Business»
BBTF privatisation proposal in cabinet
KATHMANDU, NOV 25 - After years of lingering, Ministry of Finance has forwarded a privatisation proposal of state-owned Bhaktapur Brick and Tile Factory (BBTF) to the cabinet for final approval.
A high-ranking official of the ministry informed The Kathmandu Post that the proposal was forwarded after a meeting of privatisation committee held two weeks ago approved it.
"The proposal might be tabled for discussion in the cabinet within two weeks," said the source.
Earlier, a committee formed to evaluate financial bidding submitted by the three aspirant private parties, which were selected during the evaluation of technical bidding, had named RRP Enterprises, as the winner for the final hand-over. The company, owned by Raghu Ram Pradhan, had quoted Rs 274 million as the lease amount for a period of ten years and has proposed to clear the amount on instalment basis. "We have already initiated negotiations with the RRP Enterprises to prepare a framework for final agreement," added the source.
Of the seven private parties that had competed to acquire the factory, a committee formed by the privatisation cell of the ministry has selected the technical bids of Subarna Das Tuladhar and Groups, Bala Ram Neupane and RRP Enterprises allowing them to compete for the financial bidding.
As per the standard bidding process set for the privatisation in Nepal, all parties that have submitted both the technical and financial bids separately and are required to qualify in the technical bidding to be eligible to fight for the financial bidding.
Of the eight parties that purchased bid document ~ ~ paying Rs 25,000 for a form, seven private parties had submitted their technical and financial bids within the deadline that had expired on May 13, 2003.
In a second bid to hand-over the factory, the MoF had published a 45-day privatisation notice on March 8, 2003 inviting tender calls from private sector to purchase assets and leasing out land and buildings for a period of 10 years.
The BBF, which was built in 1979 with the financial and technical assistance from the government of China, was one of the most successful state-owned ventures till 1992. But since then, frequent political intervention and overstaffing eroded the financial condition of the factory, which has the production capacity of around 15 billion units of brick per year, resulting a series of heavy losses over the years.
The government back in mid-nineties had contracted out the management of the factory to a private factory, but was compelled to take it back after the contractor failed to run the factory as per the agreement signed with the government.Posted on: 2003-11-24 09:54
Headlines
Advertisements
