Kathmandu, April 30:

With a view to attracting more mountaineers to the country and to rendering mountaineering open for all seasons, the government has brought some changes in the current royalty structure for mountaineering to be effective from July 16.

A media release issued by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation today stated that the government had decided to slash the royalty on climbing permit for autumn season by 50 per cent and by 75 per cent for winter and summer seasons. However, no change has been made in the royalty structure for the spring season. The government also decided to increase the number of mountaineers in a team to 15 from 12. Likewise, climbers will have to pay no royalty at all to climb mountains in mid-western and far-western development regions for the next five years.

The government also decided to implement Incremental Royalty Break-down System. Till the date, the government has been charging same amount of royalty for teams having different number of persons. But the royalty amount would be increased as per the increase in number of team members from July 16.