Nepal Weekly - 2026-06-24
Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.
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)
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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.
Read more: Asian News Network
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)
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