How to register a restaurant in Nepal

Most small restaurants start as a private firm: one owner, registered under the Private Firm Registration Act at the Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection. It is cheap and quick, but the owner's liability is not limited, and a firm has a single line of business. You can't register a second firm with the same or similar objectives in your name; for several, you need a company.

Two or more owners can register a partnership firm under the Partnership Act, with a partnership deed. Bigger restaurants usually become private limited companies, registered online with the Office of the Company Registrar. A company limits the owners' liability, but it has yearly filings to keep up.

A restaurant can also be registered as an industry: the Industrial Enterprises Act 2076 lists bars and restaurants among tourism industries. Micro and small industries (fixed capital up to Rs 20 lakh and Rs 15 crore) go to cottage and small industry, provincial or local offices, and bigger ones to the Department of Industry. Sources don't say an ordinary restaurant has to do this, so ask before you pay for it.

Sources list the steps in different orders, and some offices ask for another office's certificate first. This order works for most restaurants:

Once the firm or company is registered, get a PAN from your local tax office. There is no government fee. Bring the registration certificate, the lease if you rent, citizenship copies of the owners, partners or directors, photos and a map of the location. You can start the form online and then visit in person; a bank's guide says it can take a few hours if the papers are in order, and a business-services firm says one to two days.

Then register the restaurant with your ward and municipality and pay its business tax. Bring copies of your citizenship certificate, passport photos, the lease, the landlord's lalpurja and a simple map of the location. A business-services firm says the ward usually issues the certificate in two or three days.

In Kathmandu, the 2026/27 finance act sorts businesses into 12 groups. Homestays and small restaurants pay Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 a year, and an ordinary hotel Rs 10,000. Businesses had to register by the end of Asoj 2083 (mid-October 2026): those that did got 10% off and had earlier years' business tax waived, and later registrations pay a Rs 1,000 fine on top. Other cities set their own rates in their yearly finance acts, so ask your municipality's revenue section.

Kathmandu also requires a written rental agreement, and the landlord must report the tenancy to the ward office within seven days. Signboards are taxed separately: in 2022 the city charged Rs 500 for one board up to six square feet and Rs 1,500 for one up to 15 square feet, and didn't allow boards over 30 square feet.

Nepal's food law changed in 2024, when the Food Hygiene and Quality Act 2081 replaced the 1967 Food Act. The new Act gives local governments their own food inspectors to monitor, inspect and regulate food businesses in their area.

In late July 2026, at the health ministry's request, the federal affairs ministry sent every local government a circular: hotels, restaurants, snack houses, canteens and eateries must get the local government's permission before they operate. Local governments were also told to inspect them regularly, and to check that food is kept at the right temperature and humidity and that kitchens are clean.

Registering as a tourist-standard restaurant is optional. The rules are the Hotel, Lodge, Restaurant and Resort, Bar and Tour Guide Rules 2038 (1981), made under the Tourism Act 2035 (1978), and the Department of Tourism keeps them on its website.

You apply to the Department of Tourism on the form in the rules' first schedule, with a Rs 100 application fee. The registration fee listed for a lodge, restaurant or bar is Rs 5,000 in the current text of the rules, last amended in 2014; older copies show Rs 500. Ask the department whether your province's tourism office now handles it.

Tourist-standard places pay more for a liquor licence (Rs 11,000 rather than Rs 6,000), and that category covers foreign as well as domestic bottled liquor. At the least, a tourist-standard restaurant or bar must have:

Registering a firm or company doesn't let you sell alcohol: you need a separate excise licence from your local tax office. Fees are set in Schedule 2 of the Excise Duty Rules 2059, last amended in 2083 (2026), and renewing costs the same as the first licence.

Every employer should enrol in the Social Security Fund through its employer portal, with the PAN, registration papers, a staff list and their IDs. Contributions are 31% of each worker's basic salary: 20% from you and 11% deducted from the worker, deposited by the 15th of the following Nepali month.

Skipping it is getting harder. The government's policy for 2025/26 said companies and firms renewing their registration would have to show that their workers are enrolled and paid up. The Fund had already warned, in 2021, that employers who don't join could be refused licence renewal and have their bank accounts frozen.

Under the Labour Act 2074, every worker except a casual one (up to seven days a month) needs a written contract, and probation can't exceed six months. A law firm puts the fine for employing someone without an appointment letter or contract at Rs 10,000 a worker, up to Rs 5 lakh. The minimum wage has been Rs 19,550 a month since July 2025: Rs 12,170 basic salary and Rs 7,380 dearness allowance.

Check that the space may legally be a restaurant before you sign. One law firm lists the building's approval documents among the papers for registration, and inspectors compare the use with the approved design: in June 2023, Kathmandu padlocked a basement café-restaurant that the building's design showed as a store. When the government banned restaurants from basements, a Kathmandu restaurant chain had to close a few outlets (2024).

Fire safety is less clear. One law firm lists a fire safety clearance as a possible extra permit, but in February 2025 the Kathmandu metropolis's agriculture and livestock department, which monitors hotels and restaurants, said no law yet let it set rules on where gas cylinders go or how kitchens are laid out. After a gas explosion at a Kathmandu restaurant killed four people that month, the Kathmandu Post reported that fire extinguishers in such eateries were the exception, not the norm. Keep one anyway, with spare cylinders away from the stove and the door.

Registration isn't done once. These come round again:

Inspectors ask to see the papers. In December 2025, the Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection fined two Kathmandu restaurants Rs 50,000 each under the Consumer Protection Act for not keeping their business registration, licence and other basic documents at the premises.

Food checks carry bigger fines. In July 2026 the same department fined a New Road restaurant about Rs 2 lakh after an inspection found expired syrup and food stored in a mess, and in June a Chitwan hotel was fined Rs 3 lakh by the district administration after a surprise check. Through Asar (mid-June to mid-July 2026), the food department, the Department of Commerce, district administrations and local governments ran joint inspections of hotels and food businesses across the country.