Kathmandu, July 2: The government has approved the National Advertisement Policy, 2083, introducing a new regulatory framework that brings digital advertising, social media, influencer marketing, and artificial intelligence under closer oversight.
Endorsed by the Cabinet on Thursday, the policy aims to make Nepal’s advertising sector more transparent, competitive, accountable, and technology-ready. It responds to the rapid growth of digital platforms, rising influence of multinational companies, and changing advertising practices, while seeking to better protect consumers.
For the first time, the government has proposed legal oversight of advertisements distributed through social media, digital platforms, influencers, and AI-generated content. Advertisers using these platforms will have to submit self-declarations, while AI-generated deepfake advertisements will be subject to specific legal regulations.
The policy also targets false, misleading, and harmful advertisements. Businesses that deceive consumers could face legal action, and consumers who suffer losses because of misleading advertisements will be entitled to compensation.
Officials said the policy seeks to expand the advertising industry’s contribution to Nepal’s economy over the next five years by encouraging fair competition, creating jobs, supporting local products, and increasing government revenue.
Consumer protection and social responsibility feature prominently in the policy. Advertisements containing obscene, violent, gender discriminatory, or child-harmful content will face stricter scrutiny. Ads that discriminate based on caste, religion, language, culture, community, gender, disability, or sexual identity will not be allowed.
The policy also bans advertisements that misuse national symbols, undermine religious harmony, or exploit disasters, grief, or other sensitive situations for commercial gain.
To promote domestic industries, the government plans to offer special incentives for advertisements promoting Nepali goods and services. Companies selling imported products will be required to allocate part of their advertising spending to consumer awareness campaigns.
The policy also seeks to strengthen editorial independence by discouraging the practice of disguising advertisements as news. It calls for legal measures to prevent positive or negative news coverage from being influenced by advertising relationships.
Government advertising will also undergo major reforms. An integrated information management system will be introduced to improve transparency in the allocation and payment of public advertisements. The policy requires local and provincial government notices to be published through media operating at the corresponding level and calls for fair distribution of public interest advertisements. Media serving local languages and communities will also receive support through government advertising.
Institutionally, the policy proposes strengthening the existing advertisement board by making it more autonomous and resourceful. Provincial advertisement monitoring committees, municipal advertisement committees, and a National Advertising Council will also be established to oversee regulation and self-regulation.
An integrated information system, media classification and grading mechanism, and advertising information bank will be developed to improve transparency across the sector.
An Advertisement Fund will finance research, market development, media classification, consumer awareness, and professional training using contributions from the government, licensing fees, advertising businesses, and other agencies.
The government will review the policy annually and conduct a comprehensive review every five years. Once implemented, it is expected to reshape Nepal’s advertising industry by expanding regulation into the digital space while strengthening consumer protection, transparency, and institutional oversight.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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