SEBON Employees End 48-Day Protest

Employees at the Securities Board of Nepal (SEBON) have ended their 48-day protest and returned to work following an agreement reached at the Ministry of Finance to address their grievances over cuts in benefits.

According to Ajaya Dhungana, president of the SEBON Employees’ Union, the protest was called off after the ministry agreed to move forward in resolving the employees’ demands. “We have resumed work, but a daily one-hour sit-in will continue at the office premises from 10 to 11 a.m. until our demands are fully addressed,” Dhungana said.

Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal urged the employees not to lose morale, assuring that the ministry would make sincere efforts to settle the issue by mid-November, Dhungana added.

The union, however, warned that if the government fails to act within the agreed timeframe, it will resume protests in a new form.

The employees had launched their protest on September 23. It intensified after a revenue secretary–level meeting on October 17 decided to recover funds previously disbursed from SEBON’s Employee Welfare Fund and Employee Protection Fund. The decision stated that such payments were made under procedures inconsistent with prevailing laws.

Following the meeting, the ministry instructed SEBON to immediately scrap the Employee Welfare Fund Procedure, 2071 and the Employee Protection Fund (Operation and Management) Procedure, 2075, citing violations of several legal provisions — including Sections 22 and 116 of the Securities Act, 2063, Section 15 of the Legislative Act, 2081, the Government of Nepal (Work Division) Regulation, 2074, and the SEBON Employee Service Conditions Regulations, 2068.

To address the issue, a committee has been formed under the coordination of Binod Kumar Bhattarai, joint secretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. It includes SEBON board member CA Anand Raj Sharma Wagle and Executive Director Vinay Dev Acharya.

The committee has been tasked with reviewing the Ministry of Finance’s letter to SEBON and submitting its report within three days.