Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.
Flood Leaves Five Missing, Wrecks Hydropower Camp
A landslide dammed a tributary of the Budhi Gandaki River in northern Gorkha before dawn on Sunday resulting in a flood that left five people missing, wrecked the highway bridge between Gorkha and Dhading, and swept away the camp and equipment of the 341-megawatt Budhi Gandaki hydropower project. The army moved more than 400 people to safety by helicopter and on foot, including foreign trekkers on the Manaslu circuit. An early disaster authority report found that locals warned one another by phone and Facebook more than an hour before the authority sent its first message to emergency responders at 6 a.m. Nearly 5,000 households in northern Gorkha are still without power.
Read more: Reuters (missing breakdown), Abcnews (helicopter rescues), myRepublica (power outage), The Kathmandu Post (river gauge), The Kathmandu Post (warning gap)
E-Passport Contractor Threatens Shutdown Over Unpaid Dues
Muehlbauer ID Services, the German company running Nepal's e-passport systems, has given the government until Monday to pay Rs 300 million ($2 million) or get a service shutdown. The company said it has not been paid since winning the contract last year and had previously set two other “deadlines”. Veridos prints the passports but needs Muehlbauer's systems to process applicants. The Department of Passports claims that its holding back payment because the anti-corruption commission has charged 18 people in the procurement case, including local representatives of both companies.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Forty Five Days to Declare Flood Missing Dead
The president has given an ordinance to reduce the mandated wait to declare missing disaster victims dead from 12 years to about 45 days. Under the old law, someone who disappeared in the August 26 Bhotekoshi glacier-collapse flood could not be legally declared dead until 2038. Without death certificates, families have been unable to get compensation or settle property. More than 5,000 people are still missing, including hundreds of foreigners.
Read more: Straits Times
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Bhotekoshi Recovery Plan Stalls
The Finance Ministry is sitting on an as-yet unapproved Rs 559.17 billion ($3.68 billion) recovery plan for the Bhotekoshi corridor six-plus weeks after the disaster. Funding is unsettled, field teams are still calculating the damage. The flood broke the main trade route to China and damaged 35 of the 41 bridges between Miteri and Malekhu, completely destroying 32 of them. The disaster authority is currently looking into plans for transitional shelters for displaced families in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, and Dhading.
Read more: The Annapurna Express (hydropower damage), Nepali Times (health care access)
Gagan Thapa Keeps Congress Presidency With 94 Percent
Gagan Thapa kept the Nepali Congress presidency with 6,584 votes to Shyam Krishna Khadgi's 375, the largest margin in party history. Chandra Bhandari and Madhu Acharya won the two open vice presidencies. Former president Sher Bahadur Deuba is outside Thapa's camp and is chasing a separate convention process even though more than 30 former allies have joined Thapa. The Election Commission recognized the leadership chosen at Thapa's special convention in January, but a legal challenge remains ongoing.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (central committee expansion), Spotlight Nepal (other officeholders), The Kathmandu Post (vote count)
Police Probe Fixer Tied to Ex-Chief Justice
Police allege that Inam Sapkota, a little-known 30-year-old, was the go-between for officers wanting promotions and people facing court cases. Investigators found repeated calls to him on former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana's phone. Sapkota's WhatsApp chats and call records also show contact with senior police officers, judges, politicians, and lawyers. Sapkota admitted making the contacts, but police have not yet been able to confirm that he delivered any favors.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (airport questioning), The Kathmandu Post (Basnet arrest)
IMF Sees 2026 Growth Slowing to 3.6 Percent
The IMF expects Nepal's economic growth to slow from an estimated 4.4 percent in 2025 to a more restrained 3.6 percent this year. The worse news is that it is expecting only a slight recovery to 3.7 percent for next year. The IMF expects inflation to drop to 3.1 percent this year before rising again to 5.8 percent next year, with higher oil prices and energy disruptions the biggest risks for a country that remains dependent on imported fuel.
Read more: The Annapurna Express
Police Bust Gold Smelter, Arrest Three Chinese
Police arrested three Chinese nationals and took possession of 21.75 kilograms of gold worth Rs 546 million ($3.6 million) from a rented house in Budhanilkantha. Officers found smelting, casting, and weighing equipment as well as molten gold and finished bars. Police aren’t sure how the gold got into Nepal by air or land, nor have they found the Thamel hotel that the suspects named as its destination. It’s a decent haul, but part of an ongoing pattern - authorities have seized 579 kilograms of smuggled gold and arrested 768 people over the past decade.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (supply-demand gap), myRepublica (2022 case)
Kathmandu-Dhangadhi Flight Costs More Than a Ticket to Delhi
A 50-minute flight from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi costs Rs 22,180 ($146). A flight to New Delhi takes more than twice as long but costs only Rs 15,367 ($101). The government-set maximum fare on the western route has doubled since 2014. Fares follow supply-demand curves and naturally go up during festivals and when floods and landslides close roads, when passengers have no reasonable alternative, but that appears to be a “problem” that some are trying to legislate away.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
Immigration Brings Foreigner-Tracking Database Nationwide
Hotels, airlines, banks, telecom companies, travel businesses, and tourist guides throughout Nepal are now able to enter foreigners' details directly into the immigration department's database. The system, which has run in the Kathmandu Valley since January 2025, tracks where visitors stay and travel. Officials say it will help locate people missing after disasters. Nepal has deported 540 foreigners so far this year (they only kicked out 459 in all of 2025). Sixty-one of this year's deportations involved immigration violations like overstaying.
Read more: myRepublica
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