Nepal Moves Toward Self-Reliant Security Printing After Long Procurement Hurdles

Nepal’s experience with tax stamps has never been a straightforward one, even though it has been relying on tax stamps for over two decades now to generate revenue from alcohol and tobacco. Indeed, these small pieces of paper serve a vital purpose, helping the country to collect nearly NPR 102 billion ($715 million) in excise duty from tobacco, beer, and liquor.

Nepal’s longstanding problems with tax stamps stem from its own procurement system. Legal disputes, failed tenders, domestic pressure, and corruption cases have created a cycle of delays, with each attempt to procure stamps through international bidding running into a different obstacle.

This article looks at how Nepal moved from repeated procurement failures to developing its own security printing capacity.

The start of trouble

The current cycle of problems began in late 2019, when the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) issued a global tender for 7.8 billion tax stamps across 41 variants.