Nepal Rastra Bank Bans Advertising on Social Media in Nepal

Nepal Rastra Bank has enacted a ban on social media advertisement in Nepal. This is seemingly the bad news for online advertisers; the ones who advertise their product or services in the most prominent advertisement platform, social media. The advertisers that were benefitting through these advertisements on social media are certain to be upset with the new prohibition ruled by the Nepal Rastra Bank.

A notice published by NRB’s foreign exchange management department stated: “This notice has been published to make everyone aware of the fact that this kind of transaction violates foreign exchange regulations and legal actions shall be taken against the ones found to be guilty, according to the Foreign Exchange Act, 2019 and existing Laws and Regulations, for these kinds of transactions.”

It’s the claim of NRB that, the advertisements over social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube cause the illegitimate transfer of foreign currency. A source from NRB reported that the rule was enacted in order to stop the advertisements that caused billions of rupees to exit the country.

NRB’s executive director, Bam Bahadur Mishra stated that the huge sum of money is exiting the country through illegitimate channels due to the illegal advertisement over social media. “The practice of sending money to the foreign country for advertisement and receiving the money back is illegal”, Mishra said “This kind of transaction is liable to legal action according to the Foreign Exchange Act”