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Kathmandu, November 19: Foreign nationals visiting Upper Mustang, which borders the Nepal–China northern Korala checkpoint, will now be required to pay a fee of 50 USD per day.

Government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Jagadish Kharel, released this information while making public the decisions of the Cabinet on November 18. He said the decision was made by amending Schedule 12 of the Immigration Regulations, 1994.

With this decision, the previous requirement for foreign nationals to pay a lump sum of 500 USD for a 10-day trekking permit to visit Upper Mustang has been removed. Now, foreigners visiting Mustang will only need to pay for the number of days they stay in Upper Mustang.

Earlier, foreign tourists traveling to Upper Mustang were required to pay a trekking fee of 500 USD for a minimum of 10 days. Foreigners who entered Upper Mustang after paying the 10-day lump-sum fee had to pay an additional 50 USD per person per day once they exceeded the 10-day limit.

Lomangthang Rural Municipality Chair Tashi Nurbhu Gurung said that although their demand was to remove Upper Mustang entirely from the list of restricted and controlled areas, the government’s decision has at least partially addressed their concerns. Loghekar Damodarkunda Rural Municipality Chair Lopsang Chomfel Bisht also said the government’s move was positive.

The government has included Upper Mustang, which lies within the Annapurna Conservation Area Project, in the list of restricted and controlled zones. Due to the high trekking fees required to visit the area, most foreign tourists have been returning from Kagbeni and Muktinath instead of going further. Although around 150,000 foreign tourists visit Mustang annually, only about three to four percent of them travel to Upper Mustang.

People’s News Monitoring Service.