Nepal Land Registration Fees 2083/84: Malpot, Tax & Rajinama Guide

The cost of registering land in Nepal depends on more than the sale price. Registration शुल्क, the Bagmati Savyata Kosh surcharge where it applies, the type of local government the property sits in, the government's minimum valuation for that location, the type of transaction, and the seller's capital gains tax can all affect the final amount you or the other party actually pays.

There is no single nationwide percentage that works for every Rajinama. A plot inside Kathmandu Metropolitan City and an identically priced plot in a rural municipality two districts away can carry noticeably different registration costs, and the buyer's registration fee has nothing to do with the seller's separate tax bill. This guide walks through both sides of that calculation using the current commonly reported FY 2083/84 structure, with the verification caveats you need before treating any number here as final.

Nepal Land Registration Cost at a Glance

Exact responsibility and treatment can vary by transaction and by private agreement between buyer and seller; the table shows the conventional default, not a fixed rule that overrides what your deed actually says.

Land Registration Fees in Nepal 2083/84

Registration fee, called malpot dastur or रजिस्ट्रेशन दस्तुर, is not one flat rate applied everywhere. It is structured by the classification of the local government the property sits in:

Widely and consistently reported as the current schedule across independent property and tax references as of this writing. Confirm the exact current percentage with your Land Revenue Office before relying on it for a transaction, since this is exactly the kind of figure a Finance Act can revise.

On top of the base percentage, property inside Kathmandu, Lalitpur or Bhaktapur district commonly carries an additional surcharge, the Bagmati Savyata Kosh, reported at 5% of the registration fee itself, not 5% of the property value. It applies regardless of buyer gender and is not reduced by the women's concession described later on this page.

Does the Rate Differ by Province?

The baseline percentage structure above is set nationally and applied by local-body classification rather than genuinely differing province by province; a Municipality in Koshi Province and a Municipality in Lumbini Province are commonly reported to use the same baseline percentage. What can differ is whether an individual province has layered its own additional incentive on top through its own annual provincial Finance Bill. As one concrete example, Bagmati Province's FY 2083/84 Finance Bill reportedly introduced a 50% discount on house and land registration fees for domestic-investment companies buying land specifically to establish an IT industry, subject to a local-government recommendation and repayment-with-penalty if the land is later used differently or resold. This is the kind of province-specific layer worth checking for directly with your provincial government rather than assuming the federal baseline is the entire story.

What Is Rajinama in Nepal?

राजीनामा (Rajinama) is the common sale or transfer deed used when land ownership changes hands through a sale. Both buyer and seller sign it in front of Land Revenue Office staff, and it states the parties, the property description, and the declared transaction value the deed is registered against.

That declared value is called the थैली अंक (Thaili amount), and it matters because registration fee and capital gains tax are both calculated from it, alongside the government minimum valuation. Do not confuse four different figures that often get used loosely in casual conversation:

Which Land Value Is Used for Registration?

Every fiscal year, a district-level valuation authority publishes a minimum valuation book setting a floor value per unit of land, broken down by ward, locality and road-access category. Land Revenue and Land Administration offices are already publishing FY 2083/84 valuation material for the current fiscal year, so treat any minimum-valuation figure you find quoted for FY 2082/83 or earlier as out of date for a transaction happening now.

Government minimum valuations are commonly reported as running well below actual market value in many locations, sometimes by a wide margin, which is exactly why some parties are tempted to declare a value close to the minimum rather than the real agreed price.

Minimum Land Valuation 2083/84

Minimum valuation books are compiled and published at the Land Revenue or Land Administration Office level, not centrally in one nationwide document, and they are updated annually. To find your specific district's current figure, contact or visit the relevant office directly, or start from the Department of Land Management and Archive's office directory to identify which office covers your property.

Why Kathmandu and a Rural Municipality May Have Different Fees

The applicable registration cost can differ meaningfully depending on:

Do not take a Kathmandu example you saw somewhere and assume it applies to a different district; both the percentage and the underlying valuation can be different.

Who Pays Which Land Registration Costs?

This is the conventional legal default, not a rule that overrides what buyer and seller privately agree. In a slower property market, sellers sometimes absorb part of the buyer's registration cost into the negotiated price to keep a deal moving, and the reverse also happens. Distinguish the legal liability described above from whatever private arrangement the two sides settle on; what matters at the counter is that someone pays each line item, not which name is on the receipt.

Capital Gains Tax When Selling Land in Nepal

Capital-gains rules verified: 8 August 2026. These figures are consistently reported across independent tax and property references describing the current fiscal year, but this is precisely the kind of number that moves with each year's Finance Act; confirm the current rate with the Inland Revenue Department or your Land Revenue Office before relying on it for a real transaction.

Individual Seller

• Held 5 years or less: commonly reported at 10% of the gain
• Held more than 5 years: commonly reported at 7.5% of the gain
• No CGT below a NPR 10 lakh transaction threshold
• Property held 10+ years and sold for up to NPR 10 lakh is commonly reported as exempt

Business/Entity Cases

Companies and registered firms are commonly reported to pay a flat 1.5% of the sale value at the Land Revenue Office rather than a gain-based rate, with the broader real-estate income reconciled separately in their corporate tax return. If you are selling through a business entity rather than as an individual, this different treatment matters, so confirm which regime applies to your specific structure.

Tax Base and Calculation

Capital gains tax applies to the gain, calculated as sale price minus original purchase price minus allowable documented expenses, not the full sale price. Commonly reported allowable deductions include the registration fee paid at the original purchase, documented broker commission, legal fees, and documented construction or renovation costs. Undocumented cash expenses, a common situation for self-built houses, generally cannot be deducted without receipts.

Exemptions

Land Registration Fee Discounts and Concessions

Do not assume last year's concession percentage still applies. Confirm current conditions, and whether your specific province has added any further category, directly with your Land Revenue Office before counting on a discount.

Calculation Examples

Illustrative examples only, using the commonly reported FY 2083/84 structure described above. Not a substitute for an official calculation at your Land Revenue Office.

Example 1: Land Worth NPR 30 Lakh, Municipality, Male Buyer

• Applicable value: NPR 30,00,000
• Registration percentage: 4% (Municipality)
• Registration fee: NPR 1,20,000
• No Bagmati Savyata Kosh (outside Kathmandu Valley)
• Estimated buyer total: NPR 1,20,000, plus soft costs (ward letter, lawyer, stamp paper)
• Seller's capital gains tax is calculated separately on their gain, not shown here

Example 2: NPR 50 Lakh Land Purchase, Kathmandu Metropolitan

• Applicable value: NPR 50,00,000
• Registration percentage: 5% (Metropolitan City) = NPR 2,50,000
• Bagmati Savyata Kosh: 5% of NPR 2,50,000 = NPR 12,500
• Estimated buyer total: NPR 2,62,500, plus soft costs
• If the seller held the land 3 years and the gain is NPR 15 lakh, CGT at 10% = NPR 1,50,000, paid separately by the seller

Example 3: NPR 1 Crore House and Land, Sub-Metropolitan City

• Applicable value: NPR 1,00,00,000
• Registration percentage: 4.5% (Sub-Metropolitan City) = NPR 4,50,000
• No Bagmati Savyata Kosh (outside Kathmandu Valley in this example)
• Estimated buyer total: NPR 4,50,000, plus soft costs
• If the seller held the property over 5 years and the gain is NPR 25 lakh, CGT at 7.5% = NPR 1,87,500, paid separately by the seller

Example 4: Woman Buyer Eligible for Current Concession, Same NPR 1 Crore Property

• Base registration fee at 4.5%: NPR 4,50,000
• Commonly reported women's concession, urban area, ~25% off: minus NPR 1,12,500
• Estimated buyer total: NPR 3,37,500, plus soft costs
• This is the single largest legitimate discount available at the registration counter; confirm current eligibility conditions before counting on it

Nepal Land Registration Fee Calculator

Find Your FY 2083/84 Minimum Land Valuation

We are not publishing hundreds of district and locality valuations directly in this article, since those figures update every fiscal year and a static list would go stale within months. Instead:

1. Identify the Land Revenue Office or Land Administration Office responsible for your property's location, using the Department of Land Management and Archive's office directory.
2. Contact or visit that office to request the current FY 2083/84 minimum valuation for your specific ward and road-access category.
3. Cross-check against the declared value you and the other party have agreed on before finalizing the Rajinama.

Other Transaction Types

Rajinama sale rates do not apply to every kind of land transaction. Each of the following commonly carries its own separate fee structure, not the Rajinama percentage table above:

Do not assume the Rajinama sale percentage automatically applies to a gift, partition, or mortgage transaction; confirm the correct fee category with your Land Revenue Office before budgeting for one of these instead of a straightforward sale.

How Land Registration Works at Malpot

1. Verify ownership documents, including the original Lalpurja and current land tax status.
2. Check the current government minimum valuation for the property's location.
3. Prepare the deed (Rajinama), stating the agreed Thaili amount.
4. Calculate the applicable registration fee and, separately, the seller's capital gains tax.
5. Complete required identity and relationship verification for both parties.
6. Pay the applicable government revenue at the office or a designated bank.
7. Complete biometric or signature verification where required.
8. Register the ownership transfer in the office's land records system.
9. Obtain the updated ownership record (new Lalpurja) in the buyer's name.

End-to-end online registration is not currently live anywhere in Nepal; physical presence and original documents remain part of the process at the Land Revenue Office itself, even where individual steps like map printing or plot information are available online through systems such as Mero Kitta.

Documents Commonly Needed for Land Registration

Requirements differ by transaction type; treat this as a starting checklist to confirm with your specific office, not a universal list for every case.

If either party cannot attend in person, a notarized power of attorney is generally required in advance; confirm the accepted format with the receiving office.

Online Services: LRIMS, Mero Kitta and Bhusewa

Land Revenue Offices run LRIMS (Land Records Information Management System) internally for ownership records, deed registration and transfer processing. On the citizen-facing side, Mero Kitta lets you view and print land maps, field books and plot information online, covered in full in our separate Mero Kitta guide linked below. Some districts and offices also run local online service points, sometimes referred to as Bhusewa centers, for specific land-related services. Confirm exactly what a given local service point can and cannot do online before assuming it replaces an in-person Malpot visit; the deed signing and final registration step itself is not currently completed fully online anywhere in Nepal.

Common Confusion

Common Mistakes

Estimated Buyer Closing Cost

Registration-related government charges are only part of what a buyer typically budgets. Keep these separate in your own planning:

Never treat a lawyer's or broker's private service fee as though it were an official government charge; the two are collected differently, by different parties, and confusing them makes it harder to know whether you were actually overcharged at either step.

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