KATHMANDU: The government has suspended Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Maha Prasad Adhikari. A Cabinet meeting on Thursday has decided to suspend Governor Adhikari alleging that he failed to maintain financial discipline of the country.
Sources said that Finance Minister Janardan Sharma and the senior Finance Ministry officials were not happy with the workings of Governor Adhikari.
Governor Adhikari has received a letter regarding his suspension. Deputy Governor Nilam Dhungana has been assigned as Acting Governor.
Government has alleged that Governor Adhikari leaked many confidential information, including corruption. Governor Adhikari revealed that he had tried to obstruct one money laundering case. Adhikari tried to block an amount of 40,00,000 US$ coming from USA whereas the Finance Minister Sharma was ready to accept that money which he termed it as foreign investment.
According to sources, Adhikari and Sharma did not speak for nearly seven months.
The country has been struggling to manage finance, especially the fuel price hike has been posing severe problem in every sector. The government have been planning to introduce various mechanism including import restrictions for different luxury items, vehicles.
The NRB data itself have shown that the inflow of remittance is declining, foreign reserves is also rapidly declining whereas cost of fuel and foreign goods rapidly increasing.
