The government has introduced a more flexible fee structure for foreign visitors entering the restricted area of Upper Mustang. Under the revised rule, foreigners visiting Upper Mustang, an area bordering China’s Korala crossing, will now be charged $50 per day, instead of paying a mandatory $500 lump-sum fee for a 10-day permit. The new provision allows trekkers to pay only for the number of days they actually spend inside the restricted zone.
According to Government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Jagadish Kharel, the permit fee was revised by amending Schedule 12 of the Immigration Regulation, 1994. The previous rule required every foreign visitor to buy a minimum 10-day permit at $500, after which an additional $50 per day was charged if they stayed longer. Other requirements like traveling in groups of a minimum of two and through government authorized companies, however, still remain.
Local governments and communities in the region had long been demanding a complete removal of Upper Mustang from the restricted-area list. Upper Mustang falls within the Annapurna Conservation Area and remains listed as a restricted and controlled zone. High permit costs have long discouraged trekkers, resulting in only a small fraction of the roughly 150,000 foreign tourists who enter Mustang each year traveling beyond Kagbeni and Muktinath into the restricted northern area. Nepal first declared its northern villages as restricted areas in the 1970s following security concerns after Chinese takeover of Tibet and the Khampa uprising.
However, officials say restricted areas were declared due to cultural sensitivity, environmental fragility, and security concerns. After multiparty democracy was established in 1990, the government gradually opened many of these areas to foreign trekkers through a special-permit system administered by the Department of Immigration.
Restrictions in Mustang currently apply to Lomanthang Rural Municipality (wards 1–5), Lo-Ghekar Damodarkunda Rural Municipality (wards 1–5), and Baragung Muktichetra Rural Municipality (ward 3 and Satang village of ward 5). Similar rules also remain in place in Upper Dolpa, Manaslu and Tsum Valley of Gorkha, Upper Humla, parts of northern Taplejung, Lower Dolpa, Lamabagar and Tso Rolpa areas of Dolakha, the Kimathanka area of Sankhuwasabha, Nar and Phu of Manang, sections of Solukhumbu and northern Rasuwa, Upper Mugu, Bajhang, and Darchula.
Debate continues over whether restrictions should be fully lifted. Advocates for removal argue that the rules, which date back to the Khampa insurgency era in Mustang and were reinforced following China’s annexation of Tibet, are no longer relevant. Others, however, caution that unrestricted tourist inflow could affect the region’s carrying capacity and disrupt its distinct cultural and geographical landscape.
