Kathmandu, July 18

Nepal Rastra Bank has introduced a directive setting the daily limit for digital payments at Rs 50,000.

The limit earlier was Rs 5,000.

The new provision, implemented from Tuesday (July 17), coincided with the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) initiating fully automated trading system.

It might take some time before share investors will be able to avail the online payment facility for share transaction  though because Nepse, CDS and Clearing Ltd and the banks have yet to integrate their systems.

According to Rewati Prasad Nepal, deputy head of Payment Systems Department of NRB, once implemented, the provision will primarily facilitate the small investors. “NRB is open to gradually increasing the daily limit of Rs 50,000, depending on the market demand,” he added.

Meanwhile, Murahari Parajuli, spokesperson for Nepse, opined that the daily limit of Rs 50,000 for online share transaction is very nominal. “We hope the central bank will revise up the limit to facilitate serious players in the market.”

On July 3, Nepse had tested the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) software for online stock trading system, which would allow investors to post purchase and sales orders and provided payment, clearing and settlement facilities.

The UAT would allow users to make payments of up to Rs 100,000 via internet banking and the amount would be limited to Rs one million per month.

“The broker companies have yet to instal the software at their end, following which we would be able to initiate online payment for share transactions,” said Parajuli, adding Nepse would hold discussions with the concerned stakeholders regarding the transaction limit in the future.

Through the directive on daily limit for digital payments, NRB has also increased the mobile wallet daily limit to Rs 10,000 as against Rs 5,000 earlier, and also hiked monthly payment limit to 15,000 from Rs 10,000. NRB’s Nepal informed that the central bank has increased the top-up payment through mobile wallet system. It has set the limit of Rs 5,000 per transaction, Rs 15,000 per day and 25,000 per month.

Moreover, NRB has launched a provision allowing issuance of pre-paid cards of up to Rs 100,000. Prepaid cardholders will be able to withdraw Rs 500 to Rs 25,000 per transaction, and up to Rs 50,000 per month.