Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.
Missing Count Passes 6,600
The disaster authority again revised their count of the missing up to 6,150 from 5,179 after further reports from affected districts. Combined with Tibet's figures, the toll from the August 26 Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster is (so far) 1,446 dead and at least 6,669 missing. Rescuers pulled five bodies from Chilime's underground powerhouse in Rasuwa, arrived at by hand-digging the final stretch after excavators could go no farther, and five more from the Audit-3 tunnel at Upper Trishuli-1. In Kathmandu, hydropower workers' families protested outside the prime minister's office, saying authorities only bothered to send a small excavator by helicopter in the first week, and failed to do anything more meaningful.
Read more: Times of India (Indian Army rescuers), Twincities (mourning origins), Explorersweb (debris flow mechanics)
Shah Heads to UNGA with Climate, Flood Agenda
Prime Minister Balendra Shah took a regular Qatar Airways flight to Doha on Tuesday evening, with no red carpet, no guard of honor and no cabinet colleagues to see him off. He will address the UN General Assembly's General Debate tomorrow, his first major international outing since taking office in March, and plans to raise a claim to climate compensation and the August 26 Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster. Shah is due back September 26.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (foreign minister meetings), Khabarhub (delegation size), The Rising Nepal (constitutional basis), Desh Sanchar (departure time)
Wagle Takes $2.68 Billion Flood Bill to Doha
Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle is headed to Doha on September 28 for the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank's governors meeting, then will be in Bangkok on October 12 for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings. Stops in New York and Washington are still being considered. He will be bringing a Rs 408 billion ($2.68 billion) damage estimate from the August 26 Bhotekoshi-Trishuli disaster (see lead story). The Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund has so far collected almost $90 million in donations. The UN's Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, was built for this kind of disaster, but has yet to come together at a board meeting with the power to release money, even though it’s been three weeks since Kathmandu's formal appeal on August 31. Its next scheduled session begins December 15.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (reconstruction cost forecast), Climatechangenews (FRLD pledge caps)
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Thirteen Ambassadors from 4,400 Applicants
Nishchal Nath Pandey will be headed to India, Kalyan Raj Sharma to China, and Chiran Jung Thapa to Washington. These are some of the marquee names from the list of 13 ambassadors that Cabinet picked Friday from a pool that started with 4,400 applicants. The list, a mix of academics, security specialists and development hands, will also send retired Nepal Army chief Gaurav Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana to London and Sharu Joshi to Berlin. Nine more ambassadorships are waiting on Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal's return from the 81st UN General Assembly in New York.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Shah Asks Anwar to Break Recruiter Syndicates
Prime Minister Balendra Shah checked in with Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday and asked him to get his labor minister into direct talks with the Nepali labor minister on taking apart syndicates and middlemen that have been routing Nepalese workers into Malaysia. Anwar said he agreed with Shah's view and promised to "immediately instruct" his labor minister to find a "concrete solution." Some 400,000 Nepalese workers are in Malaysia, making the country the third-largest labor source there after Bangladesh (900,000) and Indonesia (550,000).
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Cooperative Loan Ceiling Down Three Points
Cooperatives are no longer allowed to charge more than 13 percent on loans (that’s down from 16 percent), after a directive from the Office of the Cooperatives Registrar. The spread between savings and loan rates is limited to 6 percentage points, and penalty charges can’t be more than 5 percent of outstanding interest. Separate administrative, service, renewal and form fees are also banned, since all loan costs need to be inside the headline rate. Cooperatives are required to post their rates publicly and cannot offer different terms to board members, staff or ordinary savers for the same product.
Read more: myRepublica
Property Values Double, as Deal Count Flat
Real estate transactions were worth Rs 720.86 billion ($4.74 billion) in fiscal year 2025/26, which is a heady 86.7 percent above last year’s tally. The number of deals was up just 4.74 percent. Kathmandu was at the forefront of the rebound, with transactions in the metro up 155.74 percent in the fourth quarter, followed by Lalitpur at 136.92 percent and Pokhara at 108.71 percent. Bagmati Province reported a 175.33 percent rise in transaction value, which was the steepest provincial increase versus Madhesh's 31.98 percent, the lowest. Capital gains tax collection went up 63 percent in the quarter. Bank lending to real estate was up 6.93 percent, far below the 86.7 percent rise in transaction value.
Read more: The Annapurna Express
Anti-Graft Body Files More, Wins Less
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority reported more than 40,500 complaints in fiscal year 2025-26, its biggest caseload in years, but the conviction rate at the Special Court fell to just over half, which is down from a 65.24 percent success rate two years ago. The anti-graft body is now appealing 104 Special Court verdicts to the Supreme Court and has filed three review petitions. Former chief commissioner Suryanath Upadhyay said the numbers show that the CIAA needs to make sure evidence is properly collected and established before it files cases - more isn’t necessarily better.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Constitution at 11, Amendment Debate Sharpens
The 2015 constitution saw its 11th anniversary on September 20, and political leaders are split over whether to protect, review or rewrite it. President Ramchandra Paudel said there needs to be “full implementation” of existing provisions and stronger constitutional bodies, and Prime Minister Balendra Shah said that even the best charter "becomes a piece of paper if those entrusted with implementing it are not honest." The provinces continue to complain that Kathmandu has kept powers that were meant to be shared, federal civil service and police arrangements remain unfinished, and intergovernmental dispute councils rarely meet.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (leader), myRepublica (245 articles proposal), The Kathmandu Post
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