Kathmandu, February 24
The Decision Implementation Committee of the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has approved the proposal to adopt the public-private partnership (PPP) company model and required structural changes.
According to Achyuta Raj Pahadi, a member of the NAC board of directors, the board had decided in the past week that 25 per cent shares of the NAC would be owned by the Nepal Government while 25 per cent shares would be sold to other governmental financial institutions and employees of the government.
According to Pahadi, the decision passed by the Committee would be now presented to the Ministry of Finance through the informed to the Ministry of Finance as well as the concerned bodies through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The proposal would then be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval.
The proposed model has been approved for the NAC to get revenue and operate on its own, without the government’s autonomy.
The debate about privatising the NAC was discussed first and approved in 2002/3, but due to the lack of a political commitment, the decision was put on hold. Recently, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai had formed a committee led by former secretary Sushil Ghimire for a further study on the issue.
According to the proposed model, the government will own 75 per cent of the shares with autonomy on 25 per cent of shares, but it can also sell a few of them to the public.
