Nepal Weekly - 2026-07-15

Jul 15, 2026

Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.

a scenic view of a green valley with mountains in the background — Photo by Nirajan Dhakal on Unsplash

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.

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.

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.

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