E-commerce, Electronic Transactions and Digital Signatures

For nineteen years, one 2006 statute written to make electronic records admissible was the whole answer to “what law governs selling online in Nepal”. That changed in March 2025. Nepal now has a dedicated E-Commerce Act 2081, authenticated on 16 March 2025 and commencing on the thirty-first day after assent. The two instruments do different jobs.

Which statute covers what

Question	Instrument	Enforced by
Is an electronic contract or record legally valid?	Electronic Transactions Act 2063, ss.4–5	Courts; Information Technology Tribunal for offences
Is a digital signature equivalent to a signature?	Electronic Transactions Act 2063, s.5; certification under Chapter 5	Office of the Controller of Certification
Must my platform be registered and what must it disclose?	E-Commerce Act 2081, ss.4–6	Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection
What are my duties to a buyer who complains?	E-Commerce Act 2081, s.33	Department; appeal to the Director General
What are my duties on quality, labelling and returns?	Consumer Protection Act 2075, applied by E-Commerce Act 2081, s.31	Consumer protection authorities
Is publishing this content online an offence?	Electronic Transactions Act 2063, s.47	Police and courts

The two statutes are not integrated. The E-Commerce Act never cross-refers to the Electronic Transactions Act, so whether an order placed through a platform is a valid contract is still answered by the 2006 Act, while the conduct of the platform is governed by the 2025 one.

What the E-Commerce Act requires

The Act defines an electronic platform in section 2(k) as a system developed for conducting transactions in goods or services through the collection, transmission or storage of information using websites, applications, software, internet, intranet or a marketplace. Section 2(g) separately defines an intermediary business entity as a person or company that facilitates a seller’s sales to a purchaser through such a platform, which is the marketplace operator.

A platform operator must establish the platform and disclose specified particulars under section 4(2): business name, address, registration details, VAT and permanent account numbers and contact information. A seller must apply for listing under section 5(1) with its business registration, the identity of its proprietor or directors, tax registration and branch locations, and section 5(2) gave existing sellers three months from commencement to do so.

Section 6 sets out what must be displayed against each item: name, nature, design, trademark, shape or image; final price inclusive of tax; delivery charges; warranty terms; manufacturing and expiry dates; and a mechanism for handling customer reviews, ratings, grievances and feedback. Section 8 permits payment before, during or after the transaction, treats payment made to a delivery provider as payment received by the business, and requires an invoice or receipt to be issued immediately.

The consumer-facing obligation with teeth is section 33. A buyer complains to the business’s grievance unit, which must investigate and decide within fifteen days and respond in writing, and section 33(6) requires an online redressal mechanism. Appeals and complaints go to the Director General under section 22(3).

Penalties are two-tier. Section 22 provides an administrative fine of NPR 20,000 to NPR 100,000 for breaches of the platform establishment, listing and disclosure duties. Section 23 provides NPR 50,000 to NPR 500,000, or imprisonment of six months to three years, or both for the more serious liability breaches. The regulator is the Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection; the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies frames directives under section 37.

The design tells you what the drafters were worried about. Sections 4 to 6 are about identifying who is selling, a response to marketplaces populated by sellers with no traceable business identity. Section 8’s rule that payment to a delivery agent counts as payment to the business addresses the cash-on-delivery model, in which the money and the goods change hands away from the seller. Section 33’s fifteen-day clock answers complaints that went unanswered. The statute was written against observed conduct in a domestic marketplace, and it reads that way.

Digital signatures

The Electronic Transactions Act gives digital signatures legal effect and builds a certification hierarchy to support them. Section 13 provides for a Controller and Deputy Controllers; section 15 prohibits acting as a certifying authority without a licence; section 18 requires the Controller to decide a licence application within two months; section 19 requires annual renewal, applied for at least two months before expiry.

The architecture works. The market has not filled it. The Office of the Controller of Certification’s own certificate repository shows a single certifying authority with current certificates: Radiant InfoTech Nepal, under a CA certificate valid from 6 March 2020 to 6 March 2027 and a second valid from 25 November 2025 to 25 November 2030. The 2015-generation certificates expired on 1 December 2020.

One certifying authority for a country carries commercial consequences. No competitive pressure bears on certificate pricing or service levels. Every digitally signed instrument in the country depends on a single point of failure. And a Nepali counterparty asked by a foreign client to sign through an international e-signature platform has no domestic statutory basis to point to for that platform’s certificates. Whether such certificates can be recognised under the 2006 Act could not be confirmed from the text obtained, and is flagged rather than assumed either way.

Tax obligations on platforms

Nepal’s revenue law reached electronic commerce ahead of its commercial law. For FY 2083/84 an e-commerce operator must collect 1% advance tax at the time of paying a person who supplied goods or services through the platform, under section 92(1)(f). A 2% digital service tax applies where a non-resident supplies digital services to a Nepali resident, above a threshold of NPR 3 million. A platform is therefore a withholding agent before it is a registered platform, and the tax obligation attaches whether or not the section 5 listing process is functioning.

What neither statute covers

The E-Commerce Act sets no return or refund window of its own. Section 10 addresses goods that do not conform to what was ordered but refers the timeframe out to prevailing federal law, which routes back to the Consumer Protection Act 2075 through section 31. A merchant looking for the number of days in which a Nepali buyer may return goods is reading two statutes to find one answer.

Neither statute addresses cross-border sales in any detail. A Nepali consumer buying from a foreign platform, and a Nepali platform selling to a foreign buyer, both sit largely outside the Act’s practical reach. Nor does either instrument address platform liability for third-party sellers the way modern intermediary-liability regimes do. Chapter 8 of the 2006 Act deals with network service provider liability in terms written for the internet access providers of that era.

The Information Technology Tribunal that Chapter 10 of the 2006 Act establishes — three members drawn from law, information technology and commerce, five-year terms, appeals within thirty-five days — is the forum the statute intends for computer-related offences. Whether it is currently constituted and sitting could not be verified. That is the question a party contemplating enforcement should ask first, because a specialist forum that exists on paper and not in practice pushes every dispute back into the ordinary courts.

Sources

1. विद्युतीय व्यापार (इ-कमर्स) ऐन, २०८१ — E-Commerce Act, 2081

   Government of Nepal · Authenticated 2081.12.03 (16 March 2025); commences on the thirty-first day after assent · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: Commencement clause; definitions in sections 2(g) and 2(k); platform disclosure under section 4(2); seller listing and the three-month window under section 5; display obligations under section 6; payment and invoicing under section 8; grievance handling and the fifteen-day decision under section 33; penalties under sections 22 and 23; application of consumer protection law under section 31; the Department and Ministry roles under sections 2(h), 2(m) and 37.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

2. E-Commerce Act 2081 — prevailing laws index entry

   Nepal Law Commission · Listed with date 14 Chaitra 2081 · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: That the E-Commerce Act 2081 is listed among Nepal's prevailing laws rather than remaining a bill.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

3. Electronic Transactions Act, 2063 — English text

   Government of Nepal; published by the Information Technology and Digital Governance Office · Authenticated 22 Mansir 2063 (8 December 2006) · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: Legal validity of electronic records (s.4) and digital signatures (s.5); the Controller (s.13); licensing of certifying authorities (ss.15, 18, 19); offences and penalties (ss.44–53, 58); the Information Technology Tribunal (ss.60–65) and the Appellate Tribunal.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

4. विद्युतीय कारोबार नियमावली, २०६४ (Electronic Transactions Rules, 2064) — English text

   Government of Nepal · Shrawan 20, 2064 (August 2007) · Tier 1 — Primary legal instrument

   Supports: That subordinate rules exist under the Electronic Transactions Act.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

5. CA Certificates repository

   Office of the Controller of Certification, Government of Nepal · Accessed 26 August 2026 · Tier 2 — Official publication

   Supports: That Radiant InfoTech Nepal is the only certifying authority with current certificates — CA 2020 valid 6 March 2020 to 6 March 2027 and CA 2025 valid 25 November 2025 to 25 November 2030 — and that the 2015 CA certificates expired on 1 December 2020.

   Accessed 26 August 2026

6. Nepal Budget 2083/84 (2026/27) — Key Highlights

   NBSM (chartered accountants, Kathmandu) · Budget presented 29 May 2026 · Tier 6 — Professional or news source

   Supports: 1% advance tax on an e-commerce operator at the time of payment to a person supplying goods or services through the platform (section 92(1)(f)); 2% digital service tax on non-resident digital services above an NPR 3 million threshold.

   Accessed 26 August 2026