It has been learnt from various sources that the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) is going to be converted into a company from the Nepali new year. NTC is currently governed under the Corporation Act and after the said conversion it will be covered by the Company Act. Although there has been no official announcement, sources say that the process is already underway.

Established nearly 25 years ago, NTC is fully government owned. This is one of the few government corporations that has been making huge profits for a long time. In fiscal 1999-2000, NTC earned a profit of Rs 2.59 billion.

NTC is on the list of companies the government has planned to privatise for a long time now. Under the 8th five-year plan (1992-1997) 16 corporations and companies were privatised. A target was also set to sell off another 30 companies and corporations under the 9th five-year plan, but in the first three years of the current plan the government has been able to dispose of only one. A second company, Butwal Power Company, is in the process of being privatised.