Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-08
Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.
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)
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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.
Read more: The Rising Nepal
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)
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