The agitating business community members have halted their protest programs after the newly appointed Minister for Finance Bishnu Poudel assured them to address their demands by the end of Poush. On Wednesday, Minister Poudel held a discussion with the agitating businesspersons at the ministry where he told them that the government will take necessary steps to resolve the issues in the economy. Bhawani Rana, former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), who led the delegation of the businesspersons, said that various trade associations across the country have agreed to halt their protests with the finance minister's assurances. "The minister has committed that he will take decisions only after discussing with experts," she said.

According to Navin Rizal, President of the Morang Merchant Association, businesspersons of Morang and other districts have stopped their protests for the time being as they believe that the new government will address their demands.

Industrialists and businesspersons from Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and other cities have been demanding the postponement of guidelines on working capital loans and to bring down the persistently high interest rates. They took to the streets with demands including bringing the bank interest rates to a single digit, postponement of the implementation of the guidelines on working capital by at least two years and revision of tax rates, among others. Against the free market norms? In what is seen as against the norms of the free market, the newly appointed Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel has promised to address the demand of the private sector to reduce borrowing interest rates. Just two days after assuming the office, Paudel, who took charge of the Ministry for the third time, has assured the private sector to reduce interest rates and reschedule and restructure concessional loans provided during the Covid-19 pandemic. While businesspersons have been accused of investing the money they took as refinancing and working capital loans in real estate and the stock market, the finance minister's assurances to the agitating business community to fulfill their demands will not solve the problems in the economy, say observers. One of their key demands is the postponement of the implementation of the guidelines on working capital loans and the other is the bringing down of high borrowing interest rates. According to a banker, interest rates are determined by the market and not by the government. “And in a free market economy like Nepal, it is the central bank that looks at the issue, not the finance ministry. In such a crisis, how the banking sector can sustain a reduction in interest rates? And as the pandemic is already over, why does the private sector want to reschedule loans? They have already invested the loans in the unproductive sector,” said the CEO of a commercial bank on condition of anonymity. He further added that the private sector just wants to extort the government and the central bank.