While there is an undergoing debate on social media regulation, the government has come up with another policy announcement related to digital platforms.

The government is coming up with new e-commerce regulations to monitor the rapidly-growing online market space.

Toya Narayan Gyawali, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies informed that the draft regulations would be finalized in a month’s time.

“After the draft is finalized, it will be submitted to the Cabinet for its approval to implement it,” said the official.

With consumer protection as the key agenda, the new regulations are coming in view of the increasing number of consumer complaints.

Under the new regulations, e-tailers and marketplaces will now be liable for any sale of fraudulent, substandard and defective products, adds Gyawali.

Besides monitoring online frauds, the new regulations will also have a close watch on electronic transactions, regulate transactions involving foreign currency and also promote Nepali products to the global market.

According to government, there are a large number of unregistered ecommerce firms operating in the country.

“Our neighbors India and China have made great strides in the development of e-commerce, and Nepal also needs to move ahead by improving services,” said Gyawali.

“E-commerce has massive growth potential, so proper regulations are necessary for the development of this sector. Nepal lags behind in e-commerce because of a poor information and technology infrastructure. With regard to IT friendly people, Nepal falls in the average category among the least developed countries,” adds Gyawali.

Addressing gaps, the government is coming up with draft regulations after a series of discussions with the private sector players.

The regulations also focus on encouraging Nepal ecommerce sector with enhanced ease of doing business in the country.

The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology Spokesperson said that the new regulations also include provisions for management of electronic transactions and international transactions in foreign currency.

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The Ministry of Home Affairs enforced the ‘Foreign Citizens Monitoring Guideline’ to ensure strict monitoring of foreigners and their activities in the country.

Ensuring compliance to visa rules and curbing illegal activities are two of the key objectives of the new guidelines.

A Three-tier Monitoring
With special mechanisms across three different levels, the new regulation proposes to maintain national security and protection of boundaries, among others on top priority.

Under the guidelines, the monitoring activity will be conducted under three tiers: District Monitoring Committees, Central Monitoring Directives Committee and Monitoring & Implementation Committee.

District Monitoring Committee: Headed by Chief District Officers, this committee will foresee monitoring activities across the district levels with the support of National Investigation Department, Police & Armed Police Force, Tourism, Labor and Immigration offices.

Central Monitoring Directives Committee (CMDC): Headed by the Home Secretary, the Committee comprises of Joint Secretaries from different ministries including Home, Foreign Affairs, Labor & Employment and Tourism along with key officials from Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Immigration and National Investigation departments.

Monitoring and Implementation Committee: Headed by the Director General of Immigration Department and its members along with officials from Tourism Board, among other departments, this committee will keep a close watch on illegal entry points and foreigners’ hiding zones.

Crime Control Information Mechanism: Reporting to CMDC, this special mechanism will have complete information about every foreign visitor including their places of visit, activities and duration of stay, among other key aspects.

Regulatory, Need of the Hour
The latest decision is coming in the backdrop of issues reported over misuse of visa services and local laws among foreigners.

According to the government, some of the foreign visitors on tourist visas were reportedly found to have taken up employment in the local NGOs and opened their own businesses, locally.

As the immigration officials say, there was a poor monitoring of foreign visits to the country due to lack of relevant directives and monitoring mechanisms in place.

They are hopeful that the new directives will facilitate ways for strict monitoring and special security checks upon suspicion of any illegal activity.

Under the new directives, every individual or hotels or resorts hosting foreigners will have to provide all the relevant information to the respective committees, and the immigration officers can ride any place upon suspicion, say the officials.

The new regulation calls for an immediate arrest of any foreigner misusing visa services or overstaying locally.

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Be it ramping up of hydropower projects adding to the country’s energy base, implementing ‘no-horn policy’ in Kathmandu, among others, Nepal is on pace for eco-friendly policies.

As a step ahead in the process, Nepal is also gearing up for early adoption of Electric Vehicles (EV) or green vehicles, which is in fact the high-priority task for most of the global nations.

Nepal’s former Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal has some important information for us on Nepal’s willingness towards adoption of EVs.

“EVs will provide a measure of energy security for Nepal. As of now, the price of oil affects us in many ways, but when we switch to electric, the situation will be different,” says Khanal.

Khanal opines that the transition in Nepal for adoption of EVs will be quicker than in India.

“When there is disincentive to buy petrol-fueled cars, people will readily buy EVs. Whereas, in Nepal, there has been a voluntary adoption of EVs even when enough incentives are not in place,” he adds.

According to Khanal, Nepal has more charging stations per capita than India and has around 35 charging stations across the country.

Government Policies Can Take Ahead

According to Khanal, lack of standards and inadequate number of charging stations are two prime factors limiting EV adoption in Nepal.

The lack of proper governmental policies with regard to charging standard also remains another prime reason. “The government has not yet chosen the charging standard for electric cars. Government needs to choose one standard. This will encourage them to switch to EVs,” Khanal adds.

“With the right policies in place, we can achieve complete transition in 10 years. The transition for public vehicles will take longer but for private vehicles, we can do it in 10 years,” says Khanal.

Khanal further opined that there would be a day when petrol stations across the country will see a fall in business.

“So, my suggestion is that the government should make it mandatory for all petrol pumps in Nepal to set up a charging station for EVs. This will be a good investment as eventually, EVs will become the norm in Nepal,” he adds.

On a closing note, Khanal opines that the government should disincentivize the use of fossil fuel cars and should declare rural areas recently connected with the national road network and other areas like Singh Durbar, the administrative hub of the country, as ‘EV only zones’.

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The country’s energy sector that saw 2017 beginning with the addition of 50 MW capacity to the national grid continued a successful path adding 15 other hydropower projects with a total installed capacity of 100 MW by end of 2017.

Overall, the country witnessed a total installed capacity of around 150 MW from 16 hydropower projects in 2017.

Interestingly, private sector held a largest share in all of these projects with only a limited participation seen from the state-owned Nepali Electricity Authority (NEA).

However, few other key projects of NEA that are set to generate good amount of power are likely to be completed soon.

30 MW capacitive Chameliya Hydropower Project and 456 MW capacitive Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project are among NEA projects nearing completion.

Besides hydropower projects, the energy sector also saw a major milestone in the construction of transmission lines across the country.

The 132 KV Blanch-Attariya line that would evacuate the power from the Chameliya Hydropower Project to the national grid has been brought into operation.

2017 also saw the endorsement of the Electricity Regulatory Commission Act 2017 that facilitates the establishment of the Nepal Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), an independent body to regulate the country’s power sector. 

The country’s energy ministry has also brought a regulation to sign dollar-denominated power purchase pacts with hydropower projects that resort to foreign loans. 

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