Foreign Exchange Rules in Nepal — Circular Selection and Payment Evidence

Record the publication and effective dates separately. A later circular may change a prior procedure without changing the underlying contract. Use the transaction date and applicable transitional wording.

A company receives an invoice for foreign technical services. The review checks the agreement, service evidence, tax withholding, applicable NRB permission and bank requirements before remittance. If an approval covers a limited purpose or amount, it is not available for an unrelated licence fee merely because the same foreign vendor is involved.

Maintain a foreign-payment register tying approvals, invoices, tax records and bank remittances. Reconcile foreign-currency principal and NPR accounting values, and account separately for exchange differences and fees. For inward receipts, preserve source, purpose and bank evidence so later investment or export claims can be substantiated.

Do not split payments to evade a limit, reuse an exhausted approval or change payment purpose to fit a convenient category. A head-office reimbursement needs actual supporting costs and appropriate authority. Resolve the exchange-control, tax-source, transfer-pricing and accounting questions separately using the applicable current clause.

NRB issued Unified Circular 2082 on 7 April 2026. Its department currently lists later amendments dated 9 June, 23 July and 5 October 2026. Selecting the base publication without those amendments can therefore give an outdated answer. The investment and foreign-loan bylaw is a separate instrument and should be included where the transaction concerns capital or debt.

The 5 October amendment changes several import and service-payment conditions. For specified Draft/TT goods imports, it introduces at least 10% payment before shipment and full payment before customs clearance, together with monthly advance-payment reporting under the prescribed schedule. Those provisions concern their particular payment category; they should not be transferred automatically to a documentary-credit transaction or a foreign service.

The October amendment raises specified foreign-service payment provisions from USD 15,000 to USD 30,000 per payment. The amendment must be read with the service evidence, regulator recommendation and other conditions in the affected clauses. A number in a delegation table does not make an unsupported payment automatically permissible.

For example, a Nepal company receives a USD 25,000 technical-service invoice. The amount being below a stated bank threshold is only one part of the file. The company still examines the contract, service delivered, relevant approvals or recommendation, withholding treatment and the specific circular category. Advance-payment conditions can differ from payment after service delivery.

An approval for a particular purpose or amount should be reduced by payments made under it. Record the beneficiary, currency, paid amount, bank advice and outstanding authorised balance. If the contract is amended or a refund is received, update the supporting analysis rather than reusing the original approval unchanged.

A lawful exception should identify the provision, facts and supporting decision. An informal statement that the bank accepted a similar transaction last year is not that evidence. The final reconciliation links the contractual liability, tax treatment, permitted remittance, bank payment and accounting exchange difference while keeping each of those decisions distinct.