Starting a Business in Nepal

Register your business

Register before you start selling. Begin at your ward office: it can tell you which office registers your kind of business, and most ask for its recommendation letter.

• A small household business can often register at the ward or municipality.
• A business that makes, processes or repairs things is an industry under the Industrial Enterprises Act 2020. Micro (fixed capital up to Rs 20 lakh), cottage and small industries register with the province’s Cottage and Small Industry Office, or the local level where its law allows; the Act gives 5 days.
• Running an industry without registering can bring a fine of Rs 5,000 (micro) or Rs 25,000 (cottage and small), and it can be closed.
• A company (private limited) registers with the Office of Company Registrar, then registers its industry too.

A tax number and VAT

• Every business needs a PAN (Permanent Account Number) from the Inland Revenue Department: apply on its Taxpayer Portal, then take your citizenship and registration certificate to the tax office. It is free.
• VAT (13%) is required once your sales pass Rs 50 lakh in 12 months for goods, or Rs 30 lakh for services or both. Some trades, electronics among them, must register from their first sale: ask the tax office.

Loans for young people and returnees

Banks lend at “concessional” rates and the government pays part of the interest. The rules as amended in August 2026, open until mid-2030:

• Back from foreign employment: up to Rs 20 lakh for your own business, if you worked abroad for at least six months with a labour permit.
• Educated youth projects: up to Rs 20 lakh. Women’s businesses and start-ups: up to Rs 25 lakh. Farming and livestock: up to Rs 5 crore.
• The bank may charge at most its base rate plus 1.5 points; the government pays 3 points of that for up to five years. The loan rests on your business plan and family guarantees, and the bank must decide within 15 working days.
• The Startup Enterprise Loan (through the Industrial Enterprise Development Institute) lent up to Rs 20 lakh at 3% to registered start-ups in 2025/26; 10,244 applied, so prepare a strong plan.
• Ask your municipality too: some, such as Bethanchowk, run their own schemes for returnees.

Borrowing safely

• Borrow from banks and financial institutions licensed by Nepal Rastra Bank. Their average loan rate was 6.64% a year in mid-2026.
• Be careful with savings cooperatives: by August 2026 the government had declared 23 “troubled”, and victims’ groups say more than 500 have stopped returning people’s savings.
• Avoid private moneylenders (meter byaj): some charge 48% a year or more, and borrowers have been forced to sell their land. In Dhanusha alone, 16,754 complaints were filed by 2025. Unlicensed lending is a crime: complain at the District Administration Office.
• Never sign for more than you received; keep a copy of every paper.

Work abroad or at home: the numbers

Work abroad can pay well, and many families depend on it: Nepalis abroad sent home Rs 2.36 trillion in 2025/26. Know the whole picture before you choose.

• In a national survey (2023), returnees had earned on average Rs 54,403 a month in their first job abroad, and half earned under Rs 44,500. Nepal’s minimum wage at home is Rs 19,550 a month (2025).
• Going cost men Rs 176,686 on average, and typically over Rs 2 lakh for the Gulf and Malaysia; about two in three paid something. It took about 3.3 months’ pay to earn it back, longer through unregistered brokers.
• The risks are real: 1,438 Nepali workers died abroad in the 11 months to mid-June 2026, and new job approvals for the Gulf fell by half after the Iran war began.
• Many go to learn a skill and save, then start something at home; each idea here lists jobs abroad that teach its skill.