Data-center law in Nepal

Environment Protection Act, 2019 (2076), ss. 3, 35

Applies to both

Section 3 requires a proponent to prepare an environmental study report, a brief environmental study, an initial environmental examination, or an environmental impact assessment, depending on the proposal, and submit it for approval to the body the Act designates by the proposal's scale and level of government.

Section 35 fines a proponent up to NPR 500,000 for executing a proposal requiring a brief environmental study without approval, up to NPR 1,000,000 for one requiring an initial environmental examination, and up to NPR 5,000,000 for one requiring a full environmental impact assessment, in each case where the proposal is executed without the required approval or inconsistently with an approved report.

Section 1(2) states that the Act commences on the eighth day from its authentication date of 2076.06.24 (11 October 2019), a formula rather than a stated calendar day, so no effective date is recorded here.

Source: Full text of law

Electricity Act, 2049 (1992), s. 3

Applies to both

Section 3 bars any person from conducting a survey, generation, transmission, or distribution of electricity without a licence under the Act, but provides that no licence is required for a national or corporate body generating, transmitting, or distributing electricity up to 1,000 kilowatts, or for the necessary survey for that capacity; a body generating between 100 and 1,000 kilowatts of hydroelectricity must instead give information to the prescribed officer.

Section 1(2) defers the Act's own commencement to a date the Government of Nepal appoints by notification in the Nepal Gazette, and that notification date was not obtained in a citable rendering, so no effective date is recorded here.

Source: Full text of law

Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, 2019 (2075), s. 17

Effective 2019-03-27 · Applies to both

Section 17 channels approval of foreign investment in any Nepali industry, which reaches a data-centre project structured with foreign capital, to the Department of Industries for an investment not exceeding NPR 6 billion, and to the Investment Board, constituted under the Investment Board Act, 2011 (2068), for an investment exceeding that amount.

Section 22 separately tasks the Department with facilitating a foreign investor's other approvals, including an initial environmental assessment or environmental impact assessment under the prevailing law. Section 1(2) defers only sections 10 and 11 to a later notified date and commences every other section, including section 17, forthwith from the Act's own authentication on 27 March 2019 (2075.12.13).

Source: Full text of law