to loan assistance for seed capital more than a month ago. However, the government is yet to implement the amended work procedure.

In September, the government had presented a proposal to the cabinet for amending the work procedure to provide 2 percent concessional loan to start-ups instead of grants.

The National Planning Commission had accepted proposals of around 700 applicants for the grant but has not been able to take a decision on this matter after the modality was changed to loan assistance.

The applicants have argued that the commission should not provide them loan instead of the grant for which they had submitted the proposals.

Ramesh Kumar Shrestha, who submitted a proposal for agricultural grants, argues that the government cannot force them to take loan by amending the work proposal.

“The government cannot change its policies every now and then. It should provide us grants in accordance to the application we have filed,” said Shrestha.

The government has already amend the work procedure that allows providing loan up to Rs 500 million. However, it has not asked for proposals for the loan.

The National Planning Commission says it will take a decision soon on whether to provide the applicants with grant or loan. Ram Kumar Phuyal, a member of the NPC, says that they have to do some additional homework before releasing the amount and therefore it is taking some time. The NPC is currently discussing whether to take new applications or not. It will take a decision on the old applications within a few days.

Although the government has announced in the current fiscal year’s budget to set up a fund of Rs 500 million to provide concessional loan at the rate of 2 percent to the start-ups, the NPC has not been able to manage amount for the fund.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Jhakka Prasad Acharya says that the government is making efforts to collect money for the fund.  

The government intends to provide concessional loan between Rs 1 million to Rs 10 million to start-ups involved in the fields of information technology, agriculture, energy, health, tourism, and industry.