Fiscal Nepal
First Business News Portal in English from Nepal
KATHMANDU: In an effort to make online shopping safer and more transparent, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Supplies has unveiled a new draft of the Electronic Commerce Directive, 2082. The headline feature of this proposal is a major move toward digital accountability: all e-commerce businesses will soon be required to use only digital payment gateways approved by Nepal Rastra Bank for their transactions.
This means the days of unregulated or informal payment methods for online orders are numbered. According to the draft, e-commerce platforms must integrate these verified gateways to handle customer payments. The goal is to create a digital trail that protects both the buyer and the seller, ensuring that money flows through secure, monitored channels.
Beyond just payments, the directive introduces a high standard for data security. If the draft becomes law, online shops will be legally obligated to encrypt user data. If a platform suffers a data breach or a technical glitch, the rules are clear: they must shut down operations immediately, notify the Department of Commerce, and only resume business once they have proven that the system is fully recovered and secure.
To keep things fair for the consumer, the Ministry is also targeting hidden costs. The directive proposes that once a deal is made, businesses cannot tack on extra fees except for the pre-declared price of the product and the delivery cost. This aims to end the practice of adding “convenience fees” or “service charges” at the last minute.
Transparency is another big theme. All online sellers—including those operating solely on social media—must register on the government’s official e-commerce portal. The Ministry has even set a 35-day window for existing, unregistered platforms to get their paperwork in order once the directive is active.
To ensure these rules actually help the market, the government has made the draft public and is asking for feedback from the community over the next seven days before finalizing the text.
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