Nepal and India have signed an agreement allowing the Indian Embassy to directly invest up to Rs 200 million in projects in Nepal.
The two sides raised the limit for Indian assistance through High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP), earlier known as small development projects, to Rs 200 million from Rs 50 million.
Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar and Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava signed on the agreement in presence of Foreign Minister NP Saud and Indian Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar on Thursday.
The Indian Embassy can select the projects itself under HICDP and can now invest up to Rs 200 million in each project.
The Cabinet meeting on December 7, 2023 had decided to accept assistance through HICDP.
India had initially proposed to raise the limit to Rs 240 million but Nepal agreed to raise it to Rs 200 million after consultation among Prime Minister (PM) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Foreign Minister Saud and Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat.
Nepal had first started to accept such assistance of up to Rs 30 million when Surya Bahadur Thapa was the PM in 2003. The limit was then raised to Rs 50 million when Baburam Bhattarai was the PM eight years later.
