PROCESS OF REGISTERING A NGO IN NEPAL

If you are planning to register a NGO of your own and looking for the procedure on how you do it, then you have come to the right place. This will guide you through the whole process of registration in much detail.

In order to register a NGO, you must first have a group of 7 Nepali citizens. This group of seven will act as ad-hoc committee prior to establishment of the organization. After registration, the same ad-hoc committee members can act as Board Members or can choose to elect new board members. Once all 7 members have been confirmed, you then have to decide on the name of your NGO. In Nepal, they do not allow you to use English name and hence it should be a Nepali name. In case you chose English name that will be treated as Nepali i.e. if the name of NGO is “Voice of Youth”, this will be written as “भ्वाइस अफ युथ “. After finalization of name, agree on the official logo and make a design of it ready. Also, decide on which District Administration Office (DAO) you want to register for e.g. inside valley you might want to register in either DAO, Kathmandu, Lalitpur or Bhaktapur. Else, you might want to register in the district of your permanent residence.

The next step is now to work towards finalization of constitution, referred to as Bidhan in Nepali. There is a specified format for constitution, which you can get from respective DAO. You are not allowed to make many changes in this pre-defined template as most of the things required for functioning of the organization are already included in the format and also because this being prepared in compliance with the Association Registration Act, 2034. Clauses that you should change are: preamble (should be a single sentence), name, address and working area (physical location, not the sector of service) of the organization, some of the definitions, and mainly the objective clause. You can also make other minor changes regarding meeting and general assembly procedure, quorums etc. otherwise, it is not mandatory and necessary to change.

Objective clause should be very clear and straightforward. Vague objective with multiple meanings and covering various sectors will be rejected straight away. For example if you want to work on education sector be specific to that. Or if you choose to work on poverty or livelihood or health you should state it clearly and focus in one area only. Once this document is finalized from your end, it is better to ask someone in NGO section of respective DAO for their review so that there won’t be any problem later on. When this is done, you are now ready for the next step.

The first organization you will approach now in process of registration is the Ward Office. So prepare following set of documents and submit it to the Ward Office for letter of recommendation from them. This ward office is the one located in the same region where your NGO will be located.

1. Application signed by Chairperson and addressed to Chief of Ward, seeking for letter of recommendation

2. Copy of minute of Ad-hoc Committee meeting stating that registration of NGO has been agreed

3.  Copy of Constitution signed by each member in each page

4.  Certified copy of citizenship of all board members

5.  Rent agreement of your NGO where its office will be located

6.  Land Tax Paid Receipt of House Owner

7.  Copy of Citizenship of House Owner

If all the required documents have been submitted, Chief of Ward reviews your application and issues letter of recommendation on the same day. After receiving letter of recommendation from Ward Office, you now have to go to District Development Committee (DDC) with following set of documents:

1. Application for letter of recommendation in pre-defined document (to be obtained from respective DDC and should be signed by each member)

2.  Copy of letter of recommendation from Ward Office

3.  Copy of citizenship of all board members (Original also required to be shown at the time of submitting application)

4.  Copy of constitution signed by all members in each page

5.  Copy of Ad-hoc Committee Meeting Minutes

6.  Copy of Rent Agreement

If all required documents have been submitted, DDC will also issue the letter of recommendation the same day or the next working day depending on volume of its work. After getting recommendation from DDC, next step is to approach DAO with following set of documents:

1.    Application for registration-should be signed by all 7 members

2.   4 Copies of Constitution signed by every member in each page (2 copies in  Nepali Paper and 2 copies in normal A4 size paper)

3.   Copy of citizenship of all board members (Original also required to be shown  at the time of submitting application)

4.   Copy of letter of recommendation from Ward Office

5.   Copy of letter of recommendation from DDC

6.   Copy of Ad-hoc Committee Meeting Minutes

7.   Copy of Rent Agreement

Once you submit all these required documents, DAO will take 2 to 3 days depending on its work volume and issue a letter to Nepal Police seeking clearance report of each board member. You will have to dispatch that letter to respective police office and get clearance report from them. One main thing you should note here is that in case you have mentioned permanent address of all board members in constitution and if they belong to different district, it will take long time for verification and clearance report. It is because DAO writes letter to main office of Nepal Police and then this office will direct respective police offices (district wise) based on the address you have provided for board member, to understand and check your background. Hence, to speed up the process, you can mention the temporary address of all board members as in the same locality and hence single police office can issue clearance letter to all the members. This will save a lot of your time during registration. Finally, when you get the clearance report, submit it to DAO and your NGO will be registered.

After successful registration at DAO, you will now have to affiliate your NGO with Social Welfare Council (SWC) of Nepal. It is located at Lainchaur, Kathmandu.  To get the affiliation you now have to submit following set of documents to SWC for affiliation:

1.    Application in prescribed format signed by the Chairperson

2.    Original Constitution-1 Set

3.    DAO Registration Document

4.    Copy of citizenship certificates of all members

You can expect to have the affiliation in 2/3 working days after submission of all required documents. Finally, you now have to get your PAN certificate before you are operational. Approach nearest tax office to your NGO and submit the following set of documents:

1. Copy of Board Minute for obtaining PAN, with authorization to one of the board member for signing

2.  2 PP size photo of authorized personnel

3.  TDS Deposit Voucher of Rent for at least half year

4.  Filled up application form (predefined template) with stamp of Rs 10 signed   by authorized person/Organizational Stamp should also to be affixed

5.  Copy of Constitution

6.  Copy of land tax paid receipt

7.  Copy of DAO Registration Certificate

8.  Copy of SWC affiliation

Once registered in PAN, you can now apply for Tax Exemption Certificate in the same office. We need following set of documents for this:

1.    Signed application form along with Organizational Stamp

2.    Copy of Registration in DAO

3.    Copy of Affiliation in SWC

4.    Copy of PAN and

5.    Copy of Constitution

You have now completed all the registration requirements and your NGO can be functional from the next day you obtain your PAN.

Should you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below.