The government of Nepal has once again opened land plots that were previously withheld due to a lack of land classification. To facilitate this, the government has amended the Land Use Regulations, 2080 BS, and extended the deadline for land classification until next June.
According to the Department of Surveyors, only 133 out of 753 municipalities nationwide have fully classified their land. The delay in land classification by municipalities has led to the suspension of land allotments in 620 municipalities since August.
Land Management, Cooperatives, and Poverty Alleviation Minister Balaram Adhikari announced that the cabinet meeting held on Monday extended the land classification deadline to the end of next year’s fiscal month. “The time for land classification has been extended until the end of next year’s June,” he said, “now the land allotment is open all over the country.”
The Department of Surveyors revealed that 295 municipalities have yet to commence land classification. As a result, land distribution was halted in all unclassified and partially classified municipalities last August.
Three years after the Land Use Act, 2076 BS, the government introduced the Land Use Regulations on June 6, 2022. These regulations stipulated that land allotments could only be made after municipalities had separated agricultural and non-agricultural land. This government policy, along with the subsequent delay in land classification by municipalities, led to a significant decline in the overall real estate business from July 2022 onwards.
Following the suspension of land allotments, the cabinet meeting on August 15, 2023, decided to reopen them by revising the regulations. The revised regulations also offered municipalities a more flexible one-year period to classify their land. However, the lack of progress in land classification within this timeframe led to another suspension of land distribution.
