Nepal’s Isolated Market vs Global Economy

Everyone who can access global transactions loves it. Everyone who knows about global transactions love it. Everyone who doesn’t know about it should be educated. The reason is simple – the world isn’t big enough to hide anything profitable anymore & whenever people have the power to invest, they jump into it as soon as possible because they know they have millions of aggressive competitors they must beat. If a profitable venture remains hidden, it means someone had to get their hands dirty to keep it for themselves. But let’s ignore that unfairness for a bit. In a fair market, anyone that loves money will want to enter the market. But as the world moves forward adopting this incredible prospect, Nepal is still being reluctant about it for no good reason. When you have the ability to easily access the literal world in terms of trade, you would think it’s undeniably a good thing but Nepal Rastra Bank seems to think otherwise. The central bank of Nepal prevents all Nepalese citizens to get an international debit or credit card. You must have a foreign visa to access those services. If you have ever tried to create a PayPal account, you probably know that it is pointless. To censor such an incredible thing is not in the best interest of most countries in the world but for some reason, Nepal still hasn’t changed. Even China, which has long-running feuds with many country allows trading all around the world and that has greatly contributed to its economy. Cryptocurrencies are soaring these days. The number of people who have jumped into crypto-market have skyrocketed and their investments are growing at a rate that has never been seen before. The fact that a valueless Bitcoin is worth nearly Fifty thousand dollars after 10 years is indescribably insane and was unimaginable before it happened. Digital currency is going to be bigger than cash or any other form of currency in the future and the entire world has realized it. But Nepalese government not only gave access to such currencies, they actually labeled crypto as an illegal currency. That is a self-destructive move on part of Government of Nepal. While the country remains disconnected from the rest of the world, kids are fed lies from a young age which makes them see dreams of being an international businessman only to shatter them with the grim reality when they grow up and realize it was all a lie. Schools teach students how popular Nepal is in the world because it sells local garments, ornaments, carpets, and so on, but that is nothing more than an exaggeration. If they were honest, they would teach their students about the isolated market here which makes it insanely difficult to trade on a global scale. When someone is permitted to import and export products, they are taxed at high rates. Taxation as a concept isn’t bad but in practice, the high taxes seem unreasonable because the taxes businessmen pay to the government never seem to contribute to making import-export any better. There should at least be benefits in paying taxes but there’s none. It’s no wonder why so many people evade taxes after deciding that the government doesn’t deserve it. Hopefully, PayPal becomes an open option in the near future for everyone to enter a bigger market. If so, then new entrepreneurs and old businessmen alike will be able to expand their businesses to a larger target market. The general public will also have more options to buy from and middlemen will essentially be eliminated once this happens since they won’t have customers to buy their pricey goods instead of buying directly from the manufacturers. Finally, Nepalese people might understand the importance of digital currencies and benefit from them. But it’s all just wishful thinking to imagine any of this will come true for now. Article Credit: Bidhan Gautam Gautam is an undergraduate student of Bachelor in Business Management studying at Shanker Dev Campus, affiliated to Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. Disclaimer: Any views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. Any legal information on this topic is intended to give a positive message to the people, and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice. Any contributions from, or references to, external sources (including website links), people’s views, or individuals do not necessarily reflect the views of Lattice Nepal nor receive our endorsement.