Half of business entities not registered in Nepal

Almost half of business entities in the country are found to have been not registered. As per the National Economic Census 2018 census, there are 900,924 entities in Nepal where 3,115,112 persons are engaged.

This was revealed in the report on annual sales, expenses, profit and loss by provinces and districts published by the Central Bureau of Statistics today. The report in the first ever National Economic Census 2018 shows that 411,850 entities are in “Rented Business place” and have engaged 1,163,550 persons and 394,046 entities are in “Owned Business place” engaging 1,369,483 persons.

The reference date of the census operation was April 14, 2018, which covered all fixed and movable establishments that existed in Nepal. The Census was conducted with the technical support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The report also gives data on annual sales based on Nepal Standard Industrial Classification (NSIC) code classification. Among various NSIC sections, “Manufacturing sector” topping with Rs. 674 billion followed by “Wholesale, retail trade section” with annual sales of Rs. 601 billion and “Financial & insurance section” with Rs. 265 billion.

Both in registered entities and non-registered entities, Bagmati province tops in the annual sales with Rs. 1,399 billion and Rs. 105 billion respectively where as Karnali and Sudurpachim provinces came out to be lowest with Rs. 45 billion and Rs. 8 billion in both categories.

It was found that Kathmandu district came out to be the largest district in annual sales with Rs. 832 billion accounting for 28.5 % followed by Lalitpur district with Rs. 288 billion accounting 9.9%, Morang with Rs. 155 billion accounting for 5.3%. The three districts of Kathmandu valley alone accounted for 41.6%. This is because many head offices are located in Kathmandu valley and all financial statements are managed by head offices in Kathmandu from where their financial data are counted. Manang came out to be the smallest with Rs. 536 million accounting for 0.018% only.

In the category of “Owned Business place (Building, Single Unit)”, Bagmati province tops with annual sales of Rs. 360 billion and Karnali province with Rs. 31 billion in the lowest.

With regard to the ratio of manufacturing sector in annual sales, province no. 2 topped and Karnali is the lowest. Similarly, in the ratio of Information and Communication section in annual sales, Bagmati province topped and province no. 2 is the lowest. On the other hand, in the ratio of Financial & insurance section in annual sales, Bagmati province is the highest followed by Gandaki province. 2