The government has decided to wait until 3rd Shrawan to supply electronic passports (e-passports). There is a difference of opinion between the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on whether German companies are able to provide e-passports on time. Despite this, the government has decided to wait until 3rd Shrawan, the deadline given by the German company for passport supply, before taking a new decision on the passport process. 

The Passport Department had awarded the e-passports contract to two German companies, Veridos GmbH and Mühlbauer, on 6th June 2025. The companies were responsible for the registration system, data management, passport booklet production, personal details printing, quality control and packaging. According to the agreement, it was arranged to complete the implementation preparation within nine months and start distributing new passports from March 2026 and then operate for five years. However, when the German company was unable to start distributing passports on time, the government had given an additional time of 3rd Shrawan.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office expressed concern that the passport stock is dwindling and that it is not certain that the supply will be made on time. Following pressure from the Prime Minister's Office, the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority filed a corruption case against officials of the Passport Department and representatives of German companies Veridos and Muehlbauer. The government has also been heavily criticized for pressuring the constitutional body to investigate and file a case. All seven arrested on charges of irregularities were released on bail and on time on Monday.

Although the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have different opinions about the capacity of the German company, both sides have agreed to wait until the deadline mentioned in the agreement and take further decisions only after that. According to aides to the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, the government will take another decision based on whether the companies have shown the expected progress by that time. “There are no immediate plans to cancel the contract with the German company,” a senior government official said, “but the government will not wait for them indefinitely.”

According to a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office, despite the decision to wait until 3rd July, the Prime Minister’s team is still not confident that the German company will provide e-passports within the stipulated time. According to them, the transfer of data of about 20 million Nepalis from the old French company to the German company (data migration) has not yet been completed. Similarly, the Prime Minister’s Office understands that the passport samples provided by the German companies are also not as per the specified standards.

However, officials including Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal and the technical team of the Passport Department are confident that the German company will provide passports within the stipulated time. 

After confusion arose in the supply of passports following the investigation by the Authority, Foreign Minister Khanal had assigned the responsibility of two independent consultants to assess the preparations of the Passport Department.

The Passport Department had signed separate agreements with Veridos and Muehlbauer in June last year to provide e-passport supply and technical services. As per the agreement, the German company was to complete data migration, establishment of personalization centers in all 77 districts and Nepali missions abroad, and supply and distribute passports by the end of December.

The agreement with the French company IDEMIA, which had previously won the contract, was only valid until last December. The Passport Department had awarded two separate contracts worth Rs 6.15 billion and Rs 1.6 billion for passport printing and biometrics, for a total of Rs 7.75 billion to the German companies Veridos and Muehlbauer.

With the agreement, the monopoly of the French company IDEMIA, which had been supplying passports for about a decade and a half, ended. However, the entire procurement process has become more complicated after the CIAA filed a corruption case against 18 people, including the Director General of the Passport Department, Tirtharaj Aryal, in a special court on June 20. Currently, the Passport Department has only 38,000 passports in stock.

Although there is a demand for 5,000 to 6,000 passports daily, the government has been distributing only about half of them. There is uncertainty as to whether Veridos will be able to supply new passports as the passport stock is dwindling. The German company has so far provided the government with 500,000 passport booklets. Some of these sample passports will have to be sent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other bodies and various countries for certification. After that, the passports will be printed in Nepal based on the biometric details of the person applying for the passport.

Officials have said that it has been decided not to cancel the agreement immediately but to wait until 3rd July. “If the companies fail to deliver the expected results within the stipulated time, we will be forced to terminate the agreement,” a member of the Prime Minister’s technical team told Kantipur. “We have also discussed this issue with the Foreign Minister.”

Order to release on bail in passport procurement case

The special court on Monday ordered the release of five people, including the then Director General Aryal, on bail and on a date. The order has been issued to release two people on a regular date. A bail of Rs 500,000 has been sought from Aryal and Rs 400,000 from Director Sunil Kumar KC. The bench of judges Narayan Prasad Poudel, Hemanta Rawal and Umesh Koirala of the special court ordered the release of the accused in the case on bail of Rs 300,000 to 500,000. 

Similarly, the department has demanded bail of Rs 300,000 each from Branch Officer Somesh Thapa and Computer Engineer Bipin Prasain and Rs 500,000 from the Nepal representative of the German company Manindra Raj Malla. The accused Tulsi Prasad Acharya, Accounts Officer of the department, and Rajaram Dahal, Undersecretary of Law at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been ordered to be released on a regular date.

The Authority had demanded a fine of Rs 10.13 billion, 461,477 crore against the defendants in the case and to recover the fine, imprisonment and embezzlement amount accordingly.  The Passport Department had awarded the contract for the purchase of e-passports to two German security printing companies on 23 Jestha 2082. A complaint was filed with the Authority against the contract for the registration system, data management, passport booklet production, personal details printing, quality control and packaging, among other works.