Nepal Weekly

Nepal Weekly - 2026-09-16

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 05:53:28 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Bhotekoshi Flood Leaves a $2 Billion Bill

The National Planning Commission's Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment has calculated total losses from the August 26 Bhotekoshi floods at Rs 408 billion ($2.68 billion). More than two-thirds of that amount, or about $1.97 billion, are expected to fall on the shoulders of private businesses, homes and privately owned infrastructure instead of the state. Hotels and restaurants have suffered the worst damage. The Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund has collected Rs 13.23 billion ($87 million), of which the government has already released Rs 1 billion ($6.6 million), sent via the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. A separate Post-Disaster Needs Assessment is now underway to further refine public and private financing needs.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (recovery package), myRepublica (fund breakdown)

India Sends 654 MW to Plug Flood Gap

New Delhi has approved up to 654 MW of extra power exports through the end of this calendar year to run 18 hours a day from midnight to 6pm over the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar (up to 600 MW) and Tanakpur-Mahendranagar (54 MW) lines. The extra supply is expected to fill a 350-400 MW hole left by the Bhotekoshi disaster which knocked out several hydropower projects including Trishuli 3A, Devighat and the Nepal’s largest solar farm, the Nuwakot Solar Electricity Project. Kulekhani's reservoir-based cascade, normally reserved for winter, has been running all three powerhouses around the clock since the flood, and as a result is draining Indra Sarobar by up 10 centimetres a day more than monsoon inflows are able to refill it. India says exports from January 2027 onward will be reviewed in December, so Kathmandu's dry-season problems are still a question mark until the new year.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (costs), Spotlight Nepal (2027 review), The Kathmandu Post (reservoir levels)

Bailey Bridges Roll In, Army Flies Drones Out

The flood death toll has risen to 1,356. Almost 5,000 are still missing and 84,000 remain displaced. India has so far sent eight relief flights, more than 130 tonnes of supplies, and 54 rescue and forensic experts. It has also started trucking in parts for three Bailey bridges to allow for easier transport. France has sent shelter and medical supplies through the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism. Now that so many roads and bridges are gone and helicopters tied up in search and rescue, the Nepali Army is flying drones to get relief into some stranded communities.

Krishnabhir Reopens on Shaky Ground

The Prithvi Highway's collapsed Krishnabhir stretch will reopen for two-way traffic on the first of next month. It will make use of a roughly 250-metre track cut into the slope above the wreckage where the Bhotekoshi flood has destroyed the roadbed. Infrastructure Minister Sunil Lamsal told Kantipur that "Krishnabhir could slide again," which is why crews are also paving a 12ish-km bypass connecting the Benighat and Fishling bridges before Dashain. A tunnel study will follow after the monsoon has passed.

Read more: Ratopati (geotechnical tests), The Kathmandu Post (bypass construction), myRepublica (industry minister meeting)

Korala Crossing Picks Up the China Trade

Korala customs took in Rs 1.5 billion ($9.9 million) in the 15 days after the Bhotekoshi flood shut the Rasuwagadhi and Tatopani crossings, and the Nechung office in Lomanthang is clearing about 50 containers a day, which is ten times the normal volume. The cargo is being rerouted from the two shuttered points from as far away as Shigatse and Lhasa. Nepal's side of the border is still making use of temporary facilities.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Property Deals Nearly Double

Real estate transactions were Rs 720 billion ($4.74 billion) through fiscal year 2025/26, which can be compared to the Rs 386 billion ($2.54 billion) in the year before. The fourth quarter brought in Rs 275 billion ($1.81 billion), which is also more than double the Rs 127.61 billion ($839.5 million) from a year earlier. Bagmati Province, which is home to Kathmandu, led the rise, with transaction values up 175 percent and land area under deal up 50 percent in Q4. Capital gains tax from property deals helped fill government coffers by increasing 63 percent. Bank lending to real estate crept up 7 percent, which is similar to the previous year's pace of 6 percent growth.

Read more: Online Khabar

Kathmandu Puts Malaysia Recruiter List on Notice

Nepal's Department of Foreign Employment has given 275 recruitment agencies seven days to explain how they made the cut. The department wants to know who recommended and approved the selections, whether the arrangement squeezes out competition from Nepal's licensed agencies, and whether any illegal money changed hands to get a spot. Since August 22, DoFE has stopped clearing demand letters filed through these agencies, and recruitment is only allowed under quotas that Malaysia gave before that date. The foreign ministry has sent a diplomatic note asking Kuala Lumpur to go back to the previous system, and the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies is bringing its complaint to the ILO.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Parliament Targets Shorter NRB Governor Term

The Finance Committee has proposed cutting the Nepal Rastra Bank governor's term from five years to three, with the Cabinet given the power to decide whether to grant a two-year extension or not based on performance. Deputy governor terms and those of three independent directors would be under the same reset rules. Every governor since the 2002 Nepal Rastra Bank Act has served a full five-year term. Former governor Yubaraj Khatiwada, who weathered pressure from both the government and anti-graft investigators during his tenure, said the proposal was a recipe for "short-term and unstable" leadership at the central bank.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Smart Licenses Stall on Provincial Delays

Since August 1, the Security Printing Center has stopped issuing smart driving licenses, as it waits for agreements that are needed from each of the seven provinces before printing can restart. Only Madhesh Province has done anything to date, and even that has simply been an extension of last year's deal instead of coming up with a new contract. The other provinces have sent nothing. The Department of Transport Management says that it’s fast-tracking files for migrant workers and students who already passed their road tests, but that's a workaround, not a fix. Deputy Secretary Gopalraj Timilsina says printing will be allowed to restart once all the provinces report their allocated budgets and exact license numbers.

Read more: Ratopati

Chitwan Highway Upgrade Open for Bids

International bidding opened September 4 to widen the 70-km Narayangadh-Hetauda highway to four lanes. The centerpiece of the rebuild will be a two-km flyover through Tikauli forest that will have traffic running overhead on pillars so that wildlife can cross unmolested below. The ADB is bankrolling the Rs 5.5 billion ($36 million) structure with a Rs 3 billion ($19.7 million) grant and concessional loans are expected to cover the rest. The bidding will take more than seven months before contracts are signed, after which winning contractors will have three and a half years to complete their work. Seven bridges are also planned along the route.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-09-09

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 02:32:06 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash

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Kathmandu Bills the World for Bhotekoshi Flood

Nepal has told the UN's Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage it wants climate reparations, not aid, as it claims that industrialized emitters bear a "moral and legal obligation" for the Bhotekoshi disaster. The reparations claim is being run in parallel to a donor drive that includes a $49.6 million UN flash appeal. Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal is going public with the reparations line and has told his ministry to work diplomatic channels for grants instead of loans. A Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment has pegging the rebuild bill at more than Rs 400 billion ($2.6 billion) and it seems likely that the final figure will be at least a third higher than that, even.

Trishuli Tunnel Gives Up Survivors

Rescuers pulled two men alive from a flooded tunnel at the Upper Trishuli 3A hydropower project on Friday, nine days after they went missing in the August 26 Bhotekoshi flood; a Chinese worker was later freed from a tunnel at Upper Trishuli-1 by a joint Nepal-South Korea team, and a 64-year-old woman was dug out of a mud-buried house in Nuwakot. A mechanical foreman at the 60-megawatt plant, said as many as 40 to 45 people may have been inside when the flood came tearing through it, which for unexplained reasons, is far more than the expected shift of four to six. About 500 of the roughly 900 missing hydropower workers are thought to be trapped in tunnels in a dozen locations, where Indian, Chinese, South Korean and US teams are working through debris with thermal drones and explosives to try and free them. Nepal's disaster authority says the confirmed death toll was 1,357 (as of yesterday), with 5,326 still missing, including 587 foreign nationals.

Flood Claims Skyrocket as Cell Towers Stay Down

Non-life insurers have reported more than Rs 26 billion ($171 million) in claims so far from the Bhotekoshi disaster, a figure the of course will continue to rise once life and accident policies are counted. The regulator has waived normal documentation rules and allowed insurers put forward up to half of the value of assessed losses instead of waiting for the standard two-month payout window. Telecom operators are counting the toll also. Nepal Telecom says it lost 83 towers, Ncell lost 27. Ncell thinks direct damage is going to be more than Rs 90 million ($592,000), but while its been damaging and expensive, the Prime Minister told parliament 95 percent of telecom service has already been restored.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (payout timeline), The Kathmandu Post (fiber cable damage)

Flood Bill to Complicate LDC Exit

Change Initiative thinks flood losses will be about $1.95 billion (that’s a hefty 4.3% of GDP), but has banded their estimate as being from $1.38 billion to $2.70 billion. The bill is due shortly months before Nepal is (was?) scheduled to graduate from Least Developed Country status on November 24. The research group wants the UN Committee for Development Policy to re-calculate its vulnerability math using interim data before the General Assembly signs off, and has floated the idea of "graduation-with-conditions," which might allow for continued access to cheap financing and climate support until reconstruction milestones are met.

Read more: The Himalayan Times

Damaged Dams Drag the Hydropower Index Down

Roughly a dozen hydropower projects along the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers took flood damage, but only about half of them belong to companies listed on NEPSE (including Rasuwagadhi, Chilime, Mailung Khola and Trishuli 3B). Most listed hydropower companies suffered no direct physical damage, but that fact hasn't stopped the hydropower sub-index from shedding about 65 points since the disaster, dragging insurers bracing for claims along with it and pulling the NEPSE index down around 16 points. Hydropower makes up about 17.5 percent of NEPSE's market cap (111 listed companies). Banking, financial services and insurance make up another 51.8 percent.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Sauraha Empties Out Over a Flood It Never Saw

Sauraha's Jungle Safari Lodge has 34 rooms and, most nights this week, has found most of them empty. Chitwan's Regional Hotel Association says occupancy across the district is below 5 percent, a collapse driven by the international coverage that followed the disaster, despite the fact that the floods never made it that far. Royal Tulip Chitwan, a 65-room property run by KTM Hospitality, has lost 80 percent of its bookings. Flights from Kathmandu to Bharatpur continue to run normally, and alternate routes including the Tribhuvan Highway and the Hetauda-Kulekhani road are able to bypass the washed-out Krishnabhir part of the Prithvi Highway. Sauraha's 125 hotels, built to handle 8,000 visitors a day, are despairing as they watch peak season pass with a "handful of Chinese tourists," and little else.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

China Discloses Little on Gyirong Flood Numbers

Twelve days after the flood, Nepal has identified more than 1,350 dead and continues to track thousands missing, with DNA samples collected from 1,181 bodies and 1,195 relatives. Chinese authorities, on the other hand, took five days to share that 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries were unaccounted for on their side of the border. Foreign journalists waited more than a week for a chaperoned visit to Gyirong. The International Campaign for Tibet says at least 300 homes were destroyed in Gyirong, that relocated villagers' communications with the outside world have been "extremely limited and curtailed," and that the toll is likely much higher than Chinese officials have been willing to share thus far.

Read more: AP News (missing workers), NPR, myRepublica (DNA identification)

PM Shah Takes the UNGA Podium

Prime Minister Balendra Shah will leave for New York on September 22, taking the UN General Assembly slot that the Cabinet had previously given to the Foreign Minister (before the disaster). The PM will address the Assembly on September 24. Nepali Congress president Gagan Thapa wants Shah to go beyond the loss-and-damage appeal and lean on glacier science, saying Nepal's claims "need to be based on scientific studies" and should also target grant-based climate finance (see also the first story, above). Shah will return home on September 25, finishing out his first trip abroad since taking charge on March 27.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (COP31 Türkiye dates), myRepublica (prior PM precedents)

Oli Walks Free, Gen Z Reforms Stall

Nepal had its first Gen Z Martyrs' Day on September 8 with a nationwide public holiday for the 76 that were killed in last year's uprising. Former PM KP Sharma Oli and ex-Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, arrested in late March on culpable homicide charges, spent about 13 days in custody before the Supreme Court ordered them released. Five months later, both are free on personal recognisance, with no charges filed and no evidence disclosed. The Gen Z Council that was promised in the December 10-point agreement still hasn't been convened and an independent review found only 38 of the Balen Shah administration's first 100 commitments have been implemented to date

Read more: Online Khabar, Spotlight Nepal (holiday declaration), The Kathmandu Post (38 of 100 commitments), Online Khabar (Prachanda), Spotlight Nepal (Karki's advice)

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-09-02

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 01:15:27 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Rajat Kashyap on Unsplash

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The news out of Nepal this week is largely about the disaster. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.

Satellite Imagery Pins Flood on Langtang Glacier

Satellite imagery from Planet Labs has settled the question of what happened above Rasuwa on August 26. A 600-meter-wide section of glacier and rock broke free at 5,200 meters on Langtang Lirung’s north face, fell 1,200 meters, and sent ice and debris into the Lhende Khola. The collapse generated a seismic event of magnitude 5.2, which the US Geological Survey first read as a 4.4 earthquake before revising its call. The debris blocked the river, then suddenly was unblocked, sending the flood downstream. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, working off imagery shared by the Chinese side, says the event was a combination of ice avalanche, permafrost movement and rockslide. A full technical assessment is still pending.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (climate change risk), Nepali Times (infrastructure damage), The Kathmandu Post (cross-border warning systems)

2025 Findings Unimplemented, Disaster Follows

A July 8, 2025 flood on the Bhotekoshi left 18 people missing and destroyed the Miteri Friendship Bridge, causing Rasuwa’s district disaster committee to file a report calling for a cross-border early warning system with China, mapping of glacial lakes, and drainage structures to be built on high-risk lakes. On August 26, 2026, with no cross-border warning system, no glacial lake mapping, and no drainage structures in place, the river tore through a 42-kilometer stretch of the Betrawati-Rasuwagadhi road and caused widespread devastation. Ashish Gajurel, chair of the House of Representatives Development Committee, said last year’s flood “had already given a strong warning.” The report had several actionable recommendations, but none had been implemented.

Read more: Online Khabar (2025 report recommendations), myRepublica (climate fund financing)

Glacier Flood Wipes Out a Tenth of the Grid

A glacier collapse above Rasuwa on August 26 sent floodwater tearing through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli valleys, destroying 12 hydropower and solar plants with a combined 431.1 megawatts and battering 15 more under construction (good for another 470 megawatts or so). The damage means a loss of about a tenth of Nepal’s installed capacity. Rasuwagadhi, only recently back online after last year's flood on the same river, went down again alongside Chilime, Devighat and a 220kV substation in Nuwakot, cutting power to Rasuwa district. NEA is preparing to run the Sanjen plant in "isolated mode," (that means disconnected from the national grid). Over the 12 damaged operating sites, more than 600 hydropower workers remained unaccounted for as of Sunday evening.

Read more: myRepublica (district outages), myRepublica (Sanjen restoration), myRepublica (rescue operations), Al Jazeera (death toll, damages)

Barrier Lake Breaches Above Bhotekoshi

A barrier lake near the Chhochen Khola-Purepu Tsangpo confluence on the Nepal-China border has breached, Rasuwa's chief district officer said Friday, threatening a fresh water rise down the Bhotekoshi. China's Ministry of Water Resources had put the lake's volume at roughly 2 million cubic metres as of Thursday, with another 3 million expected to flow in over three days. Authorities are preparing aerial reconnaissance using helicopters stationed in Dhunche and Rasuwa. The breach comes after, and is separate from the August 26 flood.

Read more: The Himalayan Times (rescue deployment), The Kathmandu Post (Rasuwa flood damage), The Kathmandu Post (flood simulations)

Flood Gauges Stayed Green

The gauge at Rasuwagadhi recorded the Bhote Kosi at 1.62 metres, low and falling, at 8:40am on August 26. Minutes later a glacier-triggered debris flow destroyed it. Every station downstream died the same way, each one below its Amber warning threshold. By the time the wave reached Devghat, 170km downstream on the Narayani, it peaked at 6.57m, still under the 7.3m Amber line. The first station to register the danger was Malekhu, 100km downstream, at 11:20am, nearly three hours after the flood crossed the border, when water rose almost four metres between two ten-minute readings and crossed the Red alert mark. The network measures how high a river climbs, calibrated on decades of monsoon rainfall, not how fast a debris wall moves through a gorge. There is still no real-time data arrangement with China, whose glaciers triggered the collapse.

Read more: Nepali Times (budget cuts), The Kathmandu Post (NDRRMA delay), The Kathmandu Post (municipality death toll), myRepublica (Nepal-China framework), The Kathmandu Post (GLOF history)

Flood Bill Could Reach $5 Billion

The Finance Minister told Reuters the country may need up to $5 billion to rebuild after the flood, though he said the figure is preliminary. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority thinks the initial infrastructure losses are Rs 200 billion ($1.3 billion) but that’s surely a fraction of the full rebuild estimate. Roughly 15,000 houses have been destroyed and hydropower projects in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Chitwan have been badly damaged. Commercial banks are looking at at least Rs 10 billion ($66 million) of exposure. Four of nine bank-financed hydropower projects took a hit, with Rs 7.5 billion ($49 million) tied to those plants and another Rs 2.5 billion ($16 million) lent to residents and businesses in the three affected districts. The government has not allocated a separate disaster response budget for this fiscal year and says it will approach donors once the needs assessment is complete.

Seven-Day Wait to Enter Flooded Tunnels

Roughly 900 workers have been out of since the flood hit 11 hydropower sites along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor. Independent Power Producers' Association members say they were forced to wait seven days for government permission before they were allowed to enter flooded tunnels. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority blamed "geographical conditions and complexity" in addition to a “shortage of resources” for the delay. The Army puts confirmed rescues at 279, IPPAN says 361, but neither number has moved much over the past few days.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (site-by-site rescue counts), The Kathmandu Post (Rs64bn damages), Ratopati (delay criticism), Online Khabar (minister quotes)

Foreign Tunnel Teams Join Bhotekoshi Search

Indian and Chinese tunnel rescue teams are working damaged hydropower sites alongside the Army. India is working at Chilime and Langtang, and China is at Upper Trishuli 3A. A South Korean team has arrived, and Singapore is sending a Disaster Victim Identification unit. Kathmandu has asked international partners for LiDAR, Bailey bridges, DNA testing kits, and high-capacity drones. More than 21,000 personnel from the Army, Police, and Armed Police Force are currently in the field.

Read more: The Rising Nepal (rehabilitation outlook), Spotlight Nepal (site-by-site deployment)

Korala Left Holding China's Trade Line

China closed the Tatopani crossing on Saturday, August 29 because of a landslide risk on the Nepali side at Liping after the August 26 flood swept away Rasuwagadhi's Timure settlement along with its customs, immigration and police offices. That leaves Korala in Mustang, a high-altitude pass with nothing like the capacity of the other two, as the only working overland link to Chinese goods. Traders are looking at the longer Kolkata sea route as backup, and officials in Lhasa say trucks and containers stuck in Kerung may get rerouted through Korala too. Consul General Laxmi Niraula says Tatopani will open again once the landslide threat in Liping is under control. Rebuilding customs offices near Timure, officials say, will take months.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (import volume stats), The Kathmandu Post (customs revenue impact), myRepublica (stranded citizens repatriation)

Kathmandu Fuel on a Detour

A section of the Prithvi Highway collapsed at Krishnabhir on August 30, forcing Nepal Oil Corporation to reroute Kathmandu-bound tankers onto the 107km Naubise-Hetauda stretch of the Tribhuvan Highway or the 92km Lalitpur-Hetauda run along the Kanti Highway. NOC says its Amlekhgunj stockpile is still able to get to the valley in about six hours.

Read more: myRepublica

Drones Deliver Aid, Then Retrieve Bodies

Airlift Technology's drones delivered food and medicine to flood-cut villages in Dhading and Nuwakot last week, then did what rescuers couldn't do by airlifting seven bodies from Benighat-3 to Benighat-5. In Devighat-3, an AI-enabled drone communicated with survivors by asking by loudspeaker whether they had water, food or medicine, then radioed back what they needed to rescue crews.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-26

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:22:23 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Martin Skřivánek on Unsplash

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CIAA Probes Three Ex-PMs' Gatekeepers

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has begun asset probes into the personal secretaries of former prime ministers KP Sharma Oli, Sher Bahadur Deuba and Pushpa Kamal Dahal, after the Department of Money Laundering Investigation kicked the cases upstairs. A team of civil servants and police has written to more than 20 agencies, including Nepal Rastra Bank and land revenue offices, to try and get records on shares, vehicles, land and buildings. Bhanu Deuba has been given a 13-page disclosure form covering bank accounts, loans, foreign travel, family property and company investments. The probe follows last year's Gen Z protests, during which the Deuba couple was assaulted at home and Nepali and foreign currencies were found at their residence before it was set on fire.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Pokhara Airport Gets Second International Route

Pokhara tourism operators met UAE Ambassador Abdulla Saeed Mubarak Jarwan Al Shamsi this week to shore up commitments ahead of flydubai’s daily Dubai service, launching September 23 with bookings now open through March 26, next year. It will be the second scheduled international route from an airport that opened three years ago. The first, Himalaya Airlines’ Lhasa service, was launched in March 2025 and has been suspended because of low demand. flydubai connects to more than 250 destinations, and Pokhara Tourism Council’s immediate past president Pom Narayan Shrestha says the meeting was mostly centered on figuring out how to make the route last, since Himalaya Airlines wasn’t able to crack that nut.

Kathmandu Chases Council Seat as Rapporteur Waits

Bernard Duhaime, the UN Special Rapporteur on transitional justice, has heard nothing from Kathmandu since he proposed a November 17-27 visit three months ago. The Balendra Shah government cancelled his June trip after sacking the leadership of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons in early May, and it still hasn't started the appointment process to replace them. Normally a job like that (the replacement, that is) takes about six months.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Agnipath Talks Resume as India Army Chief Visits

India's new army chief General Dhiraj Seth spent four days in Kathmandu last week, collecting an honorary Nepal Army generalship from President Ramchandra Poudel and paying a courtesy call on the Prime Minister (who also happens to hold the defence portfolio). It was Seth's first foreign visit since taking over in June, and the first private audience Shah has granted a foreign military figure since he took office in March. Agnipath recruitment for Gorkha soldiers, frozen since 2022, was a hot topic, and both sides said they wanted a "collaborative and consultative approach," without explaining what that might entail.

497 Blank Passports Still Missing

A chargesheet meant to settle one case of five Tibetan refugees traveling on Nepali papers has reopened a much bigger can of worms. Three of the documents, serial numbers A-026225 through A-026227, can be connected back to a batch of 500 blank travel documents that (mysteriously?) vanished from the Foreign Ministry's Store Section in 2009. Only three have ever re-surfaced. The Central Bureau of Investigation says it has now opened an investigation into the other 497. Who took them, and where they ended up, is still unknown.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Medical Council Hunts Ghost Faculty

The Nepal Medical Council has pulled together a committee to review credentials for the up-to 500 foreign doctors (mostly Indian) registered to teach at private medical colleges, after finding one cleared to work in Nepal was still employed back home. Officials think that colleges fly the doctors in only for Medical Education Commission monitoring visits. Those visits help set the number of how many MBBS seats a college can offer, but the thinking is after the visits the colleges let the doctors return home and students go untaught. Students have complained that listed faculty never show up to teach.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Supreme Court Orders Dairy Farmer Payments

The Supreme Court of Nepal has told the government to build a system to guarantee that dairy farmers get paid on time. The order comes as a result of a case in which farmers were (when the case was first filed) owed around Rs7 billion ($46 million). Private companies under the Dairy Industry Association and Nepal Dairy Association made up roughly Rs6 billion ($39.5 million) of that, and the state-run Dairy Development Corporation owed another Rs900 million ($5.9 million). The court found no evidence that tripartite agreements reached in March and June 2024 between government, industry and farmers had regularised the payment cycle or done anything to clear the backlog.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Khanal Recasts US Ties Around Capital Over Aid

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal used a Kathmandu seminar that was intended to celebrate 250 years of US independence to pitch a rewrite of the relationship toward less aid and more capital. He identified three targets, led by American venture funding for Nepali IT talent, joint hydropower and cross-border transmission projects, in addition to diaspora capital and skills flowing back through Nepali-Americans in the US. No dollar figures, project list, or American counterpart response came with his speech. The pitch comes as Nepal gets prepared to graduate from Least Developed Country status.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-19

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 02:09:55 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Colin Hobson on Unsplash

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Nepal Kept One Copy of the State

Auditor General Toyam Raya told the Public Accounts Committee last week that fires during the September 8-9 protests last year destroyed records at 179 public organizations, including about one million land documents. Government transactions worth Rs 148 billion ($973 million) are now, as a result, apparently unaudited. Bank statements and government software can show that money moved, but proof that it moved legally burned with the files. Lawmakers rejected the idea that missing paper should excuse missing audits. One system survived intact - that’s the Integrated Data Management Centre in Singha Durbar which was able to keep its core databases online, with a recovery site in Hetauda holding records for Nepal Rastra Bank, the Home Ministry, police, the company registry, the Nagarik App, and all 753 local governments. The Supreme Court had no similar system of backups.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

USAID Left Gaur and Newborn Deaths Returned

Gaur had cut neonatal deaths to zero before Washington dissolved USAID last year and removed the maternal health outreach workers who identified dangerous pregnancies early. Within months, newborns were dying again. Kabita Mukhiya spent weeks bleeding and swollen in her home outside Gaur before an aunt got her to a hospital, where doctors told her the baby she carried had died. Kabita then died too. The US State Department says it still supports maternal and child health programs in Nepal, without letting anyone know how much is invested or through whom.

Kathmandu Leaves Washington, Beijing and Delhi Posts Empty

Twenty-one ambassadorial posts are vacant or in transition, including Nepal's three most consequential relationships. Washington and Beijing have had no resident envoy since October 17, when the Karki government recalled 17 political appointees named by the Oli administration the previous July. Delhi lost its ambassador on April 5, less than two weeks into Balendra Shah's term, in addition to envoys for Australia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Denmark and South Africa. Seven career diplomats saw their four-year terms expire on July 21 and are now operating on an interim status as Kathmandu stalls on replacements. Missions in Brazil, Denmark and South Africa were already set for closure in the May 29 budget speech.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Finance Ministry Holds MCA-Nepal's Extension Letter

MCA-Nepal sent a one-year extension request to the Finance Ministry in mid-May, asking it to forward the letter to Millennium Challenge Corporation headquarters in Washington. Three months later, the letter has not been sent onward. The delay is a compounding of previous setbacks, including the October 2023 cancellation of bids for the compact's 315-km transmission line and Trump's July 2025 pause on US foreign assistance. The $747 million package is still due to finish by August 30, 2028. A senior finance ministry official confirmed the request had arrived and said it remained under discussion. An MCA-Nepal board member said MCC headquarters was “positive” about allowing the extension.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Banks Profit From Recoveries, Not New Credit

Nepal's 20 commercial banks booked Rs 69.78 billion ($459 million) in net profit for the fiscal year ended mid-July, which is up about a third from Rs 52.79 billion ($347 million). The economy remains weak and excess liquidity has remained dogged for a third year. Nepal Bankers' Association president Santosh Koirala said loan disbursement grew only marginally and that profits came largely from bad-loan recoveries and provision reversals.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

One Buffalo Deal Flattered Last Year's FDI

Foreign investment commitments fell to Rs 3.77 billion ($24.8 million) in the first month of fiscal year 2026/27, down from Rs 24.10 billion ($158.6 million) a year earlier, even though approved projects were increased from 127 to 191. The gap is mostly thanks to one 2025 approval, a Rs 20.45 billion ($134.5 million) processed buffalo meat factory to serve the China market. No similar large project appeared this year. Without that deal, the pipeline looks thinner but broader. IT made up 128 approved firms but only Rs 569.8 million ($3.7 million) in promised capital; 33 tourism projects drew Rs 1.63 billion ($10.7 million).

Read more: Online Khabar

Karnali Waits While Ministers Fly

Salyan's district hospital is sanctioned for eight specialists and has one. Maternity services have been suspended for a month for lack of a gynecologist, and the chief physician went on leave a week ago, leaving the hospital dependent on doctors hired under scholarship contracts. In nearby Rukum West, the situation is no better. The two hospitals each have 15 official beds but run up to 40 and see more than 200 patients a day between them. In Kathmandu, Nepali Congress Chief Whip Basana Thapa told Parliament the government spent between Rs 3 million ($19,700) and Rs 3.5 million ($23,000) to airlift a minister home for treatment, and families in Karnali are still waiting for basic care.

Read more: Asian News Network, myRepublica

TPS Ends for 7,000 Nepalis in the US

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered Nepalis on Temporary Protected Status to leave the United States or to expect deportation, ending a safeguard that was first given after the April 2015 earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people. About 12,700 Nepalis once held TPS, and roughly 5,500 have converted to green cards over the past decade. The remainder will lose both legal residency and work permits. Nepalis are among nationals from twelve other countries, including Haiti, Honduras, Somalia, Venezuela and Afghanistan, who have been swept into termination notices. DHS told affected individuals to make immediate arrangements to leave the country.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-12

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 11:02:44 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Martijn Vonk on Unsplash

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Sudurpaschim Spends Rs 140M, Passes Nothing

Sudurpaschim Provincial Assembly spent Rs 140.2 million ($922,000) in fiscal 2025-26 on salaries, staff, meetings, vehicles and fuel, but passed zero full bills. The provincial government registered two full bills and three amendments; only the two amendments cleared (they were related to local service formation and secretariat housekeeping). Nine bills, including two full bills carried over from the previous fiscal year, are still stuck, most of them in committee. The assembly met 30 times over three sessions. The province has also failed to endorse its budget for fiscal 2026-27, leaving government spending frozen.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Ncell Officials Face Rs 95B Bill

Nepal's Central Investigation Bureau wants Rs 95 billion ($625 million) recovered and 22 people prosecuted, nine of them Ncell officials and two from Nepal Investment Mega Bank, over the auction of bankrupt Smart Telecom's assets. Police say the deal was rigged by way of collusion between the bank and Ncell. Former Nepal Telecommunications Authority chairman Bhupendra Bhandari was arrested on July 30. The recommendation comes as a separate government committee, chaired by former Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma Dangal, published findings on Ncell's ownership history, including a December 2023 sale from Axiata to Spectralite UK that the committee says never got the legally required approvals.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (CIB charges), The Annapurna Express (share transfers)

Silver Outspends Gold in Nepal for the First Time

Silver imports were up 366 percent to Rs 32.74 billion ($215 million) in the fiscal year ended mid-July, tiptoeing past gold's Rs 29.15 billion ($192 million) for the first time. Silver shipments more than doubled to 104.29 tonnes as gold shrank 6.17 percent to 1.52 tonnes as its price kept climbing, reaching Rs 307,900 ($2,026) per tola on Monday. Dealers say most of the silver arrived as granules, not bars, and was snapped up by small investors chasing quick gains after prices roughly doubled between October and January, thinking it was a cheaper bet than gold once stocks and property stopped delivering.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (import origin breakdown), Online Khabar (daily price move)

Tibetan Studies Conference Forced Online

Kathmandu University spent months preparing to host the 17th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, but now it won't happen on campus. Chief Secretary Govinda Bahadur Karkee called Vice-Chancellor Rishikesh Wagle, Registrar Rajeev Shrestha and HiCAS's Sagar Sharma last Monday and asked for cancellation because of security concerns, after Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming met senior officials to stoke worries that pro-Tibet activists could turn the conference into a protest platform. IATS acting president Françoise Robin and secretary general Ulrike Roesler had written to Education Minister Sasmit Pokharel to warn them that the change would damage the university's academic standing and hurt Nepal's reputation, tourism and academic collaborations. A Western diplomat reportedly suggested Kathmandu reverse course and let Nepali citizens exercise freedom of expression to no avail. The week-long gathering will now run entirely online.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Nepal Can't Find Its India Treaties

Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal told Parliament on Monday that the government is unable to confirm whether it holds the original 1816 Sugauli Treaty or the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty with India. The two documents are the ones that underpin Nepal's western and southern boundaries. Some papers are at the National Archives, he said, but nobody has verified they are the formal treaty texts. The admission comes five years after Kathmandu used Sugauli-era evidence to redraw the official map in 2020 to include Limpiyadhura and Kalapani, territory India still holds. Delhi's response, delivered by external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, mentioned "existing bilateral mechanisms" for any disagreements.

Read more: myRepublica (lawmaker inquiry), Ratopati (Modi invite)

Cooking Gas Vanishes Again

Imports were holding steady at 41,294 tonnes by August 8, but for some reason, cooking gas disappeared from shelves within weeks of Nepal Oil Corporation restoring full 14.2 kg cylinder sales on June 15. The Home Ministry has ordered police to guard Kathmandu Valley depots after Industry Minister Gauri Kumari Yadav asked for security at monitoring sites. In Rautahat, Chief District Officer Dinesh Sagar Bhusal inspected 17 dealers, finding reduced stocks but no evidence of black marketing. Officials blame consumers rushing back with empty cylinders they had held during four months of half-cylinder rationing, not cuts in Indian supply.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (cylinder circulation), myRepublica (security deployment), The Himalayan Times (police officers)

China Border Delays Squeeze EV Imports

The NAIMA Nepal Mobility Expo opened at Bhrikutimandap on Tuesday. NAIMA president Ritu Singh Vaidya says the bottleneck isn't demand, it's Tatopani and Rasuwagadhi, where vehicles must be unloaded, inspected and fitted with regulatory stickers before being reloaded for onward transport, adding cost and delay to anything coming in from China. Vaidya wants any MRP system customs is considering to be practical and predictable before the festive buying season, which is traditionally the industry's peak stretch for sales.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Shah Meets With India and China Envoys

PM Balendra Shah met foreign ambassadors individually for the first time since taking office, receiving Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava and then Chinese Ambassador Zhang Maoming hours apart on Monday at Singha Durbar. Srivastava brought greetings from Narendra Modi and posted on X about an "engaging and productive exchange" on the India-Nepal partnership. Zhang's session followed, with the Prime Minister's Office readout containing near-identical language about deepening "historic ties" and expanding cooperation in areas of mutual interest. Shah had earlier declined meetings, saying that at the time they were against diplomatic protocol.

Read more: The Himalayan Times (China envoy meeting), myRepublica (Srivastava), The Kathmandu Post

Congress Rivals Meet for 30, Leave Empty-Handed

Nepali Congress President Gagan Thapa and dissident leader Shekhar Koirala met on Tuesday for just 30 minutes, but left with no agreement on who runs the party. Shortly after, Shashank Koirala's faction sent letters to Thapa, the Central Working Committee, and the Election Commission demanding a freeze on all organizational, policy, political, and financial decisions with long-term impact as the Supreme Court reviews a leadership dispute filed by former President Sher Bahadur Deuba and Acting President Purna Bahadur Khadka.

Read more: Nepal News (freeze demand), Ratopati (meeting timeline), Khabarhub (Deuba return)

House Moves Intelligence Agency Into PMO

The House of Representatives on Monday passed the Nepal Special Service Act amendment moving the National Investigation Department out of the Home Ministry and into the Prime Minister's Office, over opposition objections that the intelligence body should stay put.

Read more: Nepal News, Khabarhub (Sugauli Treaty response), Firstpost (Brics summit backdrop)

Rs 250 Purchase Wins Tax Lottery

A shopper who spent Rs 250 ($1.64) at Shiva Krishna General Store in Punarbas Municipality, Kanchanpur, took home the Inland Revenue Department's Rs 1 million ($6,579) bumper prize in the first draw of the Taxpayer Incentive Gift Programme, which rewards consumers for demanding receipts for purchases. Fifteen others won Rs 100,000 ($658) (each) in daily draws. QR payers are entered automatically but must keep their receipts; cash buyers have to ask for a PAN or VAT bill and upload it to the department's website to get a lottery coupon.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Army Restarts Hetauda Textile Looms

Forty soldiers and technicians from the Nepal Army's Directorate of Military Materiel Production spent 40 days clearing rust, overhauling power supply and servicing looms that have been idle since 2002. On Saturday, Hetauda Textile Industry ran cloth through the machines for the first time in nearly a quarter century, on a Rs 3 million ($19,700) emergency budget the Industry Ministry approved for the job. The factory still needs new machinery and a real investment plan before the looms run for profit rather than as a proof of concept. The Cabinet approved the revival on July 2.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Recruiters Stop Foreign Labor Approvals

Nepal's foreign employment agencies stopped processing labor approvals Friday after a 15-day ultimatum to the government expired without an answer. They want penalties against manpower companies reversed and a transparent service fee structure to replace the largely unenforced "free visa, free ticket" policy. Workers routinely pay between Rs 300,000 ($1,970) and Rs 500,000 ($3,290) out of pocket despite rules that bar charges for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Malaysia. New labor approvals were already down almost a fifth compared to last fiscal year, (that’s a drop of ~100k workers), in a sector tied to roughly 64 percent of Nepali households and that provides remittances worth about a third of GDP.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Europe migration), myRepublica (NAFEA leadership), The Kathmandu Post (remittance)

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-05

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:10:25 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Michael Starkie on Unsplash

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Avalanche Kills Nimsdai and Five Nepali Guides

An avalanche on Pakistan's 8,051-metre Broad Peak on July 31 killed six of Nepal's most decorated high-altitude guides, including Nirmal Purja, the Elite Exped founder who led the first winter ascent of K2 in January 2021. Gyaljen Sherpa, who held a Guinness World Record for summiting Kanchenjunga three times in a single season, and Kili Pemba Sherpa, who had been one of the ten climbers on that 2021 K2 team, were among the dead, along with three other senior guides. Nepali tourism entrepreneurs say the private sector had rescue pilots and aircraft ready to mobilize but were held up waiting on diplomatic coordination and official authorization from Kathmandu. The government has not said when or whether it will open an inquiry into the response.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (victims' careers), Thetourismtimes (government appeal)

Home Minister Signs 34 Points, Denies All of Them

Home Minister Sudan Gurung inked a 13-point deal in Janakpur on August 1 with the United Hindu Front and Hindu Samrat Sena, the last of 34 points agreed in Sunsari, Siraha and Dhanusha in three days. Point one commits the government to an all-party talk within three months on declaring Nepal a Hindu state again, a demand from groups whose wider charter also called for auditing madrasa finances and deporting "Rohingya, Bangladeshi and Pakistani infiltrators." Within a day, Dhanusha's Chief District Officer Prem Prasad Luitel, despite being “in the room”, was telling reporters no agreement existed at all, only a memorandum "received" along with demands "listened to." Nepal's constitution still makes a claim that the country is secular.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (six-point memorandum), myRepublica, myRepublica (12-point charter), Nepal News (13-point measures), myRepublica (curfew lifted)

Washington's Visa Bond Turns Permanent

The US State Department's visa bond pilot, launched August 20, 2025, became permanent this Monday, with the ceiling for Nepali B1/B2 applicants raised from $15,000 to $20,000, more than ten times domestic annual per capita income. Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal spent the past four months trying to press visiting US officials to drop Nepal from the 50-country list, apparently to no avail. Washington justifies then rates by referring to overstay rates, document fraud, and weak identity verification. Consular officers are expected to default to a $15,000 bond, refundable if travelers leave on time, but the money must be posted in full before the visa is issued, and the applicant finds out the amount only at the interview.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (bond tier structure), The Kathmandu Post (applicant impact story), Nepal News (pilot program stats)

Riyadh Freezes Visas After Nepal Shutters Centre

Saudi Arabia's embassy stopped processing work visas for laborers in five categories (loading and unloading, portering, cart operation and construction), after authorities shuttered the Industrial Training Institute in Basundhara last Wednesday for running Skill Verification Programme tests without legal authorization. The institute's operator, Sai Vision Pvt Ltd, had been charging workers Rs 10,000 ($66) for a process built around a $50 exam fee, with no legal channel for workers or recruiters to pay Saudi authorities directly. Somewhat bizarrely, perhaps, the labour ministry says the SVP programme has not been suspended, just the institute running it.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Government Ditches Lowest-Bidder Rule

Nepal has scrapped the lowest-bidder rule that’s been the measure of public works contracts for nineteen years, replacing it with a formula that awards contracts to whoever bids closest to the average of the remaining bids. The Second Amendment to the Public Procurement Act took effect July 16 after an unusual path. A presidential ordinance in April was fast-tracked around Parliament's two-house process and converted into law in July. On a contract estimated at Rs 100 million ($658,000), a firm bidding a genuine 28 percent below estimate, on lower overheads and owned machinery, would lose to a rival quoting Rs 96 million ($632,000) because that number would be closer to the pack's average of Rs 92.4 million ($608,000). The Federation of Contractors' Associations of Nepal has welcomed the change, saying it will be a fix for reckless underbidding that’s resulted in stalled projects.

Read more: myRepublica

IN Groupe Called Back After Losing ID Contract

Nepal's National Identity Management Information System has been glitching since early July, and IN Groupe technicians flown in from France are working on it. New applicants get a National Identity Number but no approval to go along with it, leaving 13 agencies including the Department of Passports, private banks and immigration accepting manual confirmation pages as a workaround. On May 8, the government cancelled the global tender for NIDMIS operation and maintenance, calling it a matter of digital sovereignty, and chose to run it in-house. Director general Krishna Poudel says full restoration is expected next week. That is the same week the central bank's amendment makes the ID card mandatory for eKYC on digital payments. Two weeks ago the government also handed IN Groupe a direct-procurement deal for 10 million ABIS biometric licences, bypassing normal tender rules.

Read more: Biometricupdate (printed cards), The Kathmandu Post (in-house concerns)

100 Days of Silence

Prime Minister Balendra Shah's first 100 days in office have brought no press conferences, no ministry access for reporters, and an advertising squeeze on private media. Editors at a prominent online portal killed a piece comparing Shah to Kazi Lhendup Dorjee, the Sikkimese leader who oversaw his kingdom's 1975 merger into India, after a colleague warned it would "invite retaliation" from Rastriya Swatantra Party supporters, who have organized campaigns against critical outlets before. The article had been prompted by Shah's May 31 remark in Parliament that "not only India but Nepal too has encroached upon Indian territories in many places." No government official called. No formal warning was issued. The piece died on an editor's desk.

FM Joint Secretary Arrested in Passport Scam

Nepal Police's Central Investigation Bureau arrested Foreign Ministry Joint Secretary Pushparaj Bhattarai this week over more than 500 blank travel documents he handled at the Passport Division in 2008-2009. Three of the docs allegedly went to Tibetans falsely identified as refugees bound for Germany. The case has been on the shelf, dormant, since July 2011, when the German Embassy in Kathmandu flagged five suspicious documents issued in 2009. The signatures belong to branch officer Ram Prasad Subedi, now also a Joint Secretary and currently Nepal's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva. Bhattarai told investigators someone must have "imitated and misused" his signature.

Read more: Online Khabar

Bucharest Beats Bahrain as Migrant Magnet

Romania has become the springboard of choice for workers headed to Europe, part of a 21-fold rise in labour migration to the continent over the past decade. Of the 792,187 labour permits issued in FY 2025/26, 93,508 went to European destinations, more than 53,000 of them new permits, and the Gulf's share fell from 77% to 64% as workers shy away from conflict risk while eyeing Europe's higher wages and shot at permanent residency. Remittances were $14.59 billion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, a record, even as the RSP-led government promised 1.2 million new jobs at home over five years. An EU-commissioned report from Nepal Economic Forum notes that recruitment rules still treat Gulf-bound and Europe-bound migrants the same, leaving newer arrivals paying Gulf-level fees for European-level jobs.

Rastra Bank Puts a Price on Policy Chaos

A new central bank working paper, the first to build an Economic Policy Uncertainty Index for Nepal, tracked Google search patterns from January 2011 to April 2026 and found that sustained policy confusion can knock up to 10 percent off the Nepse index, cut real imports by 15 percent, shrink private sector credit by 5 percent and shave around 2 percent off GDP. The Nepse reacts fastest, dropping roughly 5 percent right after an uncertainty shock before sliding further if the confusion drags on.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Ministry Opens Applications for Ambassador

Sixteen ambassadorial posts are vacant, including Beijing, Delhi, Washington, Tokyo and Seoul. Five more envoys are working on expired terms in Cairo, Manama, Dhaka, Yangon and Nepal's UN mission in Vienna. The Foreign Ministry is reviewing applications from Nepal's first open call for the job, with recommendations expected within two weeks. Embassies in South Africa, Brazil and Denmark were shuttered this fiscal year.

Read more: myRepublica (vacant country list), Ratopati (mission totals)

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-29

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 04:59:01 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

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Rights Groups Allege Pressure on Three Justices

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the International Commission of Jurists said Friday they have credible information that the executive is pressuring three Supreme Court justices to resign under threat of impeachment. None of the three organizations has published a written report, named a complainant, or identified the justices. Amnesty Nepal director Nirajan Thapaliya said the statement rests on “credible and highly reliable sources” he won’t name. Law Minister Sobita Gautam said the claim is baseless and challenged the groups to substantiate it; RSP General Secretary Bipin Acharya said no impeachment motion was ever contemplated.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Sunsari Clash Kills One; Blackout Probed

A farmer died from a gunshot wound to the abdomen after security forces opened fire on a communal clash in Dewanganj's Kaptanganj market on Sunday night. Nine others were wounded, and 13 security personnel were injured after a dispute over loud Bolbam pilgrimage music turned into a stone-and-spear standoff. The area went dark shortly before APF reinforcements arrived, and a five-member home ministry probe includes a Nepal Electricity Authority representative to figure out if the outage was deliberate. The Prime Minister's Office has given the committee seven days to report.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (curfew), Khabarhub (PMO quotes).

Birgunj Walkout Empties Waiting Rooms

Sixty-eight doctors at Narayani Hospital in Birgunj resigned en masse after a Police Chief Superintendent allegedly shoved doctors back into the Chief District Officer's office during talks meant to defuse an earlier crisis. That crisis started Saturday, when 50-year-old Raj Kumar Patel of Birgunj-25 died in the emergency ward and his relatives vandalized the unit and beat Medical Officer Dr Pramod Ram, who is now being treated in Kathmandu. The Nepal Medical Association responded Tuesday by suspending non-emergency services at hospitals nationwide, leaving only emergency wards open at places including Bir Hospital and Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital. The Kathmandu Valley normally sees up to 20,000 outpatient visits on a normal day. The Health Ministry, without naming anyone or setting a deadline, promised legal action against those “responsible.”

Read more: The Himalayan Times (superintendent), myRepublica (ministry statement), The Himalayan Times (OPD scale), The Himalayan Times (NMA demands)

Trade Deficit Widens to $11.7 Billion

The trade deficit widened a bit more than 16% to Rs 1.78 trillion ($11.7 billion) in FY 2025/26, with imports of Rs 2.096 trillion ($13.8 billion) swamping exports of Rs 315.29 billion ($2.07 billion). Every rupee of exports is now matched by 6.65 rupees of imports. India made up Rs 1.21 trillion ($7.96 billion) of the gap and China another Rs 423 billion ($2.78 billion), with deficits recorded against 134 trading partners. The import habit did feed the treasury, however, as VAT collected at customs saw a 12.78 percent lift to Rs 220 billion ($1.45 billion). VAT from domestic transactions grew 4 percent. This week the government published a five-year plan to increase exports to 20 percent of GDP.

Read more: myRepublica (trade deficit), myRepublica (VAT breakdown)

Nagdhunga Tunnel Opens, Mostly to Ambulances

After eighty(!) months and Rs 24 billion ($158 million), the Nagdhunga-Sisnekhola Tunnel came into operation Monday. For now the only vehicles allowed through are ambulances, fire engines and security convoys, as the Department of Roads is blaming a manpower shortage on the delay of opening the 2.68-kilometer passage to regular traffic. Officials say the tunnel cuts a 30-minute journey to seven minutes. Locals protested the opening, demanding guaranteed water supply, compensation for houses damaged during construction, safe passage and job security. Toll rates are between Rs 60 ($0.40) and Rs 600 ($3.95) based on vehicle size.

Read more: myRepublica (trial period tolls), The Himalayan Times (protester demands)

IN Groupe Gets Biometric Deal Without a Bid

The Cabinet's June 12 decision gives 10 million biometric identification licenses to IN Groupe, a French firm that already supplies Nepal's passports through subsidiary IDEMIA and, after taking over Safran Identity, now owns the company that sold the last batch. No competitive bidding was run. The proposed price is €0.0995 (about $0.11) per license, the same rate set under a March 2019 Cabinet-approved deal, unadjusted for seven years of inflation. Of the total, 1.5 million licenses will be bought directly and 8.5 million through a government-to-government arrangement, with a home ministry negotiation team now working out final terms. The existing licenses, covering fingerprints, iris scans, and facial data tied to national ID cards and passports, are close to expiring, with only a few thousand units left in the department's stock.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Fuel Shock Hits Wholesale Prices

Wholesale inflation was 8.47 percent in mid-June, a 39-month high, after energy prices rose 48.14 percent when US-Israel strikes on Iran sent global oil prices higher. Petrol climbed to Rs219 a litre ($1.44) from Rs156, and diesel to Rs237 ($1.56) from Rs139, before Hormuz tensions eased and pump prices retreated to Rs197 and Rs195. The fuel cost increases have filtered through the supply chain, though. Wholesale prices of basic metals rose 32.20 percent, intermediate goods 14.64 percent, and chemicals 14.75 percent. Nepal Rastra Bank's Gunaraj Bhatta says the pressure is "likely to be passed on to consumers for some time." Retail inflation was reported to be 5.22 percent for the same period.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Pokhara Airport Waives Fees to Lure Airlines

The cabinet has waived parking, landing, and navigation fees in full at Pokhara International Airport through mid-September 2028, in addition to a 50 percent cut on ground-handling charges, three years after the Chinese-built airport opened without a single regular international flight. Flydubai will start a daily Pokhara-Dubai service on September 23, giving the tourism capital its first scheduled connection to a major transit hub and onward routes to Europe and the US. The airport, built on a loan of nearly Rs 22 billion ($145 million), has so far handled only domestic traffic and a handful of chartered international flights to neighboring countries.

Read more: myRepublica

Pact Delivers Karnali, Stalls Two Seats Short

CPN-UML and the Nepal Communist Party put their five-province carve-up in writing on July 25, with Oli’s UML taking Koshi, Bagmati and Lumbini and Prachanda’s NCP getting Karnali and the Far-West. Karnali moved fastest, with NCP’s Mangal Bahadur Shahi claiming the chief minister’s post with UML backing in advance of a planned oath today. Bagmati is stuck. UML’s 25 seats plus NCP’s 26 make 51, which is two short of the 53 needed to take charge in the 104-member assembly. UML is courting the RPP’s 12 seats; the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, holding 3, has already ruled it out.

Read more: Online Khabar (province carve-up), The Annapurna Express (Shahi oath), The Himalayan Times (RPP talks)

Central Bank Allows Indian Notes Back In

Nepal Rastra Bank has lifted its near decade-long ban on Indian 200-rupee and 500-rupee notes, and will now allow travelers to carry up to INR 25,000 ($291) per person across the border. Only the redesigned bills issued after India's November 9, 2016 demonetization qualify; the old 500-rupee and 1,000-rupee notes that were junked in that exercise remain no bueno. The rule, is intended to make life easier for Indian pilgrims, Nepali workers, and small border traders who've spent nine years working around cash restrictions on an open border. Nepali citizens still can't bring Indian rupees in from a third country, or take them out to one. Foreign visitors are allowed to bring in up to $5,000 without filing a customs declaration.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-22

Wed, 22 Jul 2026 04:40:22 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Aaron Santelices on Unsplash

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PM Scraps Tax via Facebook

The 3% equity fee on private education and health services lasted three weeks. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle wrote it into the budget for fiscal year 2026/27, effective Shrawan 1, to fund nutrition programs for Dalit and marginalized children, expand health insurance and improve public schools. Private school, college and hospital operators started protesting as soon as the budget was announce, so on July 21, the PM announced on Facebook that the fee would not be implemented "for now," offering instead a 10% quota of free beds at private hospitals and 10% scholarship seats at private colleges for disadvantaged groups. Wagle says the suspension will needs Cabinet endorsement to take legal effect, since the fee was introduced under Section 18 of the Financial Act. Gen-Z movement leader Rabi Kiran Hamal welcomed the reversal but said that tax policy "cannot be amended through social media announcements," and asked why a major policy call came from the PM's personal Facebook rather than from the Finance Ministry.

Nepal Posts Steepest Peace Score Drop

Nepal fell 26 places to 111th out of 163 countries in the 2026 Global Peace Index, the largest single-year deterioration of any nation, a 9.1 percent collapse the Institute for Economics and Peace says is exceptionally rare. Almost every other situation resulting in a plunge like this involves a civil war, coup or insurgency. The index connects most of the damage to last September's Gen Z unrest, when security forces killed at least 76 people, including police personnel, injured more than 2,000, and saw parliament burned to the ground. Balendra Shah, the rapper-turned-engineer who took office in March as the country's youngest prime minister on the back of that uprising, is now watching the same generation turn on him. Protesters have massed in Kathmandu over riverside evictions, police conduct, and the self-immolation of 25-year-old ride-share driver Ganesh Nepali, who set himself on fire after a dispute with traffic police over a fine he couldn’t afford. Some demonstrators are now demanding Shah's resignation.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (conflict indicators breakdown)

Case Clearance Falls as Courts Rebuild from Arson

The Supreme Court settled less than a third of its caseload in fiscal 2025-26, down from 42% the year before, as the judiciary tries to function without the benefit of 936,000 case files that were burned during the September protests. Twenty-three court premises were damaged (ten were destroyed outright). Hearings were effectively frozen for nearly four months after central servers went down, an outage severe enough to stall courts that didn’t suffer directly from the arson, including the Patan High Court. In Gandaki, recovery teams been able to retreive 3,307 of the 6,126 documents lost, mostly by asking district attorneys and litigants for their copies.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (economic loss), myRepublica (court breakdown)

Court Punts Ncell Deal to Regulator

The Supreme Court dismissed a writ seeking to void Ncell's 80 percent share transfer, but stopped short of blessing the deal as it gave the Nepal Telecommunications Authority a task of finishing a job that politicians and bureaucrats have dodged for nearly three years. The verdict, published this week, points the Authority to Section 47 of the Telecommunications Act, which lets it fine license violations rather than unwinding them. If Ncell pays a fine and submits the documents the Authority says are still missing, the transaction will get formally recognized. No fine amount has been set, and no timeline was given.

Read more: Ratopati

Usury Becomes a Serious Economic Crime

The Home Minister’s team agreed to classify usury as a serious economic crime, invalidate fraudulent loan documents, and draft a special law within three months, with a tribunal formed to hear cases. The deal comes after weeks of talks after victims marched from Janakpur, and covers forged promissory notes, coerced cheques, and land transfers signed under duress, as well as compensation and a path to get seized property returned to the rightful owners.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (task force timeline), The Kathmandu Post (district recovery statistics)

Foreign Tuition Blows Out Service Trade Balance

The service trade balance flipped from a Rs 9.85 billion ($65 million) surplus in FY 2015-16 to a Rs 90.94 billion ($598 million) deficit in FY 2024-25, mostly because of foreign tuition costs. Nepalis spent Rs 138.48 billion ($911 million) on education abroad last year, at a rising clip of about 18 percent yearly over the past three years. IT services, the sector that was expected (was hoped?) to close the gap, brought in Rs 22.33 billion ($147 million), or 9.36 percent of total service exports.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Rapeseed Rides Reopened Rail to Biratnagar

A CONCOR freight train pulled into Biratnagar's customs yard on Tuesday carrying 1,070 tons of Australian rapeseed in 40 containers, the first third-country cargo to clear Nepal's customs point since June 2023. The shipment travelled a route that barely existed on paper until November 2025, when India's customs board changed their tracking rules to allow rail cargo from Kolkata, Haldia and Visakhapatnam to run to Biratnagar instead of getting stopped at Birgunj. Nepal finalized its part of the arrangements in February. The Morang Trade Organization claims that the resulting freight savings will be up to 40% when compared to road transport costs.

Read more: Daily Sun (Nautanwa route), Spotlight Nepal (Sharada)

Lumbini's Hotel Boom Waits for a Runway

Rupandehi built for a boom that never came as investors sunk Rs 100 billion ($658 million) into roughly 2,100 hotels around Lumbini since the airport there started construction in early 2015. The region is now home to 13 star-rated properties, three of them five-star (Hyatt Palace in Butwal, Tiger Palace in Bhairahawa, and Siddhartha Vilasa), in addition to 10 four-stars built on the promise of direct international flights to Buddha's birthplace. Eleven years later, and the airport still isn't pulling the international traffic investors were promised, leaving roughly 300 large tourist hotels, 700 mid-sized properties, and 1,000 small hotels, farm stays and restaurants competing for a fraction of the visitors the plans assumed.

Read more: myRepublica

Japan's Tunnel Opens But China's Road Stalls

Kathmandu's first road tunnel got its public debut on Saturday, a "Fun Run and Walk" through the Nagdhunga-Sisnekhola bore ahead of trial operations on July 27. Tolls are now set at Rs 65 ($0.43) inbound for cars and Rs 260 ($1.71) for buses and heavy trucks. Motorcycles and pedestrians are barred entry. Ten kilometers away, the Chakrapath expansion has not yet started. Two months after Nepal and China signed an Rs 11 billion ($72 million) agreement on May 16 for the 8.2-kilometer Kalanki-Basundhara stretch, the road is still a field of mud and weeds, with contractor selection still waiting on Chinese authorities under the terms of the grant.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (toll schedule), Ratopati

Monsoon Leaves Seven Highways Shut

Seven highways are completely blocked and 12 more are allowing only partial traffic as landslides and flash floods have pinned down transport. The Mechi, Kanti, Diktel-Bhojpur and Araniko highways are still shut, as is the Tatopani road at Jurikhola in Bhotekoshi Rural Municipality-4, as machinery grinds through debris. Police reported two deaths and 15 injuries over 24 hours, interestingly, snakebites caused both fatalities and 11 of the injuries. With a Bay of Bengal low keeping the monsoon trough parked north of the Tarai, authorities have started to open the Koshi Barrage gates and have placed 21 districts on moderate flood alert.

Read more: myRepublica (landslide locations), The Annapurna Express (spokesperson quotes), Spotlight Nepal (rainfall forecast), Online Khabar (economic loss)

Electricity Dept Gives Survey Permits for 3,211 MW

The Department of Electricity Development issued survey permits for 99 hydropower projects of 3,211 MW and seven solar projects of 311 MW in fiscal year 2082/83, in addition to production permits for 29 hydropower projects of 1,857 MW. That brings the total to 264 hydropower projects with production permits for a combined 12,336 MW, plus transmission survey permits for 581 circuit kilometers in the 220 kV, 132 kV, and 33 kV classes. The department collects roughly Rs 3.5 billion ($23 million) a year in royalties, split between provincial and local governments.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-15

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 05:36:06 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Nirajan Dhakal on Unsplash

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Self-Immolation Sparks Crisis

The death of 25-year-old ride-share driver Ganesh Nepali, who set himself on fire outside Kathmandu's Department of Passports after municipal police clamped his motorcycle and fined him Rs 1,000 ($7), has become the first serious test of Prime Minister Balendra Shah's government. Nepali died at Bir Hospital from burns covering almost two-thirds of his body. After negotiations, the government and Kathmandu Metropolitan City signed a nine-point agreement with the family that promises an independent probe, suspension of the officers involved, a job for Nepali's wife, education support for his daughter, and consideration of martyr status.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Ad Order

The Supreme Court has struck down the government's April 1 order that limits state advertising to government-owned outlets. The Cabinet also named Umesh Shrestha, formerly editor of Nepal Fact Check, as Press Council chair, replacing Kumar Sharma Acharya, who was removed along with the rest of the board. A protest also took place when drivers parked private vehicles at the main gates of Kantipur in Tinkune, OnlineKhabar in Buddhanagar and Himalaya Television in mid-Baneshwor, then ran away; the Bhat-Bhateni outlet in Anamnagar and Nepali Congress President Gagan Thapa's Ratopul residence were blockaded the same way. The vehicles ended up being parked from 7am until traffic police brought in cranes to get them moved in the afternoon, but interestingly FNJ president Nirmala Sharma is saying the blockades are a state effort, and the federation claims that police stood by as "silent spectators" as it went down.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (ruling justices), Online Khabar (Shrestha background), The Himalayan Times (vehicle ownership)

Floods Shut Rasuwagadhi, Cut Off Three Districts

Chitwan's Narayani Field Office gauge reported 319.8mm of rain in 24 hours and flooding cut roads on three fronts. The Mechi Highway's Golakharka-Rajduwali stretch caved in, cutting Ilam, Panchthar and Taplejung off from Jhapa indefinitely. Both Kathmandu-Hetauda links (the Kanti Lokpath and the Hetauda-Sisneri road) were shut Monday evening as rivers rose and landslide risks grew. At Rasuwagadhi, engineers closed the tunnel gate and stopped generation at the 111 MW plant on Sunday night after a mud-laden flood made its way to the Lhende Khola, almost a year after the river last tore through the dam.

Read more: Online Khabar (rainfall station count), Online Khabar (Bailey bridge tools), The Himalayan Times (closure timing), Spotlight Nepal (crane dispatch)

Deficit Blown Out

The treasury closed FY 2025/26 with a Rs 344 billion ($2.26 billion) deficit, almost entirely because of a capital spending collapse. Of the Rs 407.88 billion ($2.68 billion) set aside for capital projects, ministries managed to spend Rs 181.59 billion ($1.19 billion) (44.52%), by July 11, 15% points below last year's already weak performance. Recurrent spending flowed a bit more easily - 88% of the Rs 1.181 trillion ($7.76 billion) budget for salaries, pensions and administrative costs went out the door on time. Public debt is Rs 2.961 trillion ($19.5 billion), (44.87% of GDP). Revenue collection missed the mark again also, bringing in Rs 1.184 trillion ($7.78 billion) against a Rs 1.48 trillion ($9.72 billion) goal.

Read more: myRepublica (spending breakdown), myRepublica (past summits)

NEPSE Sheds $592 Million in a Week

Nepal Stock Exchange closed at 2,570.18 on July 13, its lowest showing in eight months, ending a week that wiped Rs 90 billion ($592 million) off market capitalization. All 13 sectoral indices finished the July 6-10 stretch in the red, finance lead the drop at 3 percent. Volume rose as prices fell. Monday's turnover was Rs 7.46 billion ($49 million), and one session during the week saw a 35-month high of Rs 15.54 billion ($102 million).

Read more: myRepublica (company gainers/losers), The Kathmandu Post (analyst outlook), The Himalayan Times (sector breakdown)

Loan-Shark Victims March as Warrants Wait

Roughly 300 loan-shark victims from 35 districts are marching from Janakpur to Kathmandu, making headway of about 25 kilometers a day through monsoon mud and landslides, to demand action the Prime Minister promised on his campaign trail. In Dhanusha district, more than 2,500 complaints and arrest warrants have been issued. Not against the moneylenders (silly you for thinking that!), but against the borrowers.

Read more: myRepublica

Idle Hydro Licensees Put on Notice

Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha told the newly elected IPPAN executive committee that developers who hold hydropower licenses without building anything will be reviewed, categorized, and “dealt with.” Having a license without construction is "unacceptable," he said, and IPPAN should not defend it. No timeline was given for the review. IPPAN presented a 38-point wishlist for PPA reform, private investment in transmission lines, and a more investment-friendly Electricity Act. Shrestha also said that a proposal for an Energy Attaché at Nepal's embassy in New Delhi has already gone to the Foreign Ministry. IPPAN president Mohan Dangi says the private sector could meet the 30,000 MW target within a decade if policy support can be finalized.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

Gandaki Legalizes Cannabis Farming

Gandaki Province Assembly unanimously passed a bill to legalize cannabis cultivation for medicinal and industrial use. It’s the first opening in a prohibition that goes back half a century to 1976. Growers will need a license (five years), CCTV and fencing, as well as a clean drug record for the past decade. Cultivation is expected to be limited to districts designated by the provincial government. A Chief Minister-led steering committee, including the ministers for agriculture, health, industry and forests, in addition to a new Cannabis Cultivation Regulation and Management Unit, will manage permits and compliance. Hitches in the plan include word from researchers who say that commercial licensing and hybrid seed could displace Nepal's undocumented hillside cannabis landraces before they are able to fully catalog them, as well as fear that the law could sit idle unless the provincial government puts forward proper implementation rules in a timely fashion.

Read more: Aninews IN (THC cap), The Kathmandu Post (landrace conservation), myRepublica (violation fines)

Study-Abroad Agents Need Cash Deposit

Cabinet approved two regulations that end years of lax oversight for businesses sending Nepali students overseas. Education consultancies will now be required to post a Rs 2.5 million ($16,400) cash deposit before they can open, foreign ownership is barred (existing foreign-invested firms have a year to transfer to Nepali nationals), and consultancies whose advice results in a student stranded abroad or at an illegal college will now liable for financial damages. The 49 foreign-affiliated colleges already operating in Nepal will get 36 months to prove their partner university is qualified, but the rules include stipulations that mean most will miss. Colleges that fail to get their house in order within the three-year deadline will lose their license.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (licensed consultancy count), The Himalayan Times (event fee rules)

CIB Nabs Resort Chairman

Nepal's CIB arrested Asian Village Resort chairman Shashidhar Sharma over a Rs 480 million ($3.2 million) Prabhu Bank loan taken to build a resort and buy land. Instead of mortgaging the land as required, the company signed an undertaking to do so later and then sent the money to pay off debts of the chairman's relatives and other companines in the group. Investigators have also raised the specter of “suspicious” transactions between Sharma and former Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel, whose has been detained with custody already extended several times.

India-Nepal Energy Talks Without Progress

India's Power Secretary Pankaj Agarwal and Nepal's Energy Secretary Sarita Dawadi are meeting in Kathmandu to work through the mechanics of January's 10,000 MW long-term export agreement. The Joint Working Group and Joint Steering Committee sessions have so far resulted in the presentation of no new numbers or even an agreed-to schedule, six months after S. Jaishankar's visit produced the “deal,” a renewables MoU, and the inauguration of three cross-border transmission lines.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-08

Wed, 08 Jul 2026 03:10:19 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Nirajan Dhakal on Unsplash

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Court Convicts Two in Fake Refugee Scam

Three years after prosecutors filed charges against 30 people, the Kathmandu District Court on Tuesday convicted 23 of them, including former Deputy Prime Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi and former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand, for a scheme that sold hundreds of Nepalis fake passage to the United States as Bhutanese refugees. Rayamajhi was guilty of organized fraud and crimes against the state; Khand was convicted only as an accomplice, a lesser charge that could mean a lighter sentence when sentencing is handed down on July 13. The convictions also covered former Home Secretary Tek Narayan Pandey, security adviser Indrajit Rai, and alleged ringleaders Keshav Prasad Dulal and Sanu Bhandari. Seven defendants walked, including Rayamajhi's son Sanjeev and Pratik Thapa, on “insufficient evidence.” The scam ran for years inside the shell of a legitimate humanitarian program meant for Bhutanese refugees who'd spent decades in eastern Nepal's camps.

Read more: Nepal News (court record fire), The Rising Nepal (Teknath Rijal verdict), Khabarhub (BS filing date), Nepal News (full names list), The Annapurna Express (fraud total amount)

NRB Holds Rates and Orders More Lending

Governor Bishwonath Poudel published a monetary policy for FY 2026/27 that leaves the benchmark rate at 4.5 percent, unchanged for two years, while banks are getting told to expand lending by Rs 652 billion ($4.3 billion) to support the government's 7 percent growth target. Private-sector credit is expected to grow 11 percent, broad money supply 14 percent, and inflation is expected to be limited to 5.5 percent (although that’s a number that’s vulnerable to Indian price pressure and any new flare-up in West Asia). The central bank's economists put growth last year at 3.85 percent, below the 4.2 percent potential, meaning the 7 percent goal requires a jump few forecasters outside Kathmandu are expecting to materialize. Public debt was reported at Rs 2.96 trillion ($19.5 billion) in the first 11 months of FY 2025/26 (44.9 percent of GDP), up from roughly Rs 2.01 trillion ($13.3 billion) four years ago, with only about a third of this year's capital budget spent.

Read more: The Rising Nepal (existing loan base), Ratopati (rate corridor), The Himalayan Times (growth drivers), The Himalayan Times (external vs internal debt)

Government Claims 87% Progress as NEPSE Slides

Spokesperson Sasmit Pokharel told reporters Saturday that Prime Minister Balendra Shah's government has reached 87.2 percent progress on its 100-point governance agenda, with 70 items done, 17 more than four-fifths complete, and 13 lagging. The same period saw the NEPSE index slide from 2,879 to 2,652.93 points, erasing nearly Rs 350 billion ($2.3 billion) in investor wealth as market capitalization dropped from Rs 4.894 trillion ($32.2 billion) to Rs 4.543 trillion ($29.9 billion). The FY 2026/27 budget included no new capital-market measures and no expanded pool of institutional investors. The Cabinet also formed an asset-investigation commission under the Commission of Inquiry Act to look into illegal wealth held by political office-holders and senior officials going back about 20 years.

Read more: Online Khabar (money-laundering cases), myRepublica (agenda breakdown), myRepublica (turnover)

Ex-NTA Chair Jha Convicted, Basnet Walks

The Special Court convicted former Nepal Telecommunications Authority chairman Digambar Jha and two former members, Dhanraj Gyawali and Tika Upreti, on corruption in the Teramocs procurement case, fining each of them Rs 50,000 ($329) and giving six-12 month jail terms. Seventeen co-defendants walked, including former Communications Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet and former NTA chair Purushottam Khanal.

Read more: myRepublica

Draft Water Bill Sets 15% River Minimum

A draft Water Resources Bill would replace the 1992 Act and require dam operators to release more water. The draft demands at least 15 percent of a river's minimum flow downstream (up from the 10 percent set by the 2001 Hydropower Development Policy), or the amount specified by an environmental impact assessment, whichever is higher. It also gives the Water and Energy Commission power over river allocation, which with recentralizes decision-making.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (federal-provincial thresholds), Spotlight Nepal (50-point plan), Datacenterdynamics (curtailed power use)

Pokhara Airport Lands Its First International Route

Flydubai and Pokhara tourism operators met Sunday to plot how to keep daily Dubai flights alive once they begin September 23. The route is the first scheduled international service at an airport that's flown nothing but domestic traffic since its Rs 22 billion ($145 million) opening on New Year’s Day, 2023. Flydubai says the route will connect Pokhara to London, New York and Tokyo by way of onward links, and the Pokhara Chamber of Commerce has promised private-sector support to keep the flights viable. No passenger targets were shared.

Read more: myRepublica

ADB Lends $165 Million for Pipes and Paperwork

The Asian Development Bank signed two loan agreements worth $165 million with the finance ministry on July 6, split between $115 million in concessional lending for water supply and sewerage upgrades and $50 million in policy-based lending that’s being tied to customs reform. The water bit will support work in 13 municipalities and is expected to directly benefit more than 850,000 people, mostly in fast-growing towns where sanitation systems haven't kept pace. The customs portion is the second subprogram of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation Customs and Logistics Reforms Program, and is intended to speed up trade processing and support job creation. No project completion dates were shared.

Rasuwagadhi Back Online at Two-Thirds Power

The 111 MW Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project resumed feeding the national grid this month, a year after the July 2025 Lhende River flood tore through it, causing Rs 3.5 billion ($23 million) in damage. A new gate system now filters river water before it hits the tunnel, and the company says the plant can run at full capacity. NEA has it capped at 74 MW anyway, saying domestic demand is too low to run it any harder.

Read more: myRepublica

Monsoon Floods Cut Karnali Supply Routes

The Bheri Corridor has sat closed since July 1, when floodwaters ripped through Rukum Paschim's Rejegar river, and a landslide at Maluwa in Nalagaad municipality has now blocked the Jajarkot-Dolpa road, cutting supply routes across Karnali Province as the monsoon rains keep coming. Home Minister Sudhan Gurung has promised zero monsoon deaths this year, backed by 54 temporary response bases and 16 permanent disaster management units.

Read more: The Annapurna Express (police advisory), The Kathmandu Post (death toll count), The Kathmandu Post (relief fund)

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-01

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 05:20:34 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Sylwia Bartyzel on Unsplash

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Half a Million Passports Have Nowhere to Go

Fewer than 45,000 passport booklets remain in the Department of Passports vault, with applications running at five to six thousand per day. The government cannot agree on what to do with the 550,000 booklets already sitting in the vault, supplied by German firms Veridos GmbH and Muehlbauer ID Service GmbH and now untouchable because of an ongoing corruption case. The CIAA filed charges against passport department officials and the German companies' local representatives within a week of finishing its investigation, an unusually quick turn for a procurement case this size, and critics are asking whether the PM's Office, which pushed the probe and has been issuing verbal instructions to department officials to cancel the contract, had a hand in the rush. Germany summoned Nepal's acting ambassador in Berlin to complain that the charges rest on assumptions rather than evidence, and warned that cancellation could expose Kathmandu to compensation claims. IDEMIA, the French company that has supplied Nepal's passports since 2010, is preparing to exit within days.

Read more: Ratopati (PMO vs Foreign Ministry), The Kathmandu Post (German diplomatic pressure), Nepal News ($10.13B contract), The Kathmandu Post (July 19 deadline), The Himalayan Times (IDEMIA vs Veridos bid)

Food Paste for the Taking

A government survey of more than a million children aged six months to five years, carried out over three weeks in May, found wasting rates of 12.3% in Madhesh Province, well above the WHO's 10% threshold for "high" and the worst figure in the country. Nationally, 7.8% of children are wasting and 17.4% are underweight. The numbers were shared a little more than a year after USAID's closure shuttered a $72 million, five-year Helen Keller International program that was meant to cover almost 9 million people. The government still stocks Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, the high-calorie paste used to treat acute malnutrition. What stopped was the community outreach, with health workers going door to door, identifying children, and getting families into clinics. Helen Keller has since pulled together almost $5 million from other donors, which is enough money to reach 223,000 people over nine districts.

Takes the Bells It Didn't Ring For

After months of inter-agency deadlock, Nepal has agreed to accept six Bell helicopters from Washington under a Rs 15 billion ($100 million) Foreign Military Financing grant, even though the Army has spent considerable effort lobbying for something else. The Prime Minister's Office, Foreign Ministry, Defence Ministry, and Army Headquarters had put forward a counter-proposal in late April asking for aerial cranes and heavy-lift helicopters capable of slinging steel beams, concrete, and HVAC units to remote construction sites instead. The Finance Ministry declined to rule on the substitution, saying in-kind aid was Defence's call, and the ministers traded the matter back and forth until Finance effectively forced Defence's hand. Army chief Ashok Sigdel brokered a compromise after US officials repeatedly raised the issue with both the Army and the defence ministry. The final agreement came only after certain "national security-related" terms were stripped from the US proposal.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

FIFA Gives Nepal a Red Card

FIFA suspended ANFA indefinitely on June 24, stripping Nepal's national and club teams of all international competition rights after the National Sports Council spent months doing the one thing FIFA explicitly forbids. It ran a football federation by government decree. The NSC suspended ANFA's executive committee on March 25, blocked its elections, and kept officials from traveling to the AFC Congress, the FIFA Congress in Vancouver, and the FIFA World Cup opener in Mexico on June 11. FIFA flew delegates to eastern Nepal in March to watch an election that never happened, extended flexibility it rarely offers anyone, and sent warnings for months. By Thursday afternoon, ANFA's Satdobato offices were empty, security guards stringing rope across an entrance where the main gate had been removed for renovation.

Read more: The Himalayan Times (reinstatement conditions), The Kathmandu Post (FIFA member rights lost), myRepublica (NSC response)

Delhi Finds the Wires Full

Nepal and Bangladesh agreed last November to add 20 MW to the 40 MW already flowing between them via Indian transmission lines, with a June 15 start date that came and went. India's Central Electricity Authority told the Nepal Electricity Authority that only 30-40 MW of spare capacity exists on the link, and that squeezing in another 20 MW would leave 15-20 MW of buffer on a line already carrying roughly 3,000 MW of Indian power to Bangladesh. NEA spokesperson Rajan Dhakal says the export isn't technically impossible, but risky enough that India wants the matter kicked to a secretary-level meeting of the Joint Steering Committee.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

Tokyo Dreams Lead to Tokyo Graves

Sixty-seven Nepali citizens died in Japan in the ten months between mid-July 2025 and June 1, 2026, including 25 suicides. Most were student-visa holders moonlighting in construction, Nepal-run restaurants and hotels, and supply companies. Japan caps their working hours at 28 per week, which NRNA Japan secretary Sachin Acharya is not enough time to earn enough to cover rent, food, and tuition. Repatriating a body costs around Rs 1.2 million ($7,900), and the Foreign Employment Board won't cover it because student-visa workers are not registered through formal labour channels. In some cases, the embassy isn't even told after cremation. Nepal is now the second-largest source of foreign students in Japan (behind China), with about 116,000 there by 2025. Around 6,000 Nepal-run hotels and restaurants are thought to be running in Japan.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Wagle Pulls the Plug on the Power Tax

Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle backed off a proposed 5% VAT on electricity on Thursday, telling the House of Representatives the government would lift the 50-unit monthly threshold before any levy kicked in, sparing ~95% of consumers. Taxing clean power, he said, would also contradict Nepal's commitment to the UNFCCC to reach net-zero by 2045. The House has since passed both the Finance Bill and the Public Debt Bill ahead of the 2026/27 budget. Wagle defended the push as overdue formalization of an electricity sector that has absorbed hundreds of billions of rupees in investment, while reminding lawmakers that previous governments ducked the call because it was unpopular.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal (VAT withdrawal), Nepal News (Public Debt Bill)

Eight Days to Spend a Mountain

The government has spent 35% of its Rs 407.88 billion ($2.68 billion) capital budget with eight working days left before payment authority expires on July 9. Reaching even the revised annual target of 61.63% now means burning through Rs 13.52 billion ($89 million) a day; the original target would require an impossible Rs 33.08 billion ($218 million) daily. Revenue is running at its own pace - collections are Rs 1.112 trillion ($7.3 billion), or 75% of target, with a Rs 367.5 billion ($2.42 billion) gap still to close.

Read more: Nepal News (capital spending deadline), The Himalayan Times (revenue breakdown)

One Percent, One Bad Day

A 1% transfer tax on share purchases tucked into the draft Company Act 2026 spooked the market before anyone had time to read the fine print. NEPSE, already six days into a losing streak, fell another 16.54 points on June 29 as 240 companies declined and daily turnover dropped to Rs 2.67 billion ($17.6 million) from Rs 3.94 billion ($25.9 million) in the previous session. The provision was yanked the same afternoon, but the damage had already been done.

Read more: Nepal News (draft Act provisions), myRepublica (sector-level declines)

Monsoon, Bird Flu, and Dead Pigs Arrive on Schedule

The monsoon is barely two weeks old and already 570,000 birds have been culled in 11 districts, and 250 pigs have died of African swine fever in Gorkha. Bird flu, tracked last week to the Central Zoo, has now been confirmed at 82 spots, with the Department of Livestock Services blaming crows as the primary vector. Infected birds can carry H5N1 for up to 21 days and often die in unknown locations, making containment a losing game. Within the Kathmandu Valley, Kirtipur and Kageshwori Manohara are the last municipalities where the outbreak is still active. On the roads, the Besisahar-Chame highway is currently going dark from 6 pm to 6 am daily under a two-week closure order.

Read more: myRepublica (at-risk projections), Online Khabar (culling scale), Online Khabar (farm-level losses), Khabarhub (standby equipment), The Annapurna Express (night closure terms)

The Party of Fresh Starts Can't Start on Time

Rabi Lamichhane's Rastriya Swatantra Party wrapped its first national convention last week having accomplished most of what it set out to do, and a fair bit it didn't. Lamichhane was re-elected president unopposed. What was billed as a three-day convention in Bharatpur ran six days, procedural confusion and rising accommodation costs drove delegates home early, and by the time Friday's office-bearer voting concluded only 1,289 of the more than 4,000 registered delegates were still in the room.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Wagle, social democracy), myRepublica (Lamichhane), Ratopati (oath ceremony)

Airbell's Bill Comes Due

The Department of Money Laundering Investigation has suspended Ajeya Raj Sumargi's passport and reopened a probe into $118.4 million that flowed into Nepal by 2017 through Airbell Services, a Cyprus-registered company, and Zhodar Investments out of the British Virgin Islands. DoMLI opened its detailed investigation in 2018, Nepal Rastra Bank flagged Rs 3.5 billion ($23 million) as suspicious and froze deposits at several commercial banks, and Sumargi withdrew the funds anyway after 2018. Investigators also said that he had pulled out another Rs 8.5 billion ($56 million) that came into Nepal before 2017. The 2019 "Nepal Leaks" investigation by CIJ Nepal and the ICIJ had already named him as an Airbell investor, tracing the company to Magnum House in Cyprus.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Editor Gets Four Months for Crossing the Colonels

Kathmandu District Court sentenced Saroj Mishra, then-editor of Rajdhani Daily, to four months in prison because of a 2023 article headlined "High handedness of three Colonels of Nepali Army." Judge Atmadev Joshi also told Mishra and the paper to pay Rs 250,000 ($1,645) in compensation to complainant Shova Karki, in addition to a Rs 1,000 ($7) fine.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-06-24

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 05:31:12 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash

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Opposition Figures Get Graft Heat Beat

Bishnu Paudel, CPN-UML vice-chair and former finance minister, was arrested Monday and flown to Kathmandu for questioning. Authorities are about to question another former finance minister, Janardan Sharma, who responded on social media by saying he has "always been in favor" of investigating his assets while objecting to what he called a media trial. Both cases are running alongside the Rs 1 billion passport printing probe, which has already put senior passport department officials, the Nepali representative of German contractor Muehlbauer, and a former accounts officer in custody. Former Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba has also been called to “chat” about passport contracts worth Rs 7.5 billion awarded last year to Muehlbauer and Veridos. KP Sharma Oli said Paudel's arrest is a political stunt.

Read more: Newagebd (protest backstory), myRepublica (passport contract), Spotlight Nepal (arrest location)

Nobody Agrees on the Lines

Nepal spent the week arguing about both of its major borders. Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal told parliament on Thursday that the northern frontier with China is not entirely dispute-free, contradicting years of official assurances and acknowledging unresolved questions in Dolakha, Humla, Gorkha, and Kimathanka. The admission was made shortly after his return from Beijing and nearly two decades after the last joint boundary inspection, despite a protocol that demands one every 10 years. In the south, PM Balendra Shah was busy ~~backpedalling~~ clarifying remarks of his own, insisting he had not asked Britain to mediate Nepal's dispute with India, only that Kathmandu would produce British-era evidence if necessary. New Delhi had already rejected any third-party role. Shah says Nepal has proof that Kalapani and Lipulekh belong to Nepal and invited India to produce its own evidence.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (China pillar disputes), Indiatoday IN (Britain mediation denial)

Rulebook Catch-up

RSP closed up its first general convention in Chitwan this week with little suspense about the outcome. Delegates approved a 158-member central committee, a new office-bearer structure, and new gender inclusion rules. The interesting vote was one that wasn't really a vote. The new rule reserves 51 of the 158 central committee seats for direct appointment by party chair Rabi Lamichhane, while also formally creating a "senior leader" position for Balendra Shah, a title he had already been using for months. New candidacy rules add another twist: delegates who propose or endorse a candidate are barred from running themselves, making it harder for challengers to come from the floor.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (office-bearer structure), myRepublica (convention attendance), The Himalayan Times (NHRC indictment)

Bird Flu Books a Cage at the Zoo

Bird flu has made its way from Nepal's poultry farms to Kathmandu's Central Zoo. The zoo shut indefinitely on Friday after the virus was found in more than a dozen animals, mostly birds but also leopard cats, jungle cats, and civets. The outbreak began in Morang on March 18 and has since gone on to plague 55 poultry farms in 10 districts, forcing the destruction of 479,156 birds, 694,193 eggs, and 182,775 kilograms of feed.

Read more: NDTV (zoo operator), Az (biosecurity response)

Harvest Won’t Wait

India tightened export procedures on Nepali tea on June 15, and brought about expanded quality checks that made factory operations financially unviable almost overnight. More than 50 estates in Ilam and another 30 in Jhapa have shut during the peak first-flush harvest, leaving an estimated 60,000 workers and staff without income as unpicked leaves start to dry out on the bushes. Workers at Giribandhu, Tokla, and Kalika estates said they needed to borrow for food and essentials on credit; younger colleagues are making their way to India or the cities to find new work. This is the harvest that helps determine the year's earnings, so this is likely to be a tough year.

Central Bank Wants to See Your Receipts

Nepal Rastra Bank spent three days this month reminding commercial banks who writes the rulebook. One order capped CEO pay at whichever is lower between 0.015 percent of total assets and two percent of average employee expenses over three years, while also limiting performance bonuses to 20 percent of that amount. Another required directors and CEOs to disclose overseas assets, unpaid government dues, beneficial ownership interests, and any criminal or civil cases. A third set overtime at 1.5 times normal pay, rising to double on public holidays and limited to a total of 24 hours a week. The level of detail was notable, extending even to limits on basic perks such as phones, laptops, vehicles, fuel, and drivers (chauffeurs). Bankers have spent years complaining about regulatory overreach, and these new rules are not likely to dim that view.

Read more: Ratopati (dissent), myRepublica (tiered caps)

Trade Gap Growing

Nepal's trade deficit was Rs 1.616 trillion ($10.6 billion) in the first 11 months of FY2025/26, up 15.67 percent from last year. Imports were up 15.16 percent to Rs 1.894 trillion ($12.5 billion); India supplied 58 percent of the figure. Exporters had some bright spots. Cardamom shipments (next story) nearly doubled to Rs 12 billion ($79 million). the country's biggest export is still soybean oil refined from imported raw beans, which made Rs 122.87 billion ($808 million) in export earnings. The exports are growing, which is good news, but the problem is that the import bill is growing faster.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

Cardamom Carries the Export Ledger

One of Nepal's oldest exports is struggling, while one of its oldest spices is picking up the slack. Carpet exports to China dropped 75.63 percent to Rs 214 million ($1.4 million) in the first ten months of FY2024-25 as VAT on raw materials, labour shortages, and cheaper machine-made competition squeezed the sector. Cardamom is on a different track, however, where exports were a record 6,034 tonnes in the first eleven months, earning Rs 12.01 billion ($79 million) as prices held close to Rs 2,500 ($16) per kilogram and demand remained strong from Pakistan and the Middle East (via India). India takes up about 99 percent of Nepal's cardamom exports and then ships much of it elsewhere.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (carpet collapse), The Kathmandu Post (cardamom productivity gap)

Commerce Plans Get Tax Tweaks

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies published its Commercial Policy Implementation Action Plan 2081 this week, promising warehouse and cold-storage upgrades at the main border crossings, internationally certified quality laboratories, and enforcement of rules requiring public institutions to buy at least 20 percent Nepali goods. Former Finance Secretary Vidyadhar Mallik also brought an old complaint back to life. Mallik, who led a high-level tax reform committee whose recommendations have spent more than two years gathering dust, criticized what he called "midnight changes" to tax rates and ad-hoc exemptions inserted into the Financial Act without full parliamentary scrutiny. One ministry is trying to make the country easier to invest in, but (he says), another keeps fiddling with the fine print.

Read more: myRepublica (action plan), The Kathmandu Post (Mallik)

Rangers Above the Death Zone

For the first time, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee placed rangers at Camp II for the entirety of a climbing season, closing a loophole that let climbers meet their waste quotas with rubbish collected lower down the mountain. The change appears to have worked. A record 90,329 kg of waste was taken out during a spring season that saw 701 climbers on Everest, Lhotse, and Nuptse, including 1,226 kg of non-recyclable rubbish recovered from Camp III and the South Col, as well as 210 gas canisters. Climbers were required to bring back 2 kg of waste from above Camp II in addition to the existing 8 kg Base Camp quota. The mountain still has dirtier corners. Next season, the rangers move up to Camp IV.

Read more: The Himalayan Times

The Bulldozers Finally Arrived

Pokhara's long-delayed bus park project took a step forward on Thursday when three excavators began clearing structures from land the city first acquired in the mind 1970’s. About 140 buildings are slated for demolition, including 40 to 45 houses and sheds along the northern side of the Prithvi Highway and nearly 100 more in the southern section. The Bastola Complex was given until Friday before facing the same fate. Informal settlers have been granted the most time. The municipality says no one will be moved until alternative housing is arranged.

Read more: myRepublica

The App That Couldn't

Nepal's National ID download portal went offline less than 24 hours after investigative outlet Khoj Samachar published a report showing security flaws in the verification system. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle's budget for the upcoming fiscal year promises a national AI platform, homegrown social networks, and Nepali alternatives to WhatsApp. The government is still taking applications for some of the country's most senior public positions, including university vice-chancellors, through free Google Forms. The digital future is “on the way,” but it seems that much of the infrastructure didn’t get the memo.

Read more: Eurasia Review (404 aftermath), Nepal News (Google Forms irony)

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-06-17

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 06:56:22 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Meera Pankhania on Unsplash

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Three Courts Chase Billions

Prosecutors have filed cases at the Kathmandu District Court, Patan High Court, and the Special Court against executives of the Shanker Group, Infinity Holdings, and Himalayan Reinsurance, in what legal officials say is the first coordinated multi-court financial enforcement action of its kind in Nepal. The defendants include Shanker Group chair Shankerlal Agrawal and his sons Sulav and Sahil, who serve as vice-chairs, Infinity Holdings chair Deepak Bhatta, and Shekhar Golchha, former FNCCI president and former Himalayan Reinsurance chairman. The combined claims total Rs27.80 billion (roughly $183 million), with the majority of that sitting in the money laundering case at the Special Court. Investigators say the group used political influence and manipulated regulations to dominate insurance, securities, and banking before laundering the proceeds.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Record Budget Finds an Empty Bench

Nepal's federal budget for FY 2026/27 clocked in at Rs 212 billion ($1.4 billion), the largest in the country's history, with more than a third of that set aside for energy and a plan to reduce 22 ministries down to 18. On Monday and Tuesday, MPs wandered the House of Representatives hunting for ministers who were supposed to defend their own budgets, and Speaker DP Aryal twice delayed proceedings by 15 minutes waiting for ministers who didn’t bother to show up. Rule 6, Sub-rule 5 of the House Regulations makes ministerial presence mandatory during budget discussions. PM Balendra Shah, who was known for being different from the old political class, was among the absentees, including when the budget for his own office came up. Lawmakers responded by threatening to cut ministry budgets to a single rupee, taking aims at Home affairs, Infrastructure, Law, and Energy.

Read more: myRepublica (ministry consolidation), Spotlight Nepal (energy targets), Ratopati (minister quotes), The Rising Nepal (one-rupee proposals)

Wang Yi Has Notes on Nepal's American Friends

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal arrived in Beijing on June 14, a week after his New Delhi trip. Wang Yi told Khanal that "distant relatives are not as good as close neighbours," a line for Washington's Millennium Challenge Corporation and State Partnership Programme, which Chinese officials reportedly described as initiatives that "only create trouble for China." Khanal's team reaffirmed the One China Principle and proposed four corridors connecting the northern border to mid-Nepal, including a trans-Himalayan railway, in addition to air routes for Hilsa.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Pokhara corruption), Nepali Times (trade imbalance), Internazionale (RSP parliamentary seats), The Kathmandu Post (Wang Yi)

Missing Millions Land Ex-CAAN Chief in Jail

The Special Court sent former CAAN Director General Sanjiv Gautam to prison on June 16, pending trial on charges that he and Pokhara Regional International Airport project director Pradeep Adhikari embezzled Rs 503.44 million ($3.3 million) by inflating costs. Prosecutors say the pair approved a Rs 428.9 million ($2.8 million) contract while leaving a separate $2.8 million in agreed engineering, procurement and construction funds unspent. CAAN has also filed a separate claim that references Rs 89.5 million ($589,000) in losses from Gautam under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2002.

Read more: myRepublica

India's Quality Test Strands Nepal's Harvest

Fifty-three orthodox tea factories in Ilam shut down on June 15, and 30 CTC factories in the Tarai are expected to follow on June 18, after India started to enforce border testing for tea exports on May 1. Lab reports take 15 to 20 days, and any shipment that fails can be destroyed or sent back. Indian importers have largely stopped buying as they wait for more clarity. Ilam produces 6.5 million kg of tea every, India takes 90 percent of the orthodox crop.

Read more: myRepublica (farmer), Online Khabar (association VP), myRepublica (diplomatic remedy)

Vaccine Budget Without Vaccines

Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Hospital, Nepal's primary centre for rabies treatment, is seeing more than 500 people a day wanting jabs and expects what's left of its stock to run out within days. The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division has given up trying to buy vaccines after failed procurement attempts and told provincial and local governments to source their own. The government set aside Rs 130 million ($855,000) for anti-rabies vaccines in fiscal 2024-25 and doubled it in 2025-26 because of rising demand, but still missed the procurement window. More than 60,000 Nepalis get anti-rabies shots at government facilities every year, and more than 100 still die of the disease.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (editorial)

ITBP Chief Drops In Without Knocking

An Indian military helicopter carrying ITBP director-general Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor flew deep into Nepali airspace on June 10, passing directly over homes in the village of Chhangru in ward 1 of Byas Rural Municipality, Darchula. The skies were clear that morning, so any “weather-realted” excuse for skipping the usual route along the Mahakali river doesn’t make sense. Residents poured into the street shouting as the chopper continued toward the Indian military barracks at Gunji in the Kalapani area, where Kapoor was reportedly headed for an inspection.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

The Mattress Is Getting Heavy

Nepal's foreign reserves are now $24.19 billion, enough to cover more than 19 months of imports and about three times what's generally considered to be “enough” for an economy of Nepal’s size. The pile isn't government savings, its accumulated remittances in addition to the residue of tight monetary policy from 2022, after a post-pandemic import surge nearly drained the piggy. Banking sector deposits are Rs 7.949 trillion ($52.3 billion), and the current credit-to-deposit ratio is still below 80 percent, so lenders are sitting on loanable funds they can't place.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

3,000 Strangers Want an Embassy Job

Nepal's Foreign Ministry threw open 16 ambassadorial posts to public application for the first time ever, and more than 3,000 people raised their hands, dwarfing the response to any normal government vacancy. Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba's ministry is promising a shortlist based on qualifications and experience instead of exam scores. By law, half the slots still must go to serving special-class or first-class Foreign Service officers, leaving the other half for outside experts angling for postings in Delhi, Beijing, Washington, Riyadh, Tokyo, and a dozen other capitals.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

BYDs Roll South After Probe Clears Importer

A Finance Ministry probe found no irregularities in the import of 775 BYD electric vehicles seized by the Armed Police Force two weeks ago at the Korala border point, and by Monday most were already rolling toward their destinations. The three-member committee led by Customs Valuation Division Director Bhupal Raj Shakya ran a field inspection in Mustang, Kaski, and Parbat before clearing importer Simon Inc. The APF had earlier taken hold of 649 vehicles that had cleared customs at Nechung.

Read more: The Himalayan Times (seizure breakdown), myRepublica (Leapmotor B10 specs)

Mango Non Grata

India's mango exporters are having a rough season. Nepal now demands that Indian mangoes to be hot-water treated at 48°C for an hour and certified free of high-risk pests before they can come across the border, and Japan has indefinitely suspended fresh Indian mango imports over fumigation lapses at Vapour Heat Treatment facilities. Japan's previous ban on Indian mangoes ran from 1986 to 2006. Delhi says it wasn't consulted on Nepal's new phytosanitary rules and says it will raise the matter through the WTO.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-06-10

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 15:26:48 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Jonny James on Unsplash

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Delhi This Week, Beijing Next

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal finished a three days adventure in New Delhi on Sunday with three deliverables. He was able to stitch-together a live UPI-to-Nepal cross-border payments link, the handover of 72 health facilities and 12 cultural heritage sites rebuilt after the 2015 earthquake, and an MoU between India's Digital India Bhashini and Kathmandu University to build a voice-first AI platform for Nepali. Khanal also met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and pitched a five-part partnership in energy, connectivity, digital integration, education, and technology, including a tripartite green-energy grid with India and Bangladesh and proposed IIT or AIIMS campuses in Nepal. On the border dispute, Khanal confirmed that teams are working along the 1,800+ km boundary and said Nepal wants historical documents from British archives for reference, not mediation. The new RSP government is pitching evidence-based, non-ideological diplomacy loudly enough that New Delhi is listening, and Jaishankar says it’s a chance to "shift the trajectory" of ties. Khanal leaves for Beijing on June 14, and has meetings scheduled with Wang Yi and CCP International Department head Liu Haixing on June 15 and 16.

Read more: Times of India (Jaishankar), The Kathmandu Post (five-pillar proposals), Stratnewsglobal (Kalapani reaffirmed), The Kathmandu Post (NCHL-NPCI mechanism), Opengovasia (Bhashini MoU signatories)

Hundi's Days Are Numbered

Nepal Clearing House and India's NPCI went live with a real-time, fully digital cross-border transfer link on June 9, connecting Nepal's NPI directly to India's UPI. Migrant workers on both sides of the border will now be able to move money through mobile banking without ever having to see a remittance agent. The limits are (hilariously?) lopsided, though - transfers from India into Nepal can be up to INR 200,000 (about $2,400) with no monthly cap, but the Nepal-to-India direction is limited to INR 15,000 (about $180) per transaction and INR 100,000 (about $1,200) monthly. At INR 150 per transfer, the fee is modest when compared to the $1.5 to $2 billion in annual cross-border flows that still move through a mix of formal channels and cash hand-carried over the border.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Reopening the Palace Massacre File

Sudhan Gurung's first act back at the Home Ministry was to reopen the Narayanhiti royal massacre file, the 2001 palace killing of King Birendra and members of the royal family that’s never really resulted in a convincing official account. Gurung, an RSP MP from Gorkha-1 who resigned the same post earlier, was sworn in Tuesday by President Paudel alongside Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Mahabir Pun. Beyond the palace case, Gurung announced a task force to review whether criminal charges against Gen-Z protest participants from last Bhadra should be dropped, and a special unit to stop “sensitive” information leaking out of the ministry. Pun, an independent MP from Myagdi and a longtime advocate for a standalone science ministry, arrived at his new post promising to wrap up his agenda within three years.

Read more: Himalaya Times (ceremony attendees), Khabarhub (four decisions), Khabarhub (Pun)

EC Wants a Smaller Parliament

The Election Commission has proposed cutting the House of Representatives from 275 to 105 seats, and shrinking the National Assembly from 59 to 30 members, in addition to (perhaps most surprisingly) trimming its own ranks from five commissioners to three. On the other hand, however, it also wants the constitution to give it sole authority over setting election dates, a power it now shares with the government. The slimmed-down lower house would seat 77 first-past-the-post members and 28 by way of proportional representation (one constituency per district), while proportional representation in provincial assemblies would be done away with altogether. Officiating Chief Election Commissioner Ram Prasad Bhandari says the goal is a "lean and agile" institution.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Take the Money and Run

Of Rs 770 million ($5.1 million) in subsidised loans given to 765 startups over the past two fiscal years, only Rs 28.2 million ($186,000) has been returned, for a repayment rate under 4 percent. The scheme, introduced by the Oli government in 2018 in support of more self-employment, was dormant for five years because of “procedural delays.” This year's disbursement is running late after political reshuffling and a vacancy at the top of the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute, which is still trying to work through a list of about 750 final recipients from 1,301 shortlisted applicants out of 10,244 who applied. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has an idea for a new support vehicle, the Nepal Enterprise Facility, which would bring startup and SME businesses onto a single platform. Loans go through Rastriya Banijya Bank at 3 percent apr, up to Rs 2 million ($13,200) apiece.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Reasons to Leak a Budget

Armed Police intercepted 775 unregistered Chinese EVs on the Mustang-Kaski corridor in raids Wednesday and into Thursday, after a tip that customs officials, clearing agents, and traders had been working together to rush vehicles through the Korala border crossing before the 2026-27 budget's higher EV tariffs came into force. Not one of the seized vehicles had a license plate. The government has been pushing EV adoption, though, and a Ministry of Infrastructure Development report this week found Nepal needs 10,000 charging stations by 2030 to reach its 90 percent private EV target. That compares to the about 1,000 stations that can be found today, most of them clustered in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Bharatpur.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (seizure operation), myRepublica (charging infrastructure)

Fifteen Days Was Always a Lie

1,488 (Ed: that’s an oddly specific number) people from 388 households are still parked in seven government holding centres across Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Kavrepalanchok, 39 days after evictions that came with a (written!) promise of permanent housing within 10 to 15 days. The six-point notice issued April 24 has become “inoperative.” Chief District Officer Eshwor Raj Poudel declined to comment, saying the process is under review. In Parliament on May 31, the PM gave a different perspective when he said "It will take as long as it takes. We cannot rush it."

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Congress Can't Find Its Members

Nepali Congress launched a digital membership renewal drive on April 14 to clean up its records ahead of the 15th General Convention. It cleaned up more than expected. The party had roughly 850,000 active members as it went into its 14th convention; officials now admit the updated database will end up having about half that number. Some of the gap is ordinary attrition (like members who emigrated, or went to the Rastriya Swatantra Party), but some of the change is more… political. Cadres aligned with Shekhar Koirala and Purna Bahadur Khadka are refusing to renew until Gagan Thapa, who ruan a special convention at the end of 2025, wins back their confidence. "I have not updated my membership because I want the leadership to feel pressure," for example, said one Jhapa leader.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (vote-member gap), The Kathmandu Post (decade-long morale)

Uber Rolls In

Uber arrived on Friday as the fourth international ride-hailing platform in Nepal, drawing about 2,500 driver registrations within a week and getting more than 20,000 app installs. Regional VP Dominic Taylor mentioned the company had been looking at Nepal a decade ago before putting the idea on ice, but apparently the youth-led government and pending ride-sharing legislation has changed the math. The Uber success story in Nepal will lean heavily on tourist traffic from markets where Uber is already operating.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Uber partnership model)

Two Flags Battle for a Single Generation

The US and Chinese embassies opened applications for rival youth leadership programmes within weeks of each other, each trying to draw members from the generation that toppled the Oli government last September at a cost of 76 lives. The American version has been running since 2014 and claims 700 alumni across Nepal; China's brand-new "Youth Pioneer Program" is dangling an all-expense-paid trip to Beijing for top performers. Oh la la.

Nepal Weekly - 2026-06-03

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 05:48:15 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by UC Berkeley, Department of Geography on Unsplash

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Big Numbers and Small Print

Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle put forward a budget of almost $14 billion on May 29. That’s the biggest ever in Nepal's history and about a quarter fatter than this year's revised spending. The $4.3 billion deficit will be covered with foreign loans and domestic borrowing. Some of the headline relief is real. The income tax exemption threshold doubles to Rs 1 million ($6,600) a year, and the top marginal rate is going down 10 percentage points. The catch is in the EV section, where Wagle scrapped the old motor peak-power tax and replaced it with a Clean Infrastructure Investment Fee based on customs value - 2.5 percent on cheaper models, 130 percent on anything above Rs 5 million ($33,000). Dealers say entry-level electric cars are going to cost about Rs 100,000 ($660) more as a result. High-end models could go up by more than Rs 10 million ($66,000). NEPSE greeted the package with a 26-point drop on June 1, as 233 companies fell against 35 gainers. Civil servants did well. Their pay will rise by Rs 75 billion ($493 million) to Rs 242 billion ($1.6 billion) - a 21 percent increase that will eat a larger share of a recurrent spending bill that’s already taking up 60 percent of total outlays.

Read more: Nepal News (budget allocation breakdown), myRepublica (EV tax rates), The Kathmandu Post (industry dissent), myRepublica (income tax slabs), myRepublica (NEPSE trading)

Balen Drags Britain Into Border Row

Speaking off the cuff in his first parliamentary Q&A on May 31, PM Balendra Shah said something no Nepali head of government had said before - that Nepal has also encroached on Indian territory in several places. The encroachment line lit the fuse, but Shah had already pulled a second pin by saying that Kathmandu had raised the Kalapani-Lipulekh-Limpiyadhura dispute not only with India and China, but also with London, on the logic that Britain drew the lines when it left in 1816 and should help fix them. India's MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal shut that door quickly, saying there was "no role for any third party." British Ambassador Rob Fenn had told Shah's chief adviser, Kumar Byanjankar, much the same thing, though we presume in a more diplomatic fashion. The Foreign Ministry spent the rest of the week saying Shah had only meant cross-border cultivation in the Dasgaja no-man's-land - a clarification the opposition said is a cover-up.

Read more: Ratopati (India's bilateral stance), The Hindu (parliament uproar), Thewire IN (UK mediation request), Theprint IN (China involvement call), Desh Sanchar (UML resignation demand)

Rights Body Names Oli, Fingers Lamichhane

Nepal's National Human Rights Commission has recommended criminal charges and a five-year political ban against former PM K.P. Sharma Oli, ex-Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, and ex-Communications Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung over the September 2025 crackdown that killed at least 76 protesters. The report, given to the government Wednesday, doesn’t leave the current ruling coalition unscathed. It recommends investigating 17 RSP lawmakers, including party chair Rabi Lamichhane, who allegedly used a violent mob to pressure a jail administrator into releasing him during the chaos. The commission also gave a formal warning to the Nepali Army for failing to protect parliament and the president's residence. It also cleared current PM Balendra Shah - then Kathmandu's mayor - of complicity. The government has three months to report back on what it plans to do.

Mayor-Turned-PM Gives Himself 48 Jobs

PM Balendra Shah's cabinet restructuring collapsed 22 ministries into 18 and gave his own office 48 separate responsibilities - national security, anti-corruption coordination, and oversight of the National Investigation Department among them (the NID previously sat under Home). Cybersecurity, data governance, and AI policy are on the PMO’s docket too, along with IT functions pulled from the Communications Ministry. The power consolidation further extends into the civil service. On May 13, MoFAGA gave a directive that threatens dismissal of civil servants for party involvement, and a revised Federal Civil Service Bill now circulating would force one-time mandatory retirement for anyone who is 55 years old or who has 30 years of service under his belt when the law comes into effect.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal (ministry task counts), myRepublica (civil servant gag order), The Kathmandu Post (forced retirement)

Washington's Charm Offensive Meets Kathmandu's Local-Ownership Rule

Sarah B. Rogers, the third senior US official to visit since the Shah government took office in March, got to Kathmandu on Saturday night talking up the $550 million MCC Compact and addressing the 1,400-strong Ascent Summit on adventure tourism and tech. Assistant Secretary Paul Kapur came in April, Trump envoy Sergio Gor followed ten days later, and Deputy Secretary Allison Hooker called Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal by phone last Thursday. The PM met none of them. Starlink's director Rebecca Hunter was also in town, telling Communications Minister Bikram Timilsina that the license needed to be 100 percent Starlink-owned. The minister said she hopes to follow Nepali law.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal (Rogers MCC emphasis), Spotlight Nepal (Timilsina), The Kathmandu Post (visit timeline), The Kathmandu Post (Starlink ownership block)

Big Budgets Hampered by Empty Wallets

With 45 days left in the fiscal year, the government has spent nearly two-thirds of its Rs 1.964 trillion ($12.9 billion) budget and capital spending is where the spending really shows up. Only Rs 123 billion ($810 million) of the Rs 407 billion ($2.7 billion) development money set aside has so far gone out the door, a 30% execution rate. That is not a bad year; it is the decade. Finance Ministry figures show budgets averaged 33.7% of GDP over ten years while spending averaged only 26.8%, and growth slowed to 4.1% a year in the five years after Covid even as annual budgets grew at 12.3%. A World Bank report from last year found the government's capital stock has shrunk, meaning the productive base of the economy is getting smaller.

Read more: myRepublica (current spending breakdown), The Kathmandu Post (decade GDP gap)

Schools, Hospitals and Hot Plates Get the Bill

The Economic Bill 2083 adds a 3% "equity fee" to charges at private schools, colleges, and hospitals, with the revenue to be set aside for public education and health infrastructure. Households that are already paying out-of-pocket for both sectors are now going to pay more so the government can, in theory, improve the alternatives they opted out of. The bill also adds a 5% VAT on electricity consumption above 50 units a month - a change that former NEA chief Kulman Ghising says goes against global practice and Nepal's clean-energy goals. He says the grid now runs substations with more than 14,000 MVA of capacity and distribution transformers above 5,000 MVA, and that the VAT revenue will flow to the treasury rather than back into NEA infrastructure.

Read more: myRepublica (equity fee mechanics), myRepublica (Ghising dissent)

100% Gender-Responsive 0% Checked

For three straight fiscal years - 2022-23 through 2024-25 - Nepal's Ministry of Women classified its entire budget as "directly gender responsive." That wasn’t because anyone assessed the programs, but because an IT operator picks "direct" from a dropdown when entering budget headings (“try this one simple trick to… ”). There are apparently no indicators, no scoring, and no analysis. Between 44 and 59 percent of that perfectly-classified budget went unspent each year, heading back to the treasury.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Beijing Sets Quota While Kailash Sets Demand

China has capped Indian pilgrims to Mount Kailash by way of Nepal at 24,000 this season, a small increase over the 20,000 approved last year, but demand has already risen above 40,000 and tour operators have asked Beijing for another 15,000 slots. The Year of the Horse is to credit for the boom. Tibetan tradition holds that one circuit around Kailash in a Horse Year earns the spiritual merit of 12 or 13 in an ordinary one. Beijing sounds "positive" on expanding the quota, according to Basu Adhikari of Touch Kailash Travel. Foreign passport holders could result in another 5,000 pilgrims this season. The overflow is reshaping Humla, where the Hilsa route now supports seven hotels at the border and fifteen in Simkot, as well as a growing market for local apples, walnuts, and buckwheat.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Shenzhen Gets a Direct Line to Kathmandu

Himalaya Airlines launches a Kathmandu-Shenzhen route tomorrow, becoming the first carrier to fly direct between Tribhuvan International and the southern Chinese city that’s home to Huawei, DJI, and China's original Special Economic Zone. Twice-weekly service will run Tuesdays and Thursdays out of Kathmandu.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal (VP Shrestha), The Himalayan Times (buying channels)

Dial-Up Divestment

The FY2026-27 budget will result in a reduction of state ownership of Nepal Telecom from 91 percent to 66 percent. The freed-up shares will be offered to the public by mid-January. The proceeds are expected to be used to fund ambitions to become a "tech hub.” The proposed sale would be the largest state divestment in recent memory.

Read more: The Himalayan Times

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-05-27

Wed, 27 May 2026 03:28:06 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Sebastian Pena Lambarri on Unsplash

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One House, Two-Thirds, No Senate

The House of Representatives Rules Drafting Committee has tucked a constitutional workaround into Rule 140(11) of the proposed House regulations. The provision would allow for a constitutional amendment to pass on a combined two-thirds vote across both chambers, 223 out of 334 total seats, instead of the separate two-thirds majority each house must independently clear under the constitution as written now. The ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party holds 182 of the lower house's 275 seats on its own, a short walk to the combined threshold. A parliamentary secretariat official said the arrangement "could create controversy." Opposition members on the drafting committee say RSP applied direct pressure to get the provision on paper. Under the constitution, if the National Assembly refuses a constitutional amendment, it dies right there; Rule 140(11) would let a lower house supermajority paper over that refusal by pooling tallies.

Read more: Constitutionnet (expert opposition), myRepublica (RSP seat math)

Balen Skips Question Hour

Rule 56 of the House of Representatives Regulations isn’t complicated. The Speaker is required to set aside an hour in the first week of every month for lawmakers to grill the prime minister directly, but PM Balen Shah has yet to show up. The opposition, a rare unified front of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Nepali Communist Party, and Rastriya Prajatantra Party is up in arms. RSP Chief Whip Kabindra Burlakoti told the House Shah would appear "within a week," but the Prime Minister's secretariat refused to let anyone announce a specific date. Nepali Congress lawmaker Arjun Narsingh KC told Parliament his prime minister resembled "the emperor of some separate island."

Read more: Nepal News (Shah declined attendance), Khabarhub (Burlakoti commitment), The Kathmandu Post (Speaker's Singh Durbar visit), Ratopati (Rule 56 sub-rule), The Himalayan Times (bills passed anyway)

Wrong Court, Your Honour

The Supreme Court on blocked the arrest of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife Arzu Rana Deuba on money laundering charges Monday, ruling that the Kathmandu District Court had no jurisdiction to issue the warrant. A May 1 ordinance had assigned all cases investigated by the Department of Money Laundering Investigation exclusively to the Special Court, leaving the district court's April 6 warrant legally dead on arrival. The bench found that both the state and the lower court had skipped proper procedure at every step. The Deubas, in Hong Kong since February, had already watched Interpol turn down Nepal Police's red notice request because of insufficient documentation.

Read more: The Hindu (medical travel claim), Spotlight Nepal (Deuba cooperation stance), Online Khabar (Special Court jurisdiction), The Kathmandu Post (warrant nullification), myRepublica (arrest unnecessary claim)

Lamichhane's Charge Sheet Goes on a Diet

Kaski District Court on Friday stripped the two most serious charges from the Suryadarshan Cooperative fraud case, removing organized crime and money laundering counts against RSP chair Rabi Lamichhane and nearly 50 co-defendants, leaving only the cooperative fraud charge standing. Judge Himlal Belbase approved the amendment at the request of the Kaski district government attorney's office, which was acting on instructions from the Office of the Attorney General. The court offered three reasons. The victims' original complaint never included those charges, the government didn't pursue them in its first charge-sheet, and keeping them on the books would get in the way of settlement talks and complicate any recovery of depositors' savings.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (co-defendants), The Himalayan Times (bail amounts)

Delhi Skips PM, Rings the Chairman

Rabi Lamichhane, whose RSP won close to a two-thirds majority in the last elections, will be in New Delhi starting June 1 for a three-day visit. He is scheduled to meet Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, among others. The invitation came from India's Ministry of External Affairs, with no official communication from the RSP to Kathmandu's Foreign Ministry about the trip. Modi had already called PM Balen Shah after the elections to congratulate him and extend an invitation, but that visit remains unscheduled.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Lipulekh dispute), Online Khabar (RSP election majority)

Oli's Deputies Show Him the Door

At Saturday's UML Secretariat meeting, Deputy General Secretary Yogesh Bhattarai reportedly told KP Sharma Oli that the party couldn’t move forward under him and he should step aside. The day before, on Friday, vice chairpersons Bishnu Paudel, Gokarna Bista, Prithvi Subba Gurung, and Raghu Pant made the same demand. General Secretary Shankar Pokharel told Saturday's session the party couldn’t continue in its current condition, but it isn’t clear if the demands have any chance of being met in the near term.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

Three More Years in the Poor Kids' Club

Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal wrote to the UN Committee for Development Policy on May 13 asking to push Nepal's graduation from Least Developed Country status back to November 2029, three years beyond the original November 2026 date. The official reasoning cites five issues, including geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, slow implementation of the Smooth Transition Strategy, lingering pandemic damage, and Middle East conflict squeezing remittance flows. The ILO previously warned that graduating on schedule could cost roughly 132,000 jobs and nearly a billion USD in economic losses within five years, as garments, carpets, and pashmina would get hit with higher tariffs and stricter rules of origin. The Smooth Transition Strategy that was supposed to use the intervening years to build export competitiveness has, by the government's admission, moved more slowly than was expected.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (35% employment drop), The Kathmandu Post (minister quotes), Nepali Times (budget growth targets)

Desert Mirage Sends 80,000 Nepalis Home

About 80,000 Nepali workers are losing their jobs as Saudi Arabia scales back NEOM, the wild mega-project whose initial $500 billion price tag has grown to a jaw-dropping $8.8 trillion, and at least one internal audit suggesting full completion could take another half century plus. The 80k is a meaningful slice of the ~400,000 Nepalis who work in Saudi Arabia. Falling oil prices and the runaway cost overruns have pushed the Saudi government to redirect money toward the 2030 Riyadh World Expo and the 2034 FIFA World Cup, fixtures that will be considerably cheaper than building a 170-kilometer twin-skyscraper city in the desert. To put the numbers in to context, the $8.8 trillion figure is roughly 25 times Saudi Arabia's yearly national budget and nearly ten times the value of the $925 billion Public Investment Fund.

Read more: Ratopati

Monsoon Bill Comes Due Early

Humla's Danfe Basic School is gone, swept away by a pre-monsoon rainstorm on Tuesday night that also buried homes and destroyed crop fields belonging to 67 households. Two glacial lakes above Tilgaun in the same district burst last May and are leaking again. The municipality says they have no budget to deal with them and so far there’s been no federal response. Farther east, Friday night's flooding knocked out four hydropower projects along the Taplejung-Panchthar border, taking 55 MW offline. The 25 MW Kabeli B-1 may need two weeks to clear debris from its intake, and the 9.9 MW Iwa Khola project could be out for several months after damage to its dam site and pipeline. So, not pretty by any measure. While all of this is brewing, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority has approved this year’s monsoon response plan, and has set aside Rs 7.56 billion ($49.7 million) to support an estimate that 51,868 households (about a quarter million people) will be affected. The monsoon hasn't officially arrived yet.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (Karnali loss history), Spotlight Nepal (Iwa Khola timeline), Ratopati (volunteer mobilization), The Rising Nepal (force breakdown), The Kathmandu Post (substation damage)

Measles Spreads as Vaccine Stocks Run Dry

Measles has infected more than 300 children in seven districts so far this year. Ring vaccinations went ahead in only one district and one municipality, because Nepal has no buffer vaccine stocks and no emergency budget to speak of. A 200,000-dose shipment from an aid agency arrived months after an emergency request, but the chief of the Immunisation Section says it won't cover all the affected areas. A Health Ministry official, speaking anonymously, pointed the finger at the RSP government's decision to cut contract health workers and vaccinators.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Rush Hour at 8,848 Metres

A week ago today, 274 climbers reached the Everest summit from the Nepali side in a single day, a feat that improves (?) upon the previous record of 223 set in 2019. The lineup ran from the Balcony right to the top and some climbers were stuck in the death zone for up to five hours. The season's numbers are aggressive. This year Nepal issued 494 Everest permits, the most since Hillary and Tenzing first scaled the peak in 1953, and took in about $7 million in royalties for their effors. China has issued no permits from the Tibetan side this year, so every climber is moving through Nepal, which helps explain the pressure on the ropes. A growing chorus in the industry wants the government to scrap the May 31 season cutoff, arguing the original rationale, long monsoon marches from the foothills, no longer applies, and that year-round access would spread the load and the revenue. Three deaths have been reported so far this season.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (nationality breakdown), Nepali Times (season cutoff debate), DW (gender split)

Seized Collateral, Squeezed Cash

Non-banking assets at BFIs reached Rs 46.10 billion ($303 million) as of mid-April, up 20 percent from a year earlier, as banks are forced to sit on foreclosed properties they can't auction fast enough to make any difference. Himalayan Bank topped the table at Rs 6.08 billion ($40 million) and Prime Bank's pile more than doubled to Rs 4.99 billion ($33 million). The Supreme Court only recently ruled that BFIs are able to auction seized assets beyond the previous three-year limit.

Read more: myRepublica (bank-level breakdown), myRepublica (auction mechanics)

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-05-20

Wed, 20 May 2026 03:15:10 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Kaushal Subedi on Unsplash

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Fourth in Seniority, First in the Robes

Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma was sworn in as Nepal's 33rd Chief Justice on Tuesday, the completion of an arc from parliamentary hearing to an oath in front of President Paudel to assumption of office in a single day. The Constitutional Council had recommended Sharma on May 7, passing over Acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla and two other, more senior, judges, to reach the fourth name on the seniority list, the first time in Nepali judicial history that the order has been skipped so far down. The mechanism that made it possible was PM Balendra Shah's Constitutional Council ordinance, which handed the chairman a tiebreaker veto, and which the President tried and failed to send back. Before Sharma arrived at Ram Shah Path, the court's administration had been refusing to register writ petitions challenging his appointment; Acting Chief Justice Malla put out an order saying that filings needed to be accepted by 1 p.m. that day, and said the refusal was an obstruction “to the path of justice.” The Nepal Bar Association staged a protest while the hearing was running. Sixteen complaints were filed against Sharma before the parliamentary committee unanimously endorsed him anyway.

Read more: The Annapurna Express (oath ceremony), Ratopati (term length, pending caseload), Online Khabar (Malla's writ order), Indianexpress (ordinance mechanism), Khabarhub (timeline)

Four Months to Dodge the Black List

David Shannon has been running mutual evaluations since 2002, is on his 24th, and isn't the kind of assessor who flies in when things are going well. The APG's Deputy Executive Secretary arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday, led Monday meetings at the PM's office with finance, home, law, the attorney general, the central bank, and the security agencies, and then made his dissatisfaction with Nepal's pace of reform unmistakably clear to those present. A confidential APG Secretariat briefing note indicates that this as the final high-level intervention before the September 2026 review that’s going to decide whether Nepal exits the grey list or drops onto the black one. The 15-point action plan that was supposed to demonstrate progress is, per the same note, “not adequately prepared.”

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Billions Parked but Records Conveniently Missing

Nepal's cumulative public sector financial irregularities reached Rs755.17 billion ($4.97 billion) by the end of fiscal year 2024-25. The Auditor General's 63rd annual report, sent to President Ramchandra Paudel on Friday, audited Rs9.48 trillion of spending by 5,526 public offices and found the government settled Rs63.12 billion in arrears over the year, only to immediately outpace that with new expenses. Auditor General Toyam Raya said that 179 offices worth Rs147.9 billion in expenditure couldn't be audited at all, because records went missing during last September's protests.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (digital payment reforms), Ratopati (unnecessary ballast spend), myRepublica (179 offices breakdown)

Auditors Found What Auditors Find

An independent review of 10 commercial banks, commissioned by Nepal Rastra Bank at the IMF's insistence as a condition for the fourth tranche of Extended Credit Facility funding, turned up the usual problems. Evergreened loans, inflated collateral, and provisioning dressed up to keep capital adequacy ratios above the regulatory floor. Average NPLs in the 10 banks was 7.6 percent, and capital adequacy reported to be 11.30 percent. Himalayan Bank, NIC Asia, Prabhu Bank, Kumari Bank, and Rastriya Banijya Bank are looking at capital top-ups to stay compliant. The NRB is asking for clarifications from the banks before telling them how to get their houses in order.

Read more: myRepublica (NPL audit), myRepublica (asset declaration), myRepublica (Rs 4.6B sale), The Kathmandu Post (banker condemnation)

Win an Election Then We'll Talk

Seven weeks into his premiership, Balendra Shah has yet to address the House of Representatives on his government's policy agenda, and the finance minister's response to critics made clear the administration isn't losing sleep over it. Swarnim Wagle told opposition lawmakers this week that if they want their "language, style, and documents" reflected in government policy, they should win the next election. Surya Kiran Gurung, former secretary-general of the parliamentary secretariat, said no prime minister since the 1990 restoration of democracy had remained absent throughout deliberations on the government's own policy document. RSP MP Amaresh Kumar Singh, a six-time parliamentarian, was more direct as he told the House this was the first budget discussion in his twenty-year career held without the finance minister bothering to show up.

Read more: myRepublica (NC protest threat), Ratopati (Wagle election retort), Desh Sanchar (Singh's unprecedented claim), The Kathmandu Post (Speaker's Rule 38), myRepublica (PM's repeated absences)

Chinese Drones Fly While American Drones Wait

Nepal's Home Ministry sent Trump's South Asia envoy Sergio Gor home empty-handed on May 1, refusing a flight permit for the Alta X Gen 2 drone as Gor's team helicoptered into Everest base camp to test it. The ministry's internal memo cited "drone flying procedures" and "security sensitivity." The Americans had hired Seven Summit Treks and arranged local pilots, but the drone never left the ground. DJI's FlyCart 100, an unreleased model given to Nepali operator AirLift Technology before its commercial launch, has been hauling up to 45kg to Camp I in under three minutes this season. China set up that foothold in 2024 with the FlyCart 30; Washington is still waiting on paperwork. While the US team was packing up, the Department of Tourism published a record 492 Everest permits for 2026 on May 8, beating the 2023 record of 479 despite repeated government promises to thin the herd. Chinese climbers topped the list at 109, ahead of 76 Americans and 61 Indians, generating roughly $7.19 million (just over a billion rupees) in permit fees.

Read more: Al Jazeera (geopolitical framing), Snowbrains (waste fee, fatalities)

Congress Plans Its Own Republic Day

The Deuba-Khadka faction is expected to register a new party on May 29, Republic Day, after the Supreme Court's April 17 ruling confirmed Gagan Thapa's group as the official Nepali Congress. Former acting party president Purna Bahadur Khadka, who has been running parallel activities since the ruling, says the party is already "in a fragmented state" and has said the choice was to unite or split. Deuba broke from Congress in 2002 to form Nepali Congress (Democratic); he is now in Hong Kong as the government works on a money-laundering arrest warrant against him and his wife.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (38-seat losses), myRepublica (Khadka)

Satellite Sees Drought, Cuts Check

A $100,000 insurance payout, the first of its kind in Nepal, arrived in Bajura district after satellites found soil moisture below agreed levels and released funds automatically, with no on-the-ground damage assessment required. The parametric product was built by Global Parametrics with a catalytic grant from the Natural Disaster Fund, backed by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Germany's KfW. Tearfund and local partner International Nepal Fellowship used the money to feed 671 households, distribute drought-resistant seeds and tools to 405 people, and install irrigation tanks for 176 households.

Read more: Christiantoday (Tearfund response), Reinsurancene WS (Global Parametrics role)

Spilled Watts Mean a Cooked Dinner

A rural kitchen in Baglung's Badigad municipality apparently became the site of Asia's first green hydrogen cooking demonstration on May 15 (seems hard to believe, but that’s what they’re saying), with Gandaki Province's economic affairs minister on hand to light the flame. The HyHEG project, run by Nepal Energy Foundation and Kathmandu University with backing from Innovate UK and Swiss partners, runs a 5 kW electrolyzer off the GiringdiKhola micro-hydro plant to turn surplus electricity into stored hydrogen. One kilogram is enough to fuel a five-person home for a week, the result of nearly three years of testing on micro-hydro sites under 500 kW that the national grid has made mostly idle.

Read more: Spotlight Nepal

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-05-13

Wed, 13 May 2026 03:03:14 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Aaron Santelices on Unsplash

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Seven Percent Growth Plan Inspires a Walkout

President Ram Chandra Paudel delivered the government's FY 2083/84 (2026/27) policy and program to a joint parliamentary session on Monday, with targets that include 7% annual growth over the next decade, 30,000 MW of electricity in the same timeframe, and the integration of all economic transactions into digital platforms. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle, appearing before the Finance Committee the same day, put some numbers on the ambition. Regular government obligations run about Rs 13.3 trillion ($87 billion), leaving a shortfall of roughly Rs 7 trillion ($46 billion) even before any new projects are begun. The opposition was unmoved. UML parliamentary leader Ram Bahadur Thapa said the document "entirely rejectable," the Nepali Congress dismissed it as a continuation of old policies, and the RPP accused the government of producing a "copy-paste" document that forgot Karnali and Sudurpashchim existed. The harshest critique came from inside Prime Minister Balen Shah's own base when Gen Z activist Tanuja Pandey publicly told him to stop acting "like a ruffian" after Shah walked out of parliament as the President was still reading the policy that his cabinet had written.

Read more: The Himalayan Times (policy targets), myRepublica (digital economy), Khabarhub (opposition), The Rising Nepal (Rs 7 trillion shortfall), myRepublica (Pandey's rebuke)

Balen's Blitz Meets the Bench

The Supreme Court has frozen three of Prime Minister Balendra Shah's signature moves this week. The justices issued interim orders against his push to scrap civil service trade unions, his dissolution of the Free Student Union, and his riverbank eviction drive that left more than 3,000 families needing to register for emergency shelter. The Nepal Bar Association's executive chairman says the court's intervention shows that the executive "has acted illegally.” Before that dust settled, Shah's Constitutional Council on May 8 recommended Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma as the next chief justice, skipping over three more-senior justices, including Acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla, who called on fellow judges not to bow to a two-thirds majority or threats of impeachment. The government rests its case on Sharma's CV, saying he has a PhD in Labour Law from Tribhuvan University, has a stronger case disposal record, better academic credentials, and a cleaner reputation than those passed over.

Read more: Ratopati, myRepublica (seniority convention breach), The Hindu (RSP election mandate)

Reserves Pile Up, Nobody's Borrowing

Gross foreign exchange reserves were Rs 3.494 trillion ($22.99 billion) by mid-April, up 30.5 percent from mid-July 2025, and enough to cover 21.8 months of imports. The balance of payments surplus doubled year-on-year to $5.10 billion, and the current account surplus tripled to $4.32 billion from $1.64 billion. Reserves held by banks outside the NRB grew fastest, up 56.8 percent to Rs 412.32 billion ($2.71 billion). Reserves are now 57.2 percent of GDP, with Indian currency making up a fifth of total holdings. Banks are sitting on Rs 79.52 trillion ($523 billion) in deposits against Rs 58.74 trillion ($386 billion) worth of lending. Interbank rates are 2.75 percent and private credit demand remains flat.

Read more: myRepublica

Meta's Billions Exist Only in the Press Release

WorldLink CEO Keshav Nepal told Kantipur this week that there is no agreement, no NDA, and no $33 million Meta investment in a local data center, despite Nepal Khabar reporting exactly that. "If a foreign investment of that size were coming in, we would have announced it through a formal event," he said. Nepal Khabar headlined a Bichuten Data Vault announcement as "Google enters Nepal as strategic partner" when, in truth, Google is only supplying technical services, not capital.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Delhi Bails Out Paddy Season

Cabinet approved an emergency buy of 80,000 tonnes of fertilizer from India under a government-to-government arrangement, with paddy transplantation season weeks away and global prices still running hot thanks to the ongoing West Asia pressures. The fertilizer haul breaks down to 60,000 tonnes of urea and 20,000 tonnes of DAP, well short of the 150,000 tonnes that was originally being looked for. Agriculture Ministry official Ram Krishna Shrestha said that full subsidization would cost roughly Rs 80 billion ($526 million), against a Rs 28.82 billion ($190 million) budget. A fresh tender would take at least 225 days, but paddy season can’t wait.

Social Media Pays

PM Balendra Shah's required asset disclosure listed Rs 14.6 million ($96,000) in cash, with Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok named as the primary sources. Nepal Rastra Bank says that's not a problem. The central bank has a category for audiovisual remittances, and 4.6 million Facebook followers plus 1.3 million YouTube subscribers apparently qualify. Nepal pulled in Rs 3.53 billion ($23.2 million) from digital platforms in FY2024-25, and the first eight months of the current fiscal year have already booked Rs 2.90 billion ($19.1 million), up from Rs 2.24 billion ($14.7 million) a year earlier. Google's platforms account for 67 percent of inflows, Meta another 12.21 percent. The Rastra Bank admits the real figure is higher, since direct brand deals between creators and companies would not fall under the tracked categories.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Export the Beans, Import the Powder

Nepal imported 979,130 kg of coffee worth Rs 1.847 billion ($12.2 million) in the first nine months of FY2025/26, even as it exported 33,772 kg for Rs 71.8 million ($472,000). Ninety-seven percent of those exports were raw, unroasted beans heading to Japan, Germany, and the US under the "Himalayan Speciality Coffee" label at premium prices. What fills Kathmandu's cafes is mostly instant coffee from Vietnam and India, with processed extracts and concentrates accounting for Rs 1.508 billion ($9.9 million) of the import bill. Domestic production is 641 tonnes against annual demand of more than 2,800 tonnes.

Read more: Online Khabar

Russia's 13-Project Offer Gathers Dust at Singha Durbar

Russia laid 13 infrastructure projects on the table in 2023, a railway line and road construction among them, following talks between then-National Assembly Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina and Federation Council Chairwoman Valentina Matviyenko in Moscow. The Russian Embassy followed up with a formal letter to Timilsina on May 4 of that year. Nepal's Foreign Ministry still hasn't sent a formal reply. The files apparently never made it out of the building. By December 2025, Russia's Chargé d'Affaires Andrei Kiselenko was publicly grumbling about the "red tape" that confined the proposals to filing cabinets, saying it was "somewhat difficult to understand" the delay.

Read more: Online Khabar

A $4,000 Surcharge That Hasn’t Stung

Nepal has handed out 492 Everest climbing permits for spring 2026, a record, after raising the foreign climbing royalty from $11,000 to $15,000 to try and thin the herd. Department of Tourism spokesperson Himal Gautam trumpeted the new high-water mark by saying "Records are to be broken!" An 11-member group is still working through paperwork, so the tally still climb a bit further (no pun intended). For context, permits issued were 381 in 2019, 479 in 2023, 421 in 2024, and 456 in 2025. Rope-fixing ran two weeks behind schedule after a serac collapsed on the route to Camp I, and ropes have now reached the South Col at 7,906 meters.

Smart Cell's Carcass Draws a Crowd

Smart Cell's license was automatically cancelled in mid-April 2023 after the telecom failed to clear roughly Rs 30 billion ($197 million) in arrears, putting its towers, network, and systems under Nepal Telecommunications Authority control. Former chairman Sarvesh Joshi has since been arrested by the CIB on fraud and criminal breach of trust charges. Banks that hold the towers and equipment as loan collateral are now keen to auction them off, but nobody has settled whether government seizure or bank collateral rights come first.

Read more: Ratopati

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Nepal Weekly - 2026-05-06

Wed, 06 May 2026 02:20:23 GMT

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Photo by Stan Tuladhar on Unsplash

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Two Neighbors on One Pass

Prime Minister Balen Shah's government sent diplomatic notes to India and China last week objecting to the 2026 Kailash Mansarovar Yatra running through Lipulekh Pass, a high-altitude crossing at the Nepal-India-Tibet tri-junction that Kathmandu has claimed as its own under the 1816 Sugauli Treaty. India's response was quick: the External Affairs Ministry called the territorial claim "neither justified nor based on historical facts," and labelled it a "unilateral artificial enlargement." This is the second such protest in under a year; Kathmandu filed the first in August 2025 when India and China reopened border trade through the same pass.

Read more: Indiatoday IN (Nepal's demand), Indianexpress (negotiation precondition), The Tribune (Jaiswal), Economic Times (religious significance), Hindustan Times (pilgrim batch breakdown)

Bulldozers First and Questions Later

Shree Saraswati Basic School in Manohara had 275 students and 15 teachers when the bulldozers showed up without notice. Staff only realized the building was coming down when police started hauling out belongings; the CCTV cameras, router, and library books got buried, though the new textbooks made it out. On Monday, students turned up anyway, dragging desks and benches into a borrowed community hall in Madhyapur Thimi, where principal Indira Mahat is running multi-grade classes in two rooms and under courtyard tents. The Supreme Court has ordered the government to come up with documents showing how the required process was followed at Manohara and four other eviction sites. We’ll see if they have any.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post (1.2M landless), Online Khabar (school mergers), Khabarhub (Supreme Court, protests)

Six Thousand Rupees and a Prayer

More than 76,000 depositors have filed claims worth over Rs 45 billion ($296 million) against failed cooperatives, and the government's response is to point to a revolving fund that holds about 0.54 percent of total claims (Rs 250 million or ~$1.6 million). The Problematic Cooperative Management Committee has been able to claw back another Rs 350 million ($2.3 million) from debtors, but split between the 58,000 smaller savers, each person's share works out to only about Rs 6,000 ($39). Returning money to that group alone would take roughly Rs 6.66 billion ($43.8 million). Minister Pratibha Rawal says debtor names will be published and bank accounts frozen after a 35-day notice period. Committee Chairman Dilliram Acharya says the fund "will not be spent easily."

Read more: Ratopati

Sixty Thousand Souls Hit the Exit

Around 2,075 Nepalis board flights for foreign jobs every day, and the Department of Foreign Employment counted 62,265 departures in the 31 (or 32? days - it’s not clear how they counted) between March 25 and April 26. A temporary stop on labor approvals for 12 Gulf and West Asian countries between March 1 and April 20 barely dented the numbers. The figures don't fully capture the whole picture. Workers like Dhan Bahadur Gurung, a 47-year-old who earned Rs 35,000 ($230) a month in Saudi Arabia, says he drank four or five energy drinks instead of water to push through the heat, and came home with kidneys that had given up. He now does dialysis three times a week, four hours at a time. Apparently his situation isn’t rare.

Read more: myRepublica (monthly departure headcounts), Online Khabar (kidney failure costs), The Kathmandu Post (SSF remittance share).

Ordnances Coming and Going

President Paudel signed a Constitutional Council ordinance on Tuesday after at first sending it back to cabinet. The amendment changes how the Constitutional Council operates and the details are thin, but the way it was has gone back and forth is an indication that something may be afoot. The same day, the Communications Ministry invoked the new "Special Provision Ordinance on the Removal of Public Officials from Office" to clear out 36 politically appointed office-holders in nine agencies, including the chairs of Gorkhapatra Sansthan, Press Council Nepal, the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, and the National Information Commission. Opposition lawmakers cried foul and said it was a bypass of parliament by a government that already holds close to a two-thirds majority and could legislate through the House if it wanted to.

Read more: The Rising Nepal (36 officials), The Annapurna Express (constitutional basis), The Himalayan Times (return-reissue sequence)

Holding Center On The Flood Plain

Ujyalo Nepal Party chairman Kulman Ghising visited the Kirtipur holding center last week and found 3,159 screened squatters crammed into tents on flood-prone government land, with kids missing school and families unable to service bank loans after losing jobs and businesses. One person has has already died by suicide. RSP wants the government to park the bulldozers everywhere except already-acquired state land until an empowered authority finishes a full report on the squatter problem.

Read more: myRepublica (RSP manifesto commitment), Ratopati (Ghising visit findings)

Widows Win Back Inheritance

The Supreme Court has struck down a provision that forced widows to surrender property inherited from a dead husband the moment that they remarried. A constitutional bench led by Acting Chief Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla ruled Section 214(2) of the 2017 Civil Code was an abridgment of constitutional guarantees of equality, dignified life, and property rights, all of which the old rule suspended at the altar. Under the scrapped sub-section, a remarried widow's first-husband property passed to his children, reverting to her only if there were none.

Read more: The Himalayan Times

Carrier Redraws South Asia

Nepal Airlines posted a route map on Wednesday showing all of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as Pakistani territory, sending #BoycottNepalAirlines trending through Indian social media like a wildfire. The state-owned carrier deleted the post and apologized Thursday, calling it a "cartographic inaccuracy" that did not reflect the official position of either the airline or Nepal. An internal review is underway.

Read more: Newindianexpress (Sugauli Treaty), Republicworld (relations)

Rules for Thee, Not for State-Owned Me

Nine of 37 insurers remain are still below the Nepal Insurance Authority's minimum capital thresholds, three years after the April 2023 deadline. The laggards include two state-owned firms. The NIA has yet to set a new deadline.

Read more: myRepublica

Japan Dug It, China To Run It

The government signed a five-year operations and maintenance contract with Yusin-ART JV, a China-Nepal joint venture, to run the Japanese-financed Nagdhunga-Sisnekhola tunnel. The 2,688-meter bore is 98 percent complete, and needs about 150 staff to be fully trained before a full opening that’s expected (hoped for?) within three months. Construction on the tunnel started in October 2019 and initially had a 42-month timeline. Once it opens, the Sisnekhola-to-Balambhu trip will get reduced from 33 minutes uphill to about seven straight though.

Read more: The Kathmandu Post

Landslides Turn Highway Map Into Swiss Cheese

Pre-monsoon landslides have blocked sections of the Araniko, Mid-Hill, BP, and Kanti Lokpath highways in Lalitpur, Makwanpur, Lamjung, Kavre, and Ilam, as well as the Bhalubang-Pyuthan road. The Araniko Highway at Kodari, the main crossing into China, has been closed since April 29 and, as of yet, has no scheduled date to reopen. A handful of stretches, including Bhojpur and the Beni-Jomsom road in Myagdi, have been able to handle some one-way traffic. Police tell travelers to expect more of the same through the rainy season.

Read more: myRepublica (Araniko closure), The Annapurna Express (Ilam, BP Highway)

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Nepal Weekly

Nepal Weekly - 2026-09-16

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Bhotekoshi Flood Leaves a $2 Billion Bill

India Sends 654 MW to Plug Flood Gap

Bailey Bridges Roll In, Army Flies Drones Out

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Krishnabhir Reopens on Shaky Ground

Korala Crossing Picks Up the China Trade

Property Deals Nearly Double

Kathmandu Puts Malaysia Recruiter List on Notice

Parliament Targets Shorter NRB Governor Term

Smart Licenses Stall on Provincial Delays

Chitwan Highway Upgrade Open for Bids

Nepal Weekly - 2026-09-09

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Kathmandu Bills the World for Bhotekoshi Flood

Trishuli Tunnel Gives Up Survivors

Flood Claims Skyrocket as Cell Towers Stay Down

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Flood Bill to Complicate LDC Exit

Damaged Dams Drag the Hydropower Index Down

Sauraha Empties Out Over a Flood It Never Saw

China Discloses Little on Gyirong Flood Numbers

PM Shah Takes the UNGA Podium

Oli Walks Free, Gen Z Reforms Stall

Nepal Weekly - 2026-09-02

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Satellite Imagery Pins Flood on Langtang Glacier

2025 Findings Unimplemented, Disaster Follows

Glacier Flood Wipes Out a Tenth of the Grid

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Barrier Lake Breaches Above Bhotekoshi

Flood Gauges Stayed Green

Flood Bill Could Reach $5 Billion

Seven-Day Wait to Enter Flooded Tunnels

Foreign Tunnel Teams Join Bhotekoshi Search

Korala Left Holding China's Trade Line

Kathmandu Fuel on a Detour

Drones Deliver Aid, Then Retrieve Bodies

Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-26

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

CIAA Probes Three Ex-PMs' Gatekeepers

Pokhara Airport Gets Second International Route

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Kathmandu Chases Council Seat as Rapporteur Waits

Agnipath Talks Resume as India Army Chief Visits

497 Blank Passports Still Missing

Medical Council Hunts Ghost Faculty

Supreme Court Orders Dairy Farmer Payments

Khanal Recasts US Ties Around Capital Over Aid

Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-19

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Nepal Kept One Copy of the State

USAID Left Gaur and Newborn Deaths Returned

Kathmandu Leaves Washington, Beijing and Delhi Posts Empty

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Finance Ministry Holds MCA-Nepal's Extension Letter

Banks Profit From Recoveries, Not New Credit

One Buffalo Deal Flattered Last Year's FDI

Karnali Waits While Ministers Fly

TPS Ends for 7,000 Nepalis in the US

Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-12

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

Sudurpaschim Spends Rs 140M, Passes Nothing

Ncell Officials Face Rs 95B Bill

Silver Outspends Gold in Nepal for the First Time

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Tibetan Studies Conference Forced Online

Nepal Can't Find Its India Treaties

Cooking Gas Vanishes Again

China Border Delays Squeeze EV Imports

Shah Meets With India and China Envoys

Congress Rivals Meet for 30, Leave Empty-Handed

House Moves Intelligence Agency Into PMO

Rs 250 Purchase Wins Tax Lottery

Army Restarts Hetauda Textile Looms

Recruiters Stop Foreign Labor Approvals

Nepal Weekly - 2026-08-05

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.