Govt Incentives Will Decide the Future of NSB

National Savings Bond (NSB) will not be successful unless there are good incentives for migrant workers, experts and government officials said today in the first interaction on the issue. Budget 2009-10 launched a scheme of Rs 7 billion NSB targeting Nepali migrant workers in the Gulf countries, Malaysia and South Korea.

Marketing is a major problem in implementing NSB, said Dr Nirmal Pandey presenting a retrospective paper.

"If the government does not provide good incentives, NSB will fail," he said. He expressed doubt over the capacity of Nepali diplomatic missions abroad to implement NSB in destination countries.

Three factors -- awareness, benefit and exchange rate -need to be fixed before NSB's implementation, said Trilochan Pangeni, officer of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB). He suggested that Ministry of Finance be clear about the exchange rate as it is sold in US dollars. "The government must decide whether the bond will be fixed at market rate or fixed exchange rate," he said.

Labour expert Dr Ganesh Gurung doubted that the NSB would be a success as most Nepalis working in target countries are earning low wages. "Most of the targeted people are earning below $200 per month and their priorities are different. So, it will be a Herculean task for the government," he said. According to Gurung, migrant workers' priorities are repayment of loan which they have taken to go abroad, improving their lifestyle and buying land in their hometown.

Interaction programme organizers Saru Joshi Shreatha of UNIFEM and Sthaneshwor Devkota, acting director of Foreign Employment Promotion Board (FEPB), asked for better ideas to make NSB successful for the welfare of migrant workers and the nation as well. The government has not fixed any modality for the scheme as yet.