KATHMANDU: Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) lawmaker Prem Suwal has questioned Finance Minister Janardan Sharma if the stock market was the latter’s responsibility.

Addressing the House of Representatives (HoR) amid UML’s obstruction Friday, Suwal posed the question recalling that Finance Minister Sharma telephoned NRB Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari after the stock market plunged.

Lawmaker Suwal wondered why the finance minister was so interested in a stock market that benefited a limited number of people. “The finance minister himself admitted that only 100 people gain profits out of 3.7 million investors in the stock market,” he said, adding, “After that the market nosedived and the market went up after finance minister called the governor. Is it finance minister’s responsibility to increase the share market?”

Suwal had received time to register a motion to reject the National Debt Raising Bill but went off-topic and berated about the stock market. He was of the opinion that there should not be much concern about such a business done by a limited number of people by sitting inside four walls.

Responding to Suwal, Finance Minister Sharma said that he did not have any role in the stock market. “Respectable lawmaker may have heard it somewhere outside, but that is not true,” said Finance Minister Sharma.