Kathmandu, Aug 21: More than 13,500 public officials and government employees travelled to 148 countries in 2025, according to data obtained from the Department of Immigration.
A total of 13,531 officials travelled abroad during the year, excluding Nepali Army and Nepal Police personnel deployed on UN peacekeeping missions. The travellers visited countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Australia for study, training, seminars, conferences and other official purposes.
They travelled on official blue passports and diplomatic red passports. Nepal has more than 568,216 public officials and government employees across the federal, provincial and local levels, excluding the army and police. The 2025 figure means around 2.38 percent of them travelled abroad in a single year.
India was the most visited destination, with 4,074 Nepali officials travelling there, accounting for 30.10 percent of all foreign trips. China followed with 1,608 visitors, or 8.78 percent, while 1,024 travelled to Thailand, accounting for 7.56 percent. Another 409 officials visited the United Arab Emirates.
Together, India, China, Thailand and the UAE accounted for 7,115 trips, or 52.58 percent of all foreign travel by public officials in 2025.
Bangladesh was visited by 400 officials, followed by Malaysia with 395, the United States with 302, Sri Lanka with 273, Japan with 268, the Philippines with 242, South Korea with 235 and Bhutan with 224.
Other major destinations included the Central African Republic with 220 visitors, South Sudan with 217, Qatar and Singapore with 189 each, Indonesia and the UK with 170 each, Switzerland with 160, Vietnam with 146, Saudi Arabia with 125, Germany with 123 and Australia with 121.
Officials also travelled to countries including Pakistan, Lebanon, France, Turkey, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Myanmar and Italy. Smaller numbers travelled to countries across Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Pacific.
The data shows that foreign travel by government officials has increased sharply in recent years. A total of 56,269 officials travelled abroad between 2021 and 2025.
Only 3,787 officials travelled abroad in 2021. The number rose to 9,528 in 2022, peaked at 16,105 in 2023, fell slightly to 13,292 in 2024 and stood at 13,557 in 2025. The figures show that foreign travel in 2025 was more than three and a half times the 2021 level.
On average, 11,254 officials travelled abroad each year during the five-year period.
Foreign travel also imposes a significant financial burden on the state. Officials receive allowances in US dollars under the Travel Expenses Regulation, 2007. The government allocates billions of rupees annually under the monitoring, evaluation and travel budget heading, although not all of it is spent on foreign trips.
For the current fiscal year, 2083/84, the government has allocated Rs 3.306 billion under the heading. Allocations stood at Rs 3.3429 billion in 2078/79, Rs 3.1686 billion in 2079/80, Rs 2.9243 billion in 2080/81, Rs 3.3802 billion in 2081/82 and Rs 3.4675 billion in 2082/83.
Successive governments have tried to curb what they consider unnecessary foreign travel. The Cabinet decided in February 2023 that officials should not travel abroad except when absolutely necessary. Similar restrictions were introduced during KP Sharma Oli’s tenure.
The current government led by Prime Minister Balendra Shah introduced stricter standards on August 14 to control foreign travel and reduce unnecessary spending.
Under the new rules, ministries, commissions and government agencies must obtain prior approval from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers before nominating employees for overseas study, training, meetings, seminars, workshops or conferences.
Officials returning from such trips must also share the knowledge, skills and best practices they gained with other employees.
Previous governments had introduced similar rules, but officials often ignored them. Whether the latest restrictions will be properly enforced remains to be seen.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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